Health care

17
May
By Bob Weeks

Government-run health care focus of May 24 demonstration

Next Sunday, Wichita-area citizens will have an opportunity to let their fellow citizens and the Obama administration know of the dangers of government control of health care. The event will be on Sunday, May 24, 2009, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. The location is the pedestrian bridge over Kellogg (US 54/400 highway) at Pattie Street. Meet on the south side of Kellogg. You can click on a Google map of the location. There's also a Facebook event page. This event is part of the America Protests Facebook group. Protest event organizers say this is your opportunity to wake up…
Read More
15
May
By Bob Weeks

Is it greed when someone else pays?

A letter to the editor in today's Wichita Eagle under the title "Greed rules" states, in part: "There is no reason that the United States remains the only civilized nation in the world not to have a single-payer health system except that greed rules our country." I wonder: Is it greed to want someone else to pay for your health care?
Read More
06
Apr
By Bob Weeks

Articles of Interest

Bailout costs rise, local election turnout, health care, light bulbs, newspapers, Kansas coal prospects Estimate of TARP's Cost to Taxpayers Increases (Wall Street Journal) "The Congressional Budget Office has quietly altered its estimate of the ultimate cost to taxpayers of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, now figuring the initiative will be much more expensive in the long run than it previously figured. In January, the CBO pegged the ultimate cost to taxpayers of the $700 billion TARP at $189 billion. When the agency issued revised numbers in late March, it revised that to $356 billion, a change that…
Read More
06
Mar
By Bob Weeks

Articles of Interest

Us v. Them: The People and the Political Class (Jack McHugh, Mackinac Center for Public Policy). "The fundamental problem facing our nation is that true representative government has been supplanted by an inbred, self-serving, self-perpetuating political class that does not represent the people. As a result, the government has escaped the control of the people." McHugh explains how resistance to term limits, campaign finance regulations, public employees and their unions, even the political parties, work against the interests of the people. When Change Is Really More Of The Same (Howie Rich of Americans For Limited Government). "No more lobbyists dictating…
Read More
11
Feb
By Bob Weeks

Be Wary of Government Control of Health Care

In Canada, some patients have to travel to the United States for life-saving medical treatment. Patients are also denied to right to pay for their own treatment in Canada, as was the case of a 57-year old man denied a hip replacement operation by the government. The Wall Street Journal article "Too Old" for Hip Surgery: As we inch towards nationalized health care, important lessons from north of the border reports on these and other cases of how health care is rationed in Canada. "The experiences of these Canadians -- along with the untold stories of the 750,794 citizens waiting…
Read More
13
Jul
By Bob Weeks

Drug Runaround: Solved by Universal Health Care?

A letter writer in the July 12, 2008 Wichita Eagle has issues with his health insurance coverage, and wants us to discard our present system in favor of universal health care coverage. Mr. Ronald Voth of Halstead (a candidate for the Democratic party nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives for the fourth district of Kansas in 2006) criticizes the health insurance company he uses. He doesn't say how he obtained this coverage, but if he's like most Americans that don't receive their health care from the government, he and his family probably have an insurance policy selected and paid…
Read More
23
Jun
By Bob Weeks

Wichita’s Galichia provides what government health care doesn’t

A recent editorial in The Wichita Eagle (Dr. Bill Roy: Universal care is most economic, efficient) contains several mistaken impressions. One may be disproved by recent developments in Wichita. The writer states "It has never been a secret that a single-payer system is the most economic, efficient and fair way of providing universal care." Here's something interesting that I'm sure the author of this opinion piece knows, but somehow disregards. In Canada, home to the type of health care system the writer favors, many people come to the United States for care. In fact, Wichita is now providing service to…
Read More
21
Jun
By Bob Weeks

Michael Moore Confirms that Government Health Care is Sicko

This is an excellent article that exposes how little some people like Michael Moore think about the systems they consider corrupt and unworkable. It appears that Mr. Moore is so consumed with an anti-market bias that he hasn't really considered the true causes of the problem with healthcare in America. He isn't the first person to have problems with an anti-market bias, nor do I suspect he'll be the last. Michael Moore Confirms that Government Health Care is Sicko by Diana M. Ernst, Pacific Reserach Institute Michael Moore showed up in Sacramento last week to promote his film Sicko. Senator…
Read More
04
Oct
By Bob Weeks

Employer-paid health insurance

In the past I have written on how the system in America where almost everyone gets their health insurance through their job (Let's Pay for Our Own Health Insurance) does not serve us well. Now I have become aware of even more evidence as to why we should all choose and pay for our own health insurance. A Harvard study (Illness And Injury As Contributors To Bankruptcy) concluded that of families that declared bankruptcy, about half cited medical bills as the reason. Of those, 76% had medical insurance at the time they became sick. Some of the problem is that…
Read More