I hate to do this, but here goes once again on what may be the most divisive American issue since the Civil War. It may be a bit disrespectful to give the President and members of Congress advice but seeing as I am much older and have seen considerably more of American history than the President and most members of the Congress I have some justification in so doing.

Thus, Mr. Obama and members of Congress, scrap this 1,100-page monstrosity of a health reform bill. It’s not going to fly. All it is doing is promoting the traditional American democratic (note, little d) process known as town hall meetings into beer tavern brawls that  police restore order by using tear gas and fire hoses.

Many of the arguments for and against this proposed legislation are as ridiculous as claiming Daylight Savings Time ruins your flowerbed by giving the plants too much sunlight. (Yeah, I heard that complaint more than once during the debate over DST back in the 1960s.)

One of the complaints against the bill is deadheads who spend their money at casinos and then refuse to pay for health insurance. There are some folks that do that.

Even many opposed to the current bill agree our health care is broken. They are wrong. Our health care is as good as always despite a population where too many drink too much, smoke too much, eat too much, take too many pills and exercise too little. It’s the cost of this care that is broken.

Now here is another piece of information that is quite obvious but everyone seems to ignore. NO REFORM PROPOSAL IS GOING TO FLY.

The reason is simple: G-R-E-E-D. That’s one of the so-called deadly sins and no law, act of Congress or Presidential edict is going to reform that. Ignore the folks who spend all their money in casinos instead of paying for health insurance. As far as I’m concerned, let them suffer.

We who do pay for health insurance are the real victims. I am on Medicare and health insurance premiums take over 20 percent of my monthly income. And I have no dental coverage. When I was working it took less than 5 percent and me and the company combined less than 10 percent. That 20 percent for a person with $250,000 annual income might not be so bad but for a person on retirement income it’s far too much. (It’s too much for any income.)

Even at 20 percent my Medicare supplemental policy won’t pay for in-patient overnight stay and treatment at our local Byrd Regional Hospital. It did when I first signed up for it, but later they said no. The hospital blames Blue Cross and Blue Cross blames the hospital.

I pay $43.20 a month for Medicare Plan D prescription drug coverage. I do take a couple of pills for borderline diabetes  but I don’t get a single penny of value since my deductible is more than the pills cost for a year. When I suggested dropping this Plan D coverage the druggist advised against it, saying I never know when I might need $100 pills.

My wife had Medicare and State Group coverage. For more than a year both refused to pay some bills accrued during her terminal illness over a dispute of whether her retirement started on a Friday or the following Monday.

The problem is that too many people whose medical education stopped with eighth grade hygiene are making big bucks from health care enterprises. Many who think McBurney’s Point is a spot overlooking the River Shannon in Ireland and melanoma is the music that Guy Lombardo played on his saxophone are making decisions of what treatment is needed and how long it is needed for their policy holders. It’s the health insurance that is broken, not the health care.

Then there’s the politics involved. Those for the current bill want another bureaucracy that will only replace insurance executives with bureaucrats. I’m don’t know what Republicans advocate. I have not seen a single proposal from those opposed to the proposal that has been made. It almost seems that they approve of me having to pay 20 percent of my monthly retirement income for health care when I’m not even sick.

Reform should start with the insurance companies and it doesn’t take 1,100-pages.  But if you think that any reform is possible, forget it. In the second quarter of 2009 a total of $133,271,660 was spent by pharmaceuticals and health product industries, the insurance industry an hospital and nursing home representatives to lobby Congress. That $133.3 million spent on lobbying is where our health care money is going.

Trivia Time
What once popular New York Morning Telegraph newspaper columnist is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx under a tombstone that reads “Loved by all?” Answer to last question. In 1946 Twentieth Century Fox signed Marilyn Monroe for a salary of $125 a week.
Contact George Frasher at 337-238-3433 or frasher@cebridge.net.