It the May 30, 2007, edition of the Steamboat Pilot, Richard Watts wrote:
The 208 commission doesn't want you making your own health decisionsIn the May 31, 2007, edition of the Rocky Mountain News, Richard Watts wrote:
The May 22 article titled "Panel wants a consolidated plan to reform health care" speaks of the Blue Ribbon Commission's picking out four health care reform proposals for closer scrutiny. The commission is choosing to consider only proposals which recommend more government restrictions on consumers, doctors, employers and insurance companies.
On the 208 Commission's chosen menu of coercive measures are forcing individuals to buy health insurance, forcing employers to buy health insurance for employees, an enormous expansion of Medicaid and forcing every person in Colorado into a state-run health care system.
The "consolidated plan" which the 208 Commission is creating will contain some combination of these elements. That plan would destroy your choice of how much of your money you spend on health care, which providers you go to and which treatments you get. It is your right to freely make your own decisions in these matters.
But the 208 Commission thinks it knows best. The commission's chairman voices concern that TABOR could require the issue to go before the voters -- the commission does not want you making your health decisions for yourself, and they worry you will reject their plan for socialized medicine if you are allowed to choose.
To learn more about how government control of medicine wipes out your choices, and to learn about the free market remedy, visit www.WeStandFIRM.org
Richard Watts
Hayden
In his May 22 article "Health plans up in air," Bill Scanlon notes that the Blue Ribbon Commission’s task is "to recommend three to five plans that would improve access to health care while keeping down costs."
Only a free market can achieve this.
The commission thinks it knows best, discarding the only free market proposal (named FAIR), and recommending the very government interference that caused our present problems in health care -- more people in Medicaid, and more restrictions on consumers, doctors, and insurance companies. Colorado would then scramble to contain costs by restricting access to health care, i.e., bureaucrats would allow access only to certain approved providers, treatments, and drugs.
These recommendations won't work because they violate the rights of every person involved. You have a right as an individual to choose exactly how you spend your own health care dollars. Regulation and control by any government violates this right. But the 208 Commission thinks it knows better than you and your doctor what kind of health care is appropriate for you.
To learn more about how government interference caused the problems we face in health care and health insurance, visit www.WeStandFIRM.org.
