It just doesn't feel right.
Any time you have to cajole, bribe, kiss arse, promise, strong-arm, and damn near politically blackmail a congressman or senator to support something that is supposed to
help Americans throws up a red flag, to me.
Over 1300 pages in the new health care plan? If it takes that much to explain it to the government, Lord knows how much it will take to explain it to us.
Somewhere, somehow,
somebody has to pay for this. If you can't simply say who that is without smoke & mirrors... something is wrong.
40 million Americans without health insurance. OK, I'll accept that. Does anyone know
why they are without insurance? I hear the numbers all the time but never that answer.
There is no mention of aggressive measures and radical actions to eliminate waste and fraud in the current system and no incentives to do so.
WE STILL DON'T HAVE THE ABILITY TO PRICE SHOP AND LET THE MARKETPLACE DRIVE COSTS DOWN. If I need an MRI why can't I call and find out how much they charge, then call someplace else and compare prices?
Why can't someone come out and say: "We've got 40 million folks that have no healthcare. After weeding out the ones that are here illegally, drug fiends, and people that are freeloading off the system, we're down to 15 million. They can pay X&Y a year but not Z. We'll take the Z off their plate and cover it. It will cost taxpayers $XXX a year to take care of that."
Limiting doctors to a sliding pay scale?
Sure, no problem... as soon as the government forgives all of their student loans for med school. A friend of mine's husband is a pediatrician. He's been out of med school for 4 years and he's trying to start a practice. They have $130,000 of student loans to pay back.
Not every health care system is perfect. Not everyone's system can work here. Why not take the best from all systems and make it work for us?
Interesting tidbits:
• Page 16: States that if you have insurance at the time of the bill becoming law and change, you will be required to take a similar plan. If that is not available, you will be required to take the government option!
• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free
healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and
community organizer health plans (example: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for
Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll
employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
Too much money for something that has few too many questions about it and no one able to give a simple answer to.