It Was A Good Idea While It Lasted
It was a good idea while it lasted – total health care coverage for everyone in Pennsylvania funded by the tax on cigarettes. Then came the squabble; the politics got in the way and no compromise could be reached.
Oh it was a great idea when it was first launched – health care for everyone in the state of Pennsylvania funded by the tax on tobacco. It could have been the perfect solution for the uninsured and uninsurable. But--and there always seems to be a but – the politicians couldn't agree with one another (no surprise there) and the whole proposal was tanked.
So there went a proposal that may have kicked the stuffing out of the $30 TRILLION dollar deficit in Medicare. Not the whole deficit, but it would have made sufficient inroads and set such an example for other states, that the idea could have taken right off. Again, the political side of things got in the way of the practical day-to-day business of trying to stay healthy. How ironical that the business of trying to stay healthy funds the political arena and vice versa.
What you have here is a cycle, a circle that continuously goes around like a wheel turning in the mud kicking up all manner of messes. No one seems to want to get pragmatic and do something about health care rather than just talk about it and around it. It's a great election issue, and every year it raises its ugly head, but nothing is ever done about it.
Medicare and the staggering deficit that faces this country and each state is the elephant in the living room that everyone is politely trying to ignore. The thing is, it won't go away, not without some major help to move it. The same goes with the Medicare deficit. Unless the political will actually grabs this issue by the tail and DOES something about it, it will languish, doomed to die on the vine every year while the deficit keeps creeping ever upward.
The absolute irony of the whole situation though is that those who demand socialized medicine, and demand health insurance plans for everyone, are the same people who, when asked if they are prepared to PAY for that to happen, say NO. It's this simple, either you pay for it to happen or you live without it. And that's the vicious circle that happens every time health care is debated in the Legislature. No one wants to solve the problem if it is going to cost them money.
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