Forcing Americans to Pay
Our government is drifting further and further away from the founder's principles. Our country was founded by people who were fleeing from unfair taxes. In reverence, our Boston Tea Party is simply known now as the Tea Party. Unfortunately they strayed from their core mission of fighting taxation and large government. The Tea Party should also recall the beliefs that our founders crafted around individual freedom and religious beliefs.
On this day in 1842, a doctor in Jefferson, Georgia did two remarkable things. The one that he is most remembered for is his operation to remove a tumor from the neck of James Venable. Well, it was not really the operation itself that make us remember Dr. Crawford Williamson Long. Sure his skills were okay, but not exceptional. But we remember Dr. Long not for what he did to Venable during the operation but rather for what he did to Venable before the operation.
Before his knife cut, Long had put a cloth moistened with ether over Venable's nose. The patient felt no pain and didn't "fight" the surgeon as often happened in those days. Dr. Long would later say that he tried ether after watching college students experimenting with ether as a quick, cheap "high" at parties. He noticed they could then bang their heads on tables, walls and each other without feeling pain.
If Dr. Long had instead hung around the longshoremen's bars around which I grew up, today you might be greeted in pre-op with a shot of Old Overholt and an India Pale Ale chaser. (Much more effective than ether....believe me!)
Oh yeah, the other notable thing that Dr. Long did on this day concerned his bill. He charged Venable two dollars and twenty-five cents. (It was $2.00 to remove the tumor and $.25 for the ether.) Talk about a national health plan! (Don’t tell the Supremes….they’re busy right now.)
Hope you are having a great time in Cabo. Buying some property so that you can avoid US taxes. :-)
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Affordable Health Care Bill and the Supremes. First of all, it is not a tax it is a penalty if one does not buy health insurance. Neither side defined it as a tax to the Supremes. Actually Obama should have set up the penalty as a tax. The Mandate is what may be determined as unconstitutional by the Supremes. Hopefully they will not throw out the whole bill (it should have had a seperable clause). No telling what the Supremes will do, after all they did give us Bush (re Bush/Gore) and Citizens United (corporations are people).
We really need health care reform. Too many people uninsured, insurance companies denying insurance to pre-existing conditions (we all have pre-existing conditions of one form or another - it is called genetics), too many people taking a free ride at the taxpayers expense (emergency room rates are high because the free riders need to be covered by passing on the costs to the insured and self-insured.
Regarding the Mandate: We have mandates for insurance when we own a car and drive it on the public roads, we have mandates for insurance when we buy a house to protect the banks investment. So we live with mandates. But the Bill should not have had a mandate provision to enable the Supremes to kill it.
If we get more people in the insurance pool the premiums will go down for those buying insurance. As long as we do not have Medicare for all (single payer) the insurance companies will rule. Clerks will continue to make life and dealth decisions.
Massachusettes (sp) has a working Mandate system (thanks to Romney) Over 98% are covered by insurance. The people like the program, the premiums have come down and good health care is provided.
I would rather have discussed this in person rather than blogging.
I agree with you Barry - Affordable health care and insurance for everyone are great goals. What I disagree with is the process the federal government and the state government have chosen to accomplish the goal.
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