Some facts about the health care debate...

Some of you may be quite surprised by this, but I have come to accept the need for some kind of public health care. Public health care IN ADDITION to what we already have, i.e. Medicaid/Medicare.

The problem is, like most, including the President, I am not well versed enough in the various bills floating around, to decide what is best.

But here in NY we have a unique situation and one that creates great fear on my part.

You see, most of the top doctors in NY now no longer accept Insurance of ANY KIND.

They have decided it is just too troublesome and too expensive, to deal with insurance companies.

The irony is that these physicians in many instances, charge LESS. Of course it does not seem so since it is paid out of pocket, but because they have reduced office expenses, they can pass that on.

So, the one thing that I am sure of, is that there needs to be some type of mandatory acceptance of any government plan by ALL physicians, and ALL hospitals. WIthout that, we will end up with a tiered system with those on the government program getting FAR inferior care.

But here's the rub. One of the things that is simply OUTRAGEOUS that the administration has been saying, is that ANY PLAN THEY PASS WILL BE DEFICIT NEUTRAL.

i.e., it will not add to the deficit.

On it's face, you know this is a lie of epic proportions.

So, like the nerd that I am, I went to the Congressional Budget Office site, and found the letter that was sent to Charles Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. They deal with all matters financial and are totally non partisan.

Simply stated, the current plan will add more than 1 TRILLION dollars to the debt in the next 10 years.

What appears below is the excerpt of the letter sent to Rangle, from the CBO director dealing with the impact on the deficit.

If you would like to see the whole letter, I have it in PDF form and can forward it to you.

"Collectively, those provisions would yield a significant increase in the number of Americans with health insurance. By 2019, CBO and the staff of JCT estimate, the number of nonelderly people without health insurance would be reduced by about 37 million, leaving about 17 million nonelderly residents uninsured (nearly half of whom would be unauthorized immigrants). In total, CBO estimates that enacting those provisions would raise deficits by $1,042 billion over the 2010-2019 period.2"

Clearly the increase in the number covered is positive, although I do not understand why "universal" does not mean everyone. But my point is why tell such a stupid, ignorant lie about it's cost?