Colonel Andy, why do you think that replacing healthcare in the embergecy room is a new phenomena? This has been a problem since the eighties. It became a huge problem in the nineties. I studied for my MBA in Healthcare Administration from 1993 through 1996. I worked on this problem then. I consulted in the late nineties on the issue and trained admissions folks how to handle these situations. Many people who have healthcare through welfare use the emergecny rooms in this manner. Many other insureds do hte same. Many doctors simply tell hteir patients to go to the emrgency rooms for fear of lawsuits. In many cases it is laws that were passed that does not allow hospitals to turn these people away. Any move to try and stop it is viewed most negatively. Non citizens have the legal right to use the system in this manner.
As for the jobs issue, we as Americans must realize that our jobs are being competed for by people who are willing to work for next to nothing. This is a global phenomena and the result of such. I don't care who gets in, this is going to be a problem that may not have a solution until wage exuilibrium hs been met globally. This is why I am most concerned about taxing the wealthy and moving towards socialism and about the education crisis. The ideas Obama has will drive people with money away and they move out of the country and it ends up a downward spiral. It is up to us, the American workers to improve our productivity to attract businesses here for us. We need to recognize that we are in a competition and need to educate ourselves and find ways to be most productive. And the government needs to make it competitive to do business here. The trend around the world is to reduce the types of taxes Obama wants to increase and even to eliminate them. Many of us in the tax area believe that those types of taxes will be completely eliminated in most countries in the next decade as countires compete for businesses to set up shop there. This is the global reality and raising taxes and forcing companies to buy healthcare and assist in other social programs will drive htem away faster. It is simply a matter of budgeting, competition and profit motive.