It appears that we are on the short side of getting the federal government involved in all of our health care plans. The debate over the last few months has the government health care supporters saying “the plan”, one of three now being talked about, will not involve all of us. It is only going to work to reduce the cost of health care insurance for all of us. Believe this because the President once told us that 47,000,000 people in the U.S. don’t have health insurance but in the last month he reduced that to 30,000,000. In a matter of two months his figures changed by 26 percent. Watch how long it takes to change the idea that “the plan” will reduce health care costs for all of us.
I’m sure you have heard that the national health care system in Canada and England is better than ours. Well trash that idea. Last week it was announced that UPMC entered in a three-year partnership with Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, part of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. Get this, UMPC is going to develop and expand cancer services offered by the Trust in Reading England. Yes, the UK came to Pittsburgh to improve their health care system. I guess that trashes the argument that socialized medicine is better than ours.
This weekend the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the health insurance companies' lobbying group, released a study it commissioned. The point of the AHIP study was that the health care reforms being considered would increase the cost of health care insurance. The White House naturally disagreed. The White House said that the AHIP released the report in an attempt to confuse the debate around health reform.
AHIP said that the added taxes and fees to support the plan that would be put on insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and device makers would be passed on to the consumer. The White House disagreed believing the added costs would be absorbed by the various companies. The White House said the costs for health care insurance would not go up because we are all paying about $1,000 a year in our health care insurance to pay for uncompensated care. That means services are being provided now to people who don’t have insurance and those who do pay have a little extra added to their bill to pay for the uninsured. I wonder if that covers the bill for 30 million uninsured.
Remember, this group is the same that doesn’t want to get flu shots. We also have the young parents who don’t get their children the required vaccinations shots. It was only a couple of weeks ago when 25 percent of the children in our area were being told not to come to school because their parents didn’t take them to get “free” mandatory inoculations. The way “the plan” is going to reduce the cost of health care insurance is by requiring all people to purchase health insurance. That means that all those young people who choose not to buy health care insurance will be forced to buy it. If you don’t buy insurance you will end up paying a fine or something similar.
That sounds good, except. We have a requirement now that everyone who owns a vehicle must purchase automobile insurance. If one doesn’t purchase auto insurance they can be charged with an offense, fined and maybe go to jail for a while. If we have mandatory auto insurance why do I have to purchase “uninsured motorist” insurance? Mandatory auto insurance has been around for a long time, and it still doesn’t work, ask any police officer.
The current health legislation has over 1,300 pages and it doesn’t include any health care, doesn’t include tort reform, doesn’t eliminate taxes on health care, doesn’t reduce the high cost of medical education, but it does increase costly government mandates on the health care industry. If Congress passes a health care bill what do you think we will have in a few years?
OUTRAGEOUS NEWS
"It could be that the 2016 Games are the last Olympics in the history of mankind. Global warming is getting worse. We have to come up with measures without which Olympic Games could not last long." --Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara 10/1/2009
