Will Congress and the Health Care Bill Turn into Thelma and Louise?

Thelma and Louise want to know if
you'd like to ride with them!

We're standing on the edge of a precipice in this country. The ques- tion is: Are we going to jump and hope some net is going to catch us or do we stop, go back and design a bridge?

This week we've been bombarded with cancer victims, children and every sort of attempt to make anyone who opposes this legislation look like a complete Scrooge. Even with the polls showing the majority are against this bill, I'm amazed at how many still believe this bill is a great idea. I suspect that many of them think it wont affect them because they have insurance or medicare and that won't change. If that's you, keep reading.

We will be forced to buy, not just insurance, but government approved insurance. If you don't buy insurance there will be some 16,000 NEW IRS agents hired with full powers to enforce the law. Not buying insurance will mean fines, and possible jail time enforced by an agency who has powers to garnish wages, take your tax refund and come after your property.

Are you under some delusion that you're going to get free insurance? Or that you'll just "get to keep" your insurance. That's not how this works....

First of all this bill give over 400+ Billion to the "evil" insurance companies the democrats are so fond or railing against. You will be required to buy only that insurance that is government approved. Your employer will have to buy insurance that is government approved. Insurance will not be able to turn down anyone due to a pre-existing condition. What they don't tell you is how much this required insurance is going to cost!

Remember how the government "helped" consumers by changing laws on credit cards? How much did your interest rate go up, even with good credit? Did the credit card cancel your account or reduce your limit? God help us all when the government tries to "help" consumers.

Massachusetts has a similar plan to the current bill that can now boast the highest healthcare premiums in the US. And they continue to rise The Boston Globe reported last September:

"The state’s major health insurers plan to raise premiums by about 10 percent next year, prompting many employers to reduce benefits and shift additional costs to workers.

Increases will range from 7 to 12 percent, capping a decade of consecutive double-digit premium increases, according to a Globe survey of the state’s top health insurers. Actual rates for 2010 will depend on the size of the employer and the type of coverage, with small businesses and individuals expected to be hit hardest. Overall, premiums are more than twice as high as they were 10 years ago."

Massachusetts State Treasurer Timothy Cahill said in a recent press conference, "If President Obama and the Democrats repeat the mistake of the health insurance reform here in Massachusetts on a national level, they will threaten to wipe out the American economy within four years."

Democrats claim those here illegally will not be covered; however they are planning an amnesty bill so they WILL be covered. In any case they won't be subject to legal actions or fines. And they'll still be able clog up emergency rooms and cost taxpayer dollars for their "free" care.

So those of you who think you're going to be able to keep your current healthcare: How long do you think a) you'll be able to afford that insurance or b) that the company you work for will continue to supply the insurance or c) that companies will want to hire under these conditions? According to reports, companies with 50+ employees who don't provide coverage will pay fines of $2,000 per year, per full time worker.

The fine is much less than the cost of insurance. Average cost of insurance [pdf] runs around $3,800 (single) $9,646 (family) per year¹ How many employers will decide to dump insurance and just pay the fine? How many will start favoring part-time or contract workers who have to buy their own insurance at increasing rates?

Law of unintended consequences? No...that is the plan.

Whatever the start is, the goal is government single payer, socialized medicine, public option--by any name given, it doesn't smell sweet. As more and more people complain about rising insurance costs, Washington plans the final solution: Get rid of insurance for most of the public. Institute the public option that will eventually become the public non-optional (except for those in Congress).

Obama, Pelosi and other progressives have been dying to force the American public into a socialized healthcare system for years. In addition to getting even more tax revenues, they can now start to institute controls over every aspect of a citizen's life.

In the same speech where Pelosi said that lawmakers, "...have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it," she also said this:

"You've heard about the controversies within the bill, the process about the bill, one or the other. But I don’t know if you have heard that it is legislation for the future, not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America, where preventive care is not something that you have to pay a deductible for or out of pocket. Prevention, prevention, prevention—it’s about diet, not diabetes. It’s going to be very, very exciting."

What she's very excited about is not keeping people healthy...it's about control. She and others can't wait to control what food you can buy, remove the salt shakers from restaurants, institute a soda tax, etc. There are so many things they can declare affect health costs and, with the government involved, plan to control every aspect they can.

For one, there's the specter of gun control. The National Institute for Health has quietly started to fund research into health consequences of gun ownership. A decade prior, the CDC was forbidden by Congress to study this, but here we are again. Why is such a study done, by such an agency, except that they plan to tie gun ownership into healthcare.

While the media made fun of Sarah Palin for "death panels" she was, in fact, right. Critics have characterized this as some literal Hitler panel choosing who lives and who goes to the gas chamber. Clearly what was said, however, is simply a description of panels that will decide what degree of care you get. If you're young and generally healthy, that's not a problem. But if you're old or infirm and considered a drain on the system rather than an asset, then inevitably it comes down to the state deciding if it's worth it to continue your life and how much money they should spend preserving it.

Remember the town hall meeting where Jane Strum told about her 100 year-old mother (now 105) was able to convince a doctor to give her a pacemaker because of her zest for life. When asked if she would get the same care under his heath plan. Obama said that, "...costs a lot and maybe we will have to say, just take a pill." In other words, you're mother's just going to be given pain management and allowed to die. If that's not a death panel, I don't know what is!

Also it's funny how, in 2009, reports started coming out changing the recommendations on about how often pap smears should be done or at what age mammograms should be done and how often. The report came out almost within days of each other. Think this was just a coincidence?

And we haven't even touched on doctors who plan to retire if this passes and drug stores that are already refusing new Medicaid patients. Or the rob Peter to pay Paul move of over 500 billion being taken from Medicare and put into this bill. All that while trying to claim they've got 500 billion dollars in savings in Medicare when they're in fact spending it elsewhere.

We'll know in a few hours if Congress has the courage to step back and build a better bridge to the future or drive us off the edge like Thelma and Louise, which will result in their going down as well, come November and in 2012.

"If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." Thomas Jefferson

¹High Deductible Health Plans with Health Savings Account that have deductibles of $1,000 or more (single) or $2,000 or more (family), 2006 numbers.