I am in favor of universal health care, at least in concept. All the universal health care proposals I have seen have been very short on specifics and long on vague broad ideas. I am also in favor of universal work, self reliance, intelligent decisions on lifestyles, everyone needs to be productive or self sufficient. The thing I am against is the Government deciding what, where and how I can live more than they do all ready.

Will the Government be able to tell a fat person they have to join a gym to be covered? Tell a smoker that they have to quit to be covered? Tell a person living a risky lifestyle they have to quit that lifestyle to be covered? Tell fast food places to drop all items from the menu that tend to make us fat? Order the closing off non organic food vendors? Answer is no, no, no, no, no, no and no.

Then they will have to get cost containment some place. Tell doctors to work for 30% of their old wages. Yeah right. Tell hospitals to close off new wings with state of the art equipment. Not going to happen. How will those bonds get paid for that were used to build the wings and buy the equipment? I remember when you had to drive 80 miles to get chemo treatments. People will pitch a fit if told they can not get services convenient to their homes.

How much control are you willing to let the Government have over your life? Will they be able to tell you that after age 60 you no longer can have certain services due to your advanced age and limited return on dollars spent. For example after age 60 you no longer can get a kidney transplant. If you want and need one you have to pay out of pocket. Or after age 75 you no longer can have knee or hip replacement. Or after age 80 you no longer can have cancer treatments. These are real questions that have not been answered. The number of dollars are limited and there will have to be limits set for services at some level.

Many other national health care systems are not really free. If you think that I am kidding take a close look at how some of the Universal Health Care programs work around the world. France has a system that pays a basic 75% and the other 25% is covered by a mandatory insurance that you a required to buy by law. The Swiss system is different but when you get right down to it their tax rate is well above ours. Are you willing to pay 50%, closer to 60% when you add in all the taxes and hidden taxes and cost to live here with universal health care? Money has to come from some place.

Our government prints money and can not break even. They spend money like a drunk on a binge to curry favor and get reelected. There is no incentive to be efficient or to hold cost down to any reasonable level. Just as they buy hammers for hundred of dollars they will be buying aspirin for hundreds of dollars. When you take the inefficiencies of government, lack of real oversight or controls and the fact that every bloated government program started out as a good idea, talk of letting the government manage all the health care in this country should scare you. It is one sixth of our total economy and you are willing to let the government take total control of it.

Agriculture is a smaller part of the economy, are any of us willing to let the government run agriculture? Let them have total control. We would starve or be forced to import food like the old Soviet Union in five years. How about steel or the auto industry? Is there any industry that the Government can take over and run it better than it is being run now? Any?

Before I vote for any universal health care candidate I want specifics. Not broad visions. Nuts and bolts facts with real programs that spell out what you get and what is not covered. Until then I will not vote for any candidate who is serious about universal health care because specifics are real, concepts are not.