Health Care Reform
America, as a collective we screwed the pooch on election night 2008. Just look at what we’ve done. We elected a president that’s never been in charge of anything and as a consequence he has been trying to decide for over 3 months on whether we should commit to Afghanistan or pull out. In the meantime young Americans are losing their lives in a war that our president can’t decide whether he’s committed to. We might as well say that his indecision is killing young Americans. We went from “I’m the decider.” to Mr. Indecisive and people are dieing because of it. We shouldn’t be surprised that somebody who’s never had a chance to lead finds a leadership role paralyzing. Unfortunately, there isn’t somebody else that can step up and nudge him along. He’ll either decide to leave our allies in Afghanistan or continue to let our military people get killed until Americans force him to make a decision. That’s not all the damage we did on election night. Nope, we had to go and elect more Democrats to the House and Senate. Holy crap! The Democrats are in charge of everything! After spending money that we don’t have for an omnibus bill, stimulus bill, cash4 clunkers bill, etc. we are still arguing over health care. This health care debate is crazy. We thought we might be relieved when we heard that the House of Representatives finally passed a health care bill. We thought so until people got to read through it. OMG! Look what Nancy Pelosi and the other Democrats put in it.
This is a brief analysis from the League of American Voters.
“The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation reported that the House version of the healthcare bill specifies that those who don't buy health insurance and do not pay the fine of about 2.5 percent of their income for failing to do so can face a penalty of up to five years in prison!
The bill describes the penalties as follows:
* Section 7203 — Misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
* Section 7201 — Felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years." [page 3]
That anyone should face prison for not buying health insurance is simply incredible.
And how much will the stay-out-of-jail insurance cost? The joint committee noted that "according to a recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, the lowest-cost family non-group plan under HR 3862 (the Pelosi bill) would cost $15,000 by 2016."
Obama's bill provides only subsidies to help pay this enormous sum after families making about $45,000 have paid 8 percent of their income for insurance and after those earning a household income of about $65,000 have kicked in 12 percent.”
That’s what the League of American Voters had to say about it. That doesn’t sound very promising. Let’s look at the number used in the previous examples.
Pelosi’s plan costs a family $1,250 per month!
Here’s what Obama’s plan would cost American families.
8% of $45,000 is $3,600 or $300 per month.
12% of $65,000 is $7,800 or $650 per month.
Obama’s plan isn’t even the total amount of the premiums. This is just what Americans have to pay before they even “qualify” for government assistance to pay the full premiums. There’s no guarantee that everybody who qualifies will be approved for the subsidies. The income levels used in these examples would only qualify as “rich” in some third-world countries. They certainly wouldn’t qualify in the United States. At best, these examples are middle-class in the United States. How many middle-class families can just write a check for those amounts without making sacrifices? What will they give up to pay Pelosi’s premiums? Will their children have a college fund? Forget college, what will they eat?
How did the Democrats get the reputation for looking out for the poor? Certainly not with schemes like this.
OMG! Let’s get these bureaucrats out of there and elect some real down-to-earth people who can balance a checkbook and think for themselves. Are they serious? They’re talking about jail time for somebody who can’t come up with the money for medical insurance premiums? In this economy? Three hots & a cot, right? There’s free medical care in jail without having to worry about premiums.
If the Senate passes a health care bill then the premiums are a mandate from Congress. If a person doesn’t pay them they are subject to heavy fines and up to 5 years in jail! People, this is an elaborate scheme to levy more taxes on you. Health care will not be free and as the examples show, the middle-class will be taxed heavily. You will pay through the nose for bureaucratic government health care and if you don’t pay then Nancy Pelosi wants to throw your ass in jail. Families will find a way to pay those premiums or else. Here’s the kicker, Nancy Pelosi and the other House Democrats put in some stiff penalties for those who refuse to get adequate insurance. Those penalties include up to 5 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. If you think those premiums are expensive then try coming up with $250,000 for a fine. Even though the bill says “up to $250,000” you can forget about anything less than the maximum penalty because this health care bill relies on those fines to help finance it. The CBO estimates that $33 billion in fines would come from individuals who “chose” not to get health insurance. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to deciding between feeding my family or buying insurance the decision is easy. My family has got to eat. That’s one of the most basic of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Now, I’m beginning to understand why the Democrats aren’t willing to forego the luxurious health plans afforded the members of Congress and put their own families under this new wonderful plan. Anything less than what our lawmakers receive is a disservice to the American people. To write a bill that provides less than what our lawmakers receive is more than an injustice to the American taxpayer. It’s cause for revolt. To force Americans to pay for crappy health care while they enjoy a much better plan paid for by the very taxpayers they threaten to imprison brings to mind class warfare that expired centuries ago. We are now looking at the new serfs and royalty in the United States. You will pay or you will go to jail.
The only option we have left is the Senate. If the Senate passes a health care bill, even a good one, it will be consolidated with the garbage bill passed by the Democrats in the House of Representatives. When it comes back to the Senate floor it will only require a simple majority to pass the Senate. That’s only 50 votes and the Democrats have more than that number in the Senate. So, passing a bill in the Senate is not even an option that the American people can afford. The line must be held with the filibuster. It takes 60 votes to stop a filibuster. If the filibuster can be held then the bill won’t even come up for a vote in the Senate and it can’t be watered down by the trashy bill passed by the House of Representatives. Since Nancy Pelosi pushed a garbage bill through the House of Representatives Americans can’t risk it being combined with and tainting a good bill that might be passed by the Senate. Americans need to wait until the next session of Congress and start over on health care.
Pelosi’s bill ignores the cause of the high cost of medical care. She blames the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, etc. Yet she refuses to face facts. The facts are that doctors get their asses sued off in medical malpractice suits over simple things using junk science to deceive juries. We’ve all heard the stories of somebody getting the wrong leg amputated or being sewn up with a surgical instrument inside them. Those are legitimate malpractice suits and those aren’t what the Republicans are talking about when they mention tort reform. To avoid a potential lawsuit doctors run every possible test even if they already have a diagnosis. Remember John Edwards the former Democrat Senator that ran for the Democrat party’s nomination for president? He’s a millionaire. He made his money as a lawyer representing people in medical malpractice lawsuits. The Republicans keep shouting that they want tort reform in any health care bill. Nancy Pelosi and the other Democrats ignore their calls. The reason the Democrats won’t address tort reform is because the American Bar Association and it’s members (lawyers) are huge contributors to the Democrat party. If the health care bill limits medical malpractice to something reasonable then the lawyers will lose out on a source of income and the Democrats will see reduced campaign contributions from the American Bar Association and its members.
Apparently, the American Bar Association has more pull with Democrats than senior citizens do. The Democrats are pulling over $500 billion dollars from the health care system devoted to senior citizens (Medicare) to put it towards this new health care plan. Is anybody fooled into thinking that won’t translate into less care for grandma?
America, you’ve been sold down the river for politics. Make no mistake about it, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats don’t care about you until its time to campaign for your vote again. They don’t care whether you get health care or not. They’ll do whatever it takes to get your vote. They think a health care bill will get your vote. They think a health care bill that provides health care for illegal aliens will guarantee them the Hispanic vote. Oh, I forgot about that part didn’t I? A requirement to check legal status of patients was something else the Republicans asked for. They didn’t want the American taxpayer footing the bill for somebody that isn’t even supposed to be here. The Democrats ignored that too or maybe they took a calculated risk and decided that senior citizens will die before they need their votes again. Why else would they take health benefits away from American senior citizens and allow them to be given to illegal aliens? “But Nancy Pelosi said…” Like she’s never lied to us before, right? That woman has changed her tune so many times just on the public option that nobody knew for sure which way she would go until after it passed the House. She was worse than John Kerry on flip-flopping when it came to the public option. Then she finally started calling it the “consumer option” because she thinks the American people are too stupid to know it’s the same exact thing as the public option that Americans protested against and voiced their outrage against at town hall meetings in August.
The entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate is up for re-election in 2010. Contact your Senators and let them know that a health care bill should reform the entire system including medical malpractice lawsuits, it shouldn’t have jail terms for people that can’t afford premiums that are certain to increase over time, it shouldn’t cover people coming here illegally from other countries to clog our medical system and it shouldn’t take money from Medicare. Let them know that no bill should be combined with the bill that made it out of the House of Representatives and they need to wait until the next session of Congress and start from scratch. If your Senator is up for re-election in 2010 let him or her know that you’re aware of this and that their vote on health care will weigh heavily on your vote come election time. Exercise your rights to be Americans and make your representatives represent you! Force them to do their jobs!
If you don’t know your Senators direct telephone number then call the U.S. Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Senator.
posted by streetjust @ 11:43 AM
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