Healthcare in America

The walls were colorfully decorated with streamers and balloons. A table against the wall offered punch and soda, chips and pretzels. A space was made for a birthday cake soon to follow. Put out too early, twenty little fingers would destroy it only because that's what tiny little fingers do. A few boys would grab the leftover balloons and blow feverishly in a contest of lung vs latex attempting to blow a balloon beyond its bounds until the signature, "Pop" was heard.
Expansion is followed by contraction. Growth is not forever. There is birth and new growth. But eventually everything decays and death is certain.
Everything is circular - not linear.
And don't forget those tiny little fingers doing what tiny little fingers do. They become big fingers doing what big fingers do.
The blowing balloon of expanding wealth will eventually explode. What that means is anyone's guess. A Great Depression? A revolution? The cost of everything continues to escalate while our ability to afford it diminishes daily.
I'm uncertain about Obama-Care. Statistics seem to indicate that most people in Massachusetts are happy with Romney's version of mandated healthcare. When the Massachusetts law went into effect I alone had health insurance. My wife was not covered. I was making less than $30,000 a year and I was paying about $38.00 a week for coverage. My insurance offered only single or family coverage. If she were added to my plan my cost more than doubled and my deduction would be three times higher.
Looking into what the State of Massachusetts was offering was not an easy task. Everywhere I was misinformed. My many phones calls led to conversations with people whose thickening accents made my inquiries all the more labor intensive. Eventually (a long eventually filled with forms, phone calls and questions) I found that I had only one choice: add her to my company plan or be fined.
It's a complex issue. If she needed hospitalization and I was found unable to pay, why should our bill be paid by charity or taxpayers? The mandate puts the burden back on me. And this may be where it belongs.
But it's frustrating to know that we must ever tighten our belts while others grow only fatter. Discussions of a little equality or a sharing of the burden is quickly labeled as socialism. But I wonder how fast things would change if Congress (among others) were made to pay for there own healthcare. If you share the burden you better understand the burden. What effects one, effects all.
The balloon is growing bigger and will eventually pop because no one will come along and snatch it out of the hands of big fingers doing what big fingers do.
The signature, "Pop" may be the only way.