How The Gummint Made Me Eat Broccoli

Actually, that's a bit of  stretch. I had been a long time member of the I Hate Broccoli club, (that counted amongst its' most famous members Bush 1 and Alfalfa, he of the Little Rascals fame) until my spouse of many years finally convinced me to actually, taste them. Hers was a very convincing argument, "eat your broccoli or the couch will be your future resting place". Since I could not muster any argument against that irrefutable logic, I acquiesced, and while it is not high on my "gotta have" list; I don't mind it all that much.

At about this time the reader is probably wondering where I am going with all this talk about broccoli. Well, it has to do with a comment made by Antonin Scalia during the last day of our collective exercise of watching paint dry, aka The Affordable Care Act arguments before the Supreme Court last week. In the course of arguing as to what end the government should be involved in the Health Insurance Industry Justice Scalia trotted out one of the conservative arguments that it would be a slippery slope that would ultimately lead the Feds telling us what to eat.

It is an argument based on nothing except the knee jerk reactions that one has come to expect from the right wing of the right wing Republican Party that is hell bent on taking the country back to some idyllic past that never existed. I won't comment on original intent or Commerce Clause simply because I'm no Constitutional scholar, but I will speak to some common sense ideas that the right refuses to see, whether they are incapable or not intelligent enough to concede that a healthy populace is good for everyone involved.

I was at the doctors' office a couple of weeks ago; he is a nice enough fellow and while I have had to get used to the idea that he is not twelve, he seems to be on top of the latest vis-a-vis diabetes and the like. I came in for lab results and he was fairly pleased that I have my condition pretty much under control, although I am still still a sucker for a good vanilla malt or a great coconut cake. I also needed him to get prior authorization for a medication I have been using for the last two years. This medication is one of the reasons I have been able to keep the Diabetes II under control, in spite of the occasional slip into "gotta have" sweets.

I overheard a conversation between a Pharma rep and the Doc as to how insurance companies are holding their feet to the fire when it comes to approving medical tests, prescriptions and some medical procedures without first obtaining prior authorization. These two are the very same fellows who a month before were bemoaning the Socialist takeover by the Gummint of the health care system, aka the Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama. Their complaint followed along the same lines that opponents of the ACA have been using. That it is a slippery slope and that unless it is stopped we'll all have to eat broccoli...Yeah, I don't get it either.

I reminded them that their current argument about cost containment by the insurance companies was nothing short of a bureaucratic "doling' of care; not unlike the fears that they claim will happen under the ACA.

The health insurance company that covers my spouse and I has recently insisted that we not fill our prescriptions at the pharmacy where we have done business for the last fifteen years and instead use their pharmacy located who knows where. It is doing precisely that which opponents of the ACA are getting their panties in a wad, telling us "Freedom Loving Americans" where and how to spend our hard earned money. Don't get me wrong, I like a good bargain as much as the next guy, but can anyone tell me how a "pharmacist" who does not know me is able to give me better advice than the pharmacist my family and I have been doing business with over the past decade and a half.

Clearly, the conservative argument that the government is attempting a takeover of the Health Care Insurance Industry is merely a knee-jerk reaction to any program proposed by President Obama; I'm of the opinion that if the President walked on water, the complaint on the republican side is that he can't swim...

Anyway... the good news is that my insurance company won't make me eat cauliflower...

And there it is...