American citizens have been grilling their representatives with questions and comments about government run, socialized medicine. These citizens had the audacity to actually read some of the proposed legislation and had some questions and lots of comments to pose to their representatives.
The democrat senators and congressmen have found it uncomfortable to peddle their bullshit to constituents that can read and have a mind of their own. We’ve all seen town hall meetings filled with citizens angry with their representatives for not being representative! For not reading the legislation before voting for it. For spending enormous sums of money recklessly. For bailing out failed industries with our money. For systematically dismantling our economy and replacing it with government sponsored substitutes.
Pelosi said that the people at these meetings weren’t real people, they were instead operatives of some right-wing conspiracy designed to take Obama down.
Obama has been saying that the messages from the “angry mobs” about killing private health insurance and euthanasia are simply not true.
When you read the House’s “health care for all Americans” bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.
The provision outlaws individual private coverage. Under the header of “Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage,” the “Limitation On New Enrollment” section of the bill clearly states:
“Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day” of the year the legislation becomes law.
So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won’t be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.
From the beginning, opponents of the public option plan have warned that if the government gets into the business of offering subsidized health insurance coverage, the private insurance market will wither. Drawn by a public option that will be 30% to 40% cheaper than their current premiums because taxpayers will be funding it, employers will gladly scrap their private plans and go with Washington’s coverage.
The nonpartisan Lewin Group estimated in April that 120 million or more Americans could lose their group coverage at work and end up in such a program. That would leave private carriers with 50 million or fewer customers. This could cause the market to, as Lewin Vice President John Sheils put it, “fizzle out altogether.”
What wasn’t known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.
The legislation is also likely to finish off health savings accounts, a goal that Democrats have had for years. They want to crush that alternative because nothing gives individuals more control over their medical care, and the government less, than HSAs.
With HSAs out of the way, a key obstacle to the left’s expansion of the welfare state will be removed.
The public option won’t be an option for many, but rather a mandate for buying government care. A free people should be outraged at this advance of soft tyranny.
Washington does not have the constitutional or moral authority to outlaw private markets in which parties voluntarily participate. It shouldn’t be killing business opportunities, or limiting choices, or legislating major changes in Americans’ lives.
And what about that euthanasia claim? Well, I think that’s a twist of words on Obama’s part. I don’t think anyone actually mistook Obama Care for euthanasia. After all, euthanasia puts someone who is suffering out of their misery. Obama Care on the other hand, will ration care to those who some bureaucratic panel has deemed to be more valuable to society. So, Obama is right; it’s not euthanasia but it will certainly “thin the herd”. And, it seems to me that older folks, those with disabilities and those that require long term care should be worried!
