With the 220 to 215 vote in the US House of Representatives, the US cleared a major obstacle in the decades long battle to establish universal health care. Speaker Pelosi (D-Ca) chuckled, that with one Republican vote by "Joe" Cao of Louisiana, "That equals bipartisan." The vote was bipartisan alright, but it was in the opposition to federal funding for abortions and its massive price tag.
Unlike the Senate bills being cobbled together, the House Bill establishes the so-called robust option. CBO estimates the total cost of the bill to be over 1.2 Trillion dollars, with over 729 Billion dollars coming in the form of new taxes, primarily on small businesses. According to the Wall Street Journal, most of the spending on this plan will go into a government run exchange, where people who earn from 150-400% of the poverty level could purchase heavily subsidized (paid for by the exchange trust like social security and medicare are) insurance rates. The subsidies are as high as 93% for a family of 4 making 150% of the poverty level (currently $22,050 in 2009) and scale downward as income climbs to the 400% mark of about $89,000.
The plan, which would begin taxing people almost immediately, would not pay any benefits until 2013 and would begin to pay benefits for only six years thereafter, is funded by taking some money out of existing medicare by cutting payments for services by some 21 percent beginning next year. The practical price tag of the plan would push nearly 2 Trillion by some estimates and fail to provide the campaign pledge of universal health care that President Obama made last year.
Since the plan takes care of those between 15-400% of poverty level, what's in it for the nations truly poor? The Bill passed, also expands the Medicaid program to all Americans who are below 150% of the poverty line. Projections are that upwards of 25% of the US population will be added to the roles of Medicaid, creative an expansion of government control and providing only the barest of needs in health care, resulting the the rationing of services and choices people will have because they are at the government's mercy.
A couple examples of the choices you can face come to mind. My significant other recently went to a local eye doctor for care. Her vision coverage pays a pretty decent chunk of the cost of her frames and lenses. While still expensive, she has the choice to pay extra out of her pocket to get a style and the features that protect her eyes and allow her the freedom to have her individuality. Compare that to medicaid which tells you that if you need glasses, you get a very limited choice of frames and none of the extras. You do not have the option to pay extra out of your pocket to get a thinner lens or auto tinting. You will most likely be left with glasses that will remind your parents of their experiences watching Buddy Holly in the 50s and you will have the added pleasure of being able to burn ants in the noonday sun with the coke bottle thick lenses (if you have my prescription). Costs will be contained through the reduction of choice, plain and simple.
While passage of the plan marks a significant milestone in Democrats desire to expand the welfare state, the road to nirvana is paved with many stones that will have to be removed with the remainder of the stimulus monies yet unspent. Despite Max Baucus' assertion that the public option was dead in the Senate, the house bill will have to be voted on by the Senate and if it is amended (many Blue Dog Democrats and conservatives are against the public option and price tag) such a bill will have to be reconciled in the conference committee. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) who caucuses with the Democrats said yesterday on Fox News Sunday, that if the cost remained high as is projected currently, he would not allow the vote to come to final vote. So much for the Super-Majority Harry Reid thought he had locked up.
A horrific future of wholesale dependence is being concocted by your government. They are acting in a manner which completely holds the values our founders had in forming this nation in complete contempt. Democrats and Republicans for nearly 80 years have sought to save us from ourselves by paying for and taxing us for the benefit of not worrying where our oatmeal was coming from. The health care reform act, coupled with Cap and trade and other power grabs are designed to apologize to the world by effectively allowing the rest of the world to catch up and surpass what arguably has been the greatest nation on the earth. If the Health Care Reform Bill is allowed to pass, we will be effectively signing our own death warrant as a nation as we will eventually not have enough money to pay our debts and maintain our own national security. It's Pollyanna in reverse, but the threat is very real.
Mike Rowland
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