SNAIL-PACE SOCIALISTS 'SHOCKED' COUNTY HEALTHCARE IS PRICEY

Santa Barbara's coterie of 'health advocates' at the 'Health Access California' discovered a groundbreaking truth this week: healthcare here costs money. Their big reveal, painstakingly reported by our friends at KEYT NewsChannel 3-12, identified Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital as a 'high-cost' facility. In other news, water is wet, and our supervisors still think printing money solves all problems. These earnest activists, probably still recovering from their virtual town hall — an exhausting exercise in staring at Zoom screens while complaining — seem genuinely flummoxed.

What these self-appointed guardians of our wallets fail to grasp, or conveniently omit, is that every single 'brilliant' regulation, mandate, and feel-good government program they tirelessly lobby for eventually ends up baked into the price tag. You want gold-plated bureaucracy, endless paperwork, and a union for every doorknob? Fantastic. Just don't feign surprise when the bill arrives. Cottage Hospital isn't some rogue capitalist villain; they're operating in a system choked by the very 'solutions' these groups champion.

The real story KEYT missed, naturally, is the direct causal link between progressive policy and exorbitant prices. Every time Sacramento or the County throws another 'equitable access' or 'environmental justice' requirement onto the healthcare system, the cost of an aspirin goes up. It's not rocket science; it's basic arithmetic that only seems to elude those who believe government can conjure services out of thin air. Perhaps their next virtual town hall could be on the radical concept of supply and demand, or maybe even a deep dive into the shocking notion that things cost money.

So, while 'Health Access California' pats itself on the back for 'identifying' a problem so glaringly obvious it's practically spray-painted on every clinic, the taxpayers are left footing the bill for their performative outrage. The 'advocates' can keep pointing fingers at the institutions they hobble with red tape, but the truth is, they're complaining about the fever while force-feeding the patient more blankets.