Political opposition spreads too much misinformation

"The country and its people would be far better served if conservatives would stop with the yellow-dog attitude and analyze the ACTUAL plan and help us find flaws and fix them."

That's funny! Every time a republican finds a "flaw" and has a "fix" it's labeled as "yellow-dog attitude". There will never be a Republican recommendation seen any other way.

So, when my employer sees it's cheaper to drop the companies private insurance (increasing his bottom line) and dump us all in the public system, is that considered my choice?

Have you read the bill? I would say you haven't. I have read about half and don't like it.

Tigger,

I just HAVE to nitpick this stuff. The Obama/Biden plan you posted is swell but it, like all of Obama's other promises, is a campaign tool and only shows you the sunny side of what he wants to do.

Take a look at the Linda Douglass clip the White House put out regarding "disinformation". There os a clip of Obama talking at a press breifing about the public option being a necessary tool to "discipline" the insurance companies. Well, heck, why do the insurance companies need to be "disciplined" with a competing PUBLICALLY FUNDED plan. Do you understand what is really being said here?


Obama is actually blaming the health insurance companies for the cost of health care. That isn't surprising for a guy that is wholly anti-capitalist but notice that he isn't wagging his finger and asking for an investigation. He is doing something much more insidious and that is instituting the "Public Option". Obama says that the public option will provide more competition for insurance companies but that competition will be totally one sided.

A public insurance plan will be taxpayer funded, will be at no risk of loss and will be administered by the government which is making ALL the rules about what must be covered. No private company can compete against that. It's like calling target practice a gunfight just because the target has a picture of a perp holding a gun! Private health insurance will disappear. Also note that section 102 of the Waxman bill allows people to keep existing policies but it limits new enrolees. What this means is that if your current employer plan is ERISA compliant you are good to go but if you ever opt out of that plan or your employer opts to change plans you are going to be forced into the new "marketplace" with the public option which WILL, in short order, be the only option.

Let's look at another couple of things. There is no plan to use any free market alternatives to what Obama wants. There is no talk of tort reform. There is no talk of expanding HSA's. These are all options which could make insurance coverage currently available less expensive and also make it available to a wider spectrum of consumers. The only reason these options are not addressed is because Obama wants government control of health care.

Notice that there has been no suggestion that one or two states run with this public program to see how it will work and to work bugs out of the system. That too is because the ONLY goal is complete control of health care by the federal government.

Let's take things one step farther. Once the government has us all in a headlock for health care what else can we expect. Well, for one thing there will then be huge government leverage for mandating what types of food can be consumed, how products are manufactured and air and water quality will all fall under more strict government control than they are now because all these things impact health costs. We will be COMPLETELY under the thumb of the government.

Now, I know that some people will still say "So what?. We will all be better off is we have health coverage we can afford and the cost in terms of personal liberty is one we must pay." WRONG!!! WRONG!!! WRONG!!!

If we put all our eggs in one basket then we are at much greater risk of losing everything. A single payer system will destroy the pace at which research is conducted. The one way street of treatment methodology will stunt the pace of clinical advances. We will open ourselves up for massive corruption in the system will incentivise an increase in an underground medical industry probably fueled by the organ trade.

Free market solutions are available to reign in health care costs. These solutions can also allow us to continue the growth and excellence for which our health care system is known. We can stand up and continue to be BETTER than the rest of the world but if this plan goes through we will no longer be world leaders. There will no longer be anyone for the rest of the world to look to as an example and, ultimately, we will cost more lives than we save.

Tigger is right in that we shouldn't listen to the hype and take it as gospel but we MUST make sure that we know what we're getting into.

"Polling shows that most Americans are happy with the health insurance they have. One reason is that they have, in economist Albert Hirschman's phrase, the option of exit. Most Americans choose health-insurance policies every year, and if we don't like our current plan, we can exit from it and choose another. Government insurance will tend to close off the option of exit, trapping you in a system that is sure to be riddled with unanticipated consequences." --political analyst Michael Barone