Universal Health Care Taxing For You?

Do you find Pres. Barack Obama’s speech on health care reform this week incongruous with his assurance that health care reform will not cost the taxpayer?

 

“The only change you’ll see are falling costs as reform take hold.” Obama claims that Americans can keep the insurance plan they have and the doctors they have, if they like them, with health care reform.

Let’s think for a minute. Why is health care so expensive? Could part of the problem be that Medicare and Medicaid pay so little to doctors and hospitals that more of the cost is shifted to private health insurance providers? Could it be that the government-run Medicare and Medicaid have a prevalent fraud problem? Granted, costs are also high to pay for the uninsured visiting the ER for routine care. But let’s play a ‘what if’ game.

If the government were to provide universal health care, doctors and hospitals would be paid less, and it stands to reason there would be a drop in the quality of care as well as health care rationing. Why? Because to keep costs contained, the government will be forced to pay less for everything medical.   And doesn’t it follow that health care will be rationed to keep health care costs down? The Canadian health care system has plenty of examples of health care rationing, and extremely long waits for health procedures.

The cost of how to pay for universal health care is an elephant in the room, errr, White House. The Heritage Foundation calls the lower cost of a public health care plan ‘a shell game.’

Recent statements from Mr. Obama quote him urging Congress to consider taxing the ‘wealthy’ to pay for health care reform. How does Mr. Obama define the ‘wealthy’? Could it be $160,000 for families and $80,000 for single Americans? You see, Obama’s definition of wealthy can change to include more Americans. You may be wealthy and not even know it! And let’s not forget the VAT or the proposal to tax sugary drinks and alcohol to ‘help’ Americans be healthier (and help pay for the high cost of health care reform).

Can our President be honest? Obama claims that under his health care reform plan, Americans can choose between the public plan and a private plan. But the numbers just don’t work for me. And Obama’s supporters in Congress don’t seem to be spouting that same line. Remember Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, co-sponsor of HR-676, who said the end goal is a single-payer system and the end of the private insurance industry. Whoa. Has our Congress even considered an alternative to Obamacare?

Look at Obama’s speech in 2003, where he states he is a ‘proponent’ of the single-payer universal health care coverage. “Everybody in, nobody out,” Obama said.

 

Obama waxes eloquent in his speech this week, “What we can’t accept is reform that just invests more money in the status quo.” He adds, “We must attack the root causes of skyrocketing health care costs.”

Well, it sounds wonderful. But notice that Mr. Obama gives no details of how he is going to accomplish his goal. Nebulous must be Mr. Obama’s second middle name.

“We’ll eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in our health care system,” Obama stated.

Really? Just like there is little fraud in the government-run Medicaid and Medicare system? How reassuring. You’re not skeptical, are you?

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