The following was reported by “The Heritage Foundation”:
With the public’s trust in his handling of health care tanking (50%-44% of Americans disapprove), the White House has launched a new phase of its strategy designed to pass Obamacare: all Obama, all the time. As part of that effort, Obama hosted a conference call with leftist bloggers urging them to pressure Congress to pass his health plan as soon as possible.
During the call, a blogger from Maine said he kept running into an Investors Business Daily article that claimed Section 102 of the House health legislation would outlaw private insurance. He asked: “Is this true? Will people be able to keep their insurance and will insurers be able to write new policies even though H.R. 3200 is passed?” President Obama replied: “You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about.”
This is a truly disturbing admission by the President, especially considering that later in the call, Obama promises yet again: “If you have health insurance, and you like it, and you have a doctor that you like, then you can keep it. Period.” How can Obama keep making this promise if he is not familiar with the health legislation that is being written in Congress? Details matter.
We are familiar with the passage IBD sites, and as we wrote last week, the House bill does not outright outlaw private individual health insurance, but it does effectively regulate it out of existence. The House bill does allow private insurance to be sold, but only “Exchange-participating health benefits plans.” In order to qualify as an ‘Exchange-participating health benefits plan,’ all health insurance plans must conform to a slew of new regulations, including community rating and guaranteed issue. These will all send the cost of private individual health insurance skyrocketing. Furthermore, all these new regulations would not apply just to individual insurance plans, but to all insurance plans. So the House bill will also drive up the cost of your existing employer coverage as well. Until, of course, it becomes so expensive that your company makes the perfectly economical decision to dump you into the government plan.
President Obama may not care to study how many people will lose their current health insurance if his plan becomes law, but like most Americans, we do. That is why we partnered with the Lewin Group to study how many Americans would be forced into the government “option” under the House health plan.
Here is what we found:
*Approximately 103 million people would be covered under the new public plan and, as a consequence, about 83.4 million people would lose their private insurance. This would represent a 48.4 percent reduction in the number of people with private coverage.
*About 88.1 million workers would see their current private, employer-sponsored health plan go away and would be shifted to the public plan.
*Yearly premiums for the typical American with private coverage could go up by as much as $460 per privately-insured person, as a result of increased cost-shifting stemming from a public plan modeled on Medicare.
It is truly frightening that the President of the United States is pressuring Congress in an all-out media blitz to pass legislation that he flatly admits he has not read and is not familiar with. President Obama owes it to the American people to stop making promises about what his health plan will or will not do until he has read it, and can properly defend it in public, to his own supporters.
Quick Hits:
*Thanks to a steep drop from conservative and moderate Democrats, a plurality of Americans (49%-47%) now disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the economy.
*The Mayo Clinic on the House health bill: “Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill … the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite. … The real losers will be the citizens of the United States.”
*According to Wall Street Bailout watchdog Neil Barofsky, the Obama Treasury Department has refused to give, or seek, answers about the use of bailout funds, while the total bailout commitment of the federal government has risen to $23 trillion.
*Thanks to Obama’s “sweeping agenda,” the lobbyists on K Street are “awash in cash.”
*The Senate health bill gives the Health and Human Services secretary the authority to develop ‘standards of measuring gender’ – as opposed to using the traditional “male” and “female” categories — in a database of all who apply or participate in government-run or government-supported health care plans.
(LINK to original article)
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18 Responses
Actually the president made some suggestions and is leaving it to the Congress (the Clintons tried to micromanage, and failed totally to change health care). Under the constitution, passing legislation is the sole responsibility of the Congress.
Since there is no plan, no one knows what would happen. Presumably those unable to get insurance (including many frum families) would get. Many existing plans might reduce coverage to the level of the federal plan. But with only a collection of ideas under discussion, anyone predicting anything is just guess.
FREEOURHEALTHCARE.ORG SIGN THE PETETION
Hey #1 if all Obama is doing is making suggestions, how can he definitively say that anyone that wants to keep their current health plan will be able to while trying to cram it down our throats? Also, I guess if Obama isn’t aware of a major provision of his own legislation then it’s because he doesn’t want to micromanage. If Bush didn’t have that information then he would be a dummy, right?????
this is not a minor delail, this is a very fundemental core issue that surely indicates the guy is just on a mad rush to drastically change America, without caring exactly into what.
just closed your eyes and sign what ever i tell you that is called a dectator
This president isn’t merely “suggesting” anything. He is an ideologue in the image of Saul Alinsky. He believes America is hopelessly flawed and in dire need of a makeover in the image of Europe. So far everything has worked out so well for them, hasn’t it, #1?
#3– President Obama is actually following the constitution according to original intent. President’s didn’t start proposing laws until the early 20th century. It is the Congress that makes law. Bush was always into micromanaging, and it didn’t work out either.
It’s also good politics since if the Congress comes up with something, they’ll approve it (it’s risky, since if the Congress is a bunch of clowns, nothing will get done), and share the blame if it doesn’t work. The Clintons tried to micromanage, and it didn’t work it.
The current system has numerous flaws (hard for self-employed or small businesses to get insurance, many uninsured). The current system is especially bad for Orthodox Jews since most insurance companies are reluctant to insure a group that has large families.
And other than some personal grudge against him (becuase he’s somewhat off white???), why are you so antagonistic towards him on a personal level.
are we really using the Heritage Foundation as a news source? what’s next, the Huffington Post?
charliehall,
How familiar are you with the bill? You are very sure Section 102 of the House bill does not regulate private insurance out of viability for many?
7,
as long as we are talking about the president following the constitution, where does it mention that he could appoint czars as he has without going thru congress and where does it say they can have all that power?
Bush… micromanaging???? Surely you jest & I AM calling you Shirley! What pray tell is your messiah doing?? If you look up micromanaging in the dictionary you will see his punim right there.
As President who is pushing this agenda, he should be reading the bills he gets. I understand the health bill isn’t on his desk yet THANK G-D but he should know what’s in there.
We cannot allow Govt socialized ObamaCare to happen.
9,
its not reform if it will KILL everyone!!!! this will drastically alter how we re treated. once we are all on ObamaCare, our lives are in his hands. if its not worth it for them to pay for your care, you are bleeped!!
this is the way it works all over & you cannot deny that!
7,
why do you constantly feel the need to goose step with everything this president proposes? Is it because he is black & your far left liberal mind can’t tell you its actually OK to disagree with him & his socialist policies since he IS killing the country?
If this health plan goes through, Comerade Obama will actually be managing over 40% of America’s industry. This is communismin in the making. From where will the govt be creating a savings on health care? By denying care, especially “end of life care” to the elderly. And that’s bad for frum families and EVERYONE else. He’s promoting killing the pre-born. He’s promoting the passive euthenasia of our elderly.
#13– actually I’m a conservative republican similar to Reagan and Goldwater and McCain — all of whom were/are well known for behaiving with Derekh Eretz (they would call it good manners). Mentchlikeit counts.
Thank you, mastergary. Please sign the petition against health care “reform”.
http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/
P.S. (Someone, please, come up with a better title than “reform”. The word “reform” is of course misleading. Socialists have always specialized in redefining words to disguise their meaning. For elaboration, see the book “The Road to Serfdom” by Hayek, how he describes the German progression from a watered down socialism to the extreme form of socialism that produced the Nazis.)
akuperma,
Hate to say it but you never sound like a conservative in the ways of President Reagan. Most of your posts have me thinking more like Carter, Mondale, Johnson, Clinton, etc.
Charlie: point 1: If as of Jan 1st of the year this curban to health care goes into effect, if you do not have private insurance you cannot sign up any more you must take the govt’s plan — and it is in the text of the bill
point 2:If you can no longer switch from one commercial carrier to another, even if you retire, loose your job etc — and this too is in the bill
THEN how long do you think the commercial insurance carriers will be around? This is not health care reform. This is govt takeover of an industry. The govt bean counters will be deciding your medical care. And if you’re over 65years old, you will be steered toward no care and death. You libs find anything you can’t explain away inflammatory.
#7 – Ideology is what guides this plan, not original intent. If you can’t see that then you’re being willfully naïve. I find Obama’s peddling of a plan he doesn’t seem to know much about to smack of a used car salesman pitch to use any tactic to sell a car without knowing or caring about the needs of the customer. The bottom-line is the president and his flunkies want the government to control more of our lives with a takeover of health care and the end result is all they care about.
I’m amused to see that you have run out of ideas to prop up your Messiah. That would be the only reason you would resort to implying that my opinions are driven by a bias against his skin color. Don’t worry; you’ll never have to think again, just march behind your pied piper.