Another reason to support incumbent

Lauren Underwood, Democratic candidate for the U.S. House from Illinois' 14th District, threatens to increase governmental involvement in health care. No surprise; she helped implement Obamacare.

Federal involvement always pushes costs higher. Look at secondary education, where schools skim the governmental foam off the top leaving students with oppressive student loans. The same market influence applies to health care. But, it's more than that.

Another unintended consequence of governmental involvement and funding is that it always opens the door to corruption. And, we don't have to look far for examples.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board was designed to keep costs down. The idea follows that the IHFPB will help to avoid costly overlaps of services. Instead, the idea became a predictable cash cow.

Underwood should know about this. With her involvement in the Obama administration, she should know the names Stuart Levine and Tony Rezko. Rezko helped launch the political campaigns of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich (currently in prison for corruption) and former President Barack Obama.

With Obama's help, Levine was named to the IHFPB where he became president of the board and, along with Rezko, shook down companies seeking regulatory approval for health care projects.

Unfortunately, Levine's corrupt tenure with the IHFPB is only part of the IHFPB's long history of corruption. Administrations promise to clean it up but it never takes.

The question voters should ask is who really pays all the crony cash siphoned through the IHFPB? The answer is the same as the answer to the question of who pays for rampant Medicare/Medicaid fraud: the patients.

For voters paying attention, Underwood's position on health care is another reason to vote for Rep. Randy Hultgren.

Richard Rostron

Woodstock