Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Health Care Extortion

When did we stop being the "land of the free and the brave"? When did we lose our right to choose our own destinies without government interference? When did we decide to be socialist republic? What happened to something called The Constitution?

I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of my last night who was expressing her fear that discrimination was about to be levied against people who are zaftig, well, fat, in many people's view. With the new health care system coming our way, she worried that people with a weight issue would become a hated group, sanctions levied against them for causing health care costs to rise for the American people. She wondered if thin people with clogged arteries from our Standard American Diet would receive the same treatment or be able to hide behind their shield of thinness?

I thought she had a point and I told her why. Truly, is it my business to lambaste her for her extra pounds? Is it my place to yell at smokers? To be angry at women who desire induced labor and planned c-sections? Other than being concerned for their well-being as any friend might be, am I now to join brigades assaulting them for their lifestyles? I guess I will if the money to care for them comes out of my pocket. Actually, I should already feel that way because I think a good portion of our poor diet practices, drug and medicine addicted people, and over-medicalized birthing practices have skyrocketed medical care to the point where one's salary is greatly reduced to pay for them and those who have no medical care can't afford the going rates.

I think we need to completely get rid of ALL mandated health insurance, whether it is sucked away by our employers or by the United States government. We need health care choices that are truly individually selected. Why nobody in this country except a few of us sees that mandated health insurance is nothing more than extortion boggles my mind!

Let me explain, especially for those of you who are so enmeshed in our medical care system you think this extortion is normal.

There are societies in the world like Okinawa or up in Hunza country where elders romp about like agile mountain goats. Ninety-year-olds have perfectly normal blood pressure and they don't get strokes, cancers, or heart attacks. They live healthy until the machinery shuts down from exhaustion. This is how the human body was designed. Yes, there are disasters and there are unlucky blokes who get nailed out of the blue with some awful, unexplainable disease.My son had a horrific bike accident at age six. I wouldn't object to disaster insurance (by choice) with high deductibles. I might like this myself, just in case some drunk driver broadsides me.

But, most of disease is preventable. Proper diet (low in fats and mostly vegetarian), exercise, and avoidance of alcohol and drugs lends to pretty fine health. People with healthy lifestyles rarely need to see doctors all the time.

When I was married, I tried to disentangle our family from the health insurance that my husband's employer billed us for every month. Oh, you say, but it isn't that expensive, only a few hundred because the employer covers the other half. Are you dense? The way the employer "covers" the other half is to reduce your salary by that exact amount. What a deal!

So, I asked not to have the money taken out and they told me if we opted out of the system, we would not only not get back "their contribution", we would not get back ours either! We would get about ten or twenty dollars returned. So, of course, opting out was pointless. We had to accept the extortion.

Why did I want out? Simply because I never made use of the system. No one in our family went to doctors. You heard me right. Why? Because I didn't believe in those silly "well baby" checks and yearly checkups. Hey, if you are healthy, why do you need someone to tell you that you are healthy? For that matter, having worked ten years in hospital watching people get checkups, I learned that the tests and their results couldn't be trusted and people were getting procedures done that were unnecessary. They also got put directly on medicines that made their health worse. Rarely did any doctor approach health issues as a problem with lifestyles. Diet was almost never addressed outside of "suggesting" less sugar and fats. Those who got high blood pressure medicine stayed on drugs, those with diabetes stayed fat, and those with nothing wrong with them eventually found something to be worried about.

I haven't been to a doctor in fifteen years. People are horrified when they find that out. "Oh my god, suppose there is something wrong with you?" Folks, I haven't been to a doctor in fifteen years and I am still here. So nothing was wrong with me. My kids grew up without doctors and they are all adults. Most health problems can be solved without drugs and surgeries.

So, why do I have to pay for health insurance I don't want or need? Oh, yes, because everyone else wants it because they eat badly, drink, drug, and are scared of cancers sneaking up on them. I don't have a problem with their attitudes, I just don't want to pay for them. If one wants to eat badly and ingest drugs, illegal or medical, be my guest! I will still be your friend and I won't even go on a soapbox when we get together and nag you and tell you how to live. To each his own. You play, you pay. Not my issue. Shouldn't you be allowed to enjoy life through food if it makes life good for you? Maybe you prefer forty years of yummy pies and cakes rather than a longer life! Some people climb mountains and fall off of them. Should we deny them that right because they could die from their lifestyle choice? Oddly, we praise these people. Why? They don't cost us anything.

But, my friend is right. She is going to become a burden. Well, I personally think the most people now are a burden as they shoot those medical costs up. Why can't I go to a doctor of my choice and pay a reasonable price to get something like Zythromax if I happen to get bronchitis? Why should it cost me a fortune? I solved the problem by picking up a supply in Mexico and India, just in case I needed it. I had a breathing problem twenty years ago when I was on my husband's insurance where every winter I got this walking pneumonia-like thing and the x-rays never showed anything. The doctors refused to give me Zythromax and told me I had emotional problems. Oddly, my foreign Zythromax cleared up my "emotional condition" within days. This nontreatment, was given to me in the emergency room because I couldn't get an appointment with a doctor for two weeks and it cost an outrageous thousand dollars. For a stethoscope listen and an x-ray? It should have been something I could to see a doctor in a walk-in treatment center and pay fifty for the visit and fifty for the x-ray.

So, now our government is going to force me to get insurance. If I don't get it, I will be fined for not contributing my money to the system. Isn't this method called extortion? Taxes are bad enough but Obama wants us to think we are not going to be taxed for our health care system. We are going to "contribute" - by force. Taxes by another name are taxes. Pretty soon we will have our incomes docked 50-60%, just like all socialist countries. I wish more Americans spent time living in those countries to understand living in them sucks, unless you are living in them on American money.

Think about it, American citizens. Do you want to be free or do you want your government dictating everything you do in life? The intrusion on private lives and private business by the government is already massive. When they take your money away, you lose a thing called choice. I cannot choose a lay midwife or a naturopath; I cannot choose massage therapy or chiropractor. I cannot choose to spend my money on organic produce. The money I have left after the government extorts its health care money from me won't cover such things. Obama has already stolen huge amount of our future incomes with his bank bailouts and when we add the cost of health coverage and all the other social welfare programs that are going to increase, we will find the middle class no longer exists. Welcome to socialism, mates.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown