Healthcare Reform is More Corporate Welfare

By

Congressman Ron Paul

Last Wednesday the nation was riveted to the President’s speech on healthcare reform before Congress. While the President’s concern for the uninsured is no doubt sincere, his plan amounts to a magnanimous gift to the health insurance industry, despite any implications to the contrary.

For decades the insurance industry has been lobbying for mandated coverage for everyone. Imagine if the cell phone industry or the cable TV industry received such a gift from government? If government were to fine individuals simply for not buying a corporation’s product, it would be an incredible and completely unfair boon to that industry, at the expense of freedom and the free market. Yet this is what the current healthcare reform plans intend to do for the very powerful health insurance industry.

The stipulation that pre-existing conditions would have to be covered seems a small price to pay for increasing their client pool to 100 % of the American people. A big red flag, however, is that they would also have immunity from lawsuits, should they fail to actually cover what they are supposedly required to cover, so these requirements on them are probably meaningless. Mandates on all citizens to be customers of theirs, however, are enforceable with fines and taxes.

Insurance providers seem to have successfully equated health insurance with health care but this is a relatively new concept. There were doctors and medicine long before there was health insurance. Health insurance is not a bad thing, but it is not the only conceivable way to get health care. Instead, we seem to still rely on the creativity and competence of politicians to solve problems, which always somehow seem to be tied in with which lobby is the strongest in Washington.

It is sad to think of the many creative, free market solutions that government prohibits with all its interference. What if instead of joining a health insurance plan, you could buy a membership directly from a hospital or doctor? What if a doctor wanted to have a cash-only practice, or make house calls, or determine his or her own patient load, or otherwise practice medicine outside the constraints of the current bureaucratic system? Alternative healthcare delivery models will be at an even stronger competitive disadvantage if families are forced to buy into the insurance model. And yet, the reforms are sold to us as increasing competition.

What if just once Washington got out of the way and allowed the ingenuity of the American people to come up with a whole spectrum of alternatives to our broken system? Then the free market, not lobbyists and politicians, would decide which models work and which did not.

Unfortunately, the most broken aspect of our system is that Washington sees the need to act on every problem in society, rather than staying out of the way, or getting out of the way. The only tools the government has are force and favors. These are tools that many unscrupulous and lazy corporations would like to wield to their own advantage, rather than simply providing a better product that people will willingly buy. It seems the health insurance industry will get more of those advantages very soon.

Vaccine Nation

In his documentary film Vaccine Nation, award-winning investigative film director Dr. Gary Null challenges the basic health claims by government health agencies and pharmaceutical firms that vaccines are perfectly safe.

This is one of the most critical questions facing today‘s children and future generations to come.

If inoculation with a large regimen of vaccines is safe, what can account for the rapid increase in autism and other mental disabilities that are now at epidemic proportions? And why isn‘t the sudden onset of neurological illnesses in children being treated as an urgent crisis by our government and medical industries?

My Vaccine Journey

Although I first started my health journey in 1968 when I began exercising, I took a number of side paths. The major one was medical school, and by the time I completed my residency training in 1985 I was thoroughly brainwashed with the belief that drugs and vaccines were imperative to produce health, and prevent disease.

Of course, as you are aware, I eventually learned that nothing could be further from the truth and my views had been skillfully manipulated by the masterful control of the health care system by the drug companies.

A great testimony to the effectiveness of my brainwashing was the views I held of Dr. Robert Mendelsohn who was a pediatrician that had learned the awful truth of vaccines and was heralding the alarm trumpets. At the time, I felt he was a dangerous quack and should have his license removed.

Unfortunately he passed away in 1988, which was long before I started my epiphany of health truths that eventually helped me understand how on target he was, and how many lives he helped save. It is one of the great regrets of my life that I never met Dr. Mendelhson, as we both attended the same school.

From my vaccine growth experience it has become very clear to me that vaccine beliefs are the last ones to change as physicians migrate from conventional to natural medicine. It is a belief that you don‘t want to challenge very vigorously as, in my experience, it is rigidly held and defended, and typically requires years of exposure to alternative views before they can even begin to hear the truth about this crucial topic.

Vaccine Nation

I recently had the opportunity to review the DVD Vaccine Nation ; Executive Producer, Gary Null, and Producer, Manette Loudon, and was very impressed with the compelling story it told.

One of the most riveting parts of the video was the story of Alan Yurko, which will chill your blood. Alan was convicted of killing his infant son by shaking him to death, when the reality of the situation was his child was killed by vaccines. He was given a life sentence for his non-crime, and was reviled by his fellow inmates because he was a convicted child killer, which is pretty low on the prison totem pole.

You are probably thinking, so what? The guy was probably guilty anyway and really did kill his child and what could that possibly mean to me?

Well, if those thoughts are coming to your mind, they echo ones similar to mine when Alan wrote to me from his prison cell for help. Unfortunately I chose to do nothing to help him at the time and justified it by saying I did not have the time or resources to evaluate his case.

Thankfully other physicians selflessly came to his rescue. Alan was very poor and could not afford anything but an inept public defender. Fortunately, with expert medical help he was able to secure a retrial and is now free.

Moved to Tears

This was one of the most moving DVDs I have seen in some time, because of my personal connection with Alan‘s case. About one third of the DVD reviews his heartrending personal story. He and his wife Francine are interviewed from the beginning of his trial when he was not even allowed to attend his child‘s funeral, to the very end when he is finally freed from prison.

I have been opposed to vaccines for about 15 years now, but Vaccine Nation converted me from being aware to being an activist.

My inaction with Alan‘s plea for help was a powerful life experience and I committed myself to never making that type of mistake again, and doing everything I possibly can to inform, educate, protect and defend against this type of tragedy from ever happening again.

You Can Make a Difference

Let‘s face it, most of us have precious little time to read and catch up on important topics. But most of us have time to be entertained. Nothing wrong with that, as it is part of a balanced life. However if you select most typical contemporary media you are not only wasting your time but exposing your brain to potentially dangerous brainwashing.

You simply have to be very careful about what you choose to view.

So why not choose an educational DVD that could teach you about a topic that is not really easy to read about? In the time you typically waste on watching most of the trash that passes for media entertainment, you can painlessly view this video.

Let me assure you, with extreme confidence, that Vaccine Nation has the potential to move you to informed action about this crucial subject, and your actions can easily save the lives of a few innocent infants.

You can purchase this video at www.VaccineNation.net.