“Hands off my Health Care” was the motto at yesterday’s Patients First Tour, a two day event visiting Raleigh, hosted by Americans for Prosperity. Several speakers, including Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, were present to share their perspectives on the current government
health care plan.
The night kicked off with several personal accounts, one shocking story was that of Barbara Wagner a resident of Oregon, whose health care system functions on a state run plan. A plan which denied chemotherapy treatment for her cancer even after several appeals, but was willing to fund a cheaper option – physician assisted suicide.
Stories such as these reiterate concerns about a government run system – long wait times, limited treatment alternatives, and government calling all the shots, including whether you are worth the cost of treatment.
Furthermore, how can a system that will force an estimated 120 million people out of their private health insurance plans, raise taxes for nearly every income bracket, and drastically lower the quality of health care in America possibly be a good option for our country?
It is not for a lack of options that we are faced with this government subversion of health care. Mayor Pat McCrory voiced several alternatives to the proposed government health care reform. Such as, providing incentives to individuals to take ownership of their health insurance, creating a system allowing people to transfer insurance from job to job, giving people more choice in building a health insurance policy that suits their needs, and removing excess government mandates that serve only to make private health insurance more expensive. The federal government is unwilling to consider or acknowledge these alternative options, even given the evidence to suggest that consumer driven health plans consistently result in lower costs.
Experience and history suggest that doctors work to serve their patients or to serve the state – and never can the two be reconciled. Health care is just another industry in the United States that the government is hoping to control – unless we let government know:
“Hands off my Health Care!”
* AFP Patients First Tour is taking place July 21 and 22 in Raleigh.
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