Big Government’s Big Grip…On You!

So Obama wants everyone in America to have healthcare coverage. -That’s so special! Note: I didn’t say every American, as attempts to exclude illegal aliens have been defeated.


Let me begin by first saying that there is NO Constitutional provision mandating the federal government to provide healthcare. In fact, by doing so, they are undertaking a colossal redistribution of wealth policy that will seize more of our private property (income) in order to pay for it, and more of our Liberty as choice is exchanged for mandates.


Hope is no guarantee of anything, and Change isn’t always for the better. Personally, I think a Universal Healthcare Plan sounds like a great idea, in principle. I also think it would be a great idea if we all had a pony. The final result in either case is the same. Someone will have to keep feeding it at one end, and at the other end you get something that really stinks. For the record, Time-Travel is also a great idea, but don’t expect Obama to propose it anytime soon. There may be too many people who want to go back and change November 2008. (I digress)


The point is this; actions do have consequences. The more complicated the issue, the more unintended consequences can result. When our employees in Washington take action on something, we would hope they have done their very best to thoughtfully consider all possible repercussions to greatest extent possible. Doesn’t it seem as though everything this president wants to do is too urgent for debate and comes with a big slice of pie in the sky? Healthcare and ponies for everyone sounds like a magnificent plan. It’s sure to make Obama and the other out of control politicians, the saviors of the millions who will get something for nothing. This would indicate to me, that this is not really about healthcare at all. It is, in fact, the largest political power grab we have ever seen in our countries history. (I digress again; let’s stick to proposal at hand.) It’s important that we consider the repercussions of creating such a monster, before being led down the primrose path to disaster by a narcissistic ideologue. For most of us, we will get fewer benefits while paying more money. Furthermore, once it’s in place, it likely cannot be reversed.


What we have seen from this congress and this administration so far has been a level of recklessness and urgency that should give everyone great cause for alarm. They have already created the largest spending (debt) package in world history (aka: Stimulus) and shoved it through within hours of its completion. It was over 1,100 pages long and not one senator, congressman or administration official even read it. The House passed a “Cap and Trade” bill that most people don’t know anything about, let alone how harmful it will be to every producer and every consumer in America. Obama presents and misrepresents his plans at a phenomenal pace, and then acts as if we are all silly for questioning his omnipotence on these matters.


Here is a recent quote from Obama’s (gangsta-like) chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel:
“Never let a good crisis go to waste. It is an opportunity to do things that you would otherwise not be able to do.”


According to the last Census Report, there are 300 million people living in this country. Proponents of the “Government Run Insurance Plan” (which I refer to as: the GRIP) tell us, that 47 million people are not insured. They use alarming rhetoric and key words like tragedy, unsustainable, the system is broken, etc, etc. What they don’t mention is that, of those 47 million, 10.6 million are actually eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP, but have not applied for these GRIPs. Another 10 to 12 million are illegal aliens. Nor do they mention that an additional 10.1 million of those people could actually afford some kind of basic health insurance (incomes over $50,000) but, because of their youthful good health and foolish priorities, choose not to purchase it. For now, this is a free country and they have that right. That leaves about 15.3 million people who legitimately lack coverage. It also bears mentioning that included in that 47 million were people who were only temporarily without health insurance during the census period, due to changing employers.


There are already several disastrously managed GRIPs in place. We have the SCHIP Program that covers children in most states, Medicare to cover the elderly, and we have Medicaid to cover the poor. I’m not sure why those 15.3 million don’t fit into any of the existing GRIPs, but maybe what’s really broken are the existing GRIPs and not the entire healthcare or healthcare insurance industry? According to my math, “the system” works for 284.7 million American citizens? Most agree that there are problems that need addressed. Let’s have a discussion about reform instead of reconstruction labeled as reform. I am not in favor of overhauling the whole system for a small percentage of the population (roughly 5%).


Obama says if you like the insurance you have you can keep it. This is very misleading because the government will eventually crush competition. Employers providing insurance will now have to pay taxes on those premium amounts increasing their cost by upwards of 25%. There is also a fine in the form of an 8% payroll tax for employers who don’t provide health insurance. It will be much cheaper for them to pay the proposed fine to the government for NOT providing benefits to employees. Through regulatory processes, Big Brother will also require private insurance companies to cover a wider variety of procedures and pre-existing conditions making them unprofitable, thus unsustainable. Profits drive efficiency. Our Government does not have to manage their plan efficiently because they can print money. Private insurance companies will simply be forced out of existence, leaving you only the GRIP. And, here's the real kicker, The plan being proposed also compels you to become part of the government plan if your private insurer makes any changes such as coverage or premiums or co-pays etc. After we are left with no other options, the cuts (rationing) will begin.


When attempting to control (reduce) costs, remember those who use the most, cost the most, and thus stand to lose the most. Procedures and prescriptions that are available now, will need to be strictly controlled (rationed) to manage the tremendous costs of covering more and more people. Some specialized procedures or tests that aren’t “the most Cost effective” will need to be eliminated. The same goes for prescription medications. People like the elderly will be deprived of certain care based on their age or type of illness. People with difficult long-term conditions will have their treatment curtailed because of their drain on the system. What we are talking about here is Socialized Medicine. Not completely socialized, not at first, but when you follow this road to its only logical conclusion, that will be the end result.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo
(Obama: just take a pain pill instead of surgery)


Who will make these coverage decisions? Will it be you and your Doctor? Will it be your elected representative? No. Policies will be dictated by a government agency, a GRIP CZAR or some other appointed bureaucrat bean counter that values his career more than your individual health. Furthermore, this person/s will likely not have any medical knowledge whatsoever. Judging by Obama’s other appointments; you don’t have to be well qualified in a particular field to be put in charge of public policy. You only need to agree with his agenda.


As we have already seen with CEO’s of companies getting taxpayer money, Obama’s PAY CZAR gets to dictate what salaries are appropriate. The same will eventually apply to our doctors and nurses and hospital employees. Guaranteed, it will be less than they earn now. Specialists, who spend many more years of medical school, might eventually, only be allowed to earn the same as a general practitioner. This will destroy the incentive for excellence. They will be reduced to drones of the government payroll, not unlike postal workers or DMV employees. (Sorry if that offends)


People, if you are not paying attention to what is actually happening here, then you have no idea of how bad the consequences are going to be or how misleading our president has been about it. (Yes, he lies). He is very good at choosing his words carefully in order to conceal his real intentions. He has spent much of his life as a “community organizer” dubiously attempting to motivate (agitate) groups of ill-informed, largely uneducated people as means to a political end. Now he is “Salesman-In-Chief” and he is lecturing the whole country as if we were all stupid. We know this type of healthcare system has been implemented before in other Countries such as Great Britain and Canada and has proven to be a disaster in the form of costs and quality of healthcare. What the President says is “let me be clear, no one is proposing a system modeled after Canada or Great Britain” What he means is: there is no specific language in the proposal that says “modeled after Great Britain or Canada”. That’s how he works. He is an attorney. Mr. Obama has some big ideas that sound idealistic and compassionate. But, in the real world, we must question the prudence of such a massive undertaking. We mustn’t roll the dice and bank on good intentions (Hope & Change) when it will directly affect our very access to good quality healthcare and eliminates other alternatives.


http://www.angelfire.com/pa/sergeman/issues/healthcare/socialized.html


We are told by this administration that 40% of the total Medicare cost is waste and fraud. They haven’t attempted to correct that yet. In addition, it currently has a 36 trillion dollar unfunded liability. Medicaid is also in trouble. Some of my Veteran friends are not very impressed with their V.A. healthcare. And we have been told that Social Security will be unsustainable within the next decade. So the Federal Government hasn’t gotten that quite right either. Our Government has a long reputation of overpromising and under delivering. They waste a tremendous amount of our hard earned money. They spend $200.00 on hammers and $1000.00 on toilet seats. They use accounting tricks to cover up for their uncontrollable spending and they outright lie about their motives. How gullible must we be to think they can take over the entire healthcare field and we will, somehow be better off? Where is the example that they can manage anything efficiently? More government programs always mean a bigger, more costly and a more intrusive federal government. No thanks!


The Social Security system has led most people to believe that their Social Security payments are being held in an actual account in their names to pay their benefits. In reality, however, the Social Security trust fund contains nothing more than IOUs that will be cashable only after higher taxes are imposed on future workers or massive amounts of money are borrowed. While many workers thought that the system's annual surpluses were being used to build up a reserve for baby boomers, in fact, this money has been spent to fund other government programs or to reduce the government debt.


Oh, and by the way… remember when our Salesman-In-Chief said this?
“95% of Americans will actually see their taxes go down”
Logic tells me, you cannot provide more extensive coverage, include more people and, at the same time, do it for less money when it’s being run by a faceless entity that is not compelled to be profitable.


I cannot express to you how important it is, that you contact your Congressmen and Senators immediately. Be respectful but forceful. We must not be intimidated. Please let them know that you are flatly against Obamacare! They are under a tremendous amount of pressure from the president and their party leaders. The longer this drags on the more pressure they are under to get this done. They are now increasing their efforts to cram this bill through. The President and his party have usurped the democratic process and virtually shut out the Republicans from the process. They are now threatening to use the reconciliation process to force “The Public Option” if necessary. This is completely outrageous! Our current legislators seem to have forgotten that they are not there to represent a political party or the president. They were elected by us to represent us. They have become almost as arrogant as Obama himself and they need an overwhelming response from us to wake them up, and we must hold them accountable in the 2010 mid-term elections.


I would encourage you to please take 5 minutes to make a call or send an email to them in opposition. Also, help spread this around. This matter is extremely important, and urgent. Thank you for your help.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt