NEOAVATARA

Obamacare...in all its glory

I want to be very clear, for my liberal friends out there.

I fully support a REAL health care reform plan.  I support a plan that achieves universal coverage.  I support a plan that really implements real cost controls.  I support a plan that changes the defensive mentality in medicine, starting with malpractice reform.

That is why I cannot support the Democrats Health Care proposal.  And I plead to you that you fight it too.

This is not just about ideology.  It is about competence, or lack thereof.  The Democrats have completely failed in writing a bill that answers the problems confronted by the American health care system.  This is what you get when you get a bunch of lawyers writing the bill.  Instead, they have basically written a bill that takes over the job of health care by the federal government, defers any of the hard decisions that need to be made, tries to implement the second largest tax increase in American history (secon only after Obama’s earlier tax increase) and during a recession no less.

This is not about Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives.  It is about the future of this country, and health care in this nation.

Our current system is NOT sustainable.  Let us start with that.  But this current iteration of the Democrats bill is NOT sustainable either.  That is why Rahm Emanuel and the White House is trying to push the bill through any way they can, realizing that they cannot depend on any Republican support.  As Steny Hoyer, Democratic Whip, said, no one who read this bill would vote for it.  The only hope they have is to cover our eyes, and hope we don’t notice this farce.

I am really depressed about this.  Again, I WANT HEALTH CARE REFORM.  As a doctor, I see the mess the current system causes.  But to implement a system that does not confront any of the real issues of our current system, and handing the full tab to the American taxpayer, which is already in debt for over $10 trillion, doesn’t make any sense to me.  It is possible to make a system that is worse than our current health care system….and the Democrats possibly have produced just such a bill.  Conveniently, Congress has exempted itself from any of the provisions of the bill.  And worst of all, Barack Obama.  I didn’t vote for him, but I really thought he was smarter than this.

As for cost cutting, well, there is nothing of the sort in this bill.  Don’t listen to me. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that costs will INCREASE under this bill.  The CBO is about as nonpartisan as you can get nowadays…I don’t know how the Democrats will counter their analysis.

The above flowchart, however, points to the problem.  Health care is already too complicated.  Primary care physicians now spend 10% of their time with paperwork…and that doesn’t even include paperwork that their employees handle.  The above plan would make this worse.  When people made fun of Democrats bringing the ‘glory of the IRS to health care’, I scoffed.  Well, no more…it is a reality.

Additionally, you know the Democrats chant of ‘choice’?  That appears to end here, as the bill would LOCK YOU IN YOUR PLAN.  Investor’s Business Daily finds that Democrats would OUTLAW INDIVIDUAL HEALTH CARE PLANS.  The below has been confirmed by the House committee:

“Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day” of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won’t be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

It is time for all common sense individuals to unite.  We should be pushing for practical, cost effective health care.  That is not what Democrats are providing.  They are providing government, socialized health care, without solving any of the problems inherent in the system.  This is the worst of all worlds.

It is time to stand up.  We need to focus on moderate Democrats first, because Republicans cannot stop this alone.  We should target moderate Blue Dog Democrats in the House, up for re-election in 2010.  We should go after those Senators in red states who are up for re-election as well, and make sure they understand that we will plaster a billboard with the above system on every street corner in their state.

We need some common sense in Washington, and the above plan is certainly not that.  It is time to stand up.