Sorry, but I have to post a letter to the editor that the Columbus Dispatch and Circleville Herald will not print. If you want to skip the politics, just start reading next posting. Health care reform...

Dear Editor,

Is the government efficient? Is the government the place to whom we should turn to “fix” the problems of today? However many folks die because of inadequate health care, it is too many. I cannot believe, though, that allowing the government to take over the system will make it more efficient. Is the Post Office more efficient than Federal Express? Was FEMA efficient and caring when evacuating New Orleans? Are highways quickly and efficiently repaired? Is government the source of new, innovative products or solutions to every-day problems? Has the Energy Department solved our energy problems in the last 30 years? What value does the federal Department of Education add to the lives of your children or grandchildren?

We have read that Medicare is efficient because it only charges 3% administrative costs, where the money-grubbing, inefficient, profit-loving insurance companies have 20% overhead. This may come as a shock to some, but the government defines “costs” differently than the private sector. They exclude “minor” things such as rent, utilities, marketing, collections and fraud from their costs. The private sector has to pay taxes at the federal and state level that are included in their overhead, as well as all of these other costs and, yes, a profit.

Is an emergency room physician more efficient because he doesn’t have to pay for collections (the hospital pays), rent (the hospital pays), office staff (the hospital pays), or marketing? That doesn’t make him more efficient, or more caring, than a family physician! It simply is a different way of calculating costs. So STOP USING THIS MISLEADING “STATISTIC”, please, to claim that Medicare is somehow better than private insurance!

The government has a habit of defining things differently for private industry than for themselves. Think about pension plans such as the city of Cincinnati, PERS/STRS, the State of Illinois or Social Security. If a private pension plan guaranteed benefits, but did not fund them, someone would lose their job or go to jail. Indeed, the Department of Labor has fined private industry $12 Billion in the last decade for mistakes or misdeeds when funding pensions. How many state or city government employees have been fired or jailed as public pensions are showing signs of failure? Public pension plans are a DISASTER. Why? Government makes laws, then ignores the law and blames the private sector…

The overall point is simply that government is necessary, but not efficient. It is effective at times, but not caring. As this administration and Congress seek ever more power over our lives, seeking to take over medical care, the financial system, allocation of energy resources, and a bigger share of our wallets, ask the following questions:

1) Was the government able to correctly predict the cost of Cash for Clunkers? (No, it tripled and they could not administer the program adequately.)

2. The government “fixed” the credit card problem. Did your credit lines get reduced, and your interest rate double? (Mine did. I’m not happy with that “fix”.)

3) The $787 Billion stimulus program was passed earlier this year. Does your neighbor, brother, wife, or friend have a new job?

4) Anyone see the real estate market turning around now that the Federal Government has taken over FNMA and “fixed” the housing problem at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars?

5) Is your country’s future more secure with massive debts piling up all over the world? This administration and Congress is spending money faster than water is going over Niagara Falls, and the problems we face are getting worse and worse.

President Obama, his administration, and the current Congress, now seem to believe they can “fix” the health care problem. How many times does Lucy have to tee up the football for Charlie Brown until he stops trying to kick it? How many broken promises from the government do we have to see until we stop trying to let government “fix” things?