(craigbattaglino@yahoo.com)

 

The $940 billion health-care overhaul will take nearly a decade to roll out in full. Here is some of the pros and cons of the law.

 

Pros:

·        Insurance companies barred from denying coverage to children with pre-existing illness.

·        Health insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny people coverage because of pre-existing conditions or to drop coverage when people become sick.

 

Cons:

  • Drug makers face an annual fee of $2.5 billion (rises in subsequent years). Starting in 2011. These extra costs will certainly be passed back onto the consumer.

  • New Medicare taxes on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and couples filing jointly earning more than $250,000 a year. In addition to other taxes Obama plans for this group, these are the entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors we want to punish with more taxes.  

  • Tax on wages rises to 2.35% from 1.45% starting in 2013.

  • New 3.8% tax on unearned income such as dividends and interest starting in 2013.

  • Excise tax of 2.9% imposed on sale of medical devices starting in 2013.

  • No cost controls put in place. No guarantee your premiums will go down.

  • Rationing of care is certain to happen. There are approx 1 million doctors in this country (about 1/3 in family care) and approx 300 million individuals in the country and now estimated 50 million have no insurance. That makes the insured patient/doctor ratio at 250/1 taking into account ALL doctors. Including another 50 million brings us to a patient/doctor ratio to 300/1.

  • Penalty for individuals who do not have adequate health insurance.

  • A 40% tax on a good insurance plans which basically means you're only allowed to have a crappy insurance policy. That way the liberals can claim "everyone" has insurance, but nobody gets to have better insurance than anyone else! Fairness and equality for all!

With no real solution on how to actually pay for the program other than to take it from Medicaid and from Social Security, I see Obama doing what Britain has done and that is institute a national sales tax. Of course you wouldn’t see Obama on the steps of the Capital asking Americans to accept this, so not sure when this will come, but a huge option for the President that might be reality.

 

Look, the government can’t even tie their own shoes. Look at the post office; it’s a government run agency and its broke and a mess. The government created Medicare and the system is about to go broke. Does anyone remember HMO’s? another government idea. The goal of the government is to treat insurance companies as utilities and force them to go out of business. The goal is not to just keep them honest as the Democrats say, but to drive them out.

 

15 million people under the age of 30 chose not to purchase healthcare insurance not because they couldn’t get it, but because they didn’t want it.  Now the government is saying you have to have it and will penalize individuals for not having it and not having adequate insurance. The government will put 16,000 IRS people on the watch like big brother to make sure that people have insurance. The government is hoping people do not purchase insurance so they can get the revenue in fines.

 

The costs of this law are off and the numbers don’t add up. The CBO issued a report based on numbers the White House gave them. Garbage in, garbage out. Look the CBO forecasting the costs in 10 years is like me saying on January 20th 2020 it will snow. The real costs figure to be about $2 trillion when you factor all the backroom deals and doctors comp that was not part of the report issued by the CBO.

 

So now we are all subjected to committees to determine what is best for us. A politician like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, etc.. will sit on a committee and determine healthcare methods for sick individuals. Of course you can’t be denied coverage, but you also may never receive and get the right coverage either. Doctors will have to converse with a government individual to determine what the right course of action is for their patient in terms of care.

 

We are not Canada, everyone outside the U.S admired about how good are healthcare is, foreigners come here to get procedures done, just ask the Newfoundland Premier who came to the U.S from Canada to get healthcare. This law will hamper our technology as well, which made our medical field one of the most admired around the world.

 

Over 80% of Americans felt their coverage was good, we could have found a way to reform healthcare without the government intrusion. But that’s not what Obama envisioned.

 

This passing of the bill into law was not government by the people for the people, this was government for them. The only ones who make out will be the government as they still keep their healthcare fit for kings as they tell you to take a red pill because the blue pill which is better for you is too expensive and your age and medical condition will play a role in that decision.