Brian Chatwin
Staff Writer
For drivers who have not noticed the tremendous traffic jam headed east on the freeways of California, they aren’t looking hard enough.
Clogging the thoroughfares are businessmen, doctors and hospital administrators falling over one another as they attempt to flee the state, terrified.
What is the source of such panic? None other than our governor, hobbling behind them on crutches, clutching his new health care proposal along with a hearty tax increase in his teeth.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must have received quite the jarring blow during his skiing accident to conjure up this latest scheme – universal health care.
Yes, I do agree that it is theoretically a good idea to provide every human being with quality health care. But just because it is a good idea theoretically doesn’t mean it is a good idea in practice. A quick review of the classic economic model of crime tells us this.
It is possible to have no crime in California– but the cost is too high.
To get to zero crime we can station a police officer every 100 feet, from Malibu to Watts to Oakland, ensuring that none of us do anything wrong, but the price tag to man those stations would be outrageous – much more than any of us are willing to pay.
Therefore, as a society, we agree on an acceptable level of crime – allowing for individual responsibility to fill the gap between criminal and police officer.
Individuals are responsible for locking their doors, staying out of high crime areas at night, and otherwise being risk adverse with their person and property. Health care is no different.
In California, we have determined that the economics of health care responsibility is based on Californians being self-sufficient.
Whether it is with insurance at work, school or plain ole’ cash, Californians have always had to rely on themselves to get and stay well.
Never before have Californians had to consider passing that responsibility onto the state. Until now.
Schwarzenegger has decided that you can’t be trusted to take care of your own body. The state will do it for you – but at a cost. And it is this cost that is causing Californian businesses, doctors and hospitals to hang the “closed” sign on the door.
Faced with backbreaking taxes already, businesses can look forward to adding on another four percent to their tax bill.
Doctors and hospitals, already burdened with escalating insurance costs, can expect an additional 2 percent tax. And for what? To provide free health care to those who can’t afford it, not to mention illegal aliens.
However, this is problematic. Since, California’s multi-billion dollar Medi-Cal program already covers the poor—then this scheme is really about covering illegal aliens.
Nice. As if there is not incentive enough for illegals to find a way across the border – let’s add free health care to the bundle of goodies illegal aliens receive.
Can we be surprised that businesses such as Nissan Motor Company, with its 550 employees are packing up and moving to Tennessee, which offers tax breaks instead of tax burdens?
Is it any wonder that, according to the Los Angeles Times, 63 emergency rooms have closed due to overwhelming demand by illegal aliens?
One must wonder what the governor is thinking, or if he is thinking at all. Maybe his skiing accident broke more than his leg. The governor should find a sympathetic doctor, in a hospital that is still open, and get his head examined.
01-18-2007