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ObamaCare In One Picture
By Greg L | 16 July 2009 | National Politics | 23 Comments
This graphic represents the contents of the thousand-page plus healthcare bill moving through Congress, helpfully extracted from this behemoth by Congressman Kevin Brady with the full knowledge that looking at this picture is about as close as some of his peers will ever come to actually reading the bill. This is what your healthcare will look like if this outrage passes. Your private relationship with your doctor and your insurance provider will explode into a confusing maze dominated by government bureaucrats, and getting lost in this maze is just about certain.
Why in the heck does Congress think they have the right to screw up things this badly for us? Where in the Constitution is it enumerated that Congress can interject government to such a staggering degree in the rights we have to freely chose who we do business with? In their haste to fix a “broken” system that remains the envy of the world despite its imperfections, we’re going to end up with the healthcare system socialist economies use, and from experience I can tell you that’s going to be a complete disaster.
I was an exchange student in France in the eighties, and ended up in the hospital for a few days after being involved in a traffic accident. These make military field hospitals look like the Mayo clinic. Overcrowded doesn’t even begin to explain the facilities, and the quality of care is pathetic. How in the heck does a hospital manage to fail to diagnose a fractured leg? You throw a heavy government bureaucracy on top of anything, and the results are universally atrocious. I couldn’t wait to get out of that place. Had I stayed longer, I’ve no doubt I would have caught whatever it was that had one of my two hospital roommates hacking spittle into a cardboard cup every ten minutes.
The last thing we need is Congress trying to “fix” things like this. We can’t afford it, we can’t tolerate what the results will be, and they have no authority to do this in the first place.
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23 Comments
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You should take a look at the current Health Care Picture.
I am not too thrilled with how the overhaul is going, but we have to do something. Doing nothing (which is what we have been doing) is not an answer. It has to be overhauled. What we have now is not working. When one looses their employment, they also loose health benefits, and at times, they are not insurable. Talkt o someone who has gotten cancer while they were under/un-insured - not a pretty sight, it is also often not a pretty sight (financially) even if they have insurance.
This picture is like the “Where’s Waldo?” games the kids play. Instead of Waldo, we’re trying to find all of the absurd things Obama and Dems want to inflict on us.
I’ll start with the lower right where a box called “Cultural and Linguistic Competence Training” points to the doctor. I don’t care if my doctor can’t speak a foreign language or is ignorant of how other cultures do things. This is the United States. People here should assimilate into our culture and learn English – not the other way around.
Where’s the box for medical competence training pointing to the doctor? I want my doctor up-to-date on developing medical knowledge and practice.
The picture cites the Republican Staff of the Joint Economic Committee as the source but can any Dems credibly refute any of this? I doubt it. They want to impose a giant new bureaucracy on the American people that will enable them to have even greater control of our lives.
I’ve posted on BVBL before that I work with doctors in my business (I’m not one myself or playing one on the blogs). Most are saying to me that they would not take up the profession again even as things stand now. Moreover, they won’t advise their kids to go into medicine either.
Nonsense such as the Obama plan is going further reduce the attractiveness of going to school for decades only to emerge highly indebted and entering a field that is less and less rewarding.
Sure – Obama and his cronies want to provide health care for “all.” Only problem is that we won’t have a cadre of competent medical professionals to deliver it. Better hope you never get sick.
Looks like a great way to start with lots of money and end up with very little. No surprise there!
“Private relationship with my insurance provider?” You’ve got to be kidding! Have you ever called a health insurance company and come away satisfied with the results?
As Richard Cohen says in this article, bring on the socialized healthcare, it can’t be any worse than what we have now.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/13/AR2009071302620.html
If you don’t think it can get any worse see what it is like first-hand with Canada’s government health care system by checking out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw
I have no problems with Medicare the government run Insurance. I have all kind of problems with the suplemental Insurance and prescription plan. Do you know your insurnace company can required your Dr to call them and get the insurance companies approval for a regularly prescribed non pain killer drug and is necessary for your well being. The Doctor writing a prescription is not a good enough reason for it to be filled or for them to pay for any part of it. Who is paying the Doctor to spend this extra time and where does the insurance company get off on some clerk telling a MD how to treat you?
Too many people in this country can not get or can not afford health insurance and that is the fault of the insurance companies and thier greed.
What alternative do you offer Greg ? One might think that a Pro Lifer would want health coverage for everyone not just those who have taken a few breaths of air.
If I am not happy with the coverage I have now I can switch insurance companies and doctors. When government takes control I will have no where to turn. Obama care will send us all to an early grave. Once you retire and aren’t tax contributors they will dope you up and let you die. Liberalism kills. I would rather be homeless and uninsured in the United States of America than middle class in France or Germany or any other socialist utopia any day.
A guy who allows a baby to starve on a shelf in a broom closet wants to be in charge of our health care.
A picture is worth a thousand words…well, perhaps a thousand pages in this case.
What a nightmare. But, is the alternative (socialized medicine) any better? I think that the answer to our health care system is to remove the profit margin (make hospitals and health care non-profit) and restrict the malpractice awards. How is it that doctors and lawyers police their own ranks? Doctors who make mistakes should be stripped of their license. Once again, kick out the 30 million illegal aliens along with their families. Use the money we’ve wasted on them over the past 30 plus years to improve Medicaid and Medicare. Do away with prescriptions. Take the huge profits away from the pharmaceutical companies. Anybody with a lick of common sense knows better that to take medication without being under a doctor’s care.
By the bye, if it were up to me, there would be no health care system beyond controlling pain and self euthanasia. We are put on this earth for a limited time. When it’s time to go, it’s time to go. Enjoy your time and your loved ones and let them go when it’s their time. We’ve already overpopulated the earth to the point that we can’t feed ourselves. Entire regions have become wastelands as we’ve stripped the soil of nutrients in our bid to produce enough food. We’re at the top of the food chain because we are intelligent enough to recognize our mortality. We could really start showing our intelligence and stop breeding ourselves into oblivion and trashing our planet by consuming every natural resource. I recognize that human life is precious. It would be even more so if we let it run it’s course naturally. Shucks, we could even stop having wars, once we realized what a waste they are.
Thank you. Feel free to pick my rant to pieces.
According to IRS data for 2005, if your income was above $62,000 you fell into the top 25% of wage earners. That group paid 86% of total income taxes. The bottom 50% of income earners paid only 3% of total income taxes. Where’s the “fairness” in that system?
Obamacare is just another leftist scheme to soak the American middle class further. The results will be an even more inequitable distribution of the tax burden than we have now.
Obamacare is just another global welfare scheme paid for by the American middle class. That means that Obamacare provides benefits for anyone, including illegal aliens. With the non-existence of borders around the U.S. and the ability of anyone to come here at will, the illegal alien problem will grow exponentially. With free healthcare, education, etc., etc., no effective enforcement of immigration laws, and no penalties if you are caught, why not come for the freebies? No other nation on earth exploits its middle and working class for the benefit of people who should not even be in their country as our government does us.
Obamacare is just another tax-payer funded corporate subsidy scheme. One of the biggest supporters of Obamacare is Wal-Mart. Obviously they take that position because it helps them hire cheap illegal labor and send us the bill for their health care.
Obamacare is just another scheme to build up the Dems’ voting base. Importing a new, uneducated underclass and providing expansive benefits for them paid for with our tax dollars guarantees a Democratic voting majority for at least another generation.
Obamacare is more about the future of the Democratic Party than healthcare.
California provides one example of where the U.S. is going under Obama. The state is bankrupt and issuing IOU’s. The source of their problems is their expansive network of social schemes, including massive programs that benefit illegal aliens. Take those programs away and the state would be a financial powerhouse.
A nation can not survive when half of the population takes no responsibility for its support and a minority pays the way for almost everyone (top 25% of income-earners paying 86% of the taxes).
If you think dealing with medical insurance companies is agony, wait until your doctor has to debate your medical needs with some bureaucrat yoyo in Washington, D.C. with a BA in Medieval Literature. My kid brother is a top-flight medical man, one of the best in his field. Being a Federal retiree, I once posed this possible scenario to him. His response? He would quit immediately and enjoy retirement. “That would be their problem,” he added, referring to our two young nephews in family practice.
Just the Facts:
According to IRS data for 2006, the top 25% of households reported 68% of all income and paid 86% of all income taxes. The bottom 50% of households reported 12.5% of all income and paid 3% of all income taxes. What’s “unfair” about this system? Those who report income pay taxes on that income.
Here’s a goodie on page 16 of the House Democrats’ plan–a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=332548165656854
A nation cannot survive when it ships all its jobs overseas, and hopes to be a service economy.
Doing nothing, which is the past 8 years is not a solution.
Socialized medicine is not on the table, but will become an option down the road if the system does not revolutionize.
The insurance company bureaucrat already denies me medication and services that my doctor prescribes.
Talk to someone in the UK or Canada - Talk to, not listen to some ad - we forget that advertising is supposed to make you believe something - The folks that I work with have the Free Public system, but also have private insurance, and can take advantage of it. There are plenty of doctors in the medical field there. Here in the US, we depend on many immigrant doctors, so already, you have less and less Americans entering into the field. Talk to your employer and see how the rates have increased over the past 5 years.
Yup, lets do nothing.
Same as Social Security………
Spending without taxing is easy - War, Part D, etc
Living within your means is something that a large part of our society should learn, but our Government also needs to do that.
I wish we could let Dave Ramsey be in charge of our economy.
Looks like the current health-care map. . .that dumps you if your illness gets too expensive.
Its not about the American public, its about profit margins. Lower your overhead, lower your labor, raise your prices, expand your customer base and keep them coming back for more.
If there is any doubt as to the true intentions I ask you this. Have they ever bailed out the end user with all this stimulus money? WE are the end user.
The people working in the lower rungs are taking a hit, but like we found out in the financial sector, the big boys ALWAYS get theirs.
Check out the FORTUNE 500 numbers
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/industries/Health_Care_Insurance_Managed_Care/1.html
There is plenty of cash to go to the reelection coffers
http://www.followthemoney.org/index.phtml
Last fall Congress had an 11% approval rate—-along with a 95% reelection rate.
And they say pod people and zombies don’t exist!
Does Obamacare cover illegal aliens?
Only about 3/4 of them. I think they’re still trying to figure out how to provide benefits to the remainder which seem to be illegal alien gang members on probation, and illegal aliens they cannot reliably locate due to multiple fraudulent identities.
From Investors Business Daily:
As for the estimated 47 million not covered by health insurance, 20 million can afford to buy it, according to a study by former CBO Director June O’Neill. Most of the other 27 million are single and under 35, with as many as a third illegal aliens.
When it’s all whittled down, as few as 12 million are unable to buy insurance — less than 4% of a population of 305 million. For this we need to nationalize 17% of our nation’s $14 trillion economy and change the current care that 89% like?
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=482591
I hear they are talking about reducing payments made to doctors through medicare. Some doctors won’t accept medicare/medicaid patients now. What do the doctors think about this? Seems like doctors will also get soaked by the tax on the wealthy. If I were a doctor I’d think about retiring.