www.WrensJournal.blogspot.com

My advice for President Obama and his talk to congress about health care tonight:

Dear Pres. Obama,

Public health care is not, and can not be, insurance. It is charity.

We do not, and should not, let people in this country starve. But we help those unfortunates who need help with charity, not by opening a government owned chain of supermarkets. A government owned and operated health insurance company makes no more sense than creating such an Uncle Sam's Mart or Barake's Club.

Yes, we must have a strong public health care system to make sure disease does not spread, that illness is treated in clinics rather than more expensive emergency rooms, and that jails aren't warehouses for the mentally ill.

President Obama, yes you should guarantee that all Americans will receive adequate medical care by strengthening our public health care system, but do not take us into the never, never land of a government owned and operated health insurance company.

For an example of how a government insurance company would operate, look at the insane decision to close Ft. Logan mental health center here in Colorado, an example of bureaucratic thinking of the highest order. When there's not enough money (and there never is) make the people with no political power pay the price.

If people don't like dealing with private insurance bureaucrats, wait until they are waiting for approval of care from a former IRS agent or post office worker.

How to correct the real problems with private medicine? Allow the market to operate, which is not the case today.

Reasonable people should judge your plan on how well it: 1) cares for the least of us and 2) allows the operation of the free-market to correct the Bernie Madoff approach to medicine that is now too often the case because of government supplied wool that is pulled over our collective eyes.

John Wren