Obamacare has so far been a disaster, with the totally incompetent and staggeringly overpriced rollout of a relatively simple website and the realization that the twin promises upon which passage of the bill was based – lower costs and the ability for those currently insured to keep their coverage – were bold-faced lies.
Putting aside the questionable constitutional authority and majority public disapproval of the Affordable Care Act, we should have known for certain the government would not do this well because the part of healthcare they have already operated for more than a century, the FDA, is rife with ineptitude and corruption, combined with a deaf ear to “customer” satisfaction.
The FDA got its start with a truth in labeling law to deliver federal sanctions to companies defrauding American consumers.
The subsequent expansion of the powers then granted or seized by the agency – shows the initial disaster with Obamacare is hardly a bump in the road, but rather the road itself.
We’re now at the point where the government decides what is and is not good for us – including raw milk, imported cheese, and e-cigarettes. Such is the nature of government regulatory agencies. They will advance their own desire for control because ss Orwell said, “The object of power is power”
Take Electronic cigarettes. They are helping many people to quit smoking. The name is somewhat of a misnomer because e-cigs are not cigarettes at all, but an electronic device that vaporizes a nicotine solution.
Health advocates remind smokers that there are at least four thousand chemicals in tobacco smoke, and at least fifty cause cancer. Do you know what chemical does not cause cancer? You guessed it – nicotine.
So the FDA and public health officials must be lining up to hand out e-cigs to smokers, right? No. In fact, quite the opposite.
They went so far as to confiscate all the vaporizers they could find being imported. Were they defective or a fire hazard? No again. The federal judge who ruled against the FDA called the action part of “its tenacious drive to maximize its regulatory power.” This agency simply wanted to broaden its powers.
Why doesn’t the FDA stick to making sure products are accurately labeled? Why aren’t they simply concerned about protecting consumers from fraudsters and cheats?
Because they know better than you, and because you are simply too unintelligent or perhaps naive to understand the complex issues involved. This is simply another massive FDA power grab. They never argue for less power. They always want more – more regulation over more products, and more regulation over the products they already regulate. That is the nature of the beast..
Much like the FDA keeping proven drugs for serious diseases off the market because of side effects and thus deciding what risk tolerance is acceptable for you, we see now that bureaucrats and politicians have decided that all health insurance policies must have coverage for maternity care, substance abuse counseling and pediatric ophthalmology.
It doesn’t matter if you are a sixty year old woman without children who never took a drink and don’t plan on getting pregnant anytime soon. They are the smartest people in the room, and they know what is best for you.
As with the long history of FDA, the government’s desire to elevate its authority related to the new Obamacare regime will only increase over time…to the further detriment of American’s health and freedom.
