Ugh…

WASHINGTON (AP)—Every American should have health care coverage within six years, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday as he set an ambitious goal soon after jumping into the 2008 presidential race.

“The time has come for universal health care in America,” Obama said at a conference of Families USA, a health care advocacy group.

“I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country,” the Illinois senator said.

This part struck me as funny:

He said it’s wrong that 46 million in this country are uninsured when the country spends more than any one else on health care. He said Americans pay $15 billion in taxes to help care for the uninsured.

We spend $15 billion in taxes now to care for the uninsured, but how much will we pay in taxes once politicians like Obama give everyone in the country a health care entitlement?

It’ll be a hell of a lot more than $15 billion, I can tell you that.  And you can bet that the quality of the care will go down too as we all find ourselves on waiting lists for knee surgeries and pacemakers like the folks in Canada and Great Britain.

Plus, once the government is paying for our health care, how long until the meddling politicians are passing laws to govern our personal health habits under the guise of making us healthier to save tax dollars?  Think it’s unlikely?  Just look at all the cities passing bans on certain types of food and activities like smoking just for the sake of protecting us from ourselves.  Imagine how many more of those laws will pass once they have the “it’ll save tax dollars” argument.