There is something fundamentally wrong when Congress passes a Bill, piece of legislation, that approaches or exceeds 3000 pages in length. No Congressmen, albeit Representative or Senator, would be willing to swear under oath and penalty of perjury, that he or she read each and every page, paragraph, sentence and word of such a Bill, yet Obama Care [ Affordable Health Care Act ]was just such a Bill. Obama Care is and was nothing short of a political power play complete with “earmarks” [ special strokes for a select few special interests ] that had and have little to do with health care.
Health care is a concern of very citizen. There are reasonable and rational ways of addressing the issue that are compatible with the expectations of main street-USA and not disruptive to the existing systems of health care delivery. Obama Care is neither; and, if ever fully implemented, Obama Care will destroy the existing standards of heath care now available in the U.S., add trillions in costs to the national debt, and destroy the quality care now available in the U.S.. Obama Care will result in increased medical care costs for middle-class citizens and an increase in individual income taxes for the middle-class. Rhetoric aside, Obama Cares principle objective was to provide free health care to those in the U.S., including non-citizens, who are below the Federal poverty line; in short, welfare legislation.
U.S. citizens are beginning to wake up to the reality that their elected Representatives and Senators don't actually write the Bills and legislation they vote on. Legislation, including Obama Care, is drafted and written by unelected, and invisible persons, many who are not government employee's. The more pages in a Bill the more cooks, or crooks, bake the cake that Congress and Presidents, foist on the U.S. population. Obama Care is not the answer to providing affordable health care and presents a paradigm for revision. Hopefully, some form of sanity will be restored by the 112th Congress, and serious dialog addressing the particulars of health care will begin.
Pointing a gun to the head of every U.S. citizen and forcing them to buy health insurance, is not the American way. Dictatorship is not acceptable to main-street. The carrot, not the stick, is the best approach. Individual and Company tax incentives are the better way. Let's be honest, individual taxpayers are going to pay for health care, be it Obama Care or an alternative. Obama Care means the burgeoning HHS bureaucracy in Washington D.C./Virginia, will eat up over 85% of Health Care dollars in administrative costs, giving the actual Health Care provider $0.15 cents on the dollar for individual health care. $0.85 cents of every dollar will go to pay the salaries, benefits and retirements of government HHS employees. Big government flourishes on inefficiency, but that gives the U.S. taxpayer, little bang for every buck. In addition to a “standard deduction” on Federal taxes, individual taxpayers should be allowed to establish, fully deductible, “personal health accounts” of up to 8% , or $12,000.00 per year, of adjusted gross income. Employers should be allowed to contribute to “personal health accounts”. The direct payment from PHA's for private health care insurance, HMOs', doctors, hospital and prescription drugs, would cut out the HHS middleman. This would be one approach to the health care dilemma that would preserve individual choice and avoid unnecessary bureaucratic administrative costs.
Congress and the President must abandon the “...pie in the sky...” health care for the world approach that is the centerpiece of Obama Care. Popular on the hill or not, Congress and the President must face economic reality. First and foremost, we must take care of our own, that means U.S. CITIZENS. Laws providing that emergency room care for anyone and everyone must be repealed. U.S. institutions providing “..free..” care to non-citizens, should be cut off and precluded from receiving Federal and/or State reimbursement funds. Obama Care provides for health care to non-citizens under the code word “resident”. “Resident” is the lawyer' s semantic slight-of- hand so that 30 million undocumented/illegal aliens and their of spring are provided health care at U.S. citizens and taxpayer expense. This inclusion in the current Obama Care legislation is one of the reasons why Obama Care is not economically sustainable and one of the many reasons why it should be repealed and/or replaced.
The Obama Administration has failed to recognize the unique and special needs of our military personnel. Currently, under Obama Care, the administration is in the process of integrating TriCare, a medical and health care program designed to address the special, unique and circumstantial needs of the U.S. military and retirees [ administered by the Department of Defense] into Obama Care. This callous disregard the unique service related needs of U.S. military personnel should not be allowed to go forward. Under the Obama Care law, wounded and maimed soldiers, would be treated no differently then a “ resident ”, i.e., undocumented/illegal alien. The fact is, that many, perhaps the majority, of those in Congress, and our current President, have never served in the U.S. military. Except for pretty words and speeches, most politicians think of U.S. military personnel as expendable, cannon fodder, who are not entitled to special consideration for their service. Congresses attitude to U.S. military personnel, retirees and veterans must change. What should change is VA health care; veterans health care should be integrated into TriCare and TriCare should stand alone as the health care provider for military personnel, military retirees, and military veterans.
Congress needs to recognize the significance and value of actuarial data. This is particularly true when it comes to pre-existing health issues. It is irresponsible, to provide coverage to virtually every “resident” for pre-existing conditions. The U.S. has virtually eradicated many diseases and conditions that remain prevalent in other countries; polio is one example. Is it fair or prudent for U.S. taxpayers to pay for imported diseases and conditions requiring hundreds of thousand of dollars a year to treat one individual ? Citizens, except for military personnel who should remain covered by TriCare, who have continuously resided within the U.S. for seven (7) consecutive years should be entitled to coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions, but subject to a per year dollar limitation on coverage. A sound and sustainable actuarial health care program will have yearly dollar caps, otherwise only a very select few individuals will eat the pie that could otherwise feed thousands. Congress needs to get real, U.S. CITIZENS ONLY.
Existing laws preventing individuals from the option to obtain prescription drugs from outside the U.S. , and laws preventing health care providers, employers and unions from forming drug purchasing collectives, need and should be repealed. Laws preventing companies, unions and other groups from forming collectives to bargain for health care services also need to be repealed. Congress has gifted the drug companies with a monopoly for furnishing prescription medications in the U.S. This pay-for-play is one of the primary reasons why health care costs in the U.S. have skyrocketed. The blame for high prescription drug costs should be placed where it is due, on Congress and the President. Obama Care is one of the worst offenders of pay-for-play when it comes to paying off drug companies. The drug companies profit handsomely from Obama Care.
One of the more difficult matters for Congress to face, is the reality of mortality. On average, the greatest health care expenditures are made during the last three months of a persons life. Spending money is not going to stop the inevitable. Here again, any sound actuarial health care program should address dollar limitations/caps on end of life health care services. Dying with dignity, should not be a dirty word in political circles, nor should criminal penalties exist for those who assist the terminally ill. Death is a fact of life. Politicians and Judges are not Gods.
The concerns outlined above highlight a few of the thousands of flaws contained in Obama Care. Thousands of flaws intentionally included to preclude individual discussion on a point-by-point basis. Obama Care is flawed beyond repair and unless repealed will reduce health care in the U.S. to that available in Third World countries. Reasonable, practical, and beneficial alternatives to Obama Care are available. The real question is: do Congress and the President have the integrity and political will to admit that there are viable alternatives to Obama Care; alternatives that would provide true improvements to the U.S. health care system and the delivery of quality and affordable care to U.S. citizens. The 112th Congress and President need to get to work and clean up the Obama Care mess.
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