Health Care Hocus Pocus

Many of you who read me regularly know that in principal, I support health care reform. It is one of those areas, however, that I admit to not having any real answers. What I do, however, is attempt to make honest assessments of the bills currently working their way through Congress.

 

That is why I provided, in an earlier post, the letter sent to Charlie Rangel of the House Ways and Means Committee by the CBO.

 

There are four essential facts that have been totally ignored by the mainstream media with the bill just sent out of the Senate Finance committee:

1. It requires EVERY American to obtain health insurance. If you do not, you are going to be fined. This is one of the ways that the bill, or Obama, plans to pay for it. It is, as you can see, the first piece of hocus pocus. Even with aid for those who can't afford it, it is a penalty.
   
2. The "Savings" that have been much ballyhooed come from one principal area. It is one of the truly disgusting bookkeeping tricks that Congress has used in many other instances tgo cover up enormous shortfalls in Medicare and Social Security. They have built in an enormous increase in Medicare payments the first year to doctors, AND THEN WRITTEN IN THAT THEY WILL LATER ELIMINATE THESE. That difference is the supposed "savings".
   

   The Problem here is that NEVER in its' history has Congress actually done this.
   

3. The other way the bill is to paid for is with enormous tax increases. On "high income" individuals and more, on businesses. What they have not discussed, however, is that the fees and tax increases start in YEAR ONE. The benefits of the Plan start in YEAR SEVEN. Once the plan actually kicks in with the benefits, it runs a deficit every year. So, long after Obama is gone, his legacy of ENORMOUS, UNMANAGEABLE deficit spending will continue.
   
4. Of the 7 bills currently working their way around Congress, the Baucus/Senate Finance bill is the cheapest. And yet, more than $800,000,000,000 – that's $800 BILLION dollars, is being spent to insure between 17 and 25 million additional Americans. You do the math on the cost of that insurance for each of those folks.