Universal Insurance

I say very little about insurance and costs and such on this site. As bad as not having healthcare is, it is worse when having it kills you. So I'm working on that problem. However, I will raise this concern about the way in which we are trying to achieve coverage for everyone, a goal I like when a workable method can be found.

Jack Hedin, in Rushford, Minnesota is a farmer who was growing produce for local markets. Then the government stepped in.

His own 100 acres no longer were enough to meet the demand. There was no vacant land, so to begin expanding he rented 25 acres from another farmer, plowed it and planted watermelons, tomatoes and vegetables. But that farmer was getting paid by the government not to grow corn there. Mr. Hedin already had paid $8,771 to rent the 25 acres for one season when the government notified the property owner that it was illegal to receive a subsidy and receive rent for the same acreage.

That is sensible. We taxpayers do not want to pay farmers not to grow things on land on which something else is being grown. For doing so that farm owner would be fined and banned from ever receiving a subsidy again. He can't afford that. So the fruits and vegetables cannot be grown there. The local markets will have to get their expanding supply from Florida and California instead of right next door.

Mr. Hedin says that that is the way growers in California and Florida want it. They fear competition from regional producers and through their influence over the Congressional delegates from their states virtually monopolize the country's fresh produce markets. Efforts to fix this problem are defeated by those delegates.

Who pays the price? Consumers. Taxpayers. We the people.

How is this any different from what will happen if government exerts more control over medicine and medical insurance? The needs of the market and the people in healthcare trying to deliver the care that people need will not be able to because of some government program or the influence of someone somewhere else in medicine with an agenda.

If everyone has insurance, but still cannot get care . . .

(see "My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)" By JACK HEDIN, New York Times, March 1, 2008)

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The White Wall of Silence versus Patient Safety
Blacklisting Patients
Freedom of Speech for Patients
Medical Complaints - How to

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It's a path

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Revised August 18, 2008