EckerNet.Com

The Obama administration continues to push forth it\’s insanely expensive ObamaCare program in it\’s latest attempt to bankrupt the nation as quickly as possible.  And along with it comes yet another example why putting the federal government in charge of your health is a bad route to go.  The latest comes from of all places the Pentagon.

Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking.

Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon\’s office of clinical and program policy, says he will recommend that Gates adopt proposals by a federal study that cites rising tobacco use and higher costs for the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs as reasons for the ban.

Tobacco use costs the Pentagon $846 million a year in medical care and lost productivity, says the report, which used older data. The Department of Veterans Affairs spends up to $6 billion in treatments for tobacco-related illnesses, says the study, which was released late last month.

Now we can argue the pros and cons of smoking by soldiers or whatever as long as you want, but it\’s not the critical point here, so I really don\’t care your position.  The point is the rationale for the government imposing it\’s will upon a group of people…..it\’s costing them more.  When the government pays for anything for you, you become another itemized line on a government ledger.  With that status comes the implication that eventually your expenditures are just no longer worth it.

When the government is paying for your health care, it gets to make health related decisions for you.  Want to smoke, better check with the government first.  And while it\’s easy to dismiss that, let\’s take a more extreme example.  You need a kidney transplant??  Well son, you\’re 60 years old and you\’re a little overweight, chances are you\’d die in a few years anyway.  Transplant denied!

When you lose the ability to pay for health care, you also lose the ability to make choices for your health care.  And in a monopoly, you also lose the ability to choose a new and better performing provider.  Those are two pretty important factors to consider when putting the government in charge of your health care.   Especially when you consider how well government run health care already works….or rather doesn\’t.  Just ask a veteran what he/she thinks about the VA sometime.  Just ask a doctor what they think of Medicare.

Still excited for ObamaCare