There’s a great talking point memo flowing on the left (using almost all White House and Moveon.org sourcing) that claims there are 5 lies the right is making about healthcare. Ironically, it includes some lies. Here’s the reality for the right and the independents. You can read the various bills yourself, or (dare I suggest it)…..question the accuracy and honesty of the White House and Moveon.org Really, everyone wants some sort of reform (despite the claim from the left that people want the status quo), so let’s do it right. This shouldn’t be about left/right, and it doesn’t have to be that way.
-Scott
Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!
The FIRST healthcare bill did say that coverage would be at least $2 (that’s two dollars) a year, and determined by a commission led by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This was changed to an independent commission in the second bill, and removed in the 3rd bill. However, coverage cannot be unlimited as there’s no way to pay 300x$1mil ($300trillion). Even over 30-40yrs that’s almost the entire US GDP going just to medical. SO, someone will have to decide if a 99yr old woman w cancer gets her chemo paid for or gets pain pills (this is the specific example Obama gave at a town hall, video avail at YouTube. Search on “Obama take the pill”)
Lie #2: Democrats are going to outlaw private insurance and force you into a government plan!!!
No. No one says Democrats are going to “outlaw” private insurance. Dems claim people are, but no one is. What people are claiming is that insurance companies w budgets in the hundreds of billions cannot compete with the hundreds of TRILLIONS that unlimited, free Obamacare will provide. It’s like when Walmart moves into a town or a Lowes. How does the small general store or hardware store stay in business? They can’t. This is the concern people have-that a govt program will drive insurers out of business and leave us w “single-payer healthcare”, govt healthcare; socialist healthcare.
Lie #3: President Obama wants to implement Soviet-style rationing!!!
This is absolutely the truth, he’s said it several times. He uses the words “single-payer healthcare”, but if the healthcare is provided only by the government (because no one can compete with the govt program)….then it’s socialist.
Lie #4: Obama is secretly plotting to cut senior citizens’ Medicare benefits!!!
This isn’t part of the healthcare debate as far as I’ve seen-not at least the healthcare reform debate. However, Obama said just this week that Medicare and Medicaid will be in the red soon, and benefits will not be going out when they do, so he wants a new healthcare program to cover those cuts that will automatically have to happen when they go red. Video avail upon req, but I’m pretty sure Breitbart has it if not YouTube. Surely the White House has a transcript of his town halls this week.
Lie #5: Obama’s health care plan will bankrupt America!!!
The math is simpler than even what the unquestioning supporters on the left claim. There are 73,000,000 baby boomers retiring. If each one got a heart bybass and or some sort of catastrophic thing happen (you know…like a sickness leading to death), then the cost goes over $1,000,000 per person real fast. Now, what’s 73mil x 1mil? 73 TRILLION. The Congressional Budget Office says the plan doesn’t work. Bill Clinton’s old economic advisors say it doesn’t work, and the list of others who says it’s not mathematically feasible is long. I see it as simple math. 300million Americans. 1mil in lifetime medical costs each (we all get bigtime sick eventually, plus accidents, drug use/abuse, and so forth). What’s 300million times 1 million? Now take the national GDP of 12trillion a year.
Unlimited coverage for 300million people is not affordable, and if we choose a limit on coverage, then there’s got to be someone deciding who gets coverage, how much, and when do they get cut off; call it a “commission” as the first bill did, or call it a “death panel” as Sarah Palin did.
Author of “Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War
Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War: Malensek, Scott: 9798864028674: Amazon.com: Books
The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States.
http://www.facs.org/news/obama081209.html
One Man’s (informed) Opinion on Health Care Reform
http://wrongreform.com/Home_Page.html
http://wrongreform.com/The_Facts.html
Another analysis and take on Reform. It is worth a read.
“1. The average annual after tax profit (as a percentage of premium) for health insurance companies is in the range between 2%-5%. This is lower than the nationwide average for all industries and sectors. It can be confirmed with a detailed search of Morningstar or any other major stock tracking service.
2. Premium rates are NOT a significant function of the size of the risk pool. Premiums are driven by the actual coverage provided, especially pre-existing conditions and selective or guarantee issue. The premium deduction on your paycheck does NOT accurately reflect the premium paid by your employer. Currently, employers pay a minimum of 50% of your actual premium, and most pay more. They usually do not pay for your dependents, which is why that premium is so high (to you).
3. Guarantee issue (employer group) coverage is typically between 400%-500% more expensive than identical individual coverage from the same company. This is a result of the company’s ability to selectively reject some high risk individuals. No company can possibly offer guarantee issue coverage at anything less than the current group rates. Anyone who says otherwise is either a liar or a fool. It is just not mathematically possible.
Okay, my take on the bill, fast and dirty.
HR3200 is nothing less than a poorly veiled attempt to tear down the entire health care system as we know it and replace it with the foundation for socialized medicine. Taken singly, many of the features seem innocuous. Taken as a whole, my analysis will stand up to any challenge.
The first section of the bill creates an environment in which it will be almost impossible for insurance companies to compete, while at the same time injecting a government subsidized “competitor” plan with the option to ignore many of the private sector rules. Between the “rules” and the Public Option, private major medical insurance will vanish very quickly.
The first section also proves beyond a doubt that you CANNOT keep the insurance plan you have today. Within 5 years of the effective date, all private and employer provided insurance as you know it will be gone.
The bill creates several new bureaucracies that will take complete control of not only the health insurance marketplace, but the health care providers market as well. Make no mistake, this bill is bold and brash. It takes no prisoners.
Part of what those bureaucracies will do is lower the “insurance” payments to health care providers to current Medicare A and B levels. That’s right. Doctors will be taking a massive pay cut.
And finally, the bill allocates $83 BILLION to an entirely new National Health Service Corps, which includes the Public Health Workforce Corps. If the titles haven’t already tipped you off, these will be massive federal agencies employing Doctors, Nurses, technicians and all of the folks you need to operate a health care network or system. Why would the federal government need such an agency if it intends to leave your insurance and your Doctor alone? This new Corps is the foundation organization intended to take the place of our current system.
There you have it. While publicly assuring us that everything will be “the same, only better”, the reality of this bill is the deliberate destruction of our current health care system. The reality is a replacement with a program that can quickly be converted to a single payer, government controlled monolithic bureaucracy.
Every one of my assertions is proven by simply reading the bill. I have highlighted specific passages and inserted red and yellow tags that will open up my comments when double clicked. Read ALL of them.”
That is just commentary on the current markup. I heard the lies today at Bozeman. It was orderly with no incidents and tickets were available to anyone that requested them. I was not impressed with any of the Pretenders rhetoric. I don’t like being lied to by anyone.