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Why is it that 85% of Americans are satisfied with their health insurance and the President and Congress feel the need to remake the entire system, yet 99% of Americans are fed up with the added cost burden on our health care system resulting from the threat of litigation and the President took meaningful malpractice reform off the table immediately?

Can you say “payback“?  What happened to the guy who said:

“One year from now, we have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race – and I’ve won. I don’t take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House.” — Barack Obama, November 3, 2007

No, I am not referring to the “Beer Summit.”

Today’s Wall Street Journal headline reads “Cash for Clunkers” Runs Out of Gas.  The article describes how the $1 billion program under which people can trade in old used cars and receive $4,500 for the purchase of a more fuel efficient new car is running out of cash, has experienced significant processing delays and has car dealers hesitating to take new deals for fear of not being paid under the program.

Let’s do the math.  $1 billion divided by $4,500 equals 222,222 potential transactions under this program.

If the government can not properly project the demand and administer a program for $1 billion and 222,222 transactions, how can we possibly expect the government to manage the country’s $2.2 trillion health care costs for 300 million people?

Definitely a Teachable Moment.

At his press conference last night, President Obama stated:

“So let me be clear: This isn’t about me. I have great health insurance, and so does every member of Congress. This debate is about the letters I read when I sit in the Oval Office every day and the stories I hear at town hall meetings….”

Why does the President and Congress have great health insurance and they are trying to cram down a government managed plan on the rest of us? Have you seen how well the Medicare and Medicaid plans work? Why don’t the President and Congress have to live under the laws they pass? Perhaps if they did, they would actually read them first and after they did, they would never vote to subject themselves to the same things they are willing to force upon the proletariat.

So why say anything, particularly something as incendiary as the Cambridge police department “acted stupidly”?

… As long as you keep your current job. Since most of us have employer provided insurance, we have health insurance as long as we have a job, plus some period of COBRA coverage.  If you leave your job, you typically get new insurance coverage from your next employer. Under the provisions of H.B. 3200,  America`s Affordable Health Choices Act, your choice to keep existing insurance coverage is as follows (see page 16):

SEC. 102. PROTECTING THE CHOICE TO KEEP CURRENT COVERAGE. (a) GRANDFATHERED HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE DEFINED.—Subject to the succeeding provisions of this section, for purposes of establishing acceptable coverage under this division, the term ‘‘grandfathered health insurance coverage’’ means individual health insurance coverage that is offered and in force and effect before the first day of Y1 if the following conditions are met:

(1) LIMITATION ON NEW ENROLLMENT.— (A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.

What this legal mumbo-jumbo states is that you can keep your current insurance coverage as long as your current employer continues to offer it.  Once you change jobs, you are on the government plan because your new employer’s insurance carrier can not accept new people into their plan.

Additionally, Section 313 of this bill permits the employers to make a contribution of 8% of wages in lieu of providing “qualifying” coverage.  The government will then provide the coverage.  If you do the math, this will be the optimal solution for many companies.  In 2007, the median American household earned $50,233.  Let’s assume that amount is now $55,000 for inflation the last 2 years.  8% of this amount totals $4,400, or $367 per month.  My COBRA coverage from imc2 was approximately $1,150 per month, and while imc2 provides nice coverage, it is by no means a “gold plated” plan.  I would estimate that single coverage runs somewhere in the $500-700 per month range.

If it were you, would you choose $367 per month for the government plan or somewhere far north of that amount to provide private insurance?  I think most companies will do the math and Voila! – you will not be able to keep your current health insurance and your own doctor, etc.

Why would we want this?

The AP is reporting the following regarding the annual July budget update prepared by the Administration:

The release of the update _ usually scheduled for mid-July _ has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.

So we’re in a huge rush to give over our health care system to the government, with full knowledge that this program is going to cost Trillions of future dollars in the future, yet we are not allow to understand where we stand today financially.  This is the equivalent to a family rushing out to buy a new house without considering whether it has enough income to pay for that house.

President Obama ran on a pledge of full transparency of government.  Now it is time to ‘buck up” and give the American taxpayer all the relevant information necessary to understand the fiscal implications of this plan.

Yesterday, in response to a question from CBS News Medical Correspondent, Dr. Jon LaPook, as to “whether each individual American should be required to have health insurance”, President Obama responded:

I have come to that conclusion. During the campaign, I was opposed to this idea because my general attitude was the reason people don’t have health insurance is not because they don’t want it, but because they can’t afford it. And if you make it affordable, then they will come. I’ve been persuaded that there are enough young uninsured people who are cheap to cover, but are opting out. To make sure that those folks are part of the overall pool is the best way to make sure that all of our premiums go down. I am now in favor of some sort of individual mandate as long as there’s a hardship exemption…

In other words, if you are young and healthy, we need you to pay into an insurance system, whether you want to or not, to subsidize the costs of folks who are not as healthy as you.

This is how you lose your freedom.  You are not allowed to decide how you spend the fruits of your labor. It sounds good – “all of our premiums go down”.  However, if you are paying no premiums today and tomorrow your are paying premiums for a service you do not want or need, how did your “premiums go down”?

First it was rich perople, now its healthy people – who is next?

WOW!!  That’s how much debt the federal government racked up between October 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009.   That works out to about $111 Billion per month, $3.65 Billion per day, $152 Million per hour, $2.5 Million per minute and $42K per second that the federal government spends more than it has coming in.  (BTW – there are 23.6 Million seconds in 9 months).

And this  includes less than 10% of the $787 Billion “Stimulus” package that had to get done or unemployment would hit 9%.  Oh, it did anyway?  Nevermind.

And this does not include the $Trillions to be spent on health care “reform”.  Where does it end?

There are now bills in Congress which provide for a  5.4% surtax on folks making more than $1M.  To tax the productive members of society to pay for the Democrats freedom-robbing programs is ridiculous.

Where this will end is simple.  A 2 line tax form:

How much did you make last last year?

Send it in.

I had an interesting discussion regarding the Obama health care proposal this afternoon while eating pizza after the North Ride.

One of the guys first told us about his 82 year old mother-in-law who has some form of cancer and is about to undergo chemo.  He said the doctor felt the planned treatment regimen had some opportunity for success and he did not indicate he had any issues with the planned treatment given her age or the stage of her cancer diagnosis.

Later in the conversation, he stated the U.S. health care system was a mess and something needed to be done.  When I asked him why, he stated because 45 million Americans have no insurance coverage.  When I asked him if these 45 million were not getting health care, he acknowledged that they were receiving health care, “but we need to do something.”  When asked why the other 85% of the country needs to change its current coverage (to a single payer system) he had no answer.  He also had no answer when I told him his mother-in-law would not be receiving the planned treatment if we have the government managing (read “rationing”) health care.

He also told us about some investigative journalism (the DMN??) which found that the Medicare reimbursement rate in McAllen, TX was double the rate throughout the country.  He then related a plane trip he took where his seat mate explained how several McAllen doctors setup clinics, hired Phillipino nurses, and were bilking the system to the tune of $5M – $10M per year per doctor.  When I asked him why we would want to institute this type of government administered program to all the citizens in the U.S. he said someone needs to clean-up this fraud.

In summary, although this guy knows someone personally who would not receive the treatment they are currently receiving under a government managed program, he admits that we do NOT have people in this country who are living without the health care they need, and that current government managed health care is rife with fraud and abuse, “we need to do something.”

Perhaps that is not a sport drink in his water bottle and is “kool-aid” instead.

1.  Respect for the Constitution

2.  Respect for life

3.  Less government

4.  Personal responsibility

How can you argue with that?