Let's take the phrase "Patient's Rights", a perfect label because it implies righteousness, it is something we all want and therefore a "good thing". Everybody can get behind the idea that when we are sick we have certain "rights". Right on& let's go for it.

What it does not tell us is just where is that right comes from. Who stands on high and "gives" us that right. Here is where implication comes in& We are going to "make" those nasty insurance companies come clean and "give" us our rightful and righteous ""Rights". We are going to take it out of their "hide", (profits) and it is now OURS! Hooray!

Also we must have the right to sue (The current American pastime) these nasty people when they deny us something we think we should have. Yes, we are going to 'make these people pay". So we are going to make them give us our "rights" and if they don't we can sue! Now, an interesting point& does this give us the right to sue the government (the largest insurance company) when Medicare denies coverage of something we deed necessary?

So the question still remains; where do these rights come from? From whom are we going to demand these rights? The logical answer is the insurance company. After all these are the demons (another legislative pastime, "creating demons") in this situation. After all they just want to make a profit at our expense! How un-American!

But, what is not in the mix is the fact that the insurance companies will make a profit with or without these new found "rights". In the end the rates will reflect these new rights and we will pay more or they will go out of business. As these new "rights" are debated in the congress and around the water cooler, the costs of these rights is never considered!

If we consider buying anything like a car or TV or a home, the cost is usually a prime consideration, but not when we are considering the purchase of these new found rights.

We want our doctors to be the only consideration in deciding what treatment we give. But this will not work. I see doctors treating and patients to "cure" cancer long after the battle is lost. Itt would be much better for the patient to go on hospice care and better the last few months of life rather than going on with more debilitating treatment.

We must get more involved in the deciding process. By totally relying on the health care insurance companies to make decision we have told them to make the decisions on what is effective and reasonable care. You or your surrogate (the insurance company) must make that decision. If you want more say, tell the insurance company what you want and what you are willing to pay. But for the most part we don't say, we just complain when they don't "give" us what we want.

The ultimate arbiter of what health care we should have is you. You should decide how much health care do you want and how much you are willing to pay. The Congress denies us the ability to make an informed judgment by cloaking the process in nice sounding labels and not giving us a price tag of these new "rights". And we like sheep accept this because the Congress knows you don't want to hear about how much this legislation will cost you. To often we deny the nasty truth.