Here’s a Video Worth Watching
August 7th, 2009
I found this while searching out the flag@whitehouse.gov address, an address provided by Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office… yet another unchecked partisan czar.
Categories: Culture, Government, Healthcare, Politics, Tidbits
Just out of curiosity, I wonder what percentage of those who oppose health care reform have health insurance vs. those who don’t? For the “I got mine, screw everyone else” types you see on the news, how quickly would their views change if they lost their jobs and insurance?
@John
I can’t really speak for others, but having been without insurance several times between jobs, and having to go through a humiliating bankruptcy because of medical bills, I’m still against this current form of “health care reform,” “health insurance reform,” or whatever new tag/spin the administration cares to assign to the house bill. However, like a large majority of Americans BEFORE the bill started leaking to the press, I was absolutely for health insurance reform, i.e., removing it from the common employer provided versions to real exchanges and co-ops with dollar for dollar tax incentives. I am still for health insurance reform (and for that matter, reform within the entire health care and “litigation” industry in general).
Judging from existing statistics, I would guess that there are quite a few unemployed who are against this version of reform. Depending on the polling agency, anywhere from 66% to over 80% of Americans were for reform of the health care system before this house bill hit the street. The polling doesn’t indicate that Americans have suddenly decided they’re against reform; rather, it indicates that they’re against the methods of reform suggested by the house bill.
I’ve only managed to read a little over 700 pages of the proposed bill – which is 700 more than the lion’s share of our elected legislators. I’d be against the bill and those legislators on those grounds alone. At any rate, there is enough in those 700 pages to give virtually any one pause (except for far left progressives). Here’s one small example of outright deception from pages 16-17:
Contrary to President Obama’s claim that one can “keep existing insurance,” when your current health insurance policy changes for any reason and you do not renew (like increased premiums) you lose private coverage and are required by law to apply for the public option or a convoluted version of it (which is a feature of the compromise bill passed by committee). This effectively eliminates private insurance over time (except for heavily taxed private plans available to the few who can or will pay for it). “We can be clear on this: The committee discussions to-date have not even broached the fact that all of us now on private policies will only be allowed to have these until such time that we make a change (we change ours every year because of cost-shifting premium increases); then, it becomes public option or nothing.”
That’s a combination paraphrase and quote of Dr. Chartrand over at Responsibility – Freedom Demands It. Like I said, I’m for reform… that is market based and regulated. I’m not for the wholesale takeover of yet another portion of the U.S. economy… a huge portion. I don’t want to go through another bankruptcy because of medical bills, but I also don’t want this kind of high level government intrusion – especially when the bill doesn’t even address the third most significant cost of current health care: medical tort reform and the associated malpractice insurance prices.
Thanks for dropping in with great observations (and I really hope there are not that many “I got mine, screw everyone else” types running around). Stay well.
Cheers!
I’m not in favor of a government takeover of health insurance either, and realistically I don’t see it happening, but without that threat, changes of any significance won’t happen. (Kind of like the point made in the cell phone thread earlier)
@John
I believe that’s true, I mean really, have you seen all the health insurance adds on TV lately? Tons of insurance offers… I wonder how valid and “changed” they are. Since I couldn’t afford COBRA when I was unemployed, it always seemed like a joke to me. If there is even the remote possibility that we get just catastrophic insurance at a reasonable rate… WOW!
On the other hand, I do see a huge government intrusion in our future – primarily because there is nothing about this that is realistically bipartisan. The left is now doing precisely what they complained the right did while in power. I just can’t see much difference between the two groups. Kind of depressing.
I just pretend we’re in Rome a long time ago, and we’re voting ourselves bread and circuses 😉
Stay well John!
As we rub the sleep out of our eyes, we are greeted by the most leftward president and Congress in the history of the United States force-feeding us rising taxes, unfathomable debt and an ever-growing and all-powerful government.
Obama’s so-called “economic stimulus” raises taxes on business, bringing us higher unemployment. He knows well that if you want less of something, you tax it; if you want more of something you lower the taxes. He just happens to want less private sector jobs.
His so-called “healthcare bill” promises to close a third of the private hospitals, displace millions of healthcare workers, stop research, and decimate the insurance industry in just the first 24 months of enactment.
Obama’s so-called “Cap and Trade” will render a reduction of our standard of living, by capping supply and trading the remaining energy to the highest bidder.
Will he and Congress opt out of their gold-plated health policies, drive Economobile’s, and reduce incomes to match ours?
And he wants us to believe the Second Amendment is about hunting?
It’s time We the People bind down the current Would-be Despots “by the chains of the Constitution”, as Thomas Jefferson once said, and go find ourselves a new President and a New Congress.
Ones who believe in free enterprise, limited government, and acknowledge the Divine Author of all rights.
Ones who can say without apology or smirk, with hand over heart, In God We Trust.