As to this healthcare bill, I can not pretend that I like this healthcare bill one bit. I’ve read a great deal of it and it really tries to hand the power of control of our livelihood and our very lives to the the federal gov’t.

The answer is in simply disregarding any restraints they try to put on us. Many will not comply and many will refuse to be a part of federal government run healthcare.

The American people have never liked tyrants or tyrannical rule. The answer to big gov’t is bigger people. People acting locally to help each other, locally. Charity should be kept at home and church, in towns and cities.

I think the way I feel is best stated by one of my ancestors:

“The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.”
-George Washington

“The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.”
-George Washington

Like health insurance, the food industry and government provide the wrong incentives. Healthcare focuses on fixing the problems with costly procedures, rather than preventive care. The government subsidizes corn to help fast food companies thrive; thereby, getting the nation fat and sick. In Food, Inc., the movie shows how it is more expensive to buy fruit/vegetables, than to buy potato chips!

The NYT article reveals that we can save a ton of money by preventing diabetes and other illness by how the government engages the food industry. Nice point, Sean!

The auto industry parallel is one of Obama’s best arguments. Why do we have to buy car insurance and not health insurance? Bill Maher said that we had to buy car insurance because we actually value cars.

I would like to see the new health care program remove the burden from small businesses of having to insure their employees. In effect, they can just pay higher salaries, like Max says.

I’d like to see some of the “rooftop garden” and locally-produced food programs get some love from government subsidies; I say take it back from the corn farmers and fund something for the modern age instead. It’s not only good for each local community’s economy, it also means lower fuel costs for food transportation/delivery, thus reducing dependance on foreign oil, and all the goodness that comes from that.

To me, it seems like the US went off the rails in the middle of the 1900s. Fuel was cheap and plentiful, everybody bought cars, and technology enabled us to spread everything out geographically and fly pineapples in from Hawaii to Maine. Nowadays, we have the technology to go back to the self-supporting village model but still enjoy being connected to a global network. If we can invert the usage cycle and use telecommuting and community-centric approaches (like the food production styles mentioned earlier, and locally-generated power using sun, wind, hydro power, biofuels, or whatever each community has in their back yards) we can start to move away from all the bad habits we got in to during the last 100 years. Sure, we’ll still need some large-scale infrastructure, but every little bit will help.

I think this would be most effective if eating healthy was less cost-prohibitive. I think the amount people have to pay for fresh, quality food is absurd and unnecessary. However, the only way this will change is with major reforms to the way food is produced in the country.

Private interest dictates the way companies market food, so by attacking their bottom line through regulation (i.e. setting policies like forcing companies to insure everybody, which has an immediate benefit to the consumer) an incentive is created to change the ecosystem around those companies, thus altering their behaviour.

This should have the appropriate knock-on effect to the public. I think everybody should be able to do whatever they want, but riskier and more outlandish activities will always result in higher costs. The problem today is that people are either uneducated or uncaring enough to see the risks inherent in bad food, and that’s both killing them and increasing our healthcare costs. Once perspective is changed and people care more about what they are putting in to their bodies, we’ll all be better off IMO.

As far as making it happen, I was both surprised and encouraged to hear Obama bring up a strategy like this in last week’s speech to congress. Overall, I liked what he had to say regarding his plan and the reasons behind it.

I am interested to see what the details are though; Obama talked a good game during the election but has not been as tough in his actions as president as I would have liked. The stimulus package passed on his watch had a ton of fat in it, which I found really disappointing. He should have done more then, and I hope he does more now with the healthcare situation.

Btw, you should check out this recent New York Times article that’s in a similar vein:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/opinion/10pollan.html?_r=2

sean