Government Healthcare

Before I write this post, you need to know that I am not telling you whether I am a Republican or a Democrat.  I am not anti-government.  Government plays a major role in our lives.  Government must set and enforce the laws of the land, protect our country, and God clearly ordains government in His word (Romans 13).  I am however unabashedly pro free enterprise.  It is what has made our country what it is.  Look at countries with overbearing government run systems (can you say Chavez, Sub-Saharan Africa).  But more importantly, I am pro common sense.

So what don't I like about our new health care act?  Virtually everything.  I ran a company in the health care industry for 3 years and have spent 6 years in the health care.  I had to write billing systems to process claims.  Our software processed millions of exams per year. 

1.  Mandating coverage increases demand without addressing supply.  Remember economics class and supply-demand equilibrium?  It will lead to spiraling costs and rationing of care.
2.  Expanding government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are huge money losers to health care providers that are offset by claims from private insurance.  It will tilt the balance of care negatively.
3.  While I understand the sensitivity of pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps, they are necessary for insurance companies to control their costs.  Have these guys ever read a financial statement?  There are other ways to address these issues without abolishing them in the marketplace.  It is simply dumb to make it mandatory for insurance companies to cover all costs across all patients as if that won't make its way into the marketplace. 
4.  An oh those evil pharma companies.  They make so much money.  Did these guys ever understand that 1 in 1000 of these products actually get to the market and it takes years and years to get there?
5.  Finally, whenever government attempts to redistribute anything, it inevitably fails miserably.  Taxing some to equalize benefits to others will fail.  As an employer, I can promise you that I would likely reduce benefits because it costs me less to pay the "penalty tax" than to provide the benefit.
6.  By #5 happening, we are shifting health care from private to public.  Now I challenge you, can you think of anything run better in the public sector than the private sector.

Our government did absolutely nothing to address the major low-hanging fruit that would absolutely guarantee costs would come down and quality go up?

1.  Eliminate interstate barriers to competition.
2.  Implement tort reform which costs billions and billions of dollars in defensive medicine and raise malpractice premiums through the roof.  Could it be all the lawyers in government?
3. Cut back all of the red tape that actually makes it nearly impossible to process a claim reimbursement.  Actually have a system of reporting that makes sense. 
4.  Implement electronic medical records - we are woefully inadequate and still a paper-based health care system.

Staging Heaven

We are selling our house.  Our realtor had recommended having it staged.  Staging means someone comes in and tells you what changes you need to make to your home to make it salable.  For us, that meant painting most of the house, redoing the counter-tops and  taking out a lot of the furnishings, decorating, and furniture that made it our home.  It feels like we are not living in a home that is not really ours.  Gone are the pictures, the books, and half the furniture.  The other half of the furniture has been moved around to where it feels like we are living in a model home, which is exactly the idea.  The memories will always remain, but the physical existence of this house is now in the process of being removed.  I loved this home for 10 years, but now soon it will no longer be our home.  I can't take it with me.  We are moving on. 

As a Christian, we are simply visiting this earthly home.  Some of us will be visiting a short time and others of us a long time.  But all the time on this earth pales by comparison to eternity.  We are sojourning on this planet.  Psalm 84 says "How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord Almighty!  My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God."  This song is the song of the pilgrim.  Don't get too comfortable on this planet.  You are a pilgrim.

Heaven is being staged for me right now. My home is in heaven and while I like home here, my true home is in heaven.  The home Jesus is preparing for me is a mansion with many rooms (John 14:1-3).  He says "Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Fathers house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also will be where I am."  Unlike my stagers however, this home in heaven is uniquely being prepared for me.  Note the use of personal pronouns - "for me".  The stagers have no idea who will be living in this house when it sells, but Jesus does.  And He is preparing a unique place.  It will be home and we will never move out.

Secondly, it isn't just a place.  Our house was not a home without people.  It became a home when our family dwelled within it.  Our three daughters grew up here.  We have tons of memories here which made it a home.  Heaven will not be a home without Jesus and His worshippers.

Finally, the picture is that the present ain't so hot but we are just visiting.  The picture is that we simply aren't comfortable in this life.  This life is a staged house where things just aren't quite right.  There are lots of trials on this earth, but we can look forward to a truly "staged home" that we will forever enjoy.

Spoorts Page - Inside Cover

Welcome to the Spoorts Page!  I am entering the world of blogging and hope that you will persevere with me.  I am following in the footsteps of my wife Debsue aka Stop Her, She's Knitting.  She has been at this a while and I admire her ability to compose seemingly random day to day events and thoughts into a coherent, frequently funny post.  Unlike her, I am an audible guy and it is harder for me to compose things in writing.  But I am getting there.  This is the inside cover of the book showing the author's biography.

Where did Spoorts come from?  Well, in college, I was sort of perceived as a dumb jock image and being from New Jersey, one of my fraternity brothers anointed me with the nickname with my subtle east accent.  Nobody really calls me that, but I have kind of kept in reserve.

My first priority is Jesus with whom I have had a relationship for nearly 30 years.  There is nothing more important to me that getting to know Him and live life in fellowship with Him.  It has nothing to do with circumstances.  In fact, the harder life is, the better I know Jesus.  It makes it hard to pray because I pray for discipline and nobody likes to be disciplined.  Can you imagine your kids praying for discipline.  Life is abundantly hard and there are days where I simply have trouble even getting out of bed.  But get out of bed I do and most days my first 45 minutes are spend in prayer and bible study.  I currently am studying in the Psalms and also just finished a study by David Jeremiah called Signs of Life. I am using James Montgomery Boice's sermons to guide me through the Psalms. 

I have been an entrepreneur for over 22 years.  Hard to believe.  I have now run four businesses.  For whatever reason, God seems to put me in the path of new business ideas.  My gift is not one of idea conception but of making the pieces fit together and fine-tuning the vision to make it successful.  I am fond of saying I have never had an original thought in my life.  It certainly has not been without struggles at times but with God's grace, we have persevered.  I fully trust God has put me in this position.  I currently run a business in the golf industry and spend also a lot of time with a company in the telecommunications industry. I didn't look for either of these but they fell in my lap and so unless God calls me somewhere else, this is what I was anointed to do.

I am past the midlife point having just turned 50.  My kids are all adults now.  One is out of the house in New York, one is about to get married, and one is a freshman at Wheaton College.   Much more about them in later posts.  Our life is in the midst of change as we sell our house and "rightsize" our life.  This has been a freeing experience as we have learned that we can do quite fine with a lot less.  So we are making our way through life and seeing what God does to "rightsize" us.