Health Care Reform Bill: The Joke is on Us

So our government thinks it can provide affordable and quality health care for all Americans with HR3200. If that thought wasn’t so ridiculous we’d all be laughing, like we do at a sitcom when the joke’s not on us.

Sadly, the joke is on us. HR3200, the Health Care Reform Bill currently still in the Energy and Commerce Committee, is being held up by the “Blue Dog” Democrats concerned about the cost and scope of the bill. And with good reason.

The government can claim to “save” money by providing health care for all Americans, even illegals, by obtaining cost savings (also known as rationed care).

“With managed care and now with socialized medicine coming, believe me, quality will go down, costs will go up, there will be shortages, there will be lines, and no one’s going to be happy,” Congressman Dr. Ron Paul (R-TX) said on CNN a few weeks ago.

According to Robert A. Book of the Heritage Foundation:

A public health care plan would not improve the current health care situation and would likely make matters worse. Far from saving enough to cover the uninsured, it would increase the cost of covering even the presently insured at the current standard of care. A public plan could reduce overall spending only at the cost of substantial harm to patients.

Reducing health care costs by offering a public plan will only accomplish more of what the government has done with Medicare and Medicaid: reduce payments to doctors and hospitals, and ration care. Rationed care is what the U.K. and Canada and other countries have, and it has sent some of their wealthier citizens to our country to get quality health care.

In a previous post, I stated that we are in danger of losing our freedom in this health care legislation. Shawn Tully details what the Health Care Reform will do in his article, “5 Freedoms You’d Lose in Health Care Reform.”

Do not feel safe because you have private health insurance. You will not be able to keep your health insurance, due to language to that end in HR3200. This is a fact that our own Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, either is unaware of or is ignoring.

FoxNews reports: “CBO estimates that only 11 million to 12 million people would sign up for the public plan — making it a much smaller player in the market. The government coverage would be available alongside private plans through a new kind of insurance purchasing pool called an exchange.”

Well, the number of people who would voluntarily sign up for the public health plan may be correct; 11-12 million. What the CBO is forgetting is the number of people who will be thrown into the public health plan because it will become too difficult and expensive for businesses to continue funding private health insurance for their employees under Health Care Reform.

And what the Obama administration has been trying to keep quiet is that the Health Care Reform bill, if passed, would use taxpayer money to expand abortion services. Would you be happy to pay for someone else’s abortion? Douglas Johnson, National Right to Life Committee Legislative Director points out the reality of the Health Care Reform Bill in a letter to Members of Congress:

“In its current form, this bill would predictably result in the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade, driven by mandates and subsidies emanating from multiple provisions of this bill.

The bill contains provisions that would result in federal mandates requiring inclusion of elective abortion in virtually all health insurance plans, both private plans (which would be required to conform to federal standards in order to participate in the government-operated Exchange), and the new “public plan.” Other provisions would result in health networks being required to establish new abortion providers in order to provide local access to elective abortions. State laws placing procedural requirements or other limitations on abortion ( e.g., waiting periods, or parental notification laws) would be subject to nullification by federal regulation or lawsuit.”

It’s not that hard to believe that abortion ‘rights’ and services will be greatly expanded under Health Care Reform when you consider that in order to rein in health care costs, euthanasia seems to be an option the government is considering. It’s a slippery slope America is going down, with the current legality of abortion. Since an unborn baby can be aborted, why should an older person’s life, especially one with expensive health problems, be considered any more valuable by the government?

Fred Thompson recently had Betsy McCaughey, a conservative and former NY lieutenant governor, on his radio show. McCaughey, who has read the entire 1,000+ page Health Care Reform bill, expressed outrage that the government would mandate quality of life consultations for senior citizens. Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico writes:

On Thompson’s radio show, as well as in a New York Post op-ed and other interviews during the past week, McCaughey has said the provision requires senior citizens to submit to end-of-life consultations. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity touted the New York Post article on their shows. “Congress would make it mandatory, absolutely require, that every five years, people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner,” McCaughey said to Thompson.

The bill expressly says if you get sick somewhere in that five-year period, you have to go through that session again — all to do what is in society’s best interest or your family’s best interest and cut your life short. These are such sacred issues of life and death. Government should have nothing to do with it.”

In the 1,000+ page Health Care Reform bill, ironically named H.R.3200 America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, a variety of ways to cut costs are detailed. Do not be fooled by those saying you will be able to keep your private health insurance coverage. This Health Care Reform plan will make it so difficult to keep private health care insurance that the majority of people will be covered by the public health care plan. Of course, that is by design. How can the government hope to have ‘affordable’ health insurance if only a small percentage of Americans have it? Here’s the kicker. Our U.S. Senators and Representatives who ‘toil’ away for us passing laws in Washington, D.C. will not be covered by the public health care plan. Oh no. They’ll be covered by a top notch private health insurance plan.

If this is such a great plan, why wouldn’t our esteemed leaders in Washington, D.C. enroll in it pronto?

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