I wish to state clearly, my position. Our current president has seldom been truthful about his various policies and programs, and in the case of health care, if he were Pinocchio, he would need safety lights on the tip of his nose, to warn aircraft, as his nose is so often tilted skyward.
I have been promising a gentleman I know, who is a client of one of my colleagues, to post on health care issues, particularly the looming street fight concerning Obama’s socialist plans for our health care system.
First an introduction to this gentleman, his name is John Goodman, and he is a member of the NCPA, has his own health care blog, is known as “The Father Of Health Savings Accounts,” cited as one of the three men who killed “HillaryCare” (along with William Kristol, and Sen. Phil Graham), has been a contributor to FOX News, and according to what he told me the other day, will become an adviser to FOX on the debate of ObamaCare. I strongly encourage readers of this post, to read and save his links for future reference. Mr. Goodman is a genuinely good man, and is tireless in his efforts, along with his charming wife.
With his bona fides established, his devotion to affordable, available, portable, and free-market based approaches to health care are clearly evident.
As it so happened, later in the same day, another colleagues client and I spent about thirty minutes talking. I can’t identify this gentleman, as he didn’t give express approval to cite him, but what he told me is on my word. This gentleman is in charge of a corporation that provides packaged health care insurance for major employers, so he definitely has skin in the game. After returning from Washington, he was quite disturbed by events, and that he had to spend millions of dollars on lobbyists, to fight ObamaCare, something he never thought he would do. We talked specifics, but at one point, I asked him if he had seen the Drudge Report, that ABC news had completely sold out to the White House, and after a stunned delay, he said no, and was totally dejected by the news.
I asked both of these gentlemen, if the AMA coming out against the “public option” was a little late, or would their turning against it add weight to the opposing forces in this debate. Mr. Goodman said the AMA had “sold out,” while the other gentleman said that the AMA, big business, and the pharmaceutical companies had all “sold out,” but not necessarily for the reasons most think. They have been threatened with loss of access to this, and future debates, if they oppose the president’s desire for socialized medicine. They will be put on Obama’s growing enemies list, and given no voice. Think Chicago styled political maneuvering. The second gentleman did say that many doctors have finally learned the details of the “public option,’ and that is they will be required to treat these policy holders…without compensation!
Many already know that, in those countries that have socialized medicine, with a focus on Canada and the UK, as Obama cites those two models as his guide, there are major shortages for service. Ask yourself, if you are a doctor, have friends or family who are, or even considered this field when in college, would you put in the required expense, time, and work, to become a physician/surgeon, only to not be able to make a good living, and have a bureaucrat determine which patients you could treat?
Exactly!
Here is some selected info from Mr. Goodman at NCPA:
WHERE DOES SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE WORK?
* In Canada, the average wait for a 65-year-old man to get a hip replacement is six months, according to the Freedom Works Foundation.
* The average wait time in a Canadian emergency room is 16 hours and 18 minutes.
* Also, the average cancer test and radiation treatment cycles vary between 6 to 8 weeks, according to the foundation.Meanwhile:
* In Great Britain, at any one time, there are about a million people waiting to get into hospitals, according to John C. Goodman, president, CEO and Kellye Wright Fellow of the National Center for Policy Analysis.
* Almost 900,000 Canadian patients are on the waiting list at any point in time, according to the Fraser Institute.
* In New Zealand, 90,000 people are on the waiting lists, according to government figures.“Those people constitute only about 1 to 2 percent of the population in those countries, but keep in mind that only about 15 percent of the population actually enters a hospital each year,” says Goodman. “Many of the people waiting are waiting in pain. Many are risking their lives by waiting. And there is no market mechanism in these countries to get care to people who need it first.”
I’ll leave it to someone else to crunch the numbers, but if the percentages of those waiting for care remained constant, and are applied to the U.S., the number of people waiting for care would be truly horrifying.
For a little insight into what is happening in Canada, this video documentary, which is a little long, is as unsettling an indictment on the Canadian system, as any I’ve seen.
As for the price tag of the Big Lie Obama is attempting to foist on us, I am reminded of P.J. O’Rourke’s quote, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”
The claim is that it will only cost one trillion dollars, over a ten year period. Just hearing that, makes me suspend any desire to listen to what other lies they have planned for this debate.
According to the CBO:
According to our preliminary assessment, enacting the proposal would result in a net increase in federal budget deficits of about $1.0 trillion over the 2010-2019 period. When fully implemented, about 39 million individuals would obtain coverage through the new insurance exchanges. At the same time, the number of people who had coverage through an employer would decline by about 15 million (or roughly 10 percent), and coverage from other sources would fall by about 8 million, so the net decrease in the number of people uninsured would be about 16 million or 17 million.
That net decrease nestles up against the estimated 46 million to 47 million uninsured at the present date.
So, with this lie, a trillion dollars would cover approximately thirty percent of those who are now uninsured, but it would also flip some from covered to not. That may be change, but from my perspective, if it isn’t adaptive change, it is worthless.
This proposal is worthless.
As the lie about the one trillion dollars is still being bandied about, the truth of the matter is slowly entering the debate. Instead of one trillion dollars, try four trillion dollars, if the actual goal is to provide coverage to a much larger population, which I not only believe is the goal, but ultimately, that the government is in complete control of our health care system.
I will include some other linkage at the bottom of this post, if any are interested in what some others are saying, as this post is already long enough.
I wish to direct your attention, though, to a petition, recommended by Mr. Goodman, that got six thousand signatures after his Sunday appearance on FOX. They are wanting as many as possible, but at least one hundred thousand, at which time Mike Gallagher will hand deliver it to Washington.
FREE OUR HEALTH CARE NOW!!!!!
If you agree with the petition, and its purpose, I urge you to sign.
As for being a critic of the current policy canard being promoted by the president, I would be remiss in not mentioning there are alternatives. There is much discussion going on, much of it secretive, and there was one proposal that was made several years ago, but the democrats wouldn’t let it reach the floor.
It is called the Healthy Americans Act S. 334.
A brief summary of this now forgotten proposal:
It all starts with tax reform that empowers the individual. From that, we can get portability, individual access, incentives for healthy behavior, and market forces. The Healthy Americans Act embraces these principles; that health care coverage can be affordable, the uninsured can be covered, and, not insignificantly, our economy will be strengthened.
All of us need to get involved in this fight, as the unclear policy, being forced upon us by a power mad president, will destroy our health care system, if not forever, at least for decades. Write any and all of your elected officials, let us bombard Congress with emails and phone calls.
While I haven’t checked prices for good quality pitch forks at the local hardware store, that thought has entered my mind.
LINKAGE:
Rationing WILL Come!
The Smart Money Is Against Health Care Reform!
Conversation: For the Nation’s Medicine, a HICA Moment.
Excellent commentary, No2.
You know what really gets me is the fear that people have of Obama. What does he do to intimidate them? I have visions of his eyes turning red and horns sprouting from his head . Look at this poor IG he fired speaking out on Fox and CNN. The guy should probably be concerned for his life.
Thanks for the kind words.
As for the bullying, it is classic Chicago mob rush. I don’t know if he has any outward displays of rage, though I hope to see it when the push back comes, but he lets people know that he will send his goons and thugs after them, and destroy them anyway they can.
It’s the democrat way, now.
Robbie, I hope you read this, because it upholds everything you are saying and it hits right here at home.
Fewer doctors in Texas are taking Medicare/Medicaid. My own doctor being one who doesn’t unless the patient has secondary health insurance. The reasons being that Medicare doesn’t pay them what their time is worth and it is slow pay. Texas has an insurance board that the doctors can complain to if insurance companies don’t pay a claim within 30 days, but the federal government (i.e. Medicare) is exempt so many doctors don’t get paid for 90-180 days.
Next:
Currently, the CWA (Communication Workers of America) is in negotiations with AT & T for a new contract. But negotiations are not going well. AT & T estimates that it currently spends $10,083/yr for health insurance per employee. AT & T is wanting employees to pick up a bigger part of the tab in the form of co-pays and deductibles to prevent the cost to AT & T from going even higher. The CWA of course, is bucking that.
One of AT & T’s arguments is that the CWA has come out not only for Obama (contributing largely to his campaign) but has also come out for a “universal” health care plan through the government. AT & T thinks “If you guys want the government plan, what’s the problem?” and rightfully so. So the union, that worked so hard to get a guy elected that supports government sponsored health care, now doesn’t want what they worked so hard for and AT & T is calling their bluff. It gives new meaning to the saying “Be careful what you wish for. You just may get it.”
Now, AT & T may not have said those things in negotiations, but I promise you, that is what management is thinking.
It is going to get rough. In my last CWA newsletter from the Austin local, it told of how the CWA gate crashed a AT & T stockholders meeting in Dallas (thuggery) and is now trying to get Democratic congressmen to threaten AT & T through the FCC and increased regulations. Lloyd Doggett has already written to the CEO of AT & T on behalf of the union. The union is trying to prepare its members for a strike which, in this economy, is the dumbest thing they can do. With increasing gas prices, which affect all other prices, like food, CWA members can’t live off strike benefits for very long. And all AT & T has to do is hold out.
I relay all this to you for one reason. The CBO has come out and said that millions of Americans will face losing their company funded health insurance plans. The current CWA/AT & T negotiations seem to uphold that estimate. Companies are not going to provide paid health care if there is another option available. They will just provide the employee with a slight raise to compensate for the loss of existing great health care benefits and force them onto The Obama Plan. If so, as in the case of AT & T employees, they will find that the insurance coverage they have come to take for granted and that is so very, very good (I know, I have it) will be replaced with a much worse system that doesn’t really address their needs. And they (unions) will have no one to blame but themselves.
So the union, that worked so hard to get a guy elected that supports government sponsored health care, now doesn’t want what they worked so hard for and AT & T is calling their bluff.
You can bet that congress and other government employees aret going to exempt themselves from obamacare and still have their own healthcare plans.
As a pre-med student, I am especially interested in the ramifications of universal healthcare. I am from a very modest economic background and am footing the expense of my education on my own.
One doctor I know who has been practicing for decades has assured me that every society must adequately reward those who choose to undergo the rigorous and grueling training required to become a physician. If society did not, then there would be a dramatic shortage of people willing to undergo all the difficulties and years of required training.
We cannot expect those who want to become physicians to sink themselves into debt and invest up to a decade of their lives in school, residencies, and fellowships, without receiving adequate compensation. I will personally be close to a quarter million dollars in debt by the time I complete my schooling. With this amount of debt, I would not be able to sustain a medical practice in a world of government-controlled healthcare IF payments for treatment were indeed withheld for months on end, or, even worse, if treatment was expected to be rendered for free.
I am motivated to be a doctor because I love the biological sciences and am thrilled to imagine how I can apply my passion to helping people by preventing, diagnosing and treating disease — and, in the worst case scenario, by doing all I can to help assuage the pain of those suffering from terminal disease.
Once through medical school, I plan on donating a portion of my time to provide services for the needy, but I am not gullible enough to forget that it takes money to keep a practice running. I will not be able to sustain a practice based solely on the sense of satisfaction earned from knowing that I have helped someone.
That said, I also recognize the need for some type of healthcare reform, though I am skeptical that the answer lies in government-controlled universal care. There are too many hard-working people who fall between the cracks in our current state of healthcare. My husband and I are two such people, as my husband’s employer does not offer any type of insurance. We have had to go without medical care for health issues that should not have been neglected simply because we could not afford the test or required treatment. I find it ironic that those who choose to stay on welfare would get the treatment that we needed for free, while there is absolutely no help for hardworking people whose earnings are just above the poverty line, but who are struggling while living paycheck to paycheck.
NO2LIBERALS,
Would you happen to have a link to the information the “second gentleman” in the quote below was referencing?
“The second gentleman did say that many doctors have finally learned the details of the “public option,’ and that is they will be required to treat these policy holders…without compensation!”
I apologize if you already provided this link and I overlooked it. I currently don’t have a lot of time to indulge in online reading, but I find this topic concerning.
No, Tracy, I don’t, this was a private conversation.
However, if you look at the links at the bottom of the post, “the price of Obama’s health care ’savings’” can give some insight.
Also, there is a doctor in Atlanta who has started an online protests by doctors, which is approximately at 50,000 so far. Heard him interviewed on Glenn Beck this morning.