Shannon Column: Now serving number 10,153

It’s a sad state of affairs when your own wife won’t bring you a pen and paper for your last will and testament. There I was, convinced I had the Mexican Flu (The WHO’s Newest Pandemic!) and wanting to
put some order to my affairs, and all she did was laugh.

Then Janet said what she always says, “Why don’t you go to the doctor?”

Why? Because doctors cost money. Right now I take pride in being the perfect potential patient for Obamacare health care “reform:” I don’t go to the doctor when I’m sick and I have a pre-paid burial
insurance policy.

Oh, sure, I have health insurance, but since I don’t work for Uncle Sam and am not a Congressman, I had to choose a high deductable to make it affordable. I calculate the day the foreclosure man walks
up the sidewalk to take my house, the deductable will have been met for that year and I’ll fall back on the 20 percent co-pay.

Even at that, I’m not a supporter of Obamacare and I’m amazed at the otherwise normal people who think it’s an idea whose time has come. I’ve got news for you, government health care is not going to be
run by some new, squeaky-clean, super efficient, technologically up to date, Mr. Spock type of government organization that’s been hidden away until just this sort of emergency.

It’s going to be run by the same government that forces you to take off your shoes at the airport.

Other than wars, try to think of any government program the feds run better than the private sector.

You can’t because the program doesn’t exist.

Many supporters are laboring under the delusion that Obamacare will be for the “needy,” those people with large eyes and sad stories, and implementation won’t affect your health plan. But government
health insurance drives private companies out of the market, because government doesn’t have to be efficient or profitable. It just has to be big.

Before long the plan you like won’t exist because your employer will decide it’s cheaper to use the government plan or the plan provider will go into a more lucrative line of work.

Case in point: Two years ago we had almost no flu vaccine. Why? Government meddlers established the price for flu vaccine and drove private manufacturers out of the market. The one that remained had a
production problem that spoiled most of the product and as a result you had no flu shot.

That’s Obamacare in action.

The really pitiful group of Obamacare supporters have the childlike belief that their Member of Congress would not vote for “reform” that was bad because it would hurt them, too.

Dream on. Do you actually think Members of Congress are going to be using the same health care system you do? They vote for Obama “reform” with no worries because they will never darken the door of
a public clinic, unless it’s for a photo opportunity in connection with their re-election.

They vote for these bills in the knowledge that it won’t ever affect them because they are special. And in the event a congressman ever encounters one of the daily annoyances they inflict on the public, as
my daughter says they go “bazook.” Google “Rep. Peter DeFazio airport rage” and see what I mean.

Congressmen pay $357 per month for family coverage under their current health plan. Family coverage at Kaiser was costing me $613.00 per month almost 10 years ago, which is why I have the
foreclosure deductable now.

The amazing part about this pending debacle is we tried “reform” during the ‘09s with the nationwide push to lower healthcare costs through the use of “efficiency” and HMOs.

The end result of this rule-by-bean-counter was drive-through deliveries for babies and same-day discharge heart surgery. This particular “efficiency” kept costs down and anger up. The health care system
stopped doing this for two reasons: one the customers revolted, and two, health care wasn’t run by the government.

With Obamacare, you can have the public burning tires in the street like Iranian voters and it won’t matter because the Obamatolla will be in charge.

Less government interference would be real reform. Ask your elected officials to support a plan that allows federally vetted health insurance plans to sell nationwide and compete against each other. Attach
health insurance to the person and not the job. Allow customers to choose what coverage they want rather than mandating coverage that drives up the cost for everyone. Require hospitals to post prices for
medical procedures so consumers can shop for surgery the way they shop for college.

Meanwhile, my decision to avoid the doctor with my Mexican Flu was sound. I’ve been upgraded from a potential deadly imported virus to the domestic Virginia cold.

Michael R. Shannon is owner of MANDATE: Message, Media & Public Relations, located in Woodbridge.