Hey! The Neo-Republicans and the lobbyists are trying to hang the “ObamaCare” tag on the President’s health care reform program. What’s wrong with that? Let’s call it “ObamaCare!” It is a great program and something to be proud of. In ten years, the Republicans (no longer “Neo’s” by that time) will regret that they didn’t call it GOPCare. Among a lot of things they will have to regret, calling it ObamaCare may be the one they’ll regret most.
Let’s get right to the heart of the matter. The Neo-Republicans, supported by their friends in the health care lobby, supported by anti-health, fat slob Rush Limbaugh, supported by the man so filled with hate that he is banned from entering Britain, Michael Savage, supported by health care propagandists, Fox News and the Murdoch Wall Street Journal do not want a change in the status of the current health care delivery system.
Oh, no. That can’t be, you say. They wouldn’t do that…would they? Well, let’s see. How many years did the Republicans have political power? They had complete control of the government for 8 years, then control of Congress under Clinton for 8 years, then the Presidency under the first Bush, who had a Democratic Congress, which, as soon as he left office, tried to get health care with Bill Clinton.
The Democrats in Congress and Clinton lost that battle to Newt Gingrich, the Republican Congress and the billions of dollars spent by the health care industry lobbyists. Clinton tried hard to get universal health care for the people, and finally said to a recalcitrant Republican Congress…”you write the program. Just make sure that it covers everyone, and I’ll sign it.” But the Republicans did nothing. They started wars and cut taxes for the rich and corporations. And spent $11 trillion more than they took in. Of your money.
Now the current Neo-Republicans are doing the same thing. Here are the selling points of the Neo-Republicans and Health Care Lobbyists being used against you and your health. Let’s debunk them, one by one.
1. They say it will cost too much. The fact is that even the $1.6 trillion over ten years that CBO attributed to the Congressional plan would not be excessive. Of course that plan was wrong. There were no cost-cutting measures, like a public option, included in it. It was basically extending what we are doing now for ten years, with some kind of pretense that the private health companies would cut costs a little.
ObamaCare would reduce individual costs over time by about half. That is what other countries that now have universal health care but are on the same economic level as we are currently have. Living in Europe is actually more expensive than the United States, so the costs could even be less than we project. But to set it up will cost some money until we are up and running. With everyone included, and adding those who can only afford to pay small premiums, those who who do not now have insurance or those who might cost more than average, we would still pay less than $700 billion over ten years. That is because ObamaCare has a “pubic option” that is less expensive and brings costs down.
In order to come up with that money to get the ball rolling, we could, for example, either take just part of the money from the retired second Bush tax cuts. Or, for example, we could cut about $50 billion from the more than $600 billion we spend each year on defense. Those are only two of about 30 options we have to pay for really good health care. We are talking about health care that will work just like Medicare only better, and for everyone. Everyone who wants it. By the way, the top income on the retired Bush tax cuts would mean that people would go from something like 35% to as much as perhaps 39%. Under Eisenhower and Kennedy, those same income brackets paid 90% and 70% respectively.
So the point is, if you are at the very top end, the government might now ask, after years of tax breaks, that the top end…pay about 4% more than they have been paying to see to it that all Americans can have high quality health care. By the way, those now paying 35% only pay about 22% in actual money to the government after deductions. On a million, therefore, they keep, after taxes, about $780 thousand dollars. So the final point is that health care costs would go down dramatically now for the public option and over time for those with private insurance. The cost of doing it can be easily paid for, no matter what the health care lobby and Senator Grassley and others who advocate for them may tell you.
2. They say taht care will be rationed and bureaucrats will get between you and your doctor. That is so ridiculous. Let’s answer that with a question? Does anyone get between doctors and Medicare patients? Answer: no. Period. Ask any Medicare patient. That’s all the research you need to do.
Does any health care insurance company now withhold certain procedures? You’d better believe it! There is not much question that if many people who have private health care insurance could buy into Medicare right now, about half would do it because of all the horror stories. I mean tragic stories. Take this number, which is a fact. Half of all personal bankruptcies, which have been, by the way, at all time highs in recent years, are caused by medical catastrophes. Now…are you ready for this? Over half of those people HAD health insurance! That is what can happen to you if you aren’t vigilant. ObamaCare will end that forever.
4. They tell you that you will have long waiting times, like the people in Canada. Well, here are the facts. Persons who call a doctor in Canada and suspect that they may have some kind of Cancer wait an averageof six days. That’s an AVERAGE. And that is after a phone interview on the problem to determine if you should come in sooner. There are about a hundred sites on the Internet paid for by the health insurance lobby in one way or another, that will give you “anecdotal evidence” on long waiting times. Above, you just read the statistical facts from Canadians that monitor the Canadian health care system.
On the other hand…if you have a bad knee and your doctor decides that you need a knee or a hip replacement, you could wait up to something like 14 months. Why is that? Well, here we often do the same thing. It depends on how bad the problem is. Knee and hip replacements are not forever. They last about 20 years. So if you have one done at age 50, you may need another by age 70. Consequently, the longer you can put it off the better you are. Ask any orthopedist. But that 14 months is not an average. That is the longest that it generally takes for a scheduled replacement. As with everything in the Canadian system, which is all about the patient…no longer about money…the more serious the problem the sooner it is taken care of.
Doctors control patient care in Canada and, so far as we know, in all other OECD countries. We are the only ones without universal health care, and not coincidentally the ones with the shortest life spans.
So that’s ObamaCare. Low cost. Can’t be turned down. Doctors (and there will be more family doctors per capita) make the decisions. Lower drug costs. One same system anywhere in the United States. Keep your doctor or find a new one. Keep your current insurance if you want to. And your care is at the center of the entire system. Not some health insurance company CEO’s $14 million dollar average income.
ObamaCare is a good name for it. It certainly isn’t NeconCare or Republican care. That’s what we’ve got now. What happened to this country? We used to have great Republicans. No longer. They all vote in a bloc against anything that is progressive and will help the Middle Class. Where is Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln when you need them?