Health Care - The Crisis To Come

Obama claims we have a health care crisis. No we don’t. We have a crisis in the making however if this guy’s plans see the light of day.

Recently Obama hosted a conference call with leftist bloggers urging them to pressure Congress to pass his health bill. One blogger referred to the recent claim by the IBD that Section 102 of the House version would outlaw private insurance. He asked Obama is this was true, if he could keep his insurance if HR 3200 is passed. Obama replied, "You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about." Whoa now!! BO hasn’t read his own bill yet he’s taking a stick to Congress to pass it?

Obama in fact does understand the legislation, he simply doesn’t want the masses to know, hence the rush to passage. The fact is that the House bill does not outright prohibit private insurance, it just regulates it out of existence. From The Heritage Foundation, "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."

Best estimates are that 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. That fit’s perfectly with Obama’s objective which is to push all of us into the government-run plan.

Robert Craven