Obama's HealthScare Program - Facts Not Fiction

President Obama delivered an eloquent speech in defense of his HealthScare Program, as usual. The President made a point of saying that the US was the only rich democracy that does not provide universal health care. Of course, that may be the case because we have spent trillions of dollars since World War II making the world safe for democracy while our "allies" that do provide universal health care rarely did anything to defend themselves. The problem is that Obama did not tell the truth. The numbers just do not add up. President Obama says he is going to spend $900 Billion on HealthScare that is all deficit spending; but somehow it is going to reduce the deficit. How on earth can the government spend money that it does not have and have it result in a lower deficit? The Congressional Budget Office, headed by a Democrat, disputes President Obama's numbers. They have told us that HealthScare will result in deficits as far as the eye can see. But then Obama also promised unemployment capped at 8% when the Congress passed his SwindleUS Package and we are already at 10% and growing. Obviously, as a law professor who has never managed any public or private enterprise, Mr. Obama is not very good with numbers, so why should we believe him?

More specifically, how is it possible to insure 46 million uninsured people with an increase in benefits without significantly higher premiums for all, higher taxes and/or rationing? President Obama will require insurance companies to accept people with pre-existing conditions, provide lower co-pays and preventive care coverage and eliminate life time caps on coverage. In addition, insurance companies will not be able to drop anyone from coverage. This is all great and a major increase in benefits; but who is going to pay for these additional benefits? Normally, when benefits are increased, premiums go up to pay for more coverage and the additional risk to the insurance company. We didn't fall off an apple truck yesterday. After all, we have been buying insurance for years. We know how it works.

The President also said that illegal aliens would not receive health care benefits under his program. Again, Obama is not quite telling the truth. The Democrat Socialists that control Congress voted down all Republican amendments that would have provided for enforcement to prevent illegal aliens from accessing benefits. In addition, the President said that there would be no federally funded abortions under his HealthScare Program. Again, the President is not exactly telling the truth. The Democrat Socialists in the House of Representatives voted down every Republican amendment that would have prohibited abortions paid for by tax payer dollars.

President Obama promised that no one would have to give up their current coverage or doctors. Yet, in eliminating the Medicare Advantage program, 10.2 million senior citizens will have to give up the private insurance HMO plans they have now. In addition, if the 8% penalty charged to businesses that do not provide insurance for employees cost less than providing private insurance, millions of people will be pushed into the Medicare government program whether they like it or not, which means they will lose their current coverage and doctors. President Obama is pretty lose with the facts to say the least.

President Obama's HealthScare Program will create 53 new government bureaucracies and an independent commission to govern health care and our lives. If there is a government plan, private insurance will not be able to compete with it because the government plan will not have a profit component. This will mean that in time private health insurance will disappear which is Obama's real goal because the President actually supports a single payer Socialist government program like those that exist in Canada or Europe.

Obama's HealthScare Program is not about health care or reform. It is about Socialist big government control, redistribution of income and rationing of care to control costs. There will in fact be Death Panels determining who gets care and who is denied care. Obama is proposing $500 billion in Medicare cuts which will negatively impact senior citizens and presumably $500 billion in new taxes which will not cover the cost of this program. Social Security is bankrupt. Medicare, which cost 10 times more than originally projected in 1965 and Medicaid are bankrupt. The Post Office and Amtrac are bankrupt. The reality is that the United States is already bankrupt. Given this history, why would any one with a brain believe that the Federal government can take over 1/6th of the US economy and do it cost effectively.

President Obama claims that his HealthScare scheme will cost $900 billion. If the government is true to form, it will cost ten times that amount or even more. Cards talk and numbers don't lie, but many politicians do lie as evidenced by history not fiction. We need real health care reform not a prescription for national bankruptcy. President Obama did not close the deal during his speech because it is a lousy and dangerous deal for the American people. It is time for President Obama to sit down with Republicans to craft a bi-partisan, common sense, health care program that is focused on real reform, including limitations on malpractice lawsuits to bring down costs. We just can't afford President Obama's HealthScare Program which will bankrupt the nation and lead to rationed health care for all.