We’re down to the wire with ObamaCare. The big-government-loving left is determined to push through a bill before the end of the year that contains who knows what — with the only certainty being that members of Congress won’t be subject to its limits on care. After promising bipartisanship and sunshine in the deliberations, Democrats are shaping the bill behind closed doors. In the face of an overwhelming lack of public support and dire budget-deficit ramifications, the left, like the snake oil peddlers of old, is selling ObamaCare with quackery and the President’s oft-repeated and patently false claim that “if you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan.” The media campaigns of today’s slick-talking politicians harken back to the entertaining road shows where deceiving people and leaving before the deception became obvious was an effective way to fleece the public. Today’s radical politicians are determined to promote and pass their disastrous health care reform before the public learns the details and then delay implementation until some time after the 2012 election when Obama, at least, will be politically safe from the public’s wrath.
Oh, the deception! Let me count the ways!
For starters: the reality of mandates, rationing, taxpayer funded abortion, opposition from physicians, the prohibitive cost, the lack of competition between private and public insurance … the list could go on and on. It’s easy to get the facts at websites like ours — www.cwfa.org. But it’s not easy to get it from the nightly news or the morning papers. Nor can you get the truth from those promoting ObamaCare — but I repeat myself.
Congressional GOP members describe the plans that are on the table as socialized medicine. They point out that government-run health care would drive private insurers out of business. Even Democratic members privately admit that their plans don’t offer enough choices and will hurt Americans who already have insurance through their employers. The estimates of additional costs to individual American families run into the thousands of dollars. In fact, in spite of repeated denials by those pushing legislation through Congress right now, government-run insurance policies would provide the type of shortage-plagued service now available in Canada and England — not exactly what Americans want.
Remember the major selling point for ObamaCare? It was supposed to provide insurance for those who don’t currently have insurance. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shot down that deception; CBO’s estimate was that when fully implemented, the proposed plan — counting both the number who would gain insurance less the number who would lose coverage through their employer — would only increase the number of insured by about 16 million (only about 35 percent of the 46 million uninsured in 2009) at a cost of an additional $1 trillion in the deficit over the 2010-2019 period.
Now is the time for dissenting, well-informed voices to be heard. If the current ideas become law, it will irrevocably change our health care system as we know it. It will lead to higher costs, rationing of health care, the funding of elective abortions, and will drive pro-life doctors out of the profession. Was this the change that people voted for in 2008?
People from around the world come to the United States for the best health care, and that top-quality health care, now available to the vast majority of Americans, is endangered. It is reprehensible that politicians are working behind closed doors to devise schemes to push ObamaCare through quickly without public approval. They are willing to totally ignore the millions of Americans who are concerned that it will trample our beliefs and values.
Congress needs to hear our voices; we must speak out now. With public disapproval getting more open, and the outcry against ObamaCare spreading so rapidly, Congress is getting pretty desperate; and the backroom tactics are getting more bare-knuckled.
The Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org) revealed this week that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) reportedly offered money to physicians who would drop their opposition to ObamaCare. He reportedly promised national medical groups that the Senate would stop medical cuts to doctor payments for 10 years in return for physicians’ support for ObamaCare.
Remember presidential candidate Barack Obama’s talk about “affordable” health care coverage? More and more people are learning the reality about the hefty price tag of Obama’s health care bill. A report from Price Waterhouse Coopers confirms that health care reform measures will be prohibitively expensive — more than twice the expected growth in the Consumer Price Index, with the increased cost of health insurance premiums being borne by individuals and families.
But the most egregious and morally reprehensible aspect of the health care debate thus far — with the possible exception of the withholding of treatment of the elderly and disabled — is the deception about whether the reforms include taxpayer funding for abortions. The radical left repeatedly assures the public that they won’t have to involuntarily fund abortions.
How stupid do they think we are?
In spite of all the rhetoric to the contrary, all the health care reform bills currently before Congress mandate abortion funding and coverage. All of the pro-life amendments that came before various committees were rejected along party lines. In short, without explicit wording prohibiting abortion funding and coverage, health care reform will involve all American taxpayers in explicit financial support for abortion-on-demand.
Further, any health care reform provisions must provide protection for the rights of conscience for health care workers and medical providers. Those whose faith or consciences prevent them from performing abortions must have the ability to object and refrain from participating in actions that are contrary to their beliefs.
Now is the time to speak out — often and loudly; otherwise, the ObamaCare that we will be forced to swallow will be as foul and ineffective as the snake oil sold in the travelling carnivals.