Hey, Big News here:  Not only is e-healthcare less efficient than the plain old healthcare we've been enjoying for the entire history of mankind, it's also more absorbent!  In fact, it'll absorb $19,000,000,000 (that 19 billion) of your dollars just to get started!

Hooray for government meddling in healthcare!

Our friends at Computerworld.com have a piece up altering us that none other than Harvard Medical School says the whole electronic-ization of your healthcare is misguided and ineffective.

Here's Harvards PDF, for your enjoyment.

Remember - the polls open in November,  Send these people home in droves!

The real lie of health care reform is that it's going to lower costs.  It won't.  Period.

Sadly, I don't have any time these days to rail against the kind of congressional/presidential abuse of power we're currently seeing with the so-called "health care crisis", but does it ever piss me off.  This is exactly the thing congress is counting on - most of us are so busy *actually* running the country that we don't have time to monitor these miscreants 24/7.  We shouldn't have to., either.

First - There IS no crisis.  Those who would manufacture crisis just to create opportunity for themselves are scoundrels, at best.  When it's an elected representative of the people, it's an appalling, grievous wrong being committed against the populace.

Health care is available on as many street corners as cocaine and hookers.  The only difference is that coke dealers and pimps are still subject to something known as the "Free Market Economy".  The health care industry, on the other hand, has rather neatly excused itself from such pesky notions as "Supply and Demand".  Economic Equilibrium be damned - the doctor is going to get $175 to see you and there's not a thing you can do about it.  I wonder why the Sherman Anti-Trust Act doesn't kick in when the doctors office says your cash price is going to be what it is because it's "set by the insurance company".  Alarm bells ought to be going off.

Second - Congress has no right, in any way, shape, manner or form to demand that all Americans buy a certain product - "Health Insurance" (and it's not insurance), dish soap or anything else.  Government already offers a "health care product".  It's called "VA Health Care".  Another government option health care product is Medicare.  Ask your local veterans and senior citizens what they think of their government managed "health care".  If the government wants to offer some sort of public option - wonderful.  I have no problem with that.  *Force* it down the throats of the whole country?  Now we have a problem.

Third - It's not "insurance", it's socialized medicine.  If it was "insurance", I'd get paid if I got sick.  What we have now amounts to privately run, socialized medicine - the healthy pay premiums to supplement to cost of treating the sick.  It just happens to be run by private corporations.

Lastly - it's the government and the courts that have driven up the cost of health care, aided and abetted by greed and avarice.  Laws allowing mega-zillion dollar judgments against doctors necessitate MORE freaking "insurance" (malpractice), running up the cost of a doctors visit.  So-called "doctors" charging hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars an hour, run up the cost of a doctors visit.  Patients who think that their co-pay being low is the same as saving money, run up the cost of a doctors visit.  We should be questioning the WHOLE bill for medical services, not just the portion we have to pay "out of pocket".  The rest of the cost also comes out of your (our) pocket, too.  They've just sneakily hidden it in exorbitant premiums.

In summary - any health care reform that increases revenues to the health care industry is NOT going to save anybody a dime.  Nothing in any of the so-called "debate" on health care does anything to actually LOWER the "cost of health care".  All it does is INCREASE the cost and attempt to shift the burden to a broader base of citizens so that it looks like the cost is going down.  It's a lie.  Period.