This treaty is nothing more than a democrat license to begin to cut the defense budget immediately. Cuts in the defense budget next year (to cover Obamacare cost shortfalls) will be justified by this treaty.

BONUS: Obama will be the first individual in history to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize two years in a row!

Educate people on how to seek jobs that offer good health care insurance plans rather than just giving them the plan for free. Then if employers don’t pony up the plans then they don’t get the quality labor. Like the bumper sticker says, “Share my work ethic not my wealth.”

Prove the cost saving first before banking a new entitlement program on a theory.

Restrict law suites against doctors so they can lower there overheard (liability insurance) and in turn lower costs for everyone. This would also help cut down on unnecessary tests that doctors often order simply to cover their back side.

Now those are common sense ideas.

Reasons why I don’t like it

Health insurance coverage for those who don’t need/want it results in care being slow to delivery for all. It is a natural progression. Some people will abuse the “free” health care because it has no value to them due to never having to work to pay for it. Unnecessary “free” tests for the freeloaders will force those who really need the tests for  the detection of life threatening illness to wait in longer lines at the very least.

This bill floods a struggling system serving the least among us (Medicaid).  Oh…and I don’t want my tax money paying for abortions…PERIOD.

Yearly Premiums: $5,270 each*

Total Yearly Premiums for 30 million people: $158,100,000,000

Cost to the remaining US citizens:

$158,100,000,000/279,000,000** = $567 per year per person (every man, woman, and child) in taxes… if the cuts/savings in Medicaid and Medicare don’t work… and they won’t because any savings to Medicaid and Medicare will be consumed because both programs are are already underfunded and rapidly growing.

“The states and the federal government share the cost of Medicaid, which saw a record enrollment increase of 3.3 million people last year. The program now benefits 47 million people, primarily children, pregnant women, disabled adults and nursing home residents.” NY Times

*Based on average of annual premiums for all federal government Fee for Service Nationwide non-postal individual plans.  These are the same plans Obama refers to regularly when he says he will be “giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.” This number is actually fairly low considering the average spending per Medicaid enrollee is almost $7,900 per year.
**Estimated USA Population as of July 2009: 309 million (309-30 = 279)

Keep in mind that these numbers only estimate what it would cost to get these people covered with “health” insurance and not dental or vision which Obama has been saying verbally that he will deliver access to in his plan.  There is also the additional cost of deductibles and co-pays is not included in these estimates. Oh…and these estimates do not consider the FACT that all premiums will increase if insurance companies suddenly are required to cover pre-exiting conditions.

Related articles by TheOzz:

Health Care for Small Business – Obama’s Plan

Government Health Care – Personal Concerns

Mandated Car Insurance

“…Medicaid reimbursements covered only 65 percent of actual costs…The county’s Medicaid rolls have grown by 37 percent since 2001, and the program now pays for half of all childbirths.” NY Times

This may be the future of government run health care insurance.  The NY Times did not mention how this compares to what President Obama is proposing for the remainder of the uninsured Americans but some questions do need to be asked:

• How will doctors be able to remain in business if the government sponsored plans can’t even cover the doctors’ costs?
• How will government funded insurance accommodate surges in unemployment that causes record enrollment increases like Medicaid experienced last year?
• How does the Obama plan address issues of patients having to drive two hours to find a doctor to take Medicaid or other government sponsored plans?

First car insurance is mandated by state governments not the federal government.  Car insurance is only required in my state (SC) if you own a car that you intend to register.  Every car owner is not mandated to purchase automobile insurance.  Yes folks, you can own a car in this area of the country without automobile insurance as long as you do not plan to put a license plate on it. You do not have to insure a car that you buy for the purposes of private use on private property.  The old 1964 Ford Fairlane that I drove around our little 26 acre hog farm as a child required no automobile insurance. THe picture above shows me at about 9 years old chaufering my 3 year old sister and my dog Duke around the farm.  The car probably cost my dad a few hundred dollars and he was willing to risk that investment by allowing me to operate that vehicle without insurance.  By the way, do you think the government insured all of those clunkers that they recently purchased during the cash for clunker scam?

The second and arguably a more significant difference between government mandated car insurance and the proposed government mandated health insurance is that type of insurance that is mandated by the government is liability insurance.  Liability insurance protects everyone except the owner.  Yes the liability insurance does help protect the owners assets but it does not insure the health or car.  That type of insurance is not mandated by the government.  Some lenders require insurance to cover the car as long as a lean is carried on the car, but that is not government mandated.

My 4 year-old Caden tested positive for H1N1 in August.  He subsequently spent 6 nights in the hospital with pneumonia. Since then he has never really shaken the pneumonia and is on oxygen at home (o2 only when sleeping) after another 6 more nights at the Medical University of South Carolina this past week for pneumonia.  His flu test was negative this time. Since August we have had him in and out of the pediatrician’s office and the emergency room with high fevers and trouble breathing.

During one emergency room visit the nurse caring for my son began to “educate” me on H1N1.  The nurse tried to convince me of how much more dangerous this flu was for children.  I asked her if she had actually read any of the statistics and she said she had not.  I went on to explain that the majority of deaths were in the young adults age range.  Children and elderly were actually fairing the best in this strain of flu.  She seemed a little shocked because that was not what she had heard.  I suggested that she take a look at the CDC statistics for herself rather than going off of what she was being told.

Today my wife ran into a nurse from my son’s pediatrician’s office.  The nurse asked if we were going to the H1N1 shot.  My wife responded by saying that we had some concerns.  The nurse then said that every staff member in the practice had declined the shot for the same reason.

During our hospital stay this week our son was put on contact precautions.  This meant that every person who entered his room had to wear a disposable gown, gloves, and of course a mask.  This was even after my son tested negative for everything contagious that they tested him for.  The staff said it was hospital policy for any person coming in with respiratory problems.

The moral of this story is that there are some serious inconsistencies in messages depending on where you go even within the medical community.  How will things change with the announcement of the National Emergency for H1N1?

Also posted on my Wellsphere Page