The Free Market is the answer to Health Care reform

Ok.. here's MY national health care plan. I imagine if it were written out in legalese .. you could probably read it within a minute or two. I've got it narrowed down to about 3 points / sentences.

1. Congress will change the McCarran-Ferguson Act to allow interstate competition in health care.

2. The exclusive regulator of insurance companies will be in the insurance commissioner in the state of the home office of insurance company.

3. The federal government is not allowed to regulate insurance companies outside of the *normal* laws and regulations that apply to ALL companies.


Freed from onerous state and federal mandates turning insurance companies into public utilities, insurers would be allowed to offer a whole smörgåsbord of insurance plans, finally giving consumers a choice.

Once health insurance is treated like all other companies and the federal government is completely removed from it, there should be a complete revolution in how the insurance companies will fight over each other (in healthy business to business competition) to be people's company chosen to provide health insurance. Insurance companies are currently protected by government regulations from having to honor their contracts. Violating contracts isn't so easy when competitors are lurking, ready to steal your customers.

The free market will take over. Give business people the chance to make a profit, they'll do what they can to make the profit and keep the profit. If they behave like bad business people and don't honor contracts, their business will dwindle and die on the business vine.

Seems like I heard somewhere a long time ago that BAD NEWS (from one person) is spread to 17 other people where GOOD NEWS is only told to 3. Businesses will want to have a good reputation for a good customer base they can count upon all the time. That puts a business squarely in the cross hairs of being a good business that people like to do business with regularity.

With a politician not having the power over you deciding whether your insurance plan covers Viagra, the decision would be made by you, the consumer. The insurance companies would no longer jump when the politicians tell them as prompted by the health-care lobbyists. Instead, the insurance companies would jump to tune of hundreds of millions of Americans buying health insurance on the free market.

This would, in effect, transform medical insurance into ... a form of insurance!

This will solve nearly every problem allegedly addressed by a universal health care – and it entails zero cost to the taxpayer. A free market in health insurance would produce major tax savings as layers of government bureaucrats, unnecessary to medical service in America, get fired.

In a free market, the government wouldn't need to prohibit insurance companies from excluding "pre-existing conditions." Of course, an insurance company should be able to refuse new customers with "pre-existing conditions." Otherwise, everyone would just wait to get sick to buy insurance. It's the same reason you can't buy fire insurance on a house that's burning. To be able to buy insurance when your sick is categorized as *charity*.

Insurance is insurance .. not a credit card to make payments.

What the liberals are implying about the *badness* of "pre-existing conditions" is an insurance company using the "pre-existing condition" ruse to deny coverage to a current policy holder – someone who's been paying into the plan, year after year. Any insurance company operating in the free market that pulled that trick wouldn't stay in business long.

If the overnight-stay industry was as heavily regulated as health insurance is, right now I'd be explaining to you why the government doesn't need to mandate that hotels offer rooms with beds. If they didn't, they'd go out of business. People who lived in the old Soviet Union thought it was crazy to leave groceries to the free market. "What if they don't stock the food we want? The Soviet Gov't takes care of us." .. would be the thoughts they'd have.

The market is a more powerful enforcement mechanism than numb government bureaucrats. If you don't believe me, ask Toyota about six months from now. There seems to be an increasing volume of Toyota quality commercials these days.. hmmmm.. I wonder why? Ohh yeah, that's right. The US gov't is part owner of the competitors of Toyota and is now flexing it's muscle in giving Toyota a strong proctological exam followed by a business based enema to knock some of the Toyota customers loose.

The longer that the liberal politicians carry on in the manner they are, the more I'm convinced that they believe the nation is too stupid to make these choices on their own. Hence, they thrive on making the choice for the American idiots so that they are protected from themselves.

Youtube's predecessor .. Public Access Channel

Before Youtube, was a television phenomena called the 'Public Access Channel'. Hmmmmmmm.. ya know, I think the network tv show 'Home Improvement' with Tim Allen and his tv family, Wilson the neighbor across the fence, etc .. was about a Detroit based home improvement Public Access program.

This clip, is just too bad not to send onto everybody.

What you are abut to see is my nomination for the *worst* Public Access tv show every taped and uploaded to Youtube ... for both your misery and enjoyment is this Public Access cooking show that has a guest interviewed, a director (Tommy Wiseau) of the new movie (back in 2003) 'The Room' ..

Watching Red Grange Gallop again

As my time on earth was commencing, Red Grange (a.k.a. "the Galloping Ghost") a University of Illinois football legend, was completely and thoroughly a legend for a couple of decades. As I understand it, and I might have the facts askew, it was the dedication game of Memorial Stadium that Red Grange galloped to 6 touchdowns vs Michigan... way, way back in the 1920's. That wasn't the first time he scored in Memorial Stadium, as I understand he scored his first touchdown there in the previous year against the University of Chicago team.

Click the photo below to see more pictures of the Red Grange statue located at mid-field on the west side of Memorial Stadium, Champaign, IL.

UofIPix

Red Grange is only one of two numbers retired from the University of Illinois for varsity football players. The other being Dick Butkus. There's talk of second statue near the south end of Memorial Stadium where of Butkus would carry his likeness about 50 yards from where Red Grange is placed..

The photos in this picasaweb album are from my University of Illinois (at Urbana-Champaign) collection of photos that I'll be updating as the collection grows. A lot of very interesting things there there. Memorial Stadium, Assembly Hall, Beckman Institute, and Hallene Gateway with more to come.