FixHealthCarePolicy

As a veteran, using the VA medical system for PART of my care, I know something about the "public option." The doctors, nurses, and other staff in the VA clinic I go to are as good as any doctors or nurses anywhere. That being said, the care is, in some respects, substandard. That is why I only receive some of my care from them. I worked long and hard in an unpleasant job to save enough to retire and keep my health insurance, so I use private care along with the VA.
I have developed scleroderma with pulmonary fibrosis. It develops at different rates in different people, but is uniformly fatal. In order to slow its progression, the most agressive, and expensive, treatment is necessary. That treatment is not available at the VA because it is "not on their formulary." If I were not able to use the private sector, I probably would not be here to write this.
If Obamacare passes, after 2013, private insurance plans will not be able to enroll new members. Those plans will ALL fade out and become unavailable within a few years. Then, there will be only the public sector. Sub-standard care will become the new standard. There will be nowhere to go for the level of care that is available now.
There is something you can do. We can stop this if we all hang together. After cap-and-tax got shoved through the house, millions of Americans wrote letters, faxes, and emails and made phone calls to our senators demanding that they stop that bill from passing. It has now been tabled in the senate "until things cool off" Isn't that an interesting way for them to say that? Voting on their bill to stop global warming will not occur until things cool off! The point is, if we all write letters, emails, and faxes to our senators and representatives, and ask our friends to join us and to ask their friends to join in, we can get them to table this turkey, too.
Support our troops. Send them care packages. When they come home, have a big welcome home for them. Help them readjust to life at home after their part of the war. As a Viet Nam vet, I can guarantee you, that matters a lot.

Thank you for your informative and encouraging post. But thank you most of all for your service to our country. As a mom of 4 I am indebted. May God bless and keep you.

I am enjoying the "useful idiots" promote government control while using a name derived from "Liberty."

What about the Constitution? "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." -10th Amendment.

unfortunately, there is a sentence in the constitution, Article I, Section 8, that is loosly interpreted.. "promote general welfare...". That's how the government gets away with Social Security, this health care, etc. The rest of Section 8 lists the actual duties of congress - declare war, post office, navy, army, create money, make laws....

Loosly interpreted is putting it lightly. Your examples of "general welfare" are correct. The problem is how far are we going to take "general welfare?" This could mean many things so using it can include all aspects of society. Where do we look to those guidlines for the "general welfare?" Right where you did but sadly our opposition fails to and puts it uppon themselves to "remake" or "redefine" the meaning of the U.S. Constitution, which is the objective from the start.

The optimum word is "Promote". The Federal Government's first priority is "Provide for the common defense." "Promote Provide" Somewhere the meaning of these words has changed.

Funny no one ever mentions the great expensive social program called public school systems.

This administration does not feel our constitution is a relevent document. To them it is an annoyance that to some degree they must manuever around (as they do).

Obamacare will inevitably result in soaring costs and deficits, the destruction of the insurance industry, the loss of millions of jobs, taxpayer-funded abortion, rationing and denial of health care based on age, infirmity and quality of life. Obama is flat lying when he says this is not so. Just look at Canada and the UK if you want to see what U.S. healthcare will look like under his plan. People are dying in those countries waiting for treatment!

This is nothing more than an attempt by Obama and his minions to turn America into a welfare nanny state where the government controls every aspect of our lives.

I’m not really sure, in any taxes increase would be necessary if American Companies and the American peoples could just pay their premiums to a single payer system or public option system. Instead of the Health Insurance Companies! Think about it, removing that pay of peoples who have no direct impact in helping you maintain your health. Would do a lot to bring down the cost of healthcare. At least 35% of healthcare cost is due to administration cost.

Nope - It just won't work that way. Medicare and Medicaid are notoriously inefficient. Recent articles show that on a per beneficiary basis, their costs are much higher than private plans. But the real issue is - I think - even more subtle than private vs. public. It's free market vs. the hybrid, distorted market we have today. In today's market dominated by insurers, we patients have no idea what we are paying for health care. We have no direct incentive to keep our health costs down or to 'shop around'. And with the threat of malpractice and the weakening of primary care thanks to the AMA, we have primary care doctors who will refer patients to every diagnostic / screening / test possible to cover their tails in case of malpractice, but the end results in $1000s of dollars in tests that ultimately are not necessary. All of these things contribute to the growing cost of HC in the US. Fixing our system requires a whole host of initiatives --- single payer really doesn't address any of this. If anything it makes our immediate problem much worse b/c it adds more people under the coverage umbrella and accelerates the fiscal death spiral of Medicare/Medicaid.

This is seriously misleading - it suggests people will be moved against their will into the public option. But the public option will be a choice - anyone who wants to stay in private coverage can. People will move, voluntarily, to the public option because it will be cheaper, not because it is forced on them.

Clearly you have not read the proposed bills that are before committee. YOU have been serioulsy misled.

The president is a community organizer and doesn't have a clue about health care insurance. The United States has the best health care in the world and he wants to change that too. We are now moving from his original socialism to Marxism. Where are the intelligent people hiding and when can we stop this madness. So many doctors that have worked in Canada and the UK have had their say about the lack of care under the government and the President refuses to listen. American's have got to stop this shift of a take over and leave the free world free. I feel like we are watching a Hitler like shift in this country and American's better wake up or we will be unrecognizable. I have been on Tricare for 36 years and waited for an immune doctor visit from February till October because the only immunologist that would accept Tricare was in Denver. My husband went back to work at age 66 yrs, after retiring from the Army at age 61, so that I could have the chance to see the specialists I need. There are 10 immune doctors in my home town that will now see me. Tricare is a nightmare and it is very similar to what the President is suggesting. Help us all if this comes to pass.

You have experienced the kind of health care to which we may soon be exposed. I pray we as Americans heed the warnings of doctors, nurses, insurance companies, etc.

Obama, as long as he is President of this great country (which he loathes), will continue a strong push toward a socialistic form of government. He is seeking total control our lives. He wants all citizens to be dependent upon government for all needs. Each and every progam he introduces has an underlying theme of forcing all citizens into dependence upon the government. He is the antithesis of freedom, choice and independence.

If anyone feels that Public Option Plan is beneficial to Americans and that those that presently have private plans will be able to keep them should read the two proposed bills. YOU WILL BE ASTOUNDED AT THE FORCED CONTROL GOVERNMENT WILL ASERT IN YOU VERY LIFE!!

This Thomas Jefferson Quote says it all when it comes to how Obamacare will be paid for and who will pay for it!!! The middle class tax payers will wind up paying for it all before it is all over with!! Jefferson said: "A democracy will cease when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not"

I thought I heard on Mark Levin Show, that once obamacare is law NO NEW PRIVATE INSURANCE CAN BE SIGNED ONTO by individuals. True? I'm contending with libs re this, plse help.
harry daggett 805-368-6347

found my own answer: INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Congress: It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For Failure


When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.
It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:
"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

Why not use the power of legislation to force the insurance providers to operate under different rules? Isn't that what government is for??? Two simple things can make insurance more affordable and it won't cost tax payers one red cent. Allow insurers to market health care plans to all Americans, regardless of their home state. Why can't I purchase a plan in Utah, or Texas, or anywhere that suits me, instead of forcing me to select a provider from my home state, where the pool is smaller and less competitive? I can buy anything I want on the internet from anywhere in the world. I can go to any state in the union and purchase life insurance, as long as I am actually in that state at the time of purchase, why not health care insurance? Also there must be a cap on malpractice awards. This alone will reduce costs dramatically.

Just to make this clear to those the right wing is trying to MANIPULATE:

The health care bill will NOT stop, prevent, intrude, or change your current health care insurance and providers.

The health care bill is 'competitive'. Meaning, there will be private insurers as there ALWAYS have been and a government health care plan that will be provided for people WHO CAN NOT AFFORD your plans. Period.

These are the facts and they are indisputable.

Oh yeah, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION is actually a right wing biased group of businesses who come together to provide FALSE information to lobby for the republican platform. Do NOT cite them as reliable sources of information.

This so-called bill is a sham.
It really gives the Executive Branch of Our govt TOTAL and
Indefinite PoWER over us. It TRANSFERS ALL Powers to the President!!

It alos will tax us to death.

Wake UP America.