Kudos to the independent, libertarian, republican, and democrat opposition to Obama's health care plans. The public is sharpening the pitchforks and lighting new torches for the battle ahead. The Obama administration has called this opposition an "angry mob", "brown shirts", "swastika carrying", "astroturf", and insincere "manufactured anger". If there are any organized thugs in this debate, it is the White House, ACORN, and SEIU being the major purveyors of threats, violence, and intimidation.
Obama has declared opposition to those that "created the problem" (eg. economy). We all know that the economic crisis is a direct result of Clinton Administration and Democrats in Congress softening sub-prime lending restrictions on low-income and minority home ownership. Obama still thinks he can "Bush Bash" his way out of responsibility for the economy. The Obama administration is in full "bunker mentality" retaliating with threats to senators wanting stimulus dollars for their states, threats of an "enemies list" to control those who disagree, arm-twisting and wood-shedding of BlueDog Democrats to comply, and threatening to "hit back twice as hard" any townhall/internet opposition that disagrees with the Obamabots. America has free speech and that includes speaking out opposition to the incoherent bills of an ideological, ill conceived, incompetently manned, Chicago thug politics administration. Obviously, Obama, Rahm Emanuel, and David Axlerod incorrectly thought they could play a second-city corruption script on a national stage. Lets see what the opposition is angry about by listing the lies of the Obama Administration.
Lie 1: "If you're happy with your insurance and doctor you can keep them"
Sounds great. But this is a complete lie. If a public option is offered, by definition it is payed for by tax revenue and not direct billing to the client. What this means is that any employer currently subsidizing health care benefits for employees will be able to say "Employees should use the "free" public option provided by the government instead of having to be subsidized by the employer". Instantly, any plan that you currently have through your employer will disappear. So it doesn't matter if you like your current insurance or not. It is no longer offered by the employer which means that private insurance company will gradually loose a majority of it's clients and go out of business. The public option removes any chance of a level playing field for "profit" required providers.
Lie 2: "We are not trying to create a single payer system (ie. government takeover of health care)"
Intentional misinformation and misdirection by the Obama administration. The whole point of a public option is to start the migration from private insurance to government-run health care. Once a public option is available, government undercuts any private insurance rates because public option does not have that pesky capitalist need to make a profit. Private insurance firms cannot compete with so-called "free" public option and most will go out of business. President has openly stated his goal is a "single-payer system"(2002). For current political reasons he now denies it. But his goal is to start dismantling the private insurance industry. That dismantling begins with a public option and then as Barney Franks puts it, "that will eventually lead to the desired single payer system" as citizens slowly move from private to public insurance. Remember, private insurance cannot compete with a public option provided by the government.
Lie 3: "This will not affect those that already have insurance (ie. private insurance, medicare)"
Another lie. All insurance will be affected whether you want to or not. Everybody is affected by the creation of a public option. Part of the current health care plans being considered includes a $500 billion dollar cut in medicare funds that will be reallocated to support the new health care plan. Does anyone think that stealing $500 billion from medicare will not affect quality/quantity of the medicare provided health care ? Medicare needs every dollar it has and more to properly serve the growing population of retiring baby-boomers.
Lie 4: "We will not be rationing health care"
Once again, complete misinformation and misdirection. Included in all health care plans is a section which defines a committee of doctors/political appointees who will determine the quality and quantity of all medical services offered. The primary goal of this committee is to reduce inefficiencies and "unneeded" costly procedures, not to provide superior quality medical care. Their decision making process will decide what will be provided/approved. The process will take into account patient's age, health condition, lifestyle, probablity of improvement, and whether the procedure "makes sense" for this patient. A simple example is a sickly unable to walk 82 year old man who needs a hip replacement. The decision will be made that given his age and condition, it is not efficient use of resources and cost to provide that hip replacement. So that man is now bed-ridden for the remainder of his life. Other things that will be taken into account is lifestyle. If I am an elderly alcoholic who requires a liver transplant ? Sorry you've already ruined one liver, you won't be allowed to ruin a second one. One aspect of these committee's is that it will be required every five years for elderly patients to attend a medical practices/euthanasia review. The sole purpose of these reviews is to convince patients that it would be best for everyone if you did not need any more medical treatment and can start looking at the appropriate hospice oriented care. Your life just isn't worth the effort anymore. Also if the government intends to give everyone health care then there will be an additional 50 million clients for the current existing system. That equates to added wait times, and sometimes extremely long wait times for medical service. Every country which currently has a single payer system has extended wait times of up to 6 months to see an oncologist or get chemotherapy. With some cancers you'll be dead before you see the specialist you need. In many cases, cancer patients leave Canada or UK to get timely treatment in the US. No one leaves US to get better health care in other countries (unless seeking treatments deemed experimental in the US). Statistically US survival rates for virtually every kind of cancer is 10%-40% better then any of the single payer systems. Those survival rates alone are enough to call the US system the best health care system in the world (regardless of cost). If it saves my life, I don't care if it cost a few thousand more dollars.
Lie 5: "We will not have citizen's tax revenues used for health care for illegal aliens"
A big lie. Included in the 47 million who currently lack health care are 10-12 million illegal aliens. The health care plans being discussed provide for citizen taxes to be used to support these felons who have broken the law for their own personal gain. Illegally entering this country and overstaying a student/work visa are felonies. Working using a fake or stolen social security number is a felony. Working "under the table", off the books is a felony. Violating any of the terms of your work/student visa is a felony. All of these felons place a burden on the system and the legally working citizens. I apologize if Mexico sucks, but that does not make American citizens responsible for your "squatting" in our country. Yes America is a nation of immigrants, but legal immigrants. Sneaking over the border in darkness is an insult to all legal immigrants because it cheats the American government from applying criteria for selecting which immigrants enter our country.
As far as the "compassion" of the American people, just look at any emergency room in the nation and you will see hundreds of illegal aliens on a daily basis receiving quality health care for free. No one is turned away because Americans are compassionate.
A few related points. It is time for "compassionate" Americans who support "sanctuary cities" to open their homes and properties to illegal aliens. Put up or shut up. A "sanctuary city" starts with "sanctuary homes". If you will not allow illegal aliens onto your property, camping in your back yard and using your utilities, then stop forcing illegal aliens on others in the community. I expect the vast majority of so-called "compassionate" sanctuary city Americans have a very firm "not in my backyard" attitude.
Also, with 10-12 million unknown felons living in our country comes all the good and the bad inherent in any diverse population. Crimes will be committed, drunk driving will occur, drug dealing will exist, gangs will be an issue, kidnappings will increase (eg. Phoenix 2008), welfare impacts, wages will drop, and producing "anchor" babies to help force their acceptance will unnaturally skew the electorate in the illegal aliens favor. All this could be averted with a simple properly manned wall on the southern US border, yet the Obama administration will not champion the building of that wall.
Lie 6: "Health care cost will be lower in the new health care plan"
You would think at least this might be true about a single-payer system. You would be wrong. Look at any segments of our economy run by the government. Amtrak, Postal Service, Medicaid, Medicare, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Social Security. All these institutions are collapsing in the next 5-10 years and will be unable to provide the services they were created for. Millions will be affected by the poor organizational and fiscal management. Retirement will turn out to be a disaster for many hard-working fiscally responsible citizens. Departments charged with the oversight of these government agencies have systematically failed. Wall street banking, financial, insurance, lending, and investing categories all have failed do to incompetent government oversight neglect. Government political appointees are not to be trusted as overseers. They have failed in every case. Also CBO has estimated 1-2 trillion dollars will be the expected cost of the health care plans and will force millions of Americans to move from private insurance to the public option. Those same Americans are guaranteed to see increased taxes of all types and all sorts to pay for the health care plan. So costs for all citizens will rise exponentially to support this new government so-called cost-effective health plan. In addition, everyone should be aware that the only way to reduce costs in this plan is by raising taxes or rationing health care or reducing doctors fees. Currently many doctors will no longer take Medicare patients because the government is constantly reducing their fees arbitrarily and doctors have no say in fees charged. Doctor fee reduction will be a constant battle in any government controlled health plan. Also the government lawyer lobby prevents any tort reform being implemented to reduce doctor malpractice exposure.
Lie 7: "Health care quality will be the same in the new health care plan"
Impossible. Right now a patient can walk into any doctor they want and request any type of non-experimental treatment. The decision is between the doctor and the patient, and possibly some verification with the insurance carrier. Unlimited choice of doctors. Unlimited choice of treatment. In a single payer system (Canada, UK) there are long waiting lines (months) for doctors, treatments, and tests. Resources are exhausted and at a premium. Treatment is determined by "medical practice" policies at the government appointee level. Some pencil pusher will tell you that a treatment is not available to you. Currently, when this happens in Canada/UK, patients get treatment in the US. If this plan goes through in the US those foreign patients won't have US medical treatment available anymore.
Lie 8: "Access to health care will be the same as it is now"
Once again a lie. Health care will never be the same once the public option has been implemented. Patients do not have more options under schemes that lead to the single payer system. Insurance industry will shrink, be less competitive with public option, have less treatment choices, and less doctor choices. Patients will have long wait (months) lines for care and treatment option. For an example: In the UK a vast amount of elderly patients are in constant back pain. They used to receive pain medication as treatment. Changes were made in the decision making process such that, to reduce costs, the UK's single payer system will only provide pain medication if the source of the back pain is explicitly identified. Anyone with any experience with the human back knows that there are many back pain suffering patients who will never have a clear cause identified. Yet now these patients are denied treatment. Why ? Because UK's decision makers felt there was too much opportunity to fake back pain (commit fraud) in order to get the medication. So unless you can explicitly identify back pain cause, you will be denied treatment even if you have back pain. So the system says to prevent widespread fraud we will assume all unidentified conditions are in fact fraud and deny treatment.
Lie 9: "America will still have the best health care system in the world"
Absolutely not. America will have the same quality of care as all the single payer countries. Once a single payer system exists in the U.S., medical professionals will be harder to access, receive less pay (underpaid), and many will decide not to become doctors in a fiscal system where they can't even pay off their student loans. The medical profession receives the most training, cost the most money, takes the most time, and rigorously challenges the mind and body of the student. Why would anyone want to go through all of that if when you get out you can barely support yourself. Yes currently doctors are well paid. The deserve to be well paid. They have given the best 15 years of their life to the training and building of medical skills. These people make life and death decisions everyday and should be paid accordingly.
Lie 10: "The goal is to provide for the 47 million who do not currently have health insurance"
This is perhaps the biggest lie of all. Yes some people do not have health insurance. But that does not mean they don't have health care. Everyone in America, illegal or legal, has access to health care at the local hospital emergency room. You can already get treatment at no/little cost when an emergency requires it.
Lets look at that number of 47 million without health insurance. Contained in the 47 million are an illegal aliens group, 18-34 age group which could afford to buy health insurance but chooses not too (spend money on other things), non-citizens group, and a group of elderly uninsured who qualify for Medicare but for some reason never sign up. Also it should be noted that the average time an individual is uninsured is about 4 months. Numerically the groups break down as:
illegal aliens group: approx. 10-12 million
not citizens group: approx. 9 million
18-34 and afford group: approx 17 million
elderly qualify group:approx. 9-13 million
Current health care plans are looking at drastically destroying the health care system for about 10 million patients that could need help. Its better to adjust the qualifications requirements of Medicaid and Medicare to pick up some of the needy.
Lie 11: "Public health care funds will not be used for abortions."
This is a very serious issue to many Americans. In fact recent polls taken in 2008/2009 find that the majority of Americans consider themselves pro-life. Many believe our taxes and government should not be used for the grotesque brutal termination of human life. So far Planned Parenthood is responsible for approx. 50 million abortions starting from 1973 Roe V Wade decision. Many believe that the Roe v Wade decision is example of abuse of judicial power. There is no "right to privacy" in the constitution, only a right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Judges played semantic games to get the resolution they wanted...a progressive liberal atheistic worldview decision that destroys human life for convenience. Tax dollars should not be used for such a controversial procedure.
Some clarification of how medical treatments are specified in the health plan. There were attempts to add an explicit section prohibiting abortion in the health plan. All attempts were voted down by democrats. The following is an example of how devious and corrupt is the creation of a health plan.
At one of the townhalls, McCaskill (D) was asked if the health plan supported abortion. Her response was "there is nothing in the health plan about abortions". She is exactly correct. The audience was silent and then the discussion moved to other issues as it seemed the abortion question has been answered. No it hasn't. The legal content of bills requiring list of all coverages would be impossible to list everything possible. Therefore the convention is that the bill needs only to contain those items explicitly prohibited. In other words, if it is not explicitly prohibited then it is included in the coverage. So Rep McCaskill's answer actually said that abortion was included in coverage, yet she gave the impression the opposite was true. Wonderful how the minds of politicians obfuscate everything.
Lie 12: "The new health care plans will eliminate pre-existing condition restrictions and still provide user with choices of private insurers or public option (insurance versus welfare)".
This a complete lie. This option sounds good. Who would want to be turned down for a pre-existing condition? Its probably happened to most Americans at one time or another. The problem here is that there is a difference between "health insurance" and "health welfare". Health insurance provides the means of paying over time to guarantee when major health issues occur the patient and the family are protected from the majority of health bills. Similarities of health, house, car, and boat insurance are that you can't get financial support for a pre-existing condition. If you could then no one would ever buy any insurance until they needed it. This means I'll get house insurance after my house burns down, car insurance after an accident, and boat insurance after it sinks. Insurance companies would not be in business very long if they accepted all pre-existing conditions. That's just fiscal reality of the insurance business and the service of protecting your future through insurance. Insurance is not health welfare. Health welfare (AHCCCS in Arizona) is coverage at the time of the incident. That is different from protecting your future through insurance investment. Health welfare is similar to the requirements of hospital emergency rooms. Regardless of the health condition, incident, and patient, service by the hospital or health welfare state program is guaranteed. The public option in health care plans will accept pre-existing conditions. This guarantees millions will sign up for the public option. Overtime, eventually all users will be on the public option and private insurance will almost cease to exist. The goal of all the Obama's health plans is a single payer system over a few years. Public option guarantees pre-existing conditions will apply. Employers will discontinue subsidizing private insurance, guaranteeing all covered by private insurance will eventually move to public option, and provisions in the health care plan state that if any changes (price, coverage, etc.) occur on private insurance policy, then the client must join the public option. Over 10-20 years everyone is on public option with nowhere else to go. Private insurance carriers have disappeared.
