Mr. Smith's Math Lesson

It seems like just yesterday that my eccentric physics teacher was telling us to "do the math" in order to get to the bottom of a problem. Mr. Smith was more than a little strange, but he knew his stuff and his advice still applies today. (Luckily, I sat next to David Fercho for physics, the class whiz kid on all things physics).

While almost every news source is glued on the Supreme Court hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today proposed a way to insure 50 million uninsured Americans over then next 10 years at a cost of 1.5 trillion dollars. Using Mr. Smith logic of "doing the math", here's what Speaker Pelosi's math looks like....

Each uninsured citizen would received $300,000 in health care over the next 10 years. You could also say that's $30,000 annually or $2500 monthly during the period in question. Granted health care is not cheap. My company insures my family of six for about $1200 a month including my contribution. So if my plan covers each of the Park's for $200 a month, why would it cost the Federal Government $2500 monthly to insure these individuals without health care? The answer is red tape, administrative costs and anticipated inflation.


TriMet, Portland Oregon's transit system just made the national news because they are spending nearly $2000 monthly for employee health insurance. That was the most expensive cost of health insurance per employee in the nation. For that, TriMet received a Golden Fleece award for their wasteful use of taxpayer money.

The citizens of the United States are a very generous people. We help out where we can and we contribute to causes we believe in. No other country of people gives more to charitable causes. But most Americans also know the value of a dollar. Sure, we each waste more than our share of what we have earned on Starbucks and shoes at the Macy's White sale; but when we waste it, it's our decision not our governments.


I'm all for providing healthcare for American's in need, I just expect it to be done wisely. My career depends upon the public recieving adequate access to medical care. What we cannot do is drive doctors out of business by destroying their medical practices with a system filled with government legislation and unreasonable demands. We can also no longer accept uninsured patients in hospital emergency rooms for routine medical care. 90% of healthcare can be done utilizing a qualified physician, nurse practicioner or physician assistant. Hospital emergency rooms are the most expensive place to administer health care to the uninsured. In summary, we need to get a much bigger bang for our buck.

It turns out that Mr Smith was right about doing the math. Unfortuntely most of us have forgotton how to use calculators now that smartphones do all our homework. Lastly, we now understand our elected officials were cutting class on the days when their "Mr. Smith's" were handing out advice about problem solving and math.