A symbiotic relationship exists between the high cost of petroleum and health care. In fact, the symbiosis is due to two glaring facts affecting and linking both, government meddling and the final one revealed at the end with one word. Anytime the government gets involved a mess develops and both arenas are suffering from politicians and their deliberate and planned manipulations.

The recurrent themes that are given constant exposure by the leftist haters of free enterprise revolve around the ripping off of customers by the oil companies and pharmaceutical companies. The other is the damage that oil companies do to the environment. In each case, there is extreme pressure placed on weak members of Congress to remedy the non-existent problem with federal laws, the idea being that the government can control prices and protect all the bugs and worms, neither of which is true.

With the advent of Med-Care in 1965, health care cost has spiraled out of control. The left, the dupes, and the politicians (I repeated myself) blame the increasing costs on the private sector only caring about profits to the detriment of the customer. After all the reasons for the cost explosion are examined, there is only one reason for the increase. Health care has been taken away from the private sector and is now managed (mismanaged is the reality) by the government. Granted, the hospitals, doctors, and the drug companies are for the most part still private endeavors, but the government bureaucracies now tell each one how many hoops to jump through and then applies draconian consequence for not doing the hoop jumps properly.

In conjunction with the government handling the health process, the fraud and waste factors are ever present which is always a part of any government program. The money is there for the taking by being dishonest when applications are filled out. With the attendant laws about privacy, it is nearly impossible to stop the criminal acts of those who prey on society through health care fraud. Such activity is always present when the government handout principle is employed (all the Katrina aid and the billions wasted through criminal fraud and government bungling), but it is relatively rare when private enterprise operates the system.

Our nation’s dependence on foreign oil isn’t for the lack of not having petroleum resources in the United States. The problem is the government on this issue too. (See Destructive Inroads of Policy) The usual crowd composed of the left, dupes, and politicians (oops, repeated myself again) want the government to do something about the price of petroleum. They have already. Governments meddling through restrictions on drilling and refineries, along with phony environmental issues, have caused the price to increase. They won’t listen no matter what is said. Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope stated in a release: "America has incredible, untapped potential for innovation and can accomplish anything we make a commitment to."
"It's time for Congress to make a commitment to smart energy solutions instead of Big Oil."  He calls for Congress to solve the problem when Congress is the problem. But that is always the solution the left and the environmentalist trot out each time.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/04/21/AR2006042100977_pf.html

It is easy to twist his words back on him. Congress can set a policy of smart energy solutions by getting out of the way of the petroleum producers. The oil people have not only great potential for solving the problems; they have solved the problems of the environment associated with oil production. The Alaskan Pipe Line is proof of their ability to not harm the landscape. What Carl Pope wants is more power for the government and the Sierra Club, knowing that certain politicians will do his bidding for the creation of more environmental restrictions on all of us.

The health care and the petroleum costs are caused by the government people (political meddling) presuming that they have expertise enough in those areas to manage them, and thus forming one of the two factors in the relationship between health care and oil. In Sorting It Out, the left, dupes, and politicians are to be given credit for having great expertise in stupidity, the final factor that makes for the symbiotic link between health care and oil.

07-01-2006 DEC