The Final Case Against the Current Healthcare Plan

I have long been tired of the topic of health care, but unfortunately the Democrats' vision of the plan just won't die... yet. It is also an enormously important issue since, despite Democratic claims to the contrary, their current plan will end up seriously adding to a national debt that is approaching $75 TRILLION dollars in unfunded mandates, interest charges, and yet-to-be-paid-for government spending. With that being the case, here are just some of the facts of why health care reform as the Democrats envision it should NOT be allowed to pass out of congress.

1.) First and perhaps most importantly, their plan is UN-CONSTITUTIONAL! The federal government has no legal authority to require that citizens purchase health insurance or be faced with fines or possible prison. If this bill becomes law, I guarantee that this will be the first court challenge brought up against this travesty of a plan.

2.) Second, the plan WILL add to the debt. The "savings" the Democrats tout in their bill is nothing more than a dishonest accounting scheme. They show taxation for the first 14 years to pay for the first ten years of coverage. What about the other remaining four years of coverage that the people will not receive right away?

3.) With the government determining what doctors can charge etc. the net effect will be to add so many disincentives that fewer people will become doctors and existing doctors will retire from the profession. If they are unable to repay medical school bills and make a comfortable living that most doctors currently can, the net result will be less doctors.

4.) The supposed reasoning for this plan is to add the currently un-insured 31 million Americans to health care insurance. (That 31 million seems to be an ever-changing number, by the way). The problem is that many of those 31 million people don't have insurance because they choose not to have it. Young kids in college etc would rather spend their money on beer or ipod downloads then on health insurance. I know that was my mindset at that age.

5.) When taking the facts from items three and four above, simple supply and demand economics shows that this creates a huge problem. When you have 31 million more people added to the existing health care rolls and you have significantly less amount of doctors available to treat them, this would logically suggest the following: More patients to be seen by less doctors equals rationing of medical care.

6.) With the rationing of medical care now established as a future fact, who is likely to suffer the most from this rationing? In an attempt to maintain costs with finite resources available, it would seem reasonable that those that are least able to contribute to the tax base will receive less care. In other words, the elderly will suffer the most. President Obama, in a rare moment of candor, even intimated this himself awhile back. Recall when he said that if an elderly patient needed a surgery to alleviate pain or improve mobility, that perhaps pain medication to help deal with the problem would be a better and more cost-reasonable way to deal with the problem.

7.) This leads to the next problem. The federal government will thus have sway over who gets this rationed care. Those that smoke, partake of trans-fats in their food, or intentionally lead a sedentary lifestyle might receive less coverage so as to "incentivize" people to live a healthy lifestyle, thereby reducing costs. In effect the government will have a say in how you live on a day to day basis. You had better live a healthy lifestyle or your health care may be decreased accordingly.

8.) If this health care plan is so good, why is that congress continuously exempts themselves from the dictates of the plan? To date, multiple amendments have been offered by the GOP to ensure that any bill passed would also apply to all members of congress. Each time the amendment has been shot down in committee, typically by a party-line vote.

9.) This plan does nothing to reduce costs. It will add billions to trillions of dollars to the national debt. Even Democrat Senator Dick Durbin has had a momentary lapse and said recently that this is so. I am sure he has since been properly chastised for speaking the truth.

10.) This plan was supposed to be debated in public and on C-Span, as per Obama's statement on eight different occasions. It was supposed to be a transparent debate that the public could watch and thus have input. Instead, we have seen nothing but closed door committee meetings where the senate and house bribe waffling members with billions of dollars in earmarks for their affirmative vote for the plan, thereby further adding to the cost of our health care. Even Speaker of the House Pelosi had the audacity to say this week that "...[W]e have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Why the secrecy, if this bill is so danged good?

The bottom line is that the American people are smart and recognize most of these fatal flaws with the Democrats' plan. It is for this reason that a significant majority of the American population does NOT want this bill to be passed. Congress and President Obama continue to move forward despite the people's will to the contrary.

Don't get me wrong. I do indeed see ample reason to improve health care in our country, but more spending, forced taxation and purchasing, less care available all wrapped up into one un-Constitutional plan is not the way to go.

Although I often despise the GOP too, they do have some excellent aspects to their plan that would actually help to achieve the stated goals of health care. Their suggestions of removing restrictions so that insurance companies can compete across state lines would help reduce costs immensely. Meaningful tort reform also would help to reduce costs so that insurance become more affordable and consequently more available to more people.

The people are right; we do need to scrap the current plan and start over. Our Democratic friends in congress seem to be deaf to this plea. I suspect that they will suffer grave consequences at the ballot box this November accordingly. The facts as they stand above are pretty much inarguable and all of them speak against this current Democrat health care plan. Hopefully enough members of congress will listen to we the people on this critical issue.