Spend $1.5 Trillion to Save Money?

Can someone PLEASE explain to me how spending $1.5 Trillion dollars is going to SAVE money? Poor, delusional Nancy Pelosi tried to make the case that there were cuts that could be made in current health care spending that would pay for the massive costs of ObamaCare. That is, of course, patently ridiculous. Great medical and economic minds have wrestled with the problem of the rising costs of health care for decades, and have only been able to find relatively small savings.

So the idea that a bunch of Democrats squabbling among themselves can magically find savings in our system to pay $1.5 Trillion for the massive new multiple bureaucracies represented by the organizational chart pictured here is worse than ludicrous. (If you receive Conservative Truth by email, this is one time that you simply must visit the website. You have to see this chart.)

Although it may seem that way, the chart displayed here is not a joke. It accurately represents the dozens of federal and state agencies that will be involved in the administration of Obama's proposed national health care plan. Some are existing agencies that will insert themselves into the process, adding complications, cost and regulations to an already incredibly convoluted morass of contradictory government edicts. Almost every level of government, including - incredibly - the Department of Labor, the Treasury Department and the IRS, will be involved.  The new plan also creates a large number of new bureaucracies, agencies, committees, administrations and task forces.

Obama has been desperately trying to rush his plan through Congress before its summer recess. Thank the Lord he failed. He used bribes, threats, intimidation, speeches, and especially press conferences - all to no avail. In fact, during his first six months in office Obama gave more press conferences than George W. Bush did in 8 years; and most of them recently have been about his socialized health care plan.

He must realize that it is slipping out of his grasp. His approval rating regarding his leadership in health care has slipped dramatically in the last few weeks. An NBC poll taken July 20, 2009 showed that for the first time a significant majority of Americans disapproved of his radical ideas.

Here are some of the reasons why Americans are starting to wise up concerning ObamaCare:

1) ObamaCare will push senior citizens toward suicide. I don't normally do this, but I would like to thank Kitty Bishop and Nancy Bustani for alerting me to one of the most sinister aspects of Obama's plan, found on Page 425 of the House bill. (See the LINKS below to a Wall Street Journal article by, and a radio interview with patient care advocate Dr. Betsy McCaughy.) Over half of the money to pay for socialized health care will be taken from the Medicare budget for Senior Citizens. Since there will be less money to pay for end of life care, Obama's plan requires every senior citizen to undergo mandatory counseling on "alternatives" to prolonged illness, including suicide. And if, between counseling sessions a senior is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness such as cancer, they will be forced to go through the counseling again. I can guess what it will sound like: "Be a good citizen. You're going to die anyway. Why waste limited healthcare resources? Think of your grandchildren. We'll help you end your life quickly and painlessly."

2) Regardless of Obama's public statements to the contrary, ObamaCare will absolutely ration health care. And seniors will suffer the most. In the same Wall Street Journal article mentioned above was this paragraph: "The assault against seniors began with the stimulus package in February. Slipped into the bill was substantial funding for comparative effectiveness research, which is generally code for limiting care based on the patient's age. Economists are familiar with the formula, where the cost of a treatment is divided by the number of years (called QALYs, or quality-adjusted life years) that the patient is likely to benefit. In Britain, the formula leads to denying treatments for older patients who have fewer years to benefit from care than younger patients." One of Obama's policy advisors is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Obama's ruthless Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. He has complained in his writings that doctors regard the "Hippocratic Oath's admonition to 'use my power to help the patient to the best of my ability and judgment' as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others." He has stated that even basic medical care should be withheld from people with incurable diseases. If he has his way, a senior citizen with Alzheimer's or a child with cerebral palsy could be denied any kind of health care. (See LINK below to an important article. "ObamaCare Could Kill You.")

3) Obama would have us believe that a huge percentage of Americans are without health insurance, but the fact is that 87% do have coverage. As of this week, the polls show that 81% of them are concerned that ObamaCare will reduce the overall quality of the health care they now receive. Their concerns are well founded. Democrats are backing away from some of the more extreme aspects of their plan, but if it passes, later versions will include these extreme provisions. These include the eventual elimination of all private health insurance in America. Pages 16 and 17 of the House bill show where they plan to take our nation - toward European and Canadian style health care where the government makes all the decisions regarding your health, and where it will be illegal for you to pay for your own health care. They will start with bankrupting private insurance companies offering insurance plans below cost using our tax dollars. Once there is no competition, the government will be the only source of health care, and it will control every aspect of our lives from cradle to grave. That is why this is such an important battle for Obama and the liberals. They honestly believe that we are sheep that are too dumb to make decisions for ourselves, and that we need the elite to guide us.

4) Even Democrats are rebelling against ObamaCare. The leader of the so-called "Blue Dog" Democrats in the House publicly challenged Obama in a press conference last week. (The Blue Dogs are liberals in all other ways, but they are fiscally conservative.) Upset because Obama had not even consulted them before putting forth his plan, he stated that the bill could not pass without the votes of the Blue Dogs, and forced a meeting with Obama. These rebellious Democrats are a large part of the reason the vote has been delayed until September. The more liberal Democrats are so furious that they are threatening to run liberal candidates against the incumbent Blue Dogs in the next primaries. (I love it when I see them chewing on each other!)

5) In addition to further expanding our already exploding national deficit, ObamaCare would place a huge burden on every state with its Medicare requirements. These costs have not been factored in to the $1 Trillion price tag that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) states will be the cost of Obama's plan. The states, many of which are broke or (like California) bankrupt, simply won't be able to afford the extra costs. So the federal government will have to pay the extra costs through grants to the states. When these costs are added, conservative estimates of the real costs of ObamaCare are in excess of $1.5 Trillion.

6) The White House continually holds up Canada as the shining example of what ObamaCare will do for (actually to) America. But when I talk to my Canadian friends, I hear this type of comment over and over: "Please don't go to national health care in America. If you do, we Canadians will have nowhere to go when we really need help." One example is a Canadian friend of mine who was told by his physician that he would be dead in sixty days without heart surgery. He was put on a six month waiting list. He had money, but couldn't find a doctor who would treat him because it was against the law! He came to the States and had the surgery within a week.

7) According to its own Board of Trustees, Medicare was in the red in 2008 and will be insolvent by 2019. And ObamaCare is modeled after this disastrous bureaucracy. For more information, I refer you to an excellent article on the subject by a new Conservative Truth author, Ben Cerruti. Just go to www.ConservativeTruth.com and read "Medicare Financial Failure Portends Same for ObamaCare."

8) This last item may not concern some people, but it concerns me greatly. It grieves me that millions of our tax dollars are already spent each year to kill innocent babies in their mother's wombs. We do that not only here in America, but we also export the genocide of abortion to nations all over the world, even though the majority of Americans are pro life. ObamaCare will dramatically increase the number of abortions in America. Even though birth control is readily available, millions are too lazy or too stupid to use it. The only thing that motivates many promiscuous people to use birth control is the potential for having to pay for an abortion. ObamaCare will provide free abortions for any reason, and abortion will become the birth control method of choice for those with no morals.

I don't want you to think that I'm the kind of person who complains without offering alternatives, so I will tell you what would actually work to bring down health care costs, improve the quality of health care, and provide coverage for more people. Unfortunately the politicians will not listen because it makes sense, and because there's nothing in it for them.

The first thing would be to limit the ridiculous medical malpractice liability suits. Of course, that will never happen because trial lawyers donate billions to the Democrats' campaign coffers. But this is one of the major causes of rising health care costs. Some doctors who have never had a malpractice suit pay more for malpractice insurance than all their other costs combined, including: office space, nurses, staff salaries, all other types of insurance, equipment costs, lab equipment and taxes. That is simply insane. But when a woman can get a $30 million settlement for a nose job that didn't suit her, the insurance companies are going to charge - through the nose, so to speak. (By the way, the attorney got $10 million, the usual 1/3 of the settlement. And his nose was fine.)

Liability insurance costs also costs lives and limits the availability of health services. When I was a young firefighter-paramedic, I worked in a central Florida county that had not one doctor that would deliver a baby, although there were over a dozen qualified obstetrician-gynecologists in the county. Mothers and babies had died on the 2 hour trip to hospitals that had obstetricians (although fortunately none while I was there). When I spoke to one of the OB-GYN docs (who now only practices gynecology), he told me that with the very best of medical care there have always been, and always will be, a certain very small percentage of stillborn babies. People understood that. But our nation, which has ten times more lawyers per capita than any other (see LINK to Overlawyered.com) has changed. So many people sued obstetricians over something they could not control that today no doctor in that county can afford the insurance to deliver babies.

ObamaCare will tax you extra if you don't have a government-approved health insurance policy. Why not turn that around? Ronald Reagan is famous for saying that government is not the solution; government is the problem! (See LINK below to a video of his famous speech.) He believed, as I do, that we know what is best for us. Wouldn't it make a lot of sense for the government to give tax breaks to Americans who are responsible and purchase their own insurance, thus relieving their neighbors of the burden of paying for them? I'll answer my own question. Of course it would make sense. Which is why the Liberals will never go for it.

Finally, one of the main reasons people seek emergency health care is that they don't receive preventative health care. Study after study has proven that health and wellness programs cost a small fraction of what it takes to treat the diseases and illnesses they could prevent. If the government is going to spend money on health care, this is where it should be spent. Conservatives have tried to add amendments to the ObamaCare bill that would provide effective prevention programs, only to be rebuffed by the Democrats who control every committee. Why? Because Liberals want people to depend on government. If you are healthy and happy, you don't need them. And they can't stand that.

INTERNET RESOURCES:

ObamaCare Could Kill You
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/01/15/obamacare-could-kill-you

Wall Street Journal: The Assault on Seniors
http://www.defendyourhealthcare.us/assaultonseniorswsj.html

RADIO INTERVIEW: Pushing Suicide on Seniors
http://fredthompsonshow.com/

ObamaCare is in Retreat
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/07/31/obamacare_the_coming_retreat.html

The ObamaCare Horror Story You Won't Hear
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/06/19/the-obamacare-horror-story-you-won%E2%80%99t-hear/

OverLawyered Website
http://www.overlawyered.com

VIDEO: Massachusetts Plan is a Preview of Obama's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWIW3ueUjSo

VIDEO: Health Care Rationing (Great Parody)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrwdZ2bX-oc&feature=related

VIDEO: Ronald Reagan on Compulsory National Health Insurance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOZsD9X4R6A&feature=related

VIDEO: Ronald Reagan: Government is Not the Solution; Government is the Problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x59wNGHe6iI&feature=related