Obamacare in Washington, D.C.

Feb. 22, 2013

By John Seiler

Although Washington, D.C. now has some “home rule” by local democracy, the U.S. Constitution actually gives all power over the District to the U.S. Congress. So the feds really run it. The functioning of government in D.C. thus is a clearn demonstration of how the federal government works everywhere. There’s no question of “federalism,” or control by the states, because D.C. isn’t a state.

When I lived in D.C. in the mid-1980, it was infamous for three things:

1. Its murder rate for a while soared above even that of Detroit.

2. There was a joke: “The city warns you when a pothole is ahead. The sign on the road reads: ‘Entering Washington, D.C. Marion Barry, mayor.'” That’s because the city was so ineptly and corruptly run that every road was rippled with potholes.

3. Ambulance service was terrible. The newspapers frequently ran stories about someone injured in a car accident who wasn’t picked up by an ambulance for 45 minutes, meanwhile lying in the road, bleeding out.

It was sort of Obamacare — government-run socialized medicine — 30 years before the actual program was imposed, at is happening now. As in most areas around the country, government ambulance and firefighter unions had driven out efficient, cheap private ambulances, leaving only the socialist government ambulances.

The ambulance system hasn’t improved:

“WASHINGTON — A late ambulance that resulted in what’s been called a bill for nearly $800 has motivated tens of thousands of people to sign an online petition to drop the charge.

“On the night Durand Ford Jr. called for an ambulance, dozens of D.C. firefighters – about one-fourth of the force that day – called out sick.

“It was New Year’s Eve, and Ford’s 71-year-old father, Durand Ford Sr., was short of breath.

“The first call for help came at about 1:26 a.m. A D.C. ambulance could not respond, but a fire engine with a paramedic did, D.C. Fire and EMS says, as well as a truck with firefighters trained as EMTs.

“When a D.C. ambulance could not immediately respond, D.C. called for assistance from Prince George’s County. A D.C. ambulance arrived before the Prince George’s ambulance, about 30 minutes after the first call, according to D.C. Fire and EMS.

“Fire officials say Ford arrived via ambulance at the hospital at 2:26 a.m. But his condition was grave and he ultimately died.”

Then — get this — the city sent Ford’s heirs a bill of $780 for the ambulance service!

They killed him and want to be paid for it. And of course, Ford and his family paid huge federal and city taxes for this “service.”

Just as all of us will be paying massive amounts in taxes and “fees” for Obamacare, but will get socialist, D.C.-style “service.”

What used to be a routine trip to the hospital to get patched up will end up being a one-way drive to the morgue.