Repeal Obamacare!!! The House of Representatives voted to do just that last week, citing polls that indicate half the country wants Congress to repeal Obamaís health care law.
Other than politics, it makes no sense.
Forty-five percent of the nation is covered by employer health plans (down from 60 percent five years ago) and are complaining about having to pay more each year. Thirty percent have government health care and want to keep it. Ten percent have individual policies and are worried about rising costs. Fifteen percent have no health insurance coverage and want it.
The Department of Labor reported that the number of self-employed grew from 9 million to 14 million last year as the unemployed try to start their own businesses. Most are single person businesses with no health care.
Which of these Average Joes wants Obamacare repealed?
The U.S. spends twice as much per person on health care as any other nation. The U.S. ranks 37th in life expectancy in the world, right behind Cuba. Canadians, ranked 11th, allegedly wait in line for medical care but outlive us by an average by 2.4 years.
My company has approximately 25 employees. Obamacare would exempt us because we have less than 50 employees. We want health insurance for our employees. Itís good for them and good for us.
Obama proposed an 8 percent payroll penalty on employers who donít cover employees, to provide the funds to cover those employees. Weíd pay that in a heartbeat. Several years ago, we tried to install a group insurance plan. The cost was $10,000 per year per employee, more than our profit and more than 33 percent of our entire payroll.
Individual policies for each employee cost less, so we offered to cover 70 percent of everyoneís cost. Most couldnít afford that and few bought it, so we set aside money for each employee each month. When they need money to pay health care, we give it to them out of the fund.
That worked until last week.
One of our employees learned that she may be facing cancer. If she pays the first $15,000, Medicaid will cover her, but oncologists wonít see her until she can show some source of payment.
My son is 24, a self-employed artist and editor of a small newspaper in Washington, D.C., that cannot afford health care for its staff. He is also applying for grad school, which requires proof of health insurance upon admission. His momís policy covered him until last July. Obamacare would let him stay on his momís policy until heís 26, but he canít get on until next July. Is this a law we donít want?
My hips were replaced five years ago at a clinic that operates a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) research facility. My left hip is part of an FDA study. I was a ěstarî patient. Literally. I had such a good recovery, the clinic did a movie about me to show what a good outcome looks like.
Even so, no insurance company will touch me. They are worried that Iíll be in a car wreck that will really mess up my hips and result in very high medical bills. (My concern is more about other parts of my body, like my head and lungs and bleeding.)
The North Carolina high risk pool will cover me after I pay $15,000 per year. Iíll find the money, but most people canít.
Our companyís computer consultant ó who was terrific ó closed his business to take a lower-paying job because he needs to be sure he can get health coverage for him and his family.
Ironically, Obamacare is essentially the Republican alternative proposed during the Clinton health care effort almost 20 years ago. Massachusetts adopted laws mandating coverage under Mitt Romney, then its governor and now a leading Republican presidential contender.
Politics is funny. The minorityís idea is a good one until the other side adopts it as its own.
Next year, right before the 2012 election, Anthony Kennedy will likely decide whether Obamacare should be kept or thrown out. He is the tie-breaker on a divided Supreme Court. He has the best health care government can buy, free and guaranteed for his entire life. He will decide whether my employee might have to battle cancer (and fear) without insurance, whether my son must buy his own insurance and whether I have access to insurance.
We are truly a modern medical family.
This is the system half of us want to preserve, right? I donít believe those numbers.

David Post is one of the owners of MedExpress Pharmacy and Salisbury Pharmacy and teaches in the Ketner School of Business at Catawba College.