I used to be a very active Republican. I was a county Volunteer of the Year and I twice ran for local office as a Republican--but after today, something that I told my wife a few days ago became even more true. I told her that every day I am a little less Republican and a little more Libertarian.
Many times in this blog I have talked about what both federal and state regulations have done to my chances of making a living playing poker. As I become more and more aware of the havoc caused by government laws and regulations, I become more and more convinced that none of the major party politicians are willing or able to do anything about it. Almost no one seems to care about our national debt of around $19,000,000,000.* More and more tax of your taxes and mine are going toward paying the interest on that debt.
Other than Republican congressman Paul Ryan, who continues to insist that we have to cut the national budget and attack the debt, even if we have to (gasp!) cut entitlements, I don't trust any of the politicians to get it done. I mention all of this because the laws and regulations of the federal government have a huge affect on the way medicine is practiced in the United States--and that affects my medical care and yours.
When I saw a doctor as a child, that doctor had a nurse. My doctor now has six different people that come in and out of the office while I am being examined, It takes a small army of people to understand all of those regulations and do the required paperwork.
This of course makes everything more expensive and complicated. I was forced to change the drug that I take for Attention Deficit Disorder because my insurance company wanted me to take something that is less expensive for them to cover.
Again, this all happens because of excessive government regulation. In cases where the government is not heavily involved, everything is cheaper and easier. As an example, Lasik surgeons have great results. The service continues to get better and less expensive, because doctors compete to give the best service at the lowest prices.
That's called a free market. It works. Only Libertarians get it. Many politicians say that they understand and that something should be done, but they do nothing.
Fast forward to today, when I went to get the new drug. It was not available. It needs a prior approval that has kept two people in the doctor's office working for the last two days. The pharmacy bounced it back to the doctor's office again because the prior approval paperwork that my doctor's office had done was deemed insufficient.
In summary, I talked to the doctor five days ago. They gave me a written prescription which I took to the pharmacy the same day. Five days later, I still don't have that drug or the new one.
When I play a poker tournament I'm competing with eight or nine other people at the table who want my chips. Sometimes there are hundreds of players (or more) in a tournament.** I'm trying to finish in the top three, where most of the prize money is, without the medication that helps control my Attention Deficit Disorder. Figuratively speaking, I'm competing with half my brain tied behind my back.
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*http://www.usdebtclock.org/
**When I was still fairly new to poker, I played an online tournament with a $3.30 entry fee. I finished 7th of 4,200 players and cashed for $384.
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