While those whose heels are dug into the imaginary ground of the free market economy, it would be interesting to see what they think about HR 1343, the Health Centers Renewal Act of 2008, ready to go to the US (federal) Senate as S.901 with provisions for millions of dollars as part of the expansion of the availability of medical services for underserved areas.
For those interested in the June 4 passage of HR 1343, you can look it up under its short title and can find out if your representative was part of the process authorizing the governmental financing of medical service centers for underserved areas.
The usual language of explaining how the money will be spent is included "to provide additional authorizations of appropriations for the health centers program...and for other purposes."
I am not against this legislation per se, I am against the fact that it and legislation like it are ignored when we are being told about personal empowerment, relieving governmental responsibility for the vast majority of US citizens being crushed by the cost of needed medical services even when they have health insurance coverage.
The money our government is spending on underserved areas (which usually is defined as poverty areas) is not communicated to the middle class who are also suffering with lack of affordability of and access to needed medical services. Federal Health Center grants aren't being sent to many regions where consumers are carrying the financial burden of these centers in addition to their contribution of tax dollars to underserved areas.
As this bill goes to the Senate, I wonder why John McCain doesn't talk about empowerment and how the poor, like the middle class, should be free to shop around for their bestest deal on health insurance coverage and medical services.
The law is to provide convenience, local health center options for areas designated as underserved. The law also provides some interesting perks such as suspension of local licensure requirements for professionals working in such areas (see bill for text).
The Health Centers Renewal Act and its millions in grant money highlight aspects of the con that is our current publicity environment regarding health services:
1) Scarcity marketing (there are not enough federal resources to go around) ALWAYS invites review, if someone tells you there isn't enough for you, you want to make sure that's true.
2) Our government is involved in health services to the tune of billions of dollars. Selecting the broadest membership of our citizenry (middle class) to phase out that involvement while maintaining and in fact increasing expenditures for other involvements assumes that the middle class will continue to be able to support others while facing a reduction in its own status. This has already been disproven by the sub-prime mortgage market, problems should be fixed from the MIDDLE outward, not the bottom up.
3) Die hard "free capitalists" who choose to ignore or minimize the FACT of Federal governmental involvement through the enactment of legislation that empowers physicians, empowers health insurance companies, and grants millions to selected health services programs are accomplices to the perpetration of a fraud on the American people...it is not true that our government leaves health insurance and services standards to the states, it is only true that they leave SOME things to the states. It is to our detriment that we follow the leadership of these individuals who would have us believe that they are pro states rights when in fact they are pro giving less to the largest portion of our population, the middle class.
4) Federal benefits for employees of the Federal government, Federal grants, Federal legislation for children's programs, Medicare and Medicaid, Veterans benefits are examples of Federal regulation, financing, oversight and involvement in the health industries field. It is a myth that the job is too big, that the problems are too big, and that the free market economy can solve a problem with such heavy governmental involvement.
Maybe your representative voted on the bill, or the last version of the bill.
