STUMPTALK: Some Healthcare Myths and Facts

Opinion

September 21, 2009

By Jerry McDonough / Chronicle contributor The Crossville Chronicle Mon Sep 21, 2009, 02:26 PM CDT

No matter which poll one chooses to read, one thing is perfectly clear. High majorities of Americans have serious doubts about Obama’s health care plan. Most Americans cannot understand the rush to enact a bill which has admittedly not been read by those doing the enacting and whose real — about $245 billion per year according to the Congressional Budget Office — expenditures and edicts will not occur until after 2013 and after the 2012 election cycle.

The Pelosi/Hoyer cabal state that their plan would mean more choice, but the non-partisan Lewin Group states 83.4 million people — 48.4 percent – would lose their insurance and private insurance would increase up to $460 annually, thereby effectively driving private insurance out of the marketplace.

Obama recently said that his plan would not “bring about government takeover of health care”, but he had better check with Barney Frank (D-MA) who said Obama’s plan “is the best way to reach single payer” health care, much as Obama stated before he became president.

The Obama/Pelosi cabal states the free market health care system is not working, but the health care system is not a true free market system. Govenrment plays a dominant role in health care and impedes the formation of a true market based system. In 2007, the cost of all government health care was more then $1 trillion, or 46 percent of the total health care cost in America, thereby distorting true costs. The most significant distortion is the tax code. Sixty-three percent of the insured population receives their coverage through their employers who are not taxed for this insurance, but whose policies are state regulated “one-size-fits-all,” such as pregnancy coverage for a 60 year old. Were the public allowed the same tax benefit and allowed to tailor their coverage to their needs, the costs would be significantly reduced by 20 to 50 percent.

The Obama/Pelosi cabal states that 46 million Americans have no insurance when the facts show a truly different story. The Census Bureau statistics indicate that almost 10 million non-citizens are included in that number, along with almost 18 million who can well afford medical insurance but choose not to buy it. When all is said and done, there are 8 million citizens who have no insurance, and that certainly does not meet the requirements of a crisis in a population of almost 400 million people. Reform needs to be accomplished to include these 8 million uninsured, drive down the overall costs caused by waste, fraud and over active lawyers, but to replace the entire system in order to give government an extremely costly control of the system in this Republic is ludicrous.

• • •

Stumptalk is published weekly in the Crossville Chronicle. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the Chronicle publisher, editor or staff. Phil Billington serves as coordinator of this column. He may be reached at stumptalk@charter.net.

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