Health Care: A Bad Bill

Only a few people know what’s exactly in the new proposed Senate health care bill, but there are some things we do know. The only positive thing we know is that preexisting exclusions are prohibited. Everything else we know is undesirable.

Medicare will be cut by about 500 billion dollars. This will cause rationing and lower quality care for seniors and fewer doctors who are willing to accept Medicare. Seniors will be drastically affected. The government will not deem them “cost effective”.

Taxes will be raised. About one-half the funding for this bill will come from new taxes, fees, and penalties. Raising taxes in a recession is beyond foolish.

This bill will cost almost one trillion dollars. Health insurance is extended to only about thirty million more people. Using simple mathematics this means that it will cost over thirty thousand dollars per person. Might I suggest that the government provide ten thousand dollars to each person and let them select their own insurance? This would dramatically reduce the cost of this bill.

Medicaid will be extended to include about 15 million more people. This is one-half of the new people covered. States pay about half of Medicaid costs. The states can not afford these new mandates. This means new taxes on the state level or drastic cuts in other state services.

Insurance premiums will cost more. If Medicare further reduces the rate of reimbursement to hospitals and doctors, the private sector will have to pick up the difference and pay more. There will be new taxes applied to insurance and this will cause premium costs to rise even more.

For the first time in our history citizens will be forced to purchase an item – even if they do not want to do so. Car insurance is not the same as this requirement. Driving is a privilege not a right and drivers are required to carry insurance to cover the damage to other drivers. If you do not buy health insurance you are subject to a fine. If you do not pay this fine you can be jailed.

The fine is so low that it is not a deterrent. A young healthy person would pay the fine and only purchase insurance if they were injured or became ill.

Many new government bureaucracies are created by this bill. Controls over private insurance would be great. Our choices would disappear. How is this an improvement of health care? It is government control of our health care by another name. We do not want the government to control our health care and our very lives. Stop this bill! Vote NO!

Signed,
The Electorate