I just can't afford it. Subtitle: Government healthcare really won't be that bad. Super Subtitle: Only Christ overcomes mortality

I just can't afford it. How often it is that we say this common phrase. I really have been wanting lately to buy a new boat. My previous P1 boating buddy Bulkstar got some crazy skin disease last time we went to Utah Lake, so now he's suddenly acting like he doesn't want to go there anymore in the second half of the summer so I'm suddenly left with two options: don't go, or buy my own boat. I know it's unrealistic and stupid to even talk about it, but I have been...a lot...to the point where Tamara finally was kind enough to bring me back to my senses. "Scotty, it's not even realistic. You're not even anywhere close to a point of being able to afford to buy a boat, so you might as well just get over it and quit thinking about it and quit talking about it for a good long while." And she's dead right. Where a boat is concerned right now, I just can't afford it. It's as simple as that. Some people have enough money for a boat. Some people don't. I find myself in the latter of those two groups. End of story. Since her kind reminder, I have made efforts to follow the counsel of Alma "for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me." I said efforts, I said nothing of actual success heeding this counsel (I'm still writing about it in my blog aren't I?)

Right now Tamara would love to buy a hot tub, but...she just can't afford it. Right now I would love to not sell my snowmobile this fall, but...I just can't afford it. Right now, Tamara would love to move into a bigger house but...we just can't afford it. Right now, I would love to go buy a cabin (maybe even one with a hot tub - kill two birds with one stone) that I could go to in the winter to ride my snowmobile that I would still have, but, yup, you guessed it, I just can't afford it.

When I was growing up, the Ross family down the street had some fun toys that we didn't have. The Ross family had a pool. The Ross family had a Viper and a Porsche. The Ross family had house that sat on a full acre of land. When we turned 16, Chris got a brand new Jeep Wrangler. I got a 1989 Dodge Spirit. Somehow, even though they had all these things that we didn't have, it just didn't really bug me that much. I suppose this may have been a rare case of the teachings of my father actually making a connection and it seemed like I was able to just get it. Yup, they can afford some things that we can't afford. Big deal, we can afford some things that other people can't afford. Everybody is on their own personal level. So What?

Insert Triumphant video here

Bad Credit is the bomb. Ok, back to the point. The point I was trying to make before I was so rudely interrupted by such an awesome video is this: "I just can't afford it" is a part of life. Most of us figure out at some point that it's going to have to be something that we say pretty frequently or else we'll end up in front of a judge in bankruptcy court.

So why is it that we can't seem to find it in ourselves to say it once we enter in to the topic of our medical treatments? In almost every aspect of our lives, we have learned to content ourselves with this simple phrase, but where doctors are concerned, we just can't quite do it. To make sure I don't give off the wrong impression, I'm not saying that we are wrong for not being able to say it. I'm not saying we're right either. That question could and likely will fill a whole separate blog post, so we're just not going to get into it right now. So while I'm not saying what the right and wrong answer is, what I will be willing to say for certain is that the American population, as a whole right now, does not want to accept the concept of a 10 million dollar procedure to cure a certain given disease that has previously been completely untreatable, that Brother Ross can afford but that I can't afford.

Here in America, we, for the most part, are okay with the fact that Rich Guy gets a Ferrari and we don't. It's okay that Rich Guy lives in a mansion and we don't. It's okay that Rich Guy has Direct TV premium package with NFL Sunday Ticket and we don't. It's okay that Rich Guy has an Armani suit and we don't. Rich Guy has a Rolex, a Harley, a pool, and top of the line rollerblades...and we don't...and we're all okay with that. However, the one thing in the world that we are not okay with him having, and us not being able to buy, is a medical lifesaving treatment. Like I said, right or wrong, we'll decide that later, but regardless, or as Scotty Mac would say in Jest while subtly making fun of those less educated than himself, irregardless, that I believe is the way that the majority of America would say they feel.

That feeling is my basis for reasoning on why I think that a federal government takeover of health care, in one form or another, is absolutely on the way and there is nothing you or I can do to stop it. While I don't think that government meddling in health care is a good thing, I have come to the conclusion that it is also just not going to be the end of the world. Here's why:

Why is it that I want a snowmobile, a cabin, a Ferrari, a boat, or any of the other things that I have that I don't want? It is because I have seen that they exist, and I can see that they provide a certain advantage that I would like to have. I have been boating, so I know it is something that I want to do in the future. I have driven a fast car, so knowing that a Ferrari is even faster, I know that this would be fun to drive. I am very familiar with the blessings and fun that a boat provides and that is why I lay awake at night trying to scheme up a way to be able to afford one.

I don't, however, lay awake at night thinking about ways to be able to afford to teleport myself to work. I don't sit and think about how I can afford to buy a time travel machine. Why? Because these blessings do not exist. They are not a reality in the world we currently live in. My neighbor doesn't have a time travel machine, so I don't really think about it much. Generally, average everyday Joe doesn't sit and think about how to obtain imaginary goods. He thinks about obtaining a good that actually exists.

If the government takes over health care, the biggest thing that will ultimately be lost will be the innovation that is brought about by free market forces. Free market efficiency and many other goods will be lost out of the current health care system, but the biggest one to go will be the innovation. Here's the thing. Let's pretend I'm an inventor. We'll say I'm a chemist. If I'm going to work in an R&D lab for 10 years to try to come up with a new product that's great for the world, am I going to work in the health care industry or will I choose some other industry? Well, if I'm in the healthcare industry, I'm going to work for 10 years, invent a product, get a patent, and then have the government tell me that they're my only customer and that they will only pay me 20% above my manufacturing cost and that I'll have to release my patent on it because they have to have 3 bids on any product they buy. However, if I'm in a free market industry, not controlled by the mafia - woops, I mean federal government, then I can get a patent, sell it for 500% margins and finally pay back all the loans I have been taking out for 10 years, and still have a little dough left over for a new house for my family.

This is a terrible pity for me. I have a bum knee. I hurt it wakeboarding 6 years ago and so basically I have no shock absorber in my left knee and instead I have a bone on bone connection there that, according to the doctor, ought to start giving me arthritis in about 4 more years. He says They can put a fake one in there once the arthritis becomes intolerable, but that this process causes almost as many problems as it solves, so he usually doesn't do it until the arthritis is really bad. My hope was that over the next 10 or 20 years, the medical experts would continue to make good progress and that they would have better options for me as long as I could afford a top-notch doctor when that time came. However, if the government takes over, my hopes of these processes getting any better, let alone significantly better, really shrink.

That's just my knee. What about all the cancer patients and all the other life threatening diseases that we currently don't have solutions for? Well, I guess we just still won't have cures for those in 10, 20, or 50 years. But here's the thing - If my neighbors can't buy a cure for Parkinson's, then I just take it as a fact of life that I can't be cured of Parkinson's disease either, and I just accept my plight when I am diagnosed with this condition. As I said above, if somebody comes out with a cure today for Parkinson's that my neighbor can afford, but I can't, the media get a hold of it, portrays both my neighbor and the doctor as evil, and it's murder in the streets.

So in the end, what is the terrible result of the innovation lost through Obamacare. Well, it means I might just die of colon cancer like my grandpa. It means I'll live with an arthritic knee starting in a couple years. It means that I might die of skin cancer when I'm 50 because the treatment that would have been discovered in a free market system, didn't get discovered under the government controlled system. What a bummer...but, is it really that big of a deal?

I can't live forever right? Even under a free market system, I'm not going to live to be 1,000 years old. Under Obamacare, I probably live a shorter life, and I have a little lower quality of life while I'm here. When it's all over, I'll be resurrected thanks to the atonement of Christ, judged according to my faith and works, and live eternally in the Kingdom of which I proved myself worthy. During that teeny tiny little sliver in time known as mortal life, I had a painful knee, I died earlier than was necessary, and had the government wasting all my money instead of letting me choose how to spend it myself, but in the grand scheme of things, as long as I stay faithful to the testimony of Jesus Christ that I've been given, then this earthly tyranny diminishing my god-given free agency, and taking away earthly blessings that I could have otherwise had, is just not going to be a big huge freaking deal. A bummer - yes, absolutely. A big huge freaking deal - No.