pop's perspective

This is my dad's response to my railings against the health care bill. Since he's worked in the insurance industry for nearly 43 years he MIGHT know a little something about it. Posted without his permission... but he won't care.

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Since you brought up the subject:

(1) According to the New England Journal of Medicine (not Fox News), 46.3% of primary care physicians have indicated they may give up their practice if the healthcare reform act is passed. If you have ever enjoyed a cozy afternoon sitting in your doctor’s waiting room, then you are in for a treat – now the wait will be all day or perhaps even more.

(2) Healthcare costs will NOT go down – for several reasons:
a. Forcing insurers to cover uninsurable risks will cause all premiums to rise. Yes, I know promises have been made to restrict rate increases. But, like the power company, it only means the insurance company will have to demonstrate loss to get a rate increase. And that, won’t be hard to do.

b. Supply / demand forces will drive costs up.
c. No provision is made to force hospitals to reduce charges due to no longer having to foot the bill for the uninsured. And you can bet that hospital emergency rooms aren’t going to voluntarily reduce their fees.

d. There will still be uninsured people – primarily the very young and the people who fall in the gap. And, yes there will be a gap – only it will be with people who actually work and pay taxes and won’t get a subsidy. The lack of contributions from the healthy will drive up the overall medical cost. (According to the reconciled bill, the charge will be $695 a year - $58.00 a month)
(3) Taxes will go up. President Obama has promised to not increase taxes on anyone earning less than $200,000. But what he doesn’t say is”
a. Your state income taxes will rise dramatically as the increased cost of Medicaid is passed on to the states – who will have no other choice than to increase taxes.
b. The $200,000 will NOT be indexed – so as your salary increase – due to inflation brought on by the trillions of dollars of debt – more people will be impacted. Don’t believe this? Well, take a look at how the Democrats passed the taxation of Social Security benefits. The level where Social Security benefits are taxable was set in 1992 (18 years ago) at $27,000 for single; $32,000 for married. Want to guess what the level is today? $27,000 and $32,000.

(4) The imposition of a tax penalty for not covering employees will entice many employers to drop medical insurance – particularly where the employer portion of the medical cost exceeds the 8% of salary penalty. The reconciled bill would charge $2000 per employee per year - $166.67 per month. Most employers pay much more than this for employee only coverage.

(5) The imposition of a tax penalty for employees not having insurance is not a incentive to buy insurance. Many employees pay much more than 2.5% of pay in premiums already. Unless there is another mitigating factor, most young employees will risk not having coverage knowing that if a chronic or life threatening illness occurs, they can get insurance coverage.

Scary isn’t it. Of course, these points have been made over and over again - and have been dismissed by the current administration and the Democratic leadership as “scare tactics” by the Republicans. Well, no… these are hard economic facts that WILL come to pass if the legislation passes.

Now, as for the “deem and pass” tactic – yes, Republicans and Democrats have used it in the past – but never for legislation with as many far reaching implications as this. When the Democratic leadership uses this tactic, they are tacitly admitting that this legislation would not pass if presented to the House in a traditional manner. If this legislation is so good for America, then it should not have to resort to backroom deals and legislative tricks to be passed. But the bill is NOT good for America in general – only for a limited few.

Should this legislation pass, Americans need to be reminded over and over that this administration refuses to listen to the collective voice over its agenda. In order to blunt future actions by this administration that lead to socialization, we MUST VOTE to remove every sitting Democratic member of the House and every sitting member of the Senate in November 2010. We must campaign to defeat President Obama in 2012 and replace him with a President and a Congress that will repeal this horrific legislation.

That’s my 2cents.