The Presidential Planner

“My attitude is that if they’re making these sacrifices to provide health care to all Americans”
I think he meant to say EVENTUALLY provide health care… conviently scheduled for AFTER the next presidential election. But how many of the uninsured will ‘die from lack of health care’ before they actually get coverage, Mr. President? Where is the compassion? The humanity?
“The costs of health care reform being pushed through Congress by Democrats will be felt long before the benefits.
“Proposed taxes and fees on upper-income earners, insurers, even tanning parlors, take effect quickly. So would Medicare cuts.
“Benefits, such as subsidies for lower middle-income households, consumer protections for all, and eliminating the prescription coverage gap for seniors, come gradually.
“‘There’s going to be an expectations gap, no question about that,’ said Drew Altman, president of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. ‘People are going to see their premiums and out-of-pocket costs go up before the tangible benefits kick in.’
“Most of the 30 million uninsured helped by the bill won’t get coverage until 2013 at the earliest, well after the next presidential election.” – FoxNews

Hope & Change:
“Through the first three quarters of 2009, Washington lobbyists have spent $2.5 billion lobbying the federal government, a pace that will shatter the $3.3 billion record lobbyists spent last year.”
“Senators overseeing health bill debate have received millions in cash from the companies they regulate including $2.5 million for Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), $210,050 for Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and $66,000 for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA).” – Source: Heritage Foundation

I wish we could dialogue about the fact that “health insurance reform,” the chosen moniker for this legislation post-August town hall meetings (prior to that the chosen label was “health care reform”) has very little to do with actual health care delivery to real people. Having lived in Canada and Europe twice, I have experienced the fact that having everyone on a health coverage plan without having sufficient numbers of doctors (which is the case in Canada, Europe and will be the case here), necessarily means that everyone’s access is limited all the time. And, worse yet, individual choice is highly limited.
People will say that x number of Americans do not have care as it stands. No, x number of Americans do not have insurance as it stands, but every American has access to a doctor, by law. Sure ERs are filled with the masses now, but the sad thing is that this phenom will only increase once millions more are filed into the current system. It’s a simple games number: more patients in waiting rooms at clinics equals more wait time there equals more people flooding ERs across America.
Those who find they cannot be helped in an ER or a clinic, will be even more shocked at what happens. Imagine what will happen when Mr. and Mrs. Jones realize that Mrs. Jones must sit in a hospital bed in a suburban hospital waiting to be transferred to the specialty medical center in the city, because there’s a line of patients in front of her who also need a bed and the “health care panel” has deemed her symptoms less acute than others (this actually happened to my friend in Vancouver years back, and by some miracle she was able to get a bed before she slipped into a coma).
It may be months, years, or decades, but I firmly believe the health insurance reform that we are currently undergoing will end in tears–and deaths. I hope I’m wrong. Time WILL tell.

“The Nebraska compromise, which permanently exempts Nebraska from paying Medicaid costs that Texas and all other 49 states must pay, may violate the United States Constitution — as well as other provisions of federal law,” said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
How can ONE state be exempt from paying Medicaid costs?

November new home sales sink 11 percent
Sales of new homes plunged unexpectedly last month to the lowest level since April – Associated Press, 12/23/09