I don’t get why some people are so excited for government intervention into healthcare. My health insurance is complicated, expensive, and needs reform, no doubt. And I agree, people losing their homes to buy pills is insane.

I guess I just don’t have faith that the government can improve it. I’m not driven by ideology, I hate most of what both parties do. I’m driven by results. If the government had a track record of lowering costs, making things more accessible, and manging things competently, I would be all for a public health option.

If the government can lower prices, why is it always so much cheaper, quicker, and convenient for me to mail a package with Fedex? Why can’t I monitor and pay my federal taxes online like I do every other bill? Why is the line at the DMV four hours long? Where was the food and water in the Superdome after Katrina? Why are Medicare and Social Security bankrupt? Why did they give the banks money when the banks’ customers were the ones that needed it?

I mean, come on, just walk in any government building and you’ll find fluorescent lights, cubicles, dull colored paint, cheap carpeting, old computers, and identical chairs and desks everywhere. Look at most government websites - how exciting. There’s no need to improve or market something when your customers (or citizens) have no other option. Have you walked into a veterans hospital lately? Yeah, sign me up for some of that.

Somehow people think that if you take the corporate logo off the front of a hospital and replace it with the Dept. of Health and Human Services logo, all the services inside don’t cost anything anymore. But that’s what we are taught to believe: everything the government gives us is free. We ignorantly forget that the government has no money. They only have the money they take from our paychecks, print in a back room secretly, or borrow from someone else.

The bottom line is: I don’t think it’s going to work and I’m not looking forward to paying the bill with my taxes. I can write my doctor a check just fine and don’t need Uncle Sam to deliver it for me with a markup added to cover my lazy neighbor’s health, but whatever, better spend the money on an attempt at healthcare than on another war or bank bailout.