Let Your Voice Be Heard. Today
Labels: government, national health care
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Reading Guide to the Pelosi Health Care Reform Bill
Mike Pence is running for Congress in the 6th District of Indiana. He may be one of the few politicians who has actually read the 1990 page Pelosi health “reform” legislation (H.R. 3962) introduced by House Democrats. The following notes were posted on his Facebook page. Today the AMA and AARP endorsed this bill. Speaker Pelosi has scheduled a vote for Saturday morning. Is this the bill you want for yourself, your parents, and your children? Forever? If not, please contact your Representative today.
Page 94—Section 202(c) prohibits the sale of private individual health insurance policies, beginning in 2013, forcing individuals to purchase coverage through the federal government.
Page 110—Section 222(e) requires the use of federal dollars to fund abortions through the government-run health plan—and, if the Hyde Amendment were ever not renewed, would require the plan to fund elective abortions.
Page 111—Section 223 establishes a new board of federal bureaucrats (the “Health Benefits Advisory Committee”) to dictate the health plans that all individuals must purchase —and would likely require all Americans to subsidize and purchase plans that cover any abortion.
Page 122—Section 233(a)(3) requires the Commissioner—the new insurance “czar”—to “issue guidance on best practices of plain language writing”—this from the same people who wrote a 1,990 page health care bill.
Page 183—Section 305(a) gives the Commissioner the power to enlist “appropriate entities” like Planned Parenthood and ACORN to engage in “outreach to specific vulnerable populations” about the bill’s new programs.
Page 211—Section 321 establishes a new government-run health plan that, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group, would cause as many as 114 million Americans to lose their existing coverage.
Page 216—Section 322(b)(3) prohibits “any federal funds for purposes of insolvency” from being directed toward the government-run health plan—an anti-bailout provision that may seem implausible given Democrats’ role in advancing legislation to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Page 225—Section 330 permits—but does not require—Members of Congress to enroll in government-run health care.
Page 255—Section 345 includes language requiring verification of income for individuals wishing to receive federal health care subsidies under the bill—while the bill includes a requirement for applicants to verify their citizenship, it does not include a similar requirement to verify applicants’ identity, thus encouraging identity fraud for undocumented immigrants and others wishing to receive taxpayer-subsidized health benefits.
Page 297—Section 501 imposes a 2.5 percent tax on all individuals who do not purchase “bureaucrat-approved” health insurance— the tax would apply on individuals with incomes under $250,000, thus breaking a central promise of then-Senator Obama’s presidential campaign.
Page 313—Section 512 imposes an 8 percent “tax on jobs” for firms that cannot afford to purchase “bureaucrat-approved” health coverage; according to an analysis by Harvard Professor Kate Baicker, such a tax would place millions “at substantial risk of unemployment”—with minority workers losing their jobs at twice the rate of their white counterparts.
Page 336—Section 551 imposes additional job-killing taxes, in the form of a half-trillion dollar “surcharge,” more than half of which will hit small businesses; according to a model developed by President Obama’s senior economic advisor, such taxes could cost up to 5.5 million jobs.
Page 520—Section 1161 cuts more than $150 billion from Medicare Advantage plans, potentially jeopardizing millions of seniors’ existing coverage.
Page 733—Section 1401 establishes a new Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research; the bill includes no provisions preventing the government-run health plan from using such research to deny access to life-saving treatments on cost grounds, similar to Britain’s National Health Service, which denies patient treatments costing more than $35,000.
Page 872—Section 1433 requires the director of food services at nursing facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid to hold “military, academic, or other qualifications” as determined by federal bureaucrats.
Page 1067—Section 1729 requires States to cover incarcerated juveniles previously enrolled in Medicaid after their release “unless and until there is a determination that the individual is no longer eligible.”
Page 1174—Section 1802(b) includes provisions entitled “TAXES ON CERTAIN INSURANCE POLICIES” to fund comparative effectiveness research, breaking Speaker Pelosi’s promise that “We will not be taxing [health] benefits in any bill that passes the House,” and the President’s promise not to raise taxes on families with incomes under $250,000.
Page 1183—Section 1904 provides $750 million in federal funding for a new entitlement program to offer “knowledge of realistic expectations of age-appropriate child behaviors” and “skills [for parents] to interact with their child.” (And this is related to health care how??)
Page 1255—Sections 2231-2235 make veterinary students eligible for up to $283 million in federal scholarship and student loan forgiveness funding. (Why is THIS in this health care bill?)
Page 1432—Section 2531 provides incentive payments to States that enact new medical liability laws—but only if such laws do “not limit attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages.” (As opposed to the Republican bill that offers serous tort reform.)
Page 1515—Section 2572(b) imposes labeling requirements on all vending machines nationwide, in addition to new mandates by the federal government on all restaurants with more than 20 locations.
Page 1925—Section 3101 creates a new program within the Indian Health Service to provide federal funding for “perpetrators of child sexual abuse who are Indian or members of an Indian household.”
If you would like to read the entire 1,990 pages yourself, you can find the legislation here: (Note: the above notes were posted a few days ago. Page numbers and details may have changed.)
Labels: government, health care reform, national health care
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Remember, It’s Independence Day!
I want to wish all of my readers a very blessed Independence Day and use this opportunity to write a post I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I hope you’ll bear with me as I rant. And forgive the length of this post. You’ll see that I feel rather strongly….jpg)
It seems that lately I’ve been just plain mad. All the time. Everywhere I turn, I see our country and our way of life being upended. While I’m not a fan of the present administration, this isn’t necessarily partisan. Rumblings started even while President Bush was in office. Some of that, I’m convinced, was anticipation of doom once the two presidential candidates were determined. Some of it was linked to Congressional incumbents who seem to have lifetime appointments no matter what they do. Nonetheless, we’ve been hit, and hit hard. I’m sure many of you have been as well.
My husband and I have worked hard all our lives. Before marriage, after marriage. We’ve lived most of our 30 years of married life on one income, and that not a big one. My husband was a mid-level government employee and never made much. But we were committed to my staying home and raising our son, so we made do. We live in an older three-bedroom, one bath home that we paid off as soon as we could. Sure, we could have taken our equity, which until last year was quite substantial, and moved to a bigger home. But that would have required a mortgage we weren’t sure we could afford, so we stayed put and made do with what we had. Now we’re being asked to bail out people who didn’t make the responsible decision. People who took on mortgages they couldn’t afford and shouldn’t have been given. Why?
We’ve always driven our cars until they died, saving for the next one and paying cash. Right now our cars are a 1996 and 1998, both with over 100,000 miles on them. Yet every day I hear ads from auto companies promising to make your car payment if you get laid off. What happened to good old-fashioned personal responsibility?
We use our credit cards to rack up miles and dollars. But we pay them off monthly and never spend more than we know we can afford. Yet every day I hear ads for credit counseling and consolidation saying, “Credit card debt? It’s not your fault?” Well, if it isn’t your fault, whose is it? We didn’t use their credit card and run up thousands of dollars debt. And frankly, we don’t want to pay for it. Yet Congress is now passing legislation to make credit easier for those who don’t pay and harder for me. (I understand that some people use credit during a layoff, but most I know continue spending at a level that makes hubby and I shake our heads. Hard times call for drastic measures. I know. We’ve been there several times over the years.)
Meanwhile, the President and Congress are pushing bill after bill to increase debt, bail out deadbeats, bail out businesses that should be allowed to fail, and build bridges to nowhere. They’re voting on bills to increase our energy costs based on junk science and bills to confiscate the decent health care coverage most of us have in order to cover a few more people who have made other choices or are in our country illegally.
This administration has increased the national debt exponentially. If President Obama's budget is implemented, CBO projects the national debt to reach an unprecedented and unsustainable 82.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product by 2019.
To add injury to insult, lawmakers don’t even pretend to read the bills or hold appropriate hearings anymore. Everything is an emergency that must be voted on without delay. Lawmakers seem to be controlled by some higher power, changing their vote on a dime. My dime, BTW.
We now have 31—count’em 31—czars running every aspect of government. These Czars are 1) not accountable to Congress, 2) paid what ever Obama decides to pay them, at our expense, 3) can claim executive privilege if called to testify before Congress, 4) set policy for the cabinet secretaries, and 5) are so radical they would never have received Senate approval. What happened to our representative republic?
So what does this have to do with being a GenSandwicher? Here’s the deal. We worked hard all our lives. Lived within our means. Paid our bills. Now because of monumental failed policies and failed consumer confidence, with a little corruption thrown in here and there, we’ve lost about half of our net worth. That’s the net worth we were counting on for retirement. After being responsible all our lives, we expected to be able to retire comfortably, travel, and perhaps even leave a little nest egg to our son. At a minimum, not be a burden on him. Now we wonder if we’ll have enough to live out our lives or if we’ll be working at WalMart when we’re 80. No one is bailing us out because we’re responsible. Our taxes and expenses are increasing, lowering our standard of living. We didn’t even benefit from the most recent stimulus package because we aren’t working and aren’t collecting Social Security. And now we’re being warned of inflation on the level of the Jimmy Carter years.
To add injury to insult, in the process of confiscating the wealth of our generation and the next, this administration and the Congress are rushing headlong into Socialism, nationalizing private industries at will. In previous downturns, we’ve been able to assume that what goes down will go back up and even invest while stocks are on sale. But this time, it seems that the rules have changed and continue to change, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty. When bondholders holders at GM can arbitrarily be subordinated to the unions which caused the problem in the first place, how can anyone invest in confidence? When profitable auto dealers who contributed to Republican politicians are summarily closed by the Car Czar while failing dealerships that contributed to Democrats remain open, how can small business owners make confident decisions? We are turning into a third world country and no longer know what rules are, so we sit in fear, knowing that even under the best circumstances, we wouldn’t live long enough to recover what we’ve lost. And these aren’t the best circumstances…
Folks, I’m concerned for our nation. Our freedoms. Our independence. And I’m concerned for our personal lives. The nation the founders created, our forefathers fought for, and we’ve worked for is being dismantled. I love this country. I love the life and the freedom and the prosperity we enjoy. I came up out of abject poverty because of the opportunities I had in this nation. I pray that Americans will wake up and do whatever it takes to defend our liberties and our way of life. Before it’s too late. Remember, it’s INDEPENDENCE DAY. What do you think?
Labels: government, health care, sandwich generation, tax increases
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Wishing Won’t Make it So
This week President Obama and the Democratic congress is beginning work on what they call health care reform. While many trial balloons have been sent up, the consensus seems to be landing on Senator Kennedy’s plan, which theoretically creates a public/private option. In reality, it creates a lot more requirements for private plans, which will undoubtedly push private insurers out of the market. Scott E. Harrington, professor of health-care management and insurance and risk management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, analyzes this plan in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting that it won’t be long before private plans are driven out of business.
Folks, let’s face it. It’s government involvement in the health care system that has caused most of the problems we have today. Health care prior to 1960 was quite good and quite affordable. From the beginning of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1960s, the government has paid less than the cost of care while increasing regulatory requirements. When I worked in the hospital field 25 years ago, we were struggling to make budget under increasing federal cost constraints. The situation has only gotten worse. Yes, some people have problems getting health insurance and yes, the cost is exorbitant. But government involvement will only make it worse. It will ultimately result in shortages and rationing, just like in every other country with a national health system. And just how do we expect inexperienced politicians who've never run anything to solve a problem that has baffled the professionals for decades?
The Obama administration still doesn’t know how it will cover the cost of this plan – approximately $1 trillion over 10 years. Obama has proposed $634 billion in tax increases and spending cuts as a down payment on the plan and is soon expected to outline an additional $300 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts. And this in addition to the trillions already spent on bailouts and the proposed new budget. The administration has proposed taxing employer-paid health benefits, which will result in fewer of those and reduce personal disposable income -- a plan which he criticized McCain for proposing during the campaign, by the way...
Ask yourself: what has government ever done well or for a lower cost than private industry? If you love the DMV and postal service, you’ll love national health care. Personally, I’ll keep what I’ve got.
By the way, now the Kennedy Plan proposes covering long term care – a true sink hole.
Labels: government, health care costs, national health care, universal health coverage
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Do We Really Want Government Controlled Health Care?
Linda Yezak made an interesting comment on my February 10 post and mentioned an article she had written called “Ocean Front Property in Arizona.” I checked it out and want to commend it to you. She gives real life examples of what happens when the government tries to practice medicine. As aging Baby Boomers and Gen Sandwichers, we need to wake up and pay attention. Medical care for our parents and ourselves is at risk, and with it, our very lives.For years I’ve worked with women on disability. Their medical care—such as it is--was provided primarily by Medicaid. They often can’t find a physician who will treat them, and when they do, the medical care is much like Linda describes—cost-cutting decisions that result in additional problems. I’ve especially seen issues related to psychotropic drugs being mismanaged. It’s terribly frustrating and dangerous. Why do we think that when the government is the primary care payer for all, quality of care will be any better than it is for the few now? These cost-cutting measures put every one of us at risk. It’s so easy to want a free lunch, but folks, in the end, we’ll regret it.
Labels: government, health care, Medicaid, medical care