It’s been a while since I have addressed the 800 pound gorilla in the room called government run health insurance disguised as health care reform and or the Affordable Care Act aka. Obamacare. With multiple business and political obligations occupying my time as well as my first priority my family I have been stretched a little thin and 18 hour work days are not enough.
This is in no way an attempt to illicit any sympathy from you, I chose this life by my lack of resolve and failure to be pro-active when I needed to instead of now attempting to stave off the destructive forces that that now require far more effort and energy then they would have 30 years ago.
( What I would not give up today to have that time again, but alas hindsight as they say is always 20/20)
The recent passage of the Republican repeal and replace phase 1 plan passed last week in the house of representatives further demonstrated my personal dilemma and my subsequent decade long attempts to educate or at least illuminate what our politicians are doing behind closed doors while lying to our faces. They have continued this bait and switch rhetoric with what they campaign on vs. what they legislate.
The latest demonstration is the revised edition of what was passed just 2 years ago, a straight up and down repeal of Obamacare to now lets keep 90% and allow the states a semblance of control while we control the funding. And the ONLY reason for the Federalism that is now in bill is because of the Freedom Caucus, otherwise this bill would have never been accepted by the voters who put Trump in the White House and their useless derrieres back in Congress.
The Conservative Americans are now scratching their heads once again and as they become more familiar with the house bill recognize another failure to be represented and another lie by politicians on both sides. WHY?
Lets look at the real reason that they did it and why the Democrats and the Republicans both are responsible.
I have written extensively about the Great Society legislation passed during the Lyndon Johnson administration and the now 500+% increase in the growth of the federal government since its inception. (from 411 to 2000+ even they can’t list them all) This to handle a population growth from the 1960 census of 179,323,175 to the most recent estimate that we will reach 325 million on May 17th. of this year or an increase of 64%.
And in that time and created by the “Great Society” was the war on poverty and Medicare and Medicaid.
The current total costs for these programs has exceeded 22 TRILLION DOLLARS that’s 22,000,000,000,000.00 or 2,200 BILLION DOLLARS.
Our current U.S. National Debt is fast approaching 20 TRILLION DOLLARS at 19,904,305,000,000.00 and adds about a BILLION Dollars in the time it took for me to type a BILLION DOLLARS!
The total unfunded liability based on the clock now exceeds 106 TRILLION, and you should double that.
So how does or better yet why does this have any effect on health insurance disguised as health care reform? $,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$.$$
According to several different sources and using the most recent full financial information available from the least “biased” independent source the national average health insurance premium for a single individual is $6,251.00 and the average family coverage is $17,545.00.
Multiplied by the approximate number of working Americans using the latest total labor force statistics of 160 million and even using a 60/40 split of single premium coverage vs. family premium coverage or 96 million paying the single premium 64 million paying the family premium.
96,000,000 x 6251= $600,096,000,000.00 + 64,000,000 x 17,545 = 1,122,880,000,000.00 for a sum total of 1,722,976,000,000.00 or 1.723 TRILLION DOLLARS. (approximately)
Any logical economic argument when incorporating what Medicare recipients are also paying in Part B premiums the federal govt. is looking at 2 TRILLION DOLLARS their not getting, that they want desperately.
Many of the progressive socialist persuasion have espoused that could eliminate the debt in 10 years or maybe 20 if they could force everyone into a single payer system. Problem is the they can’t control the fraud, waste and abuse to the tune of over 200 BILLION DOLLARS that they can’t control in the health care systems they currently administrate Medicare/Medicaid and the VA. Medicare alone last year was over 125 BILLION DOLLARS!
When they first proclaimed the Great Society legislation they predicted that Medicare would be self sustaining. It might have, if, it like Social Security had not ended up a slush fund for the Democrats primarily and the Republicans secondarily to fund everything but what it was mandated to fund.
The fiscal malfeasance that I have once again illuminated here is never going to be resolved or solved or even taken seriously as long ass the current 2 party political system in Washington DC and around the country continues to be rewarded with our support.
If I were to behave this way in business I would be in JAIL, do the names Charles Ponzi, Bernie Madoff to name a few, ring a bell?
More than 2 Dozen members of congress have been indicted since 1980 that is from the Washington Post!
So the $64,000.00 question LITERALLY becomes this, do we continue to trust the people who have demonstrated ZERO fiscal responsibility by giving them more or do we finally gain the courage to give them the single digit salute.
Dr. Keith C. Westbrook Ph.D.
Chmn. Conservative Party of Fl. / Nat. Party Pres.