Obama vs the Insurance Companies

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


As President Obama and his allies in Congress continue to demonize the insurance companies in their fight to sell government health care to the public, I think we need to recognize a couple of things here. If this plan gets passed by Congress, we are looking at the eventual demise of the health insurance business. Maybe you think that's a good thing. Maybe you think that the government should take it all over. Either way, I think Obama knows what the effects will be, and he doesn't care.

Consider that if this plan is passed and there will be a requirement for companies to insure people even if they have pre-existing conditions-plus fines for people who don't have insurance, what incentive is there for anybody to have insurance-until they need it? As long as the fine and/or tax assessment doesn't exceed premium costs, why should anyone bother with insurance while they are healthy? It seems logical to me that private health insurance companies are looking at the possibility of being driven out of business. Then who would be left? The government.

Judging by the way Obama is demonizing insurance companies, one would conclude that he and his minions know all this. You see, it's not what comes into effect the day after the bill passes, that is so important. It's what the eventual result will be.

So you don't like insurance companies? Maybe you've been screwed by them in the past. Fine. But does it matter if Medicare rejects more claims for treatment than private insurance companies do? (Is that true? I don't know- I just heard Sean Hannity point it out tonight.)

Let me put it another way. If private insurance is driven out of the business, do you think government can run it better-like they do the automobile industry, for example? What comes next? Does the government move in and take over the food industry? What do you think about the performance of the US Dept. of Education in improving education in America? In other words, why do you have so much faith in the government? I don't. Why? I worked for the federal government for 25 years. As I have openly stated, I was a DEA agent. I still feel that on the street level, federal law enforcement agencies do a good job. They make mistakes, of course, and often those mistakes get publicized. Yet, at the enforcement level they do well. Once you go to the HQs level in Washington DC, that's a whole different story. Now you are dealing with that inside-the-beltway, bureaucratic mentality-and things go to Hell. It doesn't mean they are bad people, quite the opposite, but it is just the nature of the beast.

This nation became what it is because of the ingenuity and work ethic of its people. Yes, capitalism, with all its flaws has made this country great. Big business and the big corporations, much demonized, have created vast wealth and millions of jobs.

What does government create?

The really scary thing about this is that Obama, Reid and Pelosi know exactly what they are doing. They are setting a monster in place that will greatly socialize America-and be very difficult to repeal.