Henderson - A swing and miss

The Trib's sports, um er, local columnist Joe Henderson struck out on his own today.

Every person should be entitled to the best quality health care available. Yeah, I said "entitled".

Well, Joe, if you're going to step up to the plate, you better be able to hit the curve.

While we are talking about rights, exactly where in the US or State of Florida Constitutions is there a right to healthcare?  There is an explicit right to bear arms.  Are we now entitled to have the government pay for our firearms?

Exactly how, Joe, will this Medicaid expansion work, when it is already under funded, over utilized, doesn't cover medical expenses for the doctors or hospitals... and you want to expand it further?  Add MORE patients to the program?  Exactly how will that reduce costs and improve care?

Will the users of this healthcare entitlement be responsible for anything?  Paying for it?  No.  Why should we pay for those that don't care about their own health who smoke, are obese, drink, do drugs?  Will you have drug testing?  Or would that deny this "entitlement"?

What about food?  We all need food to survive... to survive to get to our healthcare provider.  Following your logic, it seems to me that food is a more fundamental "right" than healthcare.  Must the government provide food for everyone too?  Why not?  How come some of us must pay in full while others get things free?

How about we come up with some new ideas rather than pile on the same old failed ideas about healthcare.  We get it, our healthcare system is a mess.  But expanding failed programs like we are doing due to Obamacare is a recipe for even quicker failure.

Let's understand the basic concept of "Rights".  A right is "unalienable" to the person, given to us by our Creator... not the government.  A right cannot be taken away by the government.  Rights include "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".  If the government forces, um, er "entitles" everyone to a right to healthcare, where do they get the services from?  From the providers - doctors, hospitals, etc.... that need to earn a living, in their "pursuit of happiness".  The government can only provide this healthcare "right" by infringing upon the rights of the healthcare providers, and us the taxpayer, who are forced to pay for it all.  Pay for more failure and costly expenditures.

Joe, we're sending you back to the minors for some extra batting practice.  Here are some assignments to learn to hit the curve:

Read the results of a of poll of Florida voters. Latest Poll of Florida Voters Shows a Majority Oppose Medicaid Expansion;  JMI Responds to Governor’s Support of the PPACA Provision.  More than 63 percent of Floridians worry federal government won’t keep funding level promises and are concerned over the program’s cost.

Medicaid needs reform, not expansion. This federal–state health care program provides health care to over 60 million Americans and consumes a growing portion of state and federal budgets. Research shows a long history of Medicaid enrollees having worse access and outcomes than privately insured individuals

Even the New York Times knows the problems.

Recently in The New York Times, Robert Pear highlighted the major problems with the Medicaid program. His findings reveal that having a Medicaid card in one’s wallet is of little use if it doesn’t give beneficiaries access to the care they need.

Can we agree on one thing, please?

NO!.