Socializing Medicine

"There shouldn't be a federal take-over of the health care system."

On this I must say that I can find some agreement.  A huge, one size fits all, single payer system may well turn into the biggest government boondoggle of all time.  So, let's just localize medicine.  Local or County Hospital Districts should set a tax rate that fully funds their operations, and then they should use those facilities to offer residents in that area the care they need.  Simply cut out the federal middleman and keep 100% of those tax dollars right where they are collected.

Then have locally elected Hospital Boards be the deciders as to what gets covered, and which tests or procedures are offered.  If your district isn't fulfilling your needs, then you can vote out those whom you disagree with, run yourself, or re-locate to a district more aligned to your medical needs.

This said, I do think the federal government has a role to play in setting basic standards, as to the level of care all health care facilities have to provide citizens.  This should come in the form of an 'unfunded mandate'.  Now I know that phrase scares a lot of people, but it isn't the same as a 'federal mandate', which is the government telling you what you are going to do.  This 'unfunded mandate' is merely the government telling you what you need to do, and not telling you how you are to go about doing it.  This will literally be the difference of having a faceless disconnected Senate or Congress decide your health care and its costs, and having your local monthly Hospital Board hold public meetings deciding these issues, right in front of you.

At present a faceless for-profit insurance agency is deciding who lives and at what cost, and premium payers have no voice in those decisions, other than to buy insurance elsewhere.  However, with no government non-profit option, affordability escapes over 30 million Americans.

We have a duty to help provide and protect individual life, it is right there in the Constitution.  We all have the Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  The best most efficient way to deliver a health care system to protect 'Life', is to keep local taxes out of federal coffers, as locally elected officials work with citizens to deliver the desired level of care.

We should 'localize' socialized medicine.