Thursday, October 18, 2007

Govt Takes Over, Business Stops

One "unforeseen consequence" of ANY new "government program" is that private enterprise, who out of the goodness of their hearts were providing assistance to people who could not afford it, steps out of the way and stops its help. That means seniors who are dependent for their very lives on certain medicines (that are VERY expensive) are now completely dependent on the government for that medicine. I know of one person very close to me who was getting a year's supply of Plavix, a medicine that kept him alive, from the maker, free, now must depend on a government program (paid for by taxpayers) to get his medicine because the maker of Plavix immediately stopped supplying him that medicine the minute the feds passed that law to pay for necessary medicines through private companies, while putting "strings" on it and making it "mandatory." This person was happily using this "government service" provided by "Sierra RX" until they sent him a letter asking him to verify that he had not applied for such a program for two years after it was available ant telling him he would be assessed a penalty for it. This man did not apply because ALL the "programs" out there were so confusing that even the legislators that made them mandatory did not understand them, and this is his right. He is also opposed to such a system, on principle. There is nothing in the Constitution of the United States that says such a program can be made "mandatory." If there is, please show it to me. I'm not holding my breath. These programs are, as usual, made to be unnecessarily complicated, paving the way for an even bigger bureaucracy. I'm ashamed to say that a Republican signed it into law, and in its present unnecessarily confusing form. (Just common sense)

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