Our Government is There to Govern Not Run Our Lives
OK, I agree that we have to do something about our health care system, but I don’t think that our government should be in charge of running it. If you listen to the news and follow what is said, about certain representatives that we elected, you will learn that few of them have any experience running a business. In fact the majority have never had a paying job outside of politics. So how can we expect them to run a major industry like national health-care or even the car companies we now own.
A couple of weeks ago I attended a small business opportunity forum. This was an effort to educate small businesses on how to get work with the government and get help doing it. There were speakers from the Small Business Administration (SBA), Small Business Development Center (SBDC), General Services Administration (GSA) and other agencies both state and federal. On a side note, I too was a guest speaker for my agency and a fine speaker I was too. Anyway, the theme was survival in tough times. One thing that was mentioned several times was preparation. The SBA talked about all the potential entrepreneurs who come to them and say I want to start a business. Surprisingly, when asked what kind of business they had in mind, the answer was “I don’t know, I thought you could tell me”.
Although that’s distressing, the number one problem with people seeking to open a business is the lack of business training. The individuals know that they want to open a restaurant, because they love to cook, or a gym because they love to grunt, but that’s all the expertise they bring. They don’t have any idea about purchasing, management, accounting or any of the other skills needed to be successful.
Our government is like that. They arranged to own a couple of automobile companies, but have no experience in the industry. Instead they appoint a Task Force to oversee the industry. The head of the task force is the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. Has anybody heard anything good about the economy lately? So why did we appoint a man, who has no history of success, to oversee the rebuilding of two companies in bankruptcy?
So now we get back to health care. Our government only needs to look at the history of health-care systems in England and Canada to know that this will not work. We don’t need a national health-care system. What we do need is to get health-care costs under control. Why does a single little white pill cost $312.00? Why does a visit to the doctors office cost $600, when you are only with the doctor for about seven (7) minutes on average? The outlandish costs are what we need to fix. If we lower the cost, insurance rates would come down and more people could afford it. Then the government could focus on the millions of Americans who still need help. This would best be handled on a bid system already used in all government agencies. The government should divide the country into regions and have health insurance companies bid on caring for the disadvantaged who cannot afford the insurance. Then the government could pay for the premiums while providing access to the same type of low cost, low deductible and low co-pays that government employees enjoy.
We did not elect our representatives to run businesses and get involved in our day to day decisions. We did not elect our representatives only to have the President appoint “Czars” who take the decisions and control away from congress and the senate. We are losing control people. So contact your representatives at www.senate.gov and www.house.gov.
Don’t wait until the decisions have already been made, do it now and let them know that we care about our country. God Bless America..
