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Obamacare Line: What a phone call for health care may sound like in the near future. More videos at Concerned Women For America
Under Obamacare, you could face substantial fines and even punishment for violating the plan’s mandatory insurance requirement. It looks like the IRS may play enforcer for President Obama and the Democrats, even deciding if your insurance coverage is acceptable or not.
This is government by and for the people? Congress’ Secret Plan to Pass Obamacare – CONFIRMED
Leaders in the House and Senate have a plan to pass President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care plan by Thanksgiving without any significant participation by the American public. CNS News has confirmed the details in our September 22nd titled “Passing a Shell of A Bill: Congress’ Secret Plan to Ram Through Health Care Reform.” Nicholas Ballasy reports “a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told CNSNews.com that it is ‘likely’ that Reid will use H.R. 1586—a bill passed by the House in March to impose a 90-percent tax on bonuses paid to employees of certain bailed-out financial institutions—as a ‘shell’ for enacting the final version of the Senate’s health care bill, which Reid is responsible for crafting.”…
Essentially, Senator Reid is going to put in the legislative language himself, with the help of a few other people, behind closed doors:
…CNSnews.com has confirmed that “the actual final text of the legislation will be determined by Reid himself, who will consolidate the legislation approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the still-unapproved legislation from the Senate Finance Committee. Reid will be able to draft and insert textual language that was not expressly approved by either committee.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will write the final version of Obamacare to be considered in the Senate with no input from the American people…
Then the House rubber stamps the Senate bill and rushes it into the President’s hands:
The final step in this plan is for the House to take up Obama care, without amending the legislation, and then sending that bill directly to the President for his signature. Matt Cover at CNSnews.com reports “House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) won’t rule out having the House vote on the Senate health-care bill without making any changes in it, which would allow the bill to go directly to President Barack Obama without having to pass through a House-Senate conference committee and another round of votes in the House and Senate–and a longer period of public scrutiny of what the text of the proposed law actually says.”…
Read the whole despicable thing at the link.
Universal coverage is not quite the boon to mankind it’s supposed to be. Moving from Washington to Massachusetts, a state whose government-run health care has all the features of the Baucus bill, is a sobering experience to a lefty speechwriter. Health Care Speechwriter for Edwards, Obama & Clinton Without Insurance Now
…In D.C., I had a policy with a national company, an HMO, and surprisingly I was very happy with it. I had a fantastic primary care doctor at Georgetown University Hospital. As a self-employed writer, my premium was $225 a month, plus $10 for a dental discount.
In Massachusetts, the cost for a similar plan is around $550, give or take a few dollars. My risk factors haven’t changed. I didn’t stop writing and become a stunt double. I don’t smoke. I drink a little and every once in a while a little more than I should. I have a Newfoundland dog. I am only 41. There has been no change in the way I live my life except my zip code — to a state with universal health care.
Massachusetts has enacted many of the necessary reforms being talked about in Washington. There is a mandate for all residents to get insurance, a law to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition, an automatic enrollment requirement, and insurance companies are no longer allowed to cap coverage or drop people when they get sick because they forgot to include a sprained ankle back in 1989 on their application…
…If Congress and the president want to fix health care, then it is time to start over. They need to look at what’s worked and what has failed in Massachusetts. They are going to have to actually take former Gov. Sarah Palin’s advice and “look north to the future.” Who knew that would ever make sense? But if we continue on this current path without looking, it’s easy to diagnose what’s coming to the country when a health care bill passes.
Adds Hot Air:
Nor is this the only such example of economic disaster that government-mandated coverage generates. Earlier this summer, we looked at Maine’s DirigoChoice, an Orwellian term for a program full of mandates on individuals and insurers. The combination resulted in premiums over 300% more expensive than in neighboring New Hampshire, and in an operating deficit so large that it no longer can accept all of the applications by uninsured Maine residents.
Well, hallelujah. Finally a Senate health care reform bill to die for: CBO: Baucus bill costs $829 billion, reduces deficit by $81 billion
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a cost estimate of the healthcare reform bill under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee, concluding it would increase federal spending by $829 billion over 10 years but be offset by enough spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the budget deficit by $81 billion.
The net number of legal U.S. residents without health insurance would reduce by 29 million over 10 years, the CBO further concluded…
OK, so 1. not everybody will be covered, 2. it is a huge amount of additional spending, 3. it will end in the destruction of the private health insurance industry, but who’s counting? It’s deficit-neutral, for heaven’s sake. What more could you ask for?
An actual bill, for starters.
Good article by Victor Davis Hanson, The Power of Payback:
…The Greeks remind us that when success and bounty arrive, then, especially, it is time to be self-effacing, modest, generous, and forgiving. If not, retribution follows—whether because human nature dictates that the crowd wishes misfortune upon the haughty, or, as I confess that I believe, there is a sort of divine force that seeks to remind us of our own folly and can only do that in appropriately dramatic and timely fashion.
If it were true that the financial meltdown of last September and the tough time in Iraq were reminders to the Bush administration that once around 2003, coming off Wall Street surges and easy victories in Afghanistan and Iraq, they should have calmed down, and treaded softly (rather than ‘mission accomplished’ and ‘bring ‘em on’), so too Obama should have feared the goddess last winter…
Much more at the link.
Here’s a shocker. From the Chicago Tribune, Health care reform: Privately, Barack Obama strongly backs public option
…President Barack Obama has long advocated a so-called public option, while at the same time repeatedly expressing openness to other ways to offer consumers a potentially more affordable alternative to health plans sold by private insurers.
But now, senior administration officials are holding private meetings almost daily at the Capitol with senior Democratic staff to discuss ways to include a version of the public plan in the health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to bring to the Senate floor later this month, according to senior Democratic congressional aides…
More at the link.
Tired of all the media spin about health care reform? Check this out.
What the Liberal Media Aren’t Telling You About Obama’s Healthcare Plans
Senators Near Bipartisan Deal on Health Care; No Public Option
After weeks of secretive talks, three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee were edging closer to a compromise that excludes a requirement many congressional Democrats seek for large businesses to offer coverage to their workers. Nor would there be a provision for a government insurance option, despite Obama’s support for such a plan, officials said.
The Finance senators were considering a tax of as much as 35 percent on very high-cost insurance policies, part of an attempt to rein in rapid escalation of costs. Also likely to be included in any deal was creation of a commission charged with slowing the growth of Medicare.
…They said any legislation that emerges from the talks is expected to provide for a nonprofit cooperative to sell insurance in competition with private industry, rather than giving the federal government a role in the marketplace.
Much more at the link.
Justbkuz 