Posted by
The Blue Eye View of Blue Eye , MO on Friday, June 26, 2009 11:55:06 AM
The Obama Health Care Plan President Barack Obama's health care plan will spend $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
Obama says government is the best arbiter of health. Why is that? BO's plan insures only 16 million of the supposed 46 million uninsured of our nation. Of course, no one actually knows how many people actually lack health insurance but BO says it so we must accept it, even if wrong? Why is that? As many as 300 million Americans have health insurance (which IS NOT health care) so why should our entire nation be forced into government insured healthcare just to carry the other supposed 46 million?
A quick profile of the uninsured says ten million are illegal immigrants - which doesn't mean they don't get health care, free. Walk into virtually any emergency room in America and illegal immigrants are the bulk of patients. (Education and health care costs for illegal immigrants comprise from 16.4 to 20.5 percent of California's budget deficit. Figures are similar nationwide.)
Liberals (Dem Socialists) are urging Obama's nationalized health care plan cover illegal immigrants. The Washington Post suggests failure to include illegal immigrants in the new National health care redesign would create unemployment among U.S. citizens since businesses wouldn't be forced to pick up the insurance tabs for illegals thus hire them at greater rates. This is likely true unless laws to prosecute businesses that hire illegal immigrants - or, better yet, not to require employers to cover employees – are enacted. Only Socialists would use employer malfeasance as an excuse to sacrifice workers' current insurance plans.
Another 9 million or so "uninsured" have household incomes of above $75,000, more than 3 times federal poverty standards for a family of four. For a mere married couple, that's 7 times federal poverty standard. Some 30% of these people are temporarily without health insurance, normally for six months or less, between jobs. Many others voluntarily avoid health insurance; even if they can afford it (My wife and I did during our youth. So did my kids.)a perfectly reasonable position. Factually, many people worry less about paying for the occasional visit to the doctor than paying monthly premiums. The Obama plan would force insurance on all these people then force public (Government controlled and paid for) insurance on the rest of us. Kindly remember, government has nothing it doesn't first take from us – its citizens – first. The PUBLIC will have to pay for Gov. Insurance through taxes.
Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute and author of The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care says there are "12 million uninsured Americans … eligible for Medicaid and the State Children's Health insurance program -- but they haven't signed up,". Again, voluntary behavior is voluntary, not an excuse for government involvement.
OK, let's sum up. Of those 46 million "uninsured," 31 million uninsured require no fix from the federal government. That leaves 15 million uninsured unaccounted for. The nationalized health care plan Obama proposes, shifts health care insurance for literally 95 percent of the population to a FEDERALLY controlled plan on behalf of 5 percent of our population, the 5 percent who, like illegal immigrants, receive FREE emergency care anytime under current federal law. Why is that?
The media and BO portray the American health system as a system in crisis by pointing to skyrocketing premiums. Costs of a family policy is now approximately $1,000 per month for employers. Obama says, "One out of every five dollars we earn will be spent on health care in a decade." Premiums for family coverage have risen 78 percent since 2001. The current Government programs, Medicare and Medicaid, comprise a huge chunk of the federal budget. In ten years, they'll comprise more than any other government expenditure. You might consider this as well. Social Security is now broke taking in less than it spends each and every month.
Why are these costs rising exponentially higher? Because of current increased government involvement in the health care system. State regulations decrease market flexibility by requiring that insurers cover unhealthy individuals at lower-cost and requiring insurers cover certain hospitals and doctors. Federal and State governments require health care providers (Insurers and medical personnel) care for individuals without reimbursement which means continually escalating costs for those who do pay, the general public and taxpayers. Both federal and state health care subsidization programs encourage health care providers and insurance to raise prices, our costs, to break even. More government equals higher costs, not lower.
The answer should be more free markets, not less. Competition between insurers, not government monopoly, would lower costs. The correct answer is an expanded private system, not a public one paid for by public taxes. There is no single payer system anywhere in the world that gives better care than we get in the USA, now