by Tom Parsons

Created on: March 22, 2010   Last Updated: March 26, 2010

In a free society, the government is to be restrained from entering the private lives of its citizens. Few areas are more private than health care. Whether or not an individual or a family carries health insurance should always be the decision of that individual or family. It is not the government's place to invade these private decisions. This legislation is compulsory; that means individuals have lost another area of freedom that now goes from their control to the government's control.

This fundamental right aside, there are other serious problems with national health care. In a nation as large as the United States, the system may prove to be unworkable. Government-run programs tend to breed bureaucrats, red tape, delays, and fraud.

There could be significant gaps in health care coverage simply because the federal government cannot keep up with all the claims generated nearly as well as a local insurance company could.

There is also the problem of having the government as part of the dialogue between physician and patient. Needed treatments may not be approved by the federal insurer, and thus unexpected expenses may cause delays or denials of treatment. There may also be an increased burden on health care providers if new patients enter the system at approximately the same time.

Current problems with Medicare and Medicaid will be compounded in the new system. Both have been subjected to constantly increasing costs and taxes, as well as delays in payments to health care providers, and massive fraud.

Private companies have the resources and will to vastly reduce these problems. This is something the government has not been able to accomplish in the past.

Far better than the present system, would have been restrictions on private insurance companies that would make it difficult for them to refuse people who have prior medical conditions, or to significantly raise rates for someone who develops a new and major medical problem. Also, the current law does not address the significant problem of tort reform.

Finally, this health care reform law was opposed by more than 60% of the American people. At least one poll conducted by a major news agency placed it at better than 70%.

Any law passed with this amount of opposition from the people can only further divide a country already significantly divided over the issue of the size and intrusiveness of government. Over time, this law will create more problems than it was intended to solve.

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