World Hunger and Poverty

Let’s not waste our time with an any more of a verbose introduction than this sentence. As of 2004, 41.6 million United States people below the age of 65 do not have health insurance. As of 2004, 9.2% of United States children do not have health insurance.

As a result of those appalling statistics, many people now call for federalizing healthcare into a government-run, government-funded, “single-payer healthcare” system.

I want to see the day where nobody, especially children, lives without healthcare coverage. I also firmly believe the current healthcare situation in the United States needs repair and significant changes. However, I do not want to see the government takeover the healthcare system. I believe that would make matters even worse.

I do not have healthcare insurance, so do not mistake my opinion as biased. Additionally, I do not pay taxes, so the inevitable tax hike would not even hurt me directly. I have a more objective opposition to government-run healthcare: As I already said, I believe that it would make matters even worse.

Rich people control the government. The government acts not on the behalf of poor people and the uninsured, but rather on behalf of the few rich people. The more power the government has, the more power those rich people have. They will use that power to continue to oppress the rest of us, not to take care of us. The money–taken from taxpayers–will go to Halliburton and Big Oil not to our medical bills. It will pay for some lazy, unproductive rich guy’s yacht, not some broke kid’s kidney transplant.

Beyond that, government-run social services never work well. Do you really want to hand control of healthcare over to the same people responsible for public schools and the DMV? If the government takes over healthcare, the best we could possibly get is an under-funded, mismanaged, corrupt bureaucracy.

The only thing the government does well is screw over the working class on behalf of the rich.

Instead of giving the government more control, I suggest we start taking back power from the government. Let’s stop paying taxes, and let’s stop letting the federal reserve rob us through the inflation of government-controlled paper money. Instead of wasting our efforts appealing to the plutocratic government, let’s create non-governmental organizations controlled by us that meet our needs. We can work-together in our local communities to use our resources to solve our problems. For example, we can create our own local non-profit health insurance companies, owned and run by the members of our community. Additionally, we can create our own local community-based hospitals to combat over-inflated medical costs.

If we have so much power to persuade the government, then let’s use that power to solve our problems without the plutocratic government.

If you want to discuss this with me, please join my Hunger & Poverty Forums, which you can do for free. All opinions and viewpoints welcome!

Daniel Costello and Abigail Goldman wrote an article about calls for healthcare reform:

An unusual new coalition of big employers, labor unions and politicians united Wednesday to push for “quality, affordable” healthcare for all Americans by 2012.

The proposal adds to growing pressure on Congress, President Bush and statehouses across America where governors including California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger are calling for a major overhaul of health insurance coverage.

The idea united some bitter adversaries Wednesday and indicates that there is business support for change.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation’s largest private employer, joined with one of its biggest critics, the Service Employees International Union.

There are currently 47 million uninsured in the U.S. and that number is rising by more than a million people a year. As health costs have almost doubled in the last seven years, many workers have seen most if not all of their pay raises go toward rising healthcare premiums.

Read entire Times article by Daniel Costello and Abigail Goldman.

With 47 million uninsured Americans and devastatingly high healthcare costs, we need to make drastic changes and reforms to our healthcare system. However, I do not think government-funded national healthcare can solve the problem. The inherent inefficiency and dishonesty of government means that federalizing healthcare can only make matters worse overall. We cannot afford to put the same people running the inefficient DMV in charge of our healthcare.

Additionally, Wal-Mart supports national healthcare simply because they want taxpayers to pay for Wal-Mart’s employees’ healthcare, instead of Wal-Mart.

Instead, we need to make companies like Wal-Mart pay their employees enough to afford healthcare and insurance. We can do this through non-governmental worker’s unions. Further, we need to create our own community-based health insurance organizations, instead of doing business with mega-corporations and the con-men who own them.

We cannot trust the corrupt and deceitful government. Instead, we need to use voluntary solidarity to create non-governmental organizations that actually address our problems and concerns effectively – truly by the people and for the people.

What do you think?