FixHealthCarePolicy

New CNN Poll: 59% Oppose Obamacare

A new CNN Opinion Research poll, conducted over the weekend as the House debated Obamacare, finds that 59 percent of Americans now stand opposed to the health care legislation in Congress. Just 39 percent of the poll’s 1,030 respondents said they favored the bill.

These numbers shouldn’t come as a surprise — even to the White House. In fact, The Washington Post reported this morning that “President Obama is set to begin an immediate public relations blitz aimed at turning around Americans’ opinion of the health-care bill.” The White House plan will be both a short-term strategy to shore up political supporters of the legislation and a long-term effort to bolster Obama’s legacy. (more…)

Tags: CNN poll, government takeover, ObamaCare, Public Opinion, repeal the bill

It Will Not Stand

Members of the House of Representatives tonight approved President Obama’s health care agenda, the biggest expansion of government power since the Great Society. The Obama health care legislation is universal in scope and will profoundly impact the personal lives of more than 300 million Americans. It will restrict our personal freedom while undercutting the independence and authority of the several states.

This unprecedented congressional action will give Washington control over the content of health benefits packages; the kind of health insurance available to Americans and the organization and regulation of health insurance markets. This has been accompanied by one of the most shocking Congressional exhibition of arrogance and special interest deal-making in memory.

In 1774, in response to the first Tea Party, the British Parliament issued a series of acts designed to control the colonists, stop their protests and restrict their liberty. The Americans called these “The Intolerable Acts.”

Obamacare is today’s Intolerable Act. In poll after poll, in town hall meetings, in popular protests and in special elections, ordinary Americans have declared their firm opposition to this scheme, only to be derisively dismissed.

This imposition of legislation is intolerable for two reasons:

– Process: The outrageous way in which this massive restructuring of one six of the economy has been pushed through.

– Substance: Huge obligation shifted to future generations, a huge lurch toward European-style welfare states.

The Heritage Foundation will have a full answer to Congress’ action tomorrow and in the days and weeks and months to come. We will do all within our power to recommend, and make the intellectual case for, the repeal of these acts. We will help marshal the full resources of the conservative movement for this cause. You can join the fight to keep America the Land of the Free today

Fortunately, there are no permanent victories or defeats in Washington. For millions of Americans and for Heritage, Round One of this fight is over. Tomorrow morning, we are answering the bell.

Tags: government takeover, House of Representatives, Intolerable Act, ObamaCare, Senate Health Bill, unfunded entitlements

Interstate Compacts for Health Insurance is Yet Another Sound Idea

Throughout the debate over liberals’ health care proposals, it has become clear that while Americans want health care reform, they reject the direction of the legislation that will be voted on in the House this weekend. The current health care bill results in a government takeover of the health care system by imposing strict regulations on insurers, mandates on employers and individuals, and an expansion of costly and inefficient entitlements. States and citizens alike are rebelling against the bill in a bipartisan manner. State legislators reject the bill because it significantly reduces their authority over health insurance markets and flexibility in managing Medicaid. With only 47 percent believing that it is the federal government’s responsibility to ensure coverage, Americans are rightly alarmed by the intrusive nature of the legislation.

Former Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) recently worked with the Heritage Foundation to outline a solution that promotes individual freedom in health care markets: interstate commerce contracts among states. Interstate commerce for health insurers would create robust competition, lowering costs for the citizens of the allied states. It is a step towards reform that states can take without action from Washington. As Rep. Feeney remarks: (more…)

Tags: employer mandate, government takeover, Individual Mandate, Medicaid, ObamaCare

Obama Knows Obamacare Increases Government Control, Right?

At his impromptu press conference yesterday, President Barack Obama again defended his health care plan this time claiming:

“I don’t know if people noted, because during the health care debate everybody was saying the President is trying to take over — a government takeover of health care. I don’t know if anybody noticed that for the first time this year you saw more people getting health care from government than you did from the private sector — not because of anything we did, but because more and more people are losing their health care from their employers. It’s becoming unaffordable. That’s what we’re trying to prevent.”

First of all, we definitely noted the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report the President references above. But more importantly, if we are to take the President at his word, and believe him when he says he wants to prevent a government takeover of health care, then he should know that his plan is the exact wrong direction to go.

In a separate report on the Senate health bill issued earlier this year, the CMS projected that over half (18 million) of the 33 million Americans who would gain health insurance because of Obamacare, would do so by enrolling in Medicaid … which is a government run health care program. And another 2 million would enroll in Medicaid for supplemental coverage. (more…)

Tags: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, government takeover, government-run health care, ObamaCare

Surgeons Oppose Government Takeover of Health Care

Yesterday a coalition of 19 surgical organizations representing over 240,000 doctors nationwide sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), with copies to the entire U.S. Senate, explaining why they must oppose the Senate’s version of Obamacare.

Read the whole letter here, or skip to their list of specific problems with the bill below the fold. You’ll see that almost all of their complaints have to do with the tremendous amount of authority this bill rips away from doctors and patients and transfers to bureaucrats in Washington DC. Heritage scholar Bob Moffit details just some of the DC power grab here, and the Washington Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio covers the behemoth the Department of Health and Human Services would become, here.

The surgeons oppose: (more…)

Tags: government takeover, government-run health care, Obama Health Care Plan

Morning Bell: The Pelosi Blueprint for Government Run Health Care

The new House health care bill (H.R. 3962) unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) yesterday clocks in at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words. As written, the bill purports to cost only $1.05 trillion over the first ten years and is paid for by over $700 billion in tax increases and cuts to Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug payments. But as troubling as those numbers are, the scariest thing about the bill is the solid foundation it lays for a complete government take over of the health care sector of our economy.

The Washington Post describes the bill as “creating an expensive new entitlement program (subsidies to purchase health insurance) and dramatically expanding an existing one (Medicaid).” This is true by itself, but the Post later dismissively adds: “If you’ve noticed that we haven’t talked about the public option in the House bill, that’s not an oversight. For all the fury over the issue, it doesn’t matter that much; the CBO estimates that the government-run plan would actually have slightly higher premiums.” This is a breathtakingly naive statement by the Post and demonstrates that they have not yet fully grasped how all the different elements of the bill are designed to interact to produce President Barack Obama’s desired outcome. (more…)

Tags: 3962, Barack Obama, CBO, debt, deficit, entitlement, government takeover, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Nancy Pelosi, Obama Health Care Plan, tax increases