“Shredding” Medicare?

How would you like to have the same healthcare plan that Congress has? Under the Ryan Medicare plan, you can. Or you can keep traditional Medicare or pay into your own plan with vouchers to help you purchase it.

But when the talking heads tell you that the Ryan plan will “shred” Medicare, that is not true. Why? Because Medicare has already been shredded for $716 billion dollars. Where did that money go? It went to Obamacare.

Obamacare will destroy Medicare. The Ryan plan will save it.

And let me make this promise. I will never lie to you to manipulate you. If I find that I am wrong about something I’ve said or written, I’ll be the first to admit it.

Get informed. Get involved.

Targeted for Destruction

Provisions of Obamacare and how the law targets the American insurance industry:

• Prohibits lifetime and annual benefit spending limits (plan years (PY) beginning 9/23/10)
• Prohibits non-group plans from canceling coverage (rescissions) (PY beginning 9/23/10)
• Requires plans to cover, at no charge, most preventive care (PY beginning 9/23/10)
• Allows dependents to stay on parents’ policies through age 26 (PY beginning 9/23/10)
• Provides limited protections to children with pre-existing conditions (PY beginning 9/23/10)
• Health plans required to spend a minimum of 80% of premiums on medical claims (traditionally, insurance companies have 65% in reserve for claims, 45% for administrative costs)
• $500,000 deduction cap on compensation paid to insurance company employees and officers
• Individuals without government-approved coverage are subject to a tax of the greater of $695 or 2.5% of income (in the first House bill, HR 3200, this tax-penalty was up to $250,000 and up to 5 years in prison)
• Insurers cannot impose any coverage restrictions on pre-existing conditions (FY 2013)
• Insurers must offer coverage to anyone wanting a policy and every policy has to be renewed (FY2013)
• Insurance plans must include government-defined “essential benefits” and coverage levels (FY 2013)
• Impose tax on nearly all private health insurance plans (FY 2013)
• Impose (“Cadillac tax” on “high cost” plans, 40% tax on the benefit value above a certain threshold: $10,200 individual coverage, $27,500 family or self-only union employer coverage (FY 2018)

The health insurance industry has been targeted by Barack Obama and the Democrat Party for destruction.

This is akin to telling auto makers ‘I know it costs $18,000 to build your car but people need cars so you must sell it for $9,000.’ Or telling a home builder, ‘I know the house cost $175,000 to build but people need housing so you must sell it for $80,000’ – all in the name of compassion of course. A company could not survive.

Is this by accident? Listen to their own words.

• “I happen to be a proponent of single-payer (government only) universal healthcare coverage…but…we may not get there immediately. because first, we’ve gotta take back the White House and we’ve gotta take back the Senate and we’ve gotta take back the House.” Barack Obama, (D) 2003
• “But I don’t think we’ll be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There’s gonna be potentially some transition process that I can envision a decade out, or 15 years out or 20 years out.” Barack Obama, (D) 2007
• “I think if we get a good public option it could lead to single payer and that’s the best way to get to single payer.” – Congressman Barney Frank (D)
• “And next to me was a guy from the insurance company who then argued against the public health insurance option saying, ‘it wouldn’t let private insurance compete, that a public option will put the private insurance industry out of business and lead to single payer.’ He was right! The man was right.” – Congresswomen Jan Shakowsky (D)

Is this by accident? You tell me. Unemployment is at 9.7%. Can we afford to put health insurance employees on the unemployment rolls? (Some think the government will just federalize the entire industry). And what industry will be targeted next? Maybe yours?

I will never knowingly lie to you to gain your support. Can you say the same thing about this Congress and this President?

Join the fight to repeal Obamacare by supporting  bills such as HR 4903 offered by Michelle Bachmann, (R) Congresswoman, Minnesota, .

http://www.ntu.org/news-and-issues/health-care/repeal-the-health-care-bill.html

A Principle Bigger Than Us

The battle over comprehensive healthcare reform is not just a debate of liberal vs conservative, Democrat vs. Republican; it is a debate on whether we will remain a nation ruled by laws and not by men.

The idea of taking what rightfully belongs to one to give to another because someone deems it “fair” is fundamentally flawed. And that is exactly what Obamacare does.

The Law: The 5th Amendment to the Constitution states in part:

“No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

That is the fundamental principle we have trampled. And I am so, so frustrated that so many can’t or won’t see it. Property is that which is earned as well as that which is owned. It applies to individuals as well as corporations.

Thou Shalt Not Steal is one of the 10 Commandments. As Economist Walter Williams likes to point out, stealing a person’s property whether by gun or by government – it’s still stealing. Having a majority in Congress does not make it any less so.

Thomas Jefferson, a man of great thoughts, words and deeds said,

“To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.”

I could not agree more. How about you?

A Time to Celebrate?

“And next to me was a guy from the insurance company who then argued against the public health insurance option saying, ‘it wouldn’t let private insurance compete, that a public option will put the private insurance industry out of business and lead to single payer.’ He was right! The man was right.” – Congresswomen Jan Shakowsky (D)

Traditionally, insurance companies have followed a 65-45 rule. 65% of revenues go to claims, 45% to administration. Obamacare changes that to 85% payout, 15% administration. This will put the insurance companies out of business.

So, before you celebrate putting your adult children on your current heathcare plan or that your pre-existing condition must be covered you should ask yourself, covered by whom? By BlueCross? What if there is no BlueCross? Unthinkable? Think again.

“I think if we get a good public option it could lead to single payer and that’s the best way to get to single payer.” – Congressman Barney Frank (D) No private insurance only one single payer – government.

There’s your answer, you will be covered by the government who wrote the rules that put your insurance company out of business. That’s how government ‘competes.’

“But I don’t think we’ll be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately,” Barack Obama

And while we’re celebrating, let’s thank the employees of ATT, who just wrote off a billion dollars, because under Obamacare, they can no longer deduct the cost of a drug plan offered to their employees. Not only might those employees lose their benefits, they may lose their jobs.

But could we please stop all this sniping about winners and losers? This is a time for celebration. Isn’t it?

A Question for the President

The President has invited certain Democrats and Republicans to join him on February 25th for a televised Healthcare Summit. Here is the first question I would like to see asked of the President.

Over this last year you have repeatedly told Americans that, under your plan, if they like their current health insurance plan, they can keep it.

Yet in June of 2003, while speaking to the AFL-CIO, you said (and this is an exact quote),

“I happen to be a proponent of single payer, universal healthcare coverage. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, is spending 14 percent – 14 percent of its gross national product on healthcare, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody.

And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says ‘everybody in – nobody out’ – a single payer healthcare plan – universal healthcare plan. That’s what I’d like to see but, as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first, we’ve gotta take back the White House and we’ve gotta take back the Senate and we’ve gotta take back the House.”

Mr. President, how can you promise Americans they can keep their current private healthcare plan when you yourself have said you are a proponent of single payer, ‘everybody in – nobody out,’ government controlled public healthcare coverage?

I like to think of myself as a compassionate moderate…

“I’m an independent. I don’t like and I don’t follow politics. I like to wait until I hear both sides, then make up my mind.”

Now that I have your attention, here is the other side of Healthcare Reform you probably haven’t heard.

The Affordable Healthcare for America Act will do the following:

• Mandate that you and your family must, by law, purchase health insurance. The rate will be established by “The Commissioner.” Get used to that term. You’re going to hear it a lot.
• If you have employer provided insurance, you can keep it until any major provision changes – cost, coverage, etc. Then you will lose it and be forced onto the Public (government) Option. If your employer tries to keep a private plan, he will be taxed punitively.
• If you refuse to buy government healthcare, you can be fined up to $250,000 and imprisoned for up to five years.
• Think of it this way – everything you and your employer pay now for healthcare insurance will become a massive tax, paid directly to the federal government.
• If you think you may qualify for free healthcare, think again. The threshold will be so low that, if you work or have any assets, you pay. (The government provides public housing too but I wouldn’t want to live in one).
• “The Commissioner shall determine…” EVERYTHING – how much you pay and how you and your family get treatment. You can call them death panels or something else but the value of your life will be determined by bureaucrats appointed by “The Commissioner.” The older you are, the less healthy you are, the more you cost government.
• “The Commissioner” will determine what doctors are paid. Some doctors are saying they’ll leave medicine or move to another country. This will lead to shortages of medical services.
• The AHF Act will eventually put private insurance companies out of business. This, at a time when unemployment is at 10.2% and around 15 million Americans are out of work.
• With the AHFA, you will be placing your own and your family’s health in the hands of a government that has nearly bankrupt Medicare and Social Security and is $10 to $12 trillion in debt. Using standards government requires for corporate accounting (GAAP), U.S. Government’s liabilities exceed World GDP – over $65 trillion dollars.

If the Affordable Healthcare for America Act passes, America will never be the same. It will result in a new and massive flow of wealth from the private sector – businesses and individuals – to over 110 new federal bureaucracies. And “The Commissioner” can do with it anything he damn well pleases.

Here is a story Economist Walter Williams likes to tell about education. When a legislator told him that she cared as much for his children’s education as he did, he asked her “Oh really, what are my children’s names?” Likewise, it is impossible for bureaucrats in Washington to care for your family’s healthcare as much as you do. They will tell you do but they don’t. Period.

An older gentleman from Missouri recently wrote a letter to the editor. Due to his poor health, he was considered at risk for H1N1. His doctor had three flu shots but told him he had to call the health department for approval. The health department said no, he didn’t qualify. When he asked what he should do, they said to “check back in December.” Of course, if he dies before then, it will be a cost savings to the government that did such a poor job of distributing the vaccine. And, oh yes, get used to that word “approval” too. You’re going to need it for anything and everything.

So I’m asking you passionate, compassionate moderates…do you really think supporting this bill shows compassion? Do you? Really? Please reconsider. Please.