Gov-Care coming to your neighborhood

Government health care is no threat to those who prefer to retain their current private benefits. Believe it at your own peril. This is the intersection of the worst of the private and the public sector for reasons currently flying under the radar. "Gov-Care" is rationed care, period. Even a trillion bucks cannot change that. Scores of thousands of Canadians who seek care in the U.S. every year bear witness to this truth.

The private sector would love to get out from under the burden of health care. Benefits are 40 - 50 percent of salary on average and the windfall savings are guaranteed not to end up in the pockets of those cast off on Gov-Care. Already in boardrooms across the country the schemes are being hatched.

Cynical? Paranoid? Given what I have seen from this government and corporate culture the last 30 years I would not expect anything less. So, what if anything can be done?

Slow down. The adage that "error is always hurried" has never been more true. Do not appoint another czar. That is merely putting a fox in charge of the hen house. Strong protections for private benefits need to be put in place and stiff criminal penalties need to be enacted to keep corporations honest. Intelligent and creative preventive policies need to translate into lowers premiums for healthier lifestyles. Finally, authentic tort reform can eliminate the epidemic of defensive medicine which keeps our health care costs artificially high.

Whatever we end up doing we should clinch our teeth and refuse this medicine in its present form.

Steve Quick

Arlington Heights