News and Views

The essay by Alyssa C. Mixon printed in the 5/29 edition of the Bedford Journal shows that the writer is an impressive young adult. She is clearly a smart young woman and no doubt has a bright future ahead of her. The essay deals with the details of the Obama universal health care proposal in very technical terms and she is clearly fully behind the plan. Unfortunately, the piece fails to face the reality of socialized health care as implemented in other nations.

No matter how the Obama health care is framed or what stipulations are made, there is no way to get around the fact that Obama’s health plan would be a giant step toward the federal government running health care in America. The current free enterprise system is not perfect, and there are plenty of aspects that require remediation, but government intrusion will not be the cure.

The Canadian, UK and other nations’ government-run health care systems both suffer from the same maladies: rationed care, inferior care and long waits before doctor visits. There is no doubt that a step in the direction of government-controlled health care would bring those unfortunate features to our system.

The British National Health Service performs only 25% of the CT scans per capita compared to the U.S. British heart surgery amounts to 25% per capita compared to the U.S. Kidney dialysis and transplants are performed at a level of 20% per capita of the U.S. rate. In the U.S. about 5% of all patients must wait longer than four months for surgery. Compare that to 23% of Australians, 26% of New Zealanders, 27% of Canadians and 36% of UK patients. The statistics clearly show that government-run health care reduces the amount of care that is delivered and increases the wait times of those in need.

Some may argue that other nations have better preventative care. Not true. U.S. women receive twice the per capita amount of mammograms than in Canada. It follows that the mortality rate for breast cancer in Canada is 25% higher than in the U.S. Also, the proportion of Canadian women whom never had a pap smear is three times that of the U.S. Troubling statistics also exist for the Canadian mortality rates of prostate cancer, colon cancer, diabetic high blood pressure and other ailments.

The biggest argument for socializing U.S. health care is that is supposed to equalize health care across the social strata. Thirty years after the founding of the British NHS an official task force found scant evidence that it had equalized access to health care. In Canada, it is clear that wealthier citizens have faster access to better health care than the poor. They also can travel to the U.S. for the superior health care that exists in today’s free market system.

Before believing the Obama plan will improve on our current system the American people need to learn about how other nations’ nationalized health care systems have fared.

Stephen A Poschmann is a member of the Bedford Republican Committee

Governor John Lynch stated on many occasions, and as recently as April, that he believes marriage is between a man and a woman. But in the end, John Lynch signed same-sex marriage into law. So, what does the governor really believe? Does he have any core principles at all or he is merely driven by the political winds and pressure from his own party? Governor Lynch has proven beyond a doubt that he is weak and he has failed the leadership test.

Stephen Poschmann is a member of the Bedford Republican Committee

by Stephen Poschmann

It is my impression that many Bedford residents are unaware of Gov. Lynch’s budget proposals and the effect it will have on residents of Bedford and other towns.

For those who have not heard, the governor and legislature have spent us into a $500 million hole. The governor’s 2009 budget is fraught with creative accounting, shell-game gimmickry and outright theft that allows the governor to claim that he is cutting general fund spending while actually increasing spending. Of the many examples of trickery in Gov. Lynch’s 2009 budget, here are two.

The New Hampshire Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association is a semi-private nonprofit organization that owns a fund paid into by doctors, medical institutions and its staff for the purpose of keeping malpractice insurance premiums reasonably priced.

This is not government money, but private funds. John Lynch and the Democrats in Concord plan to change the law such that he can confiscate $110 million from that fund.

• If that is not enough to outrage non-medical workers, perhaps this one will. Gov. Lynch plans to take rooms and meals tax revenue from the towns. For Bedford that means about $1 million per year. How does the governor suppose the towns will make up for the shortfall forced upon them? He hopes the federal stimulus money, which is mostly earmarked for schools, will cover it. If not, well, the towns are on their own, and will likely have to raise property taxes. That means your property taxes will go up. This is reckless and risky.

• The most troubling aspect of the governor’s proposed budget is that after all the real and faux spending cuts and confiscation of funds, state spending will actually increase by 11 percent, or $1.2 billion, over the next two years.

This shows the Democratic-controlled legislature and Gov. Lynch have no intention of reducing spending.

• The governor has repeated he will not sign an income tax into law. Perhaps he will stand by that promise. But the groundwork is being laid right now for an income tax in the future.