Back to Basics

How many more strings do the democrats need to pull to try pushing through a health care plan that isn’t going to solve the problems but create more?  They talk of compromise and throw out alternatives to the public option.  The entire bill is needs to be scrapped!

Removing the public option only addresses a small portion of the bill.  The exchange program itself is a large part of the problem.  The exchange program is the government takeover of the health care system. It is through the exchange program that the government will take control over what policies will be sold, will establish the benefits and will set pricing standards for the policies.  Setting up the exchange alone costs billions of dollars, expands government, and creates a whole new government entity to control the insurance industry.  It is through this exchange program that people will end up losing their current coverage.  If all insurance policies within the next 5 years have to go through the exchange then in 5 years the government will have control over all insurance policies whether the public option is part of the program or not.  The exchange program is the government brokering insurance policies!  Why should the government go into the business of insurance brokerage?  The fact is – they SHOULDN’T.  The government needs to leave this to private industry.

Private industry needs to be given the parameters to address the current insurance needs and concerns, and there are a number of alternative bills that address these issues.  None of these bills call for a government takeover of insurance.  None of these alternative bills create a government exchange program to broker policies.  None of these bills penalize individuals for not purchasing insurance.

What the alternatives do is give responsibility to each individual to determine their insurance needs, not the government.  It allows them to choose the policy they feel meets their needs and make adjustments so they may afford the policy.  If individuals are responsible for their insurance needs then maybe they will make better choices when it comes to purchasing a policy and the utilization of the medical care under those policies.  The alternatives give a tax credit to individuals and families to apply toward the purchase of these insurance policies if they are not otherwise covered under an employment-based plan.  It also gives the individual options, so if the employer makes the choice to decrease coverage or chooses a plan that doesn’t meet the needs of the individual, then that employee could purchase a plan outside of the employer and receive the tax credit to help offset the cost.  These alternatives keep the employee from staying in a job just because of insurance, and if they become unemployed an outside insurance policy would come with them, making the expensive Cobra payments a thing of the past.

The alternatives allow the insurance companies to create new pooling mechanisms, providing new opportunities to offer policies.  They would require the insurance companies to provide affordable insurance plans to people with pre-existing conditions, at only a slightly higher premium cost.  Some alternative plans would even permit the sale of insurance across state lines.

Equally important, the alternatives do not take away care for our seniors.  The problems with the Medicare system need to be addressed separately.  You cannot take money away from the senior population to provide insurance for the uninsured.  That doesn’t solve any problems and only creates new ones.

Likewise, the pork or earmarks in the House bill are not in the alternatives.  There is over $88 billion in earmarks in H.R. 3200 that further expand the role of government, support illegal immigrants and support labor unions!

Obama promised not to sign any bill that would increase the deficit of the country.  If he intends to keep that promise then there is no way H.R. 3200 should be signed because it will not only increase the deficit but will increase the cost of insurance policies, create penalties for individuals as well as companies, and will increase taxes for everyone.  There is no magical way to pay for a $1 trillion program – the bottom line is the taxpayers will be footing the bill.  Disguising the taxes as penalties, employment costs, increases in Social Security withholdings or other creative ways is still an increase and taxes and an increase in cost to taxpayers.

Health care is a personal issue, and the government should not be making those decisions for you.  This isn’t a campaign for office that can be voted out in four years.  This is a change that will affect everyone in this country!  Any bill that creates a government run exchange program is a plan that grants a government take over of the insurance industry.  Once an exchange program is established, it will only be a matter of time before the public option is added if not initially included, and soon after the whole system is converted to a one-payer plan.  This needs to be stopped now!