From the Wall Street Journal
By Pete Du Pont — President Obama addressed Congress two weeks ago on the issue of health care, and on the same day an Associated Press GfK poll showed that the proportion of Americans who strongly approve of the way he is doing his job has fallen from 41% in December to 24% now. And the percentage of people who strongly disapprove of his performance has risen from 6% to 35%.
Those serious declines no doubt have to do with many issues–economic decline, the massive spending increases (enacted and proposed) of $6.5 trillion over the next decade, the coming massive tax increases that are presidential and congressional priorities, and currently most important, the proposed governmental takeover of health care. On that matter, more than 1.3 million people have signed and sent to Congress the Salem Radio Network’s Free Our Health Care Now! petition to make sure individuals, not the national government, make their health care decisions. (Disclosure: The petition incorporated information form the National Center for Policy Analysis, of which I am chairman.)
But the Democratic congressional leadership, led by Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, has now offered a bureaucratic, government-intrusive health care proposal. The details change daily as the bill works its way through the Finance Committee, which Mr. Baucus chairs, for there are more than 500 proposed amendments being considered. But the bill would start off by imposing annual fees of $6.7 billion on health insurance companies, $4 billion on medical device producers, $2.3 billion on drug manufacturers and $750 million on clinical laboratories, all of which would surely be passed on to consumers in higher prices. The insurance companies’ $6.7 billion fees alone would come to some 60% of the industry’s after tax earnings.
And then American families who do not have health insurance–the people the Democrats claim they’re trying to help–would be assessed finds of between $750 to $1,900 a year. All this reflects Congress’s simple objective: government rather than individual control of our health care.
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If you really want the truth then check the facts of what you are claiming. The health care plans being proposed are not like those of other countries, as you claim. There are people like me have health insurance, no job because of cancer and other health issues last year. However the reason I have health insurance is that I kept it after retiring (but with no retirement benefits yet). I am having to use my savings to keep the insurance; if I miss a payment I lose the coverage. I am looking for work but because of health problems have difficulties working full time. In the mean time, money is running out. So there are features of the bills being proposed that would help support me and also support me in contributing to the economy.
Actually a lot of the proposals being floated for health care reform are modeled after programs in other countries, such as Canada, the UK and Germany. The facts are that there are thousands of proposed changes to US health care laws. Some are good some are bad. It’s important for the American people to make clear what we want and what we don’t. Discussion of ideas like nationalizing or socializing health insurance are important in order to make clear that itsn’t the direction the American people want to go. Pam has more reading to do, it seems.