Award Winning!

I am one of the 100 Semi-Finalists in the Stossel Essay Contest! I worked really hard on this essay but I wasn't expecting to win something. My prize is $100. Sadly it's most likely going to be taxed but at least I won! I won out of the 250 people who could win and over 4,000 people entered into the contest.  I'm so happy you don't even know. My mom was talking to my Economics teacher Sis. Marriott when she came up stairs and started screaming and yelling and I really had no idea what she was talking about at first. Then she calmed down a little bit and told me. That pretty much made my day. So I would like to thank my Mom, Dad, Genne, and Sis. Marriott for helping me edit and making my paper amazing. Here is the award winning paper again if you want to read it!

 

When faced with a problem, many people think government should fix it. Really individuals do a much better job of finding solutions to the difficulties that confront them. For example, government has interfered with the cost of hospitals that accept insurance, the running of small businesses, and college funding. Rather than make things better, it has created a whole new set of problems and made the current problems worse. Government should not interfere.

June Wisconsky went into the Oklahoma Surgery Center in Oklahoma City for a surgery called Carpal Tunnel Release. She went here because of the significant difference in cost. The surgery at the medical center costs $2,750, while at a regular hospital it costs $7,452. Since the bill was so low her employer was willing to pay for it completely. If June had gone to the hospital, she would have paid $5,000 all on her own. The Surgery Center does not accept insurance. Obama Care says that insurance companies have to pay 80% of premium dollars for the customer’s health costs. Since the hospitals know this they put extremely high mark ups on the bills. For instance the hospitals markup certain drugs up to 480%. Here’s the problem: when the prices rises on hospital bills, so do the prices on Insurance, making it harder for average everyday people to pay for insurance. Since Obama Care, will force insurance companies to pay the high prices the insurance companies have a choice: shut down or raise their prices making it harder for the patients’ pocketbooks. Instead of making it more affordable for patients it makes it even more expensive, nullifying the whole point of Obama Care.

Besides the Surgery Center’s cost efficiency, it is also much more productive. Dr. Jason Sigmon works at both the Surgery Center and the Integris Baptist Medical Center, which is a hospital across town. Dr. Sigmon affirms that the Surgery Center is so much more capable than Integris. He can provide twice as many surgeries in a single day. Dr. Stan Baker, Chairman of the ear nose and throat department, also agrees that the Surgery Center is more efficacious. He asserts, “The place runs recognizing the needs of busy surgeons to devote their attention into the important technical details and not have to worry about other things. Because that’s what happens here.” Most of the staff at the Surgery Center helps with the surgeries making it easier and quicker for the surgeons, which then makes it possible for more surgeries to be done in the day. The individuals working at this Surgery Center made it faster and less expensive for surgeries while hospitals are still slow and expensive. It is clear that when individuals fix problems procedures not only go more swiftly but they have also made it cost less.

Starting a small business has become extremely tough. This is because of all the regulations and rules government has created to make the customers “safe”. John Stossel gave an example of this in his television Special “No They Can’t”, where he explains why government does not succeed where the private sector does. In the Special it gives the example of Ed Land, who bought a small farm in South Carolina. Ed wanted to find ways to make money off of the farm. So he started selling grains, cows, canned goods, and he even started having parties in his barn. Sadly he could be making a lot more profit if government regulations were not always getting in the way. For instance, he had missed a whole canning season because he could not certify his kitchen in time. Besides this, the government has required him to make tons of tiny changes to his building. He exclaims, “It’s the little things that keep massing together to make this big ball that before long I can’t carry that big ball.” The micromanaging rules make it harder for smaller businesses to survive let alone grow. If government would step aside Ed could easily hire an extra ten people. Government wants to create more jobs but if they left small businesses alone there would be more jobs available in no time. The problem is that government doesn’t get out of the way.

College tuition has become extremely high. Government is providing increasing amounts of money for college funding. They say they want to do this so college will be more affordable for everyone, but in reality it only serves to raise tuition fees. In John Stossel’s television special, Diane Dahlman the Director of Recreational Services of the University of Missouri gives us a tour of the college. She shows us that college includes luxurious day spas, a huge swimming pool, and a high quality recreation center to attract college aged students. It is not surprising why colleges charge so much for tuition. All of these luxuries are paid with our tax money. Naomi Riley author of The Faculty Lounges, which is a book about how colleges waste money, remarks, “People are looking to government to get them out of this mess, but the government got them into this mess.....Colleges know that they can keep increasing the cost because the government says we will keep paying for it.” Government encourages high college tuition costs.

Government should step aside and not interfere. Government has caused medical bills to sky rocket because it forces insurance companies to pay whatever the medical bill reads. Luckily private medical centers are trying to fix that. Government has not only interfered with insurance companies it has gotten in thick with regulations and rules making it extremely difficult to open a new business. Furthermore, government has caused college tuition to rise to insane prices because of their continual “aid” for college students. Simply stated, individuals tend to be more successful at thrift, efficiency, and productivity, while government has proven to fail on all accounts.