Medicaid Health Care Programs: the hidden tax on productivity and the effect on the working class.

Canada has a cradle to grave health care system. In a study by the Commonwealth Fund, 27% of the patients needing non-emergency surgery have to wait 4 months or more to schedule a surgery. Canada forbids its citizens to buy health care privately (North Korea, Cuba and Canada are the only countries in the world that forbid private purchase of health care).

According to the Heritage Foundation, "Citizens of Canada .. have no right to any particular health care service. They have no right to an MRI scan. They have no right to heart surgery; They do not even have a right to a place in line for care. Other people can and do jump the queue."

In contrast the American system is costly and care is available. Canadians come to America for health care rather than stay in line.

Our medical Medicaid program, likewise, threatens to bankrupt the states. Fraud and waste are rampant. If our 98-year old bedridden mother is a typical case, the cost of a visiting hospice nurse spending half-an-hour twice a week, a doctor visiting twice a month at the patients house (speeding perhaps 15-20 minutes) resulted in over $3,000 in charges to Medicaid. That was not excluding pain drugs. In revolt to these excesses, she has since "fired" hospice nurses and doctors and is without care unless given by the immediate family.

Medical spending has grown by an annual average of 9.5% in the last 4 years. 53 million Americans use it. Some feel "entitled" to the pampering. Registered sex offenders are getting Medicaid funded Viagra prescription.

Are modest co-payments the answer? We all know people who abuse the system incurring huge bills by visiting doctors for imaginary hurts and pains when an aspirin would do. Perhaps they where trained that way having an inner-city developed dependence on professional medication. A co-pay of at least $10 a visit would seem sensible.

Are gyms the answer? Obesity is linked to accelerated disease and medical treatment. It's just a matter of time. The government in America doesn't encourage a gym membership. You can not deduct the cost of membership to a gym on your income taxes without incurring what amounts to a $50-$100 dollar penalty for getting a doctors' permission slip. Fitness cures most ailments. Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, poor circulation, endurance, mental alertness and a host of other symptoms cure with regular workouts. Was it a surprise to see the large portion of obese coming out of 70% welfare New Orleans, Louisiana after hurricane Katrina? Perhaps a government encouraged physically fit welfare recipient would be more employable? What is the cost to America pampering the obese?

Should taxpayers rescind state and federal workers entitlements? The self-serving state unions have given teachers, cops, firemen, state workers ... paid health care after their retirement. Contrast that to the ordinary private citizen who has to pay out of pocket. Lawmakers who enacted these benefits for themselves betrayed our trust. Feathering their own nest on the backs of taxpayers they have given themselves treatment fit for the royals. This conflict of interest is both illegal and immoral. They did not represent those who elected them. Instead of protecting the public, they have lavished shorten working years (contrast the public sector at 20-years vs 45-years for the private sector) and taxpayer funded health care.

The office public officials hold are noble in nature. Cops, teachers, the road department, firemen, are necessary. Their over-compensation is not!

Should we close the boarders? We are importing additional health care costs and poverty by open border and illegal immigrant foreign low skill workers without a domestic family structure. "The Employee Benefits Research Institute, a nonpartisan group, found that the foreign born represent 86% of the growth in the uninsured population between 1998 and 2003. Three fourths of the estimated 45 million uninsured in the U.S. are native-born Americans, but immigrants make up 11 million , or 26% of that population, up from 18% in 1994." - The Employee Benefits Research Institute

Can taxpayers revolt? Only if the governed can elect a governor or state official with the guts to gut the entitlement programs, link physical fitness to welfare, prosecute fraudsters, close the boarder and encourage minimum um co-payments. That kind of leadership will not likely come from the two leading political parties. Will you ever see that issue put on the ballot as a referendum in your lifetime? I surely hope so.