Friday, July 17, 2009

The Sick Truth II: Health Care Bill Goes From Bad to Worse: UPDATED

Yesterday, I found that page 16 of the main Obamacare bill in the House will make it illegal to purchase private insurance. Immediately. The moment the bill becomes law.

The bill also states I will lose my insurance plan if I attempt to make a change to it, such as add or delete a family member.

I was shocked. Didn't I just hear Obama say I could keep my health insurance, at least until he drives my health insurance provider out of business?

No such luck.

Today, I find out that it just gets worse. I will lose my health insurance if I make any changes to my policy, such as, for example, if I marry and want to add my spouse to my plan, have a child and want to add my child, divorce my spouse and want to have my spouse removed from my health care plan, delete my gainfully-employed adult child from my policy, lower or raise my deductible, or commit some other grievous violation of Gov't Care (change). I also will lose my health insurance if my insurance provider makes a change, such as deciding to add $2 to my co-pay.

Even if I do nothing to change my plan, and my provider does nothing to change my plan (neither one of us has a global financial meltdown or a huge tax burden to contend with, say), I will lose my plan in 5 years or less. Congress says.

All those years of paying and sacrifice, down the tubes. Some slight feeling of security in the middle of the worst global economic upheaval in living memory, bye-bye now.

Whatever Obama wants, Obama gets.

As Betsy McCaughey, founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, pointed out:
[A] new government bureaucracy will select health plans that it considers in your best interest, and you will have to enroll in one of these 'qualified plans.' If you now get your plan through work, your employer has a five-year "grace period" to switch you into a qualified plan. If you buy your own insurance, you'll have less time.

And as soon as anything changes in your contract -- such as a change in copays or deductibles, which many insurers change every year -- you'll have to move into a qualified plan instead (House bill, p. 16-17).

When you file your taxes, if you can't prove to the IRS that you are in a qualified plan, you'll be fined thousands of dollars -- as much as the average cost of a health plan for your family size -- and then automatically enrolled in a randomly selected plan (House bill, p. 167-168).

It's one thing to require that people getting government assistance tolerate managed care, but the legislation limits you to a managed-care plan even if you and your employer are footing the bill (Senate bill, p. 57-58). The goal is to reduce everyone's consumption of health care and to ensure that people have the same health-care experience, regardless of ability to pay.

Nowhere does the legislation say how much health plans will cost, but a family of four is eligible for some government assistance until their household income reaches $88,000 (House bill, p. 137). If you earn more than that, you'll have to pay the cost no matter how high it goes.

The price tag for this legislation is a whopping $1.04 trillion to $1.6 trillion (Congressional Budget Office estimates). Half of the tab comes from tax increases on individuals earning $280,000 or more, and these new taxes will double in 2012 unless savings exceed predicted costs (House bill, p. 199). The rest of the cost is paid for by cutting seniors' health benefits under Medicare.

There's plenty of waste in Medicare, but the Congressional Budget Office estimates only 1 percent of the savings under the legislation will be from curbing waste, fraud and abuse. That means the rest will likely come from reducing what patients get.

One troubling provision of the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years (and more often if they become sick or go into a nursing home) about alternatives for end-of-life care (House bill, p. 425-430). The sessions cover highly sensitive matters such as whether to receive antibiotics and "the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration."

This mandate invites abuse, and seniors could easily be pushed to refuse care. Do we really want government involved in such deeply personal issues?

Shockingly, only a portion of the money accumulated from slashing senior benefits and raising taxes goes to pay for covering the uninsured. The Senate bill allocates huge sums to "community transformation grants," home visits for expectant families, services for migrant workers -- and the creation of dozens of new government councils, programs and advisory boards slipped into the last 500 pages.

Here, in my little corner of Progressive Paradise, the people I've spoken with today seem unconcerned about losing their health care plans. They think Obamacare is going to be the best thing ever. This morning, a seriously overweight 59-year-old man with a heart condition told me: "The rich should pay. And anyway, I don't believe in Western medicine." He'll be a lot of help.

And then there was the young teacher who told me: "I can't believe anyone would want to take away your health insurance."

Not just my health insurance. Her health insurance too. If you think you or any members of your family might have some use for non-rationed Western medicine, ever, please contact your Congressman
here.

http://faxzero.com/
http://www.gotfreefax.com/
http://www.myfax.com/free/

Hat tip: Rick Moran at American Thinker
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UPDATE: Just to set the record straight, this is what Obama said yesterday:

"Let me be exactly clear about what health care reform means to you,” the president told residents of the Garden State. “First of all, if you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. Nobody is talking about taking that away from you.
They're not talking about it; they've already put it in writing.

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1 comment:

  1. The How to;

    President Obama, asked for the help, of a way to cover the sick. And it is a simple concept that is presented before all to see. Health Care Insurance Companies will not cover the sick, {This will not make dollars for them.} Our tax failure within our system will not be able to carry the load because of cost.
    Within this United Forum, as Health Care Insurance Companies do join and earn money by helping the pay in form and the Health Care Tax Forum within our Medicare Tax system all ready in place, the concept of the dollar is like this in a low ball figure, { $10.00 x 250 million people, per week x 1 month} as stated before you do the math.
    Now this is the part that Government Officials do not like, because of the constant failures before 9/11/2001 to 2/15/2010, all government Officials should be penalized
    10% off of their pay. And that money should go to the Health Care Account. It is a recorded fact of history that our Officials we elected / hired to do a job have failed to do their jobs. The lives of the people have become in dangered and lives lost. They fight over this Health Care Dollar as if it is to be split up between 52 States. Our goal is to Unite The 52 States Of the United States Of America, as it should be.
    Health Care Companies have also failed, and it is also a part of documented history, of their failures. This concept of profit under a Health Care Responsibility is the biggest lie before the people and we offer one last chance to theses Insurance Companies to Unite with the Peoples Government and earn money. Fact; 0ne Insurance Company can not maintain the dollar cost of a few people, so what happens when a Nation Wide Out Break takes Place ?
    Some how Government Officials failed to understand that the American People have a common sense about them to see that around 173 Million people still jobs out of 373 million legal American People and there are around 125 Illegal People in the U.S.A. It would only confirm the failure of Government Officials if they admitted this information.
    Some have asked how I know that this is a $100 Trillion Dollar Health Care Package that Officials fight over, I called and asked Insurance Companies. And to my surprise 70% of those I talked to stated that this concept of a United Health Care Forum Built By The People in our Government System hold a honest approach of how to cover the sick that cant be covered. And Laws built to protect this money from miss use.
    I wanted to Save this for page 100 but I will only show part of the building block of a Health Care Reform Stimulus Package. It is of a interest to many people to see the ideas that will come forward.
    So again I ask all to Help President Obama to get this Job concept under way, and at the same time build this Health Care reform. Do not set it into action and not keep track of it, I am talking about a 10 year month to month data read out to see if scams are in the works.
    Henry Massingale
    FASC Concepts in and for Pay It Forward
    www.fascmovement.mysite.com

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