Drop the current legislation on healthcare reform. It is too lengthy, has too many points that are being challenged by people with no other motive than love of country. And, it addresses issues of personal healthcare that are not the business of the government. In reality who ever gave the federal government the permission to address my/our healthcare; I agree with those who say that healthcare legislation is unconstitutional.
There are several things that should have been done much prior to this late date: tort/liability reforms that will reduce the necessity of providers carrying expensive liability insurance the cost of which is passed on to patients, hospitals, and other related providers and competition across state lines for less expensive insurance. Some suggest that this administration is beholden or indebted to trial lawyers' groups; that could account for the absence of tort reform in Obama's bill.
Some of the reforms in the Obama plan are punitive against insurance companies and will eventually put them out of business. Obama's insistence of mandating that insurance companies insure everyone, even those with pre-existing catastrophic illnesses, ignores the reality of the actuarial tables designed as a formula to assign premiums based on projected payouts. What a formula for destroying the insurance industry. But then, isn't that his intent. That would certainly move us right into a single payer system. We all agree that the issue of pre-existing conditions and those who cannot afford insurance needs to be addressed. Surely we can do that without destroying the best healthcare system in the world.
The bottom-line is that in addressing the plight of the under or uninsured, Obama has created a panic among the greater population of folks who have taken care of their business and made sure that they have adequate insurance. His plan thrusts the government's fingers deeply into the private affairs of many responsible people. Medicare has effectively desensitized Americans to the movement toward a total welfare state; it set us up to move toward dependency on the government.
The massive amount of language in the bill leaves massive holes of opportunity for undisclosed or unwanted legislation to be attached without the general public's awareness or understanding of long-term consequences.
This attempt at a “comprehensive” bill is really an attempt to slide every left-leaning, socialistic, fatter government piece of legislation past a “dull of understanding” public's eye. I include myself in this category. I looked through the bill and didn't have a clue as to what most of it meant or of its implications. The language is legal and most of us don't know how to sift through anything this massive and decide how it is going to affect the rest of our lives and the lives of our off-springs. When legislation is being debated that will change the nature of how we will experience healthcare and that will affect a huge portion of the economic health of our country, we should be able to understand it. For that reason, and many others, instead of trying to rush this through as Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have been trying to do since the first day of his presidency, the current bill should be scrapped. Much smaller pieces of legislation should be crafted that both sides can debate in front of the public. Timetables to move bills of this import through Congress should not exist.
I repeat: The Obama administration's urgency to get healthcare reform done ASAP smells of deceit and shenanigans.
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