The return of a bad idea

The proposal for Universal health care in California has returned.

I am not surprised; liberal Legislators never saw a tax they didn’t like – and universal health care comes with a whopping price tag: $210 billion in its first full year of implementation and annual shortfalls of $42 billion thereafter. That’s billions, not millions. 

It’s one thing for a legislator to carry-on a failed idea year after year when the analysis shows the legislative idea to be difficult. But when the non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office reports legislation like universal health care to be impossible to fund, you would think the idea would be dropped or greatly revised.

But not my liberal colleagues in the Legislature; they are OK with continuing to push legislation that will greatly further the burdens ofCalifornia taxpayers; they’re fine with turning California into a Socialized medicine state and completely devastating the state’s health care industry.

And even is financial impossibilities weren’t an issue of universal health care, let’s not forget our Canadian neighbors whose health care crisis worsened when socialized medicine became the law of the land.

What Canada (and other countries that practice socialized medicine) did not solve is the biggest health care problem: Access.

Just because every citizen has a government provided health care card does not mean he or she has access to medical help when they need it. Canadians wait months and months before receiving routine treatment. Some die in the process of waiting.

Now Canadians regularly cross the border seeking medical care; not the other way around. Because the one thing America still has, regardless to our health care shortcomings, is relatively decent access to health care. Our system is not perfect, and we need to make improvements to create more access in California like diverting a portion of government hospital money to build more community clinics; giving doctors monetary incentives to practice in inner cities and rural communities; and allowing out-of-state insurers to do business in California. But the one thing we do not need is socialized medicine.