The "myths" of health care reform

I’m going to make something very clear here in the beginning. Facts that I cite here in this blog are from the house health care bill, HR 3200 “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.” Obama, Frank, and Pelosi can say all they want, but I will only be citing the bill itself. Now, I’ve been digging into the internet gathering up a list of those pesky, dangerous, ultra-right wing rumors and myths that everyone is talking about, I’ll be going point by point, after each “myth” I will list the sections of the bill that point out the facts for the particular “myth.” I’m not going to post the full text of the sections on here, because they are quite long. However, on the Library of Congress website, there is a service called THOMAS, where you can look up the full text of the legislation and read it, just in case you thought I was making this up. Ok, let’s begin.

1) Americans will lose their private insurance, or be funneled into the public option.

Under Sec. 102 (a)(1) LIMITATION ON NEW ENROLLMENT
Sec. 102 (a)(2) LIMITATION ON CHANGES IN TERMS OR CONDITIONS
So, insurance companies cannot accept new enrollments or change the terms or conditions of their current plans.

2) Health care reform will limit patient’s choices.

Sec. 123 HEALTH BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Sec. 141 HEALTH CHOICES ADMINISTRATION; HEALTH CHOICES COMMISSIONER

There will be a committee designated largely by the president in charge of deciding your benefits, and an administration, largely appointed by the president, will decide what standards constitutes coverage. That applies to private companies as well.

3) Health care reform will grant the federal government access to people’s bank accounts.

Sec. 163 ADMINISTRATIVE SIMPLIFICATION
Subsection 1173A GOALS STANDARDIZED ELECTRONIC ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS
(a)(2) GOALS FOR FINANCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS

The federal government will establish access to people’s bank accounts for electronic transactions and to determine the financial stability of patients.

4) Death panels.

Sec. 1233 ADVANCED CARE PLANNING CONSULTATION

As illustrated throughout this section. Every five years you SHALL (not, you MAY be visited. You SHALL…) be visited by advanced care consultants, to consider options such as living wills, health care proxy, hospice care, assisted suicide, and ‘your life, your choice’ handbooks. Now, if you’re going to this section looking for the specific phrase “death panel” is going to be disappointed. The term “death panel” is a metaphor for government guidance into death.
I’ve outlined the major “myths out there, if you have one that I forgot to mention or want to challenge me on, leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you on it. Enjoy.

Media in a tizzy over gun carrying protesters

Now for the second time, I’m seeing headlines all over the web about a protester openly carrying guns to an Obamacare protest outside of where the president was speaking. I’m reading these stories and I must say to myself, “so what?” It’s no secret that it is an American right to own and carry a gun. It is the second amendment to the constitution. It’s also no secret that many Americans choose to own and carry a firearm of some kinds. And now with concealed carry, the only secret left is, you don’t know who does and who doesn’t. In every instance, the protest remained peaceful, (which is more than I can say for SEIU union attendees to the town halls across the country) and not one shot was fired, despite all the guns being loaded and back up ammunition being present on the person carrying. Wait, wait, I’ll eat my words. I do know why this is a big deal to a lot of people. A lot of people out there on the left and in the media can’t believe that something like this is legal. “How can this be legal, how can you justify carrying a weapon to a public forum or protest, that is so threatening, why would anyone do that?” To that I would answer, that is the point. It is meant to be threatening. In some cases, it’s meant to be threatening to ‘bad guys.’ No one is going to mess with the guy with a rifle strapped to his back and a hand gun on his waist. In other cases, it is meant to be threatening to our government. Our founders gave us the right to keep and carry deadly weapons for the sole purpose of keeping our governments in check. Our government works for us, our representatives are meant to represent us. What better incentive for them to actually do their job in representing the people and our best interests than the constant reminder that we are their boss and we retain the right and the ability to over throw them if we determine that they have forgotten who they serve and who is really in control of this country. This country is of the people, for the people, and by the people, and it is our right to make that known to our government, in case they forgot.

Health Care

Ok, let’s jump right into this. Now that I’ve gotten the introduction out of the way, you know more or less what to expect here. I probably don’t even have to tell you where I stand on the issue of health care reform. When it comes to HR 3200, I vote no, no, no, and I refuse to vote for any representative that votes to pass this through.
I have argued with many people on this subject and have found an interesting anomaly. I have found many people who are in favor of health care reform (no matter what it looks like in the end) but not one person specifically in favor of HR 3200. Not one person I have debated about this has been able to point to a particular page or section in the bill and argue “I am in favor of reform because x, y, and z and that can be found in sections a, b, and c.” However, I have read the vast majority of the bill, and I can make the argument against health care based on what the bill says. Nothing that I have heard from the president and others at the white house regarding health care reform can be supported by the contents of the bill. If the president has a plan that would allow people to keep private coverage, or a plan that wouldn’t put the government in a position to decide who lives and who dies, or a plan that wouldn’t give the government direct deposit access to every American’s bank account then I would like to see this plan in writing, because it certainly is not HR 3200. The truth is, anyone anywhere can get up and say whatever they want, but ultimately we’re not governed by what they say, we are governed by what is in legislation. I agree, health care is a right; but once you give the government power to take something away, or deny something to you, it is no longer a right. HR 3200 does just that. Let me start off by saying that supporters of Obamacare often times misspeak about what it is that they really want for health care reform. Their biggest concern about reform is health insurance. As it stands right now, any person anywhere can walk into a hospital and be diagnosed and treated with the best care in the world for anything even if they are not insured. Health care as it stands right now is a right. Now, under the world of HR 3200, you will not be allowed treatment for anything unless a government panel approves you for treatment. Everyone will be issued an electronically scan able health ID card that is scanned when you first enter a medical facility. This will tell the staff there what you have and have not been approved for, it will also have data on it about whether or not you are financially stable enough to receive certain treatment, at which point a facility can deny you certain treatment, some of which can save your life. To gather information on what treatment you should be allowed to have, the government will have access to you financial records via your bank accounts. From that information they will be able to determine what you spend your money on. Example, say the government decided to mandate how many calories are acceptable for good health. Your doctor tells you that your cholesterol is high, and you start worrying about your heart. A government panel looks into your bank records and sees that you have made what they consider to be too many trips to McDonalds. This panel will be in a position to dictate to you what food you will be allowed to have and how much. If you fail to meet the specifications, then any heart surgery that you have will be paid for out of your own pocket, and an unhealthy tax will be levied on you as a result of unhealthy habits burdening the system.

The extent that people are willing to let the government run their lives is frightening to me. In my opinion, paying for the best health care in the world is a small price to pay for the freedom to be able to go to any hospital I want and be treated in a timely fashion. Having to pay for it myself is a small price to pay for the freedom of being able to determine on my own whether or not I am worth the investment. I don’t want to be told by a panel at 75 years old, that I should really start looking at end of life options and hospices because the government just isn’t going to pay for treatment when there is a chance I’ll die next week anyway. This takes me all the way down to the core value of conservatism. I don’t believe that the government knows how to spend my money better than me. I believe that the people should be allowed to keep their money and spend it on what they choose to spend it on. But now I am digressing.
Are there problems with our current system? Yes. We will always have kinks we need to work out of any system. There is no such thing as a perfect system. If there were, people everywhere would be out of work because machines would do it all for us. But the system isn’t flawless, that is why we need people to fix it when it breaks. And I’ve never seen a mechanic fix a machine by building a bigger and more complicated machine to offset the losses of the first one; that’s because it wouldn’t work. There is work that needs to be done on this, but HR 3200 is not the answer. I’ll have more on this as the comments roll in, or the august recess ends, whichever comes first. There are a few places online you can go to read the full text of the bill. Govtrack.us is one site. The library of congress website has a section called THOMAS where you can look up any bill and read the full text. I encourage people to read it whether you agree with me or not, and come back and tell me why you support or oppose this effort.