A blogger recently made a comment about health-care “reform” that caught my eye. This writer was dead right.

“The No. 1 goal ought to be to make health insurance what it was originally intended to be originally — to cover catastrophic conditions — not routine care. You don’t use homeowner and auto insurance to pay for routine care and maintenance of your house and car. You save it for catastrophic conditions. If people were no longer shielded from the realities of paying for routine care, they would think twice about using services and find the cheapest way to meet a need.”

Let me add to what this blogger is saying. People are losing their health insurance because it’s become too expensive. WHY has it become so expensive? Do you know how many people use ERs like doctor’s offices — because they don’t have to pay for it? Do you have any idea how many of those people are ILLEGAL ALIENS? (No, this is not a rant against illegals, it’s a rant about a system that refuses to hold people accountable.)

Let’s take another example. If you’re a big fat slob or a drug-abusing loser why should I have to pay for your diabetes, your overdose, etc.? Right know I DO PAY FOR YOU through higher insurance premiums. That’s what’s broken, folks. That’s why people are losing their health insurance. You can’t get FIRE insurance anymore unless your home passes an inspection. Why should your “lifestyle” be any different? Are you clearing a hundred feet of brush around your house? Are you keeping your weight under control, are you smoking, abusing drugs, driving without a seatbelt?

OBAMACARE won’t fix things. Making health care “free for all” will really clog the system. Those protesting reform — as it is presently proposed — are dead right (pardon the pun.) SOMEONE has to pay for it. The irony is we already are. Obamacare will just make it worse. And lessen the benefits we get. Let’s get real. If the plans being presented are so fabulous, why are Congress and thousands of union members going to be exempt?

OBAMACARE will INCENTIVIZE irresponsible behavior by taking away its consequences. President Barack Obama would be better off taking Sen. John McCain’s suggestion (I know, how awful.) Allow consumers to purchase insurance across state lines. In addition, Obama would be wise to support PROACTIVE preventive medicine, i.e., don’t get fat, don’t abuse drugs, use your seatbelt, wear a helmet. WE PAY FOR EVERY IRRESPONSIBLE ACT and we’ve never yet demanded accountability of the kid who crashes his motorcycle without a helmet (and spends months in rehab), or the gang-bangers who knife each other (and waste our tax dollars stitching them up).

Holding people accountable doesn’t exactly fit the zeitgeist of these times. But it should. THAT is the kind of change this country really needs.

L. O’Leary
Santa Barbara