DC Watch "If you like your insurance, you can keep it!", Plus other such Myths & Fables By Carolyn Cormey The Game Plan Is: Establish a Boogieman, "THE PUBLIC OPTION, to capture the public's focus and to give them something to vent their anger about, while the actual plan for the complete government control of our health care is put into place. The House Health Care Bills have proceeded through each Committee, becoming more and more expensive as members have added their pet projects to it. Lots of cooks dumping in more and more ingredients to make this health care legislation into a really huge, bad-tasting stew! Now, the Bills are being blended into a final House version that our Congressmen will vote to pass as soon as they return from their August Recess. The big problem is NOT "The Public Option." The real problem is the total plan in this Health Care Bill. Read on: Here's how the Health Care Takeover works: An "Exchange" or Exchanges (Insurance Co-ops) are established, which are vehicles that will be controlled and regulated by government appointed advisory committees, boards and councils, having to do with just about everything that could be possibly related to our health care in any way, including diversity, aging and . . . . (well you know the government and all those special interest groups AND political correctness). Private Medical Insurance Companies will be required to either put themselves (and their insurance policy programs) inside the "Exchange" or they can also make the choice to remain outside the "Exchange," (at least at first). Insurance Companies inside the exchange are subject to the controls and regulations of the government-appointed advisory committees, boards and councils as to the premiums that can be charged, the fees paid to doctors, hospitals and critical care facilities for each thing, . . . and may extend to advisory board guidelines listing the "preferred" medical procedures, operations, medications and medical care, to be used in treatment . . . . with performance assessments (or grades) assigned to doctors on how well they follow the established procedural guidelines. . . . the language varies but this is the gist.. "IF YOU LIKE YOUR INSURANCE, YOU CAN KEEP IT" . . . . . that is, if your employer-paid or private-paid insurance company decides not to take themselves and your insurance plan into the "Exchange." However, if your insurance company decides to remain outside the Exchange, they will not be able to add one more person into the plan you want to keep nor add a single new medication or new medical procedure that is not currently spelled out in your current plan. Hmmmmm. How long do you think that your insurance company will be able to afford to keep offering an insurance plan that they cannot add new people into AND how long do you think you will want to keep an insurance plan that is not allowed to keep up with new drugs or medical procedures? I seem to remember that in just about every single TV interview, our President tells us that "If you like your insurance, you get to keep it!" Perhaps he was just forgetting to tell us the rest of the story that is written into the Bill. What do you think? Actually, each of the versions of the House Bills states that within 5 years ALL private medical insurance plans (companies) must be inside the Exchange(s). I guess the President forgets to mention the expiration date for the "you get to keep your insurance" when he continues to make this promise to us. So - while our clever Majority Party Legislators keep our attention and anger focused on "The Public Option," watching the Senate Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats "fight for us" and eventually gain the reluctant acquiescence of the Majority Party to a final Bill without "The Public Option," - everyone gets to pat themselves on the back! We "public" got that untrustworthy "Public Option," removed (hooray for us) AND never notice that our government gets the complete control of our health care, from cradle to grave through the "Exchange" vehicle now in place. With government in complete control, a "Public Option" can be added into the Exchange at any time, by deciding one is necessary. Private insurance companies were heavy-handed and did the stupid things that created excuses to blame them - but - the current health care reform bill is really about not them at all. In fact, insurance companies will like the protection afforded to them once inside the Exchanges. With government setting the rules and the parameters for approved choice of treatments, medical procedures and drugs AND making decisions on who gets what kind of care, the government removes responsibility and therefore liability away from them - so - it will be hard to win lawsuits against insurance companies! So - when things go terribly wrong, we probably get to sue the government - right? Not to worry - we can still sue and get those punitive mal-practice awards against Doctors, hospitals and critical care facilities AND they get to keep paying those huge mal-practice Insurance premiums AND attorneys keep getting to sue! On a straight party-line vote, the Majority Party Legislators have made certain that no mal-practice reform is in this Bill. Why now AND what is this really about? It is about growing the government, benevolent control over every aspect of our lives, under the leadership of equally benevolent politicians who, like loving parents, know and provide what is best for us. However - what our Legislators have decided is best for us does not include allowing us to share the same health care plans and choices they have. On a party-line vote, the Democrats have been very careful to vote down (or to rule "out of order"), each proposed amendment to bring all of us in to share our Senator's and Congressman's health care plans AND vote down amendments that would require our Senators and Congressmen to join us in the Public Option or Exchange Plans they are legislating for us. Apparently, the Public Option (if it is included) and Exchange Plans are good enough for us but are not good enough for our elected, "Dear Leaders." Health Care Rationing - Medicare? Use some common sense. Medicare is broke. Our Legislators are partially funding this new Healthcare Reform Bill by taking a half- trillion dollars out of Medicare, re-distributing it into the new Healthcare Reform. Baby-Boomers are now just beginning to join the Medicare ranks. Soon 12-20 million illegal aliens plus their dependents will also be dumped into Medicare (and the new Universal Health Care Reform Exchange) once the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform," passes, coming soon on the Majority Party political agenda. For certain, we are adding millions and millions of people into government controlled healthcare but when these bills pass, we will still have the same number of hospitals, critical care facilities and doctors. Now then, regardless of what you hear politicians telling you - what do you think? Will health care be rationed if there are too many people and too few hospitals, critical care facilities and doctors? If it is rationed - who gets what and who makes the decisions? Open your eyes. Our Legislators have not fixed Medicare/Medicaid because they have either chosen not to fix them OR they don't know how to. These programs are trillions in the hole, filled with fraud and waste. SO . . .JUST EXACTLY WHY IS IT that we would want to deliver into their incompetent hands, an even larger Medicare-like program - with or without "The Public Option?" Compare the financial conditions of the US Post Office to the privately-run Federal Express. Visa can track a drugstore charge clear across the country while our US Immigration Service cannot tell us the number of illegal aliens in our country or even locate those who have over-stayed Visas. What does your common sense tell you about government control and health care rationing? Tell our Legislators to fix Medicare first and then we will see how this goes. There are bipartisan plans out there that promote insurance company competition and lower costs by allowing large, nation-wide associations and church denominations to form groups for the purpose of negotiating better and less expensive insurance for their members AND allowing you to buy insurance from another state and take your insurance with you when you move! These alternatives are out there and will not cost us trillions nor will they force us to give the personal control of our health care to government. Visit your Legislators while they are home for August Recess. www.contactingthecongress.org

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