Democrat health bill signed, sealed and delivering surprises, Part 2

Pt. 2 of 3

Aside from gouging the middle class, will the government’s plan divert dollars from and decrease quality of care for  immigrants and families on federal programs?

Spend a little time reading HR 4872 or HR 3590, the healthcare bills that constitute the blueprint for Democrats’ takeover of the healthcare sector (the bastardized offspring of HR 3200), and you’ll realize you really don’t have to be very smart to run for Congress. The bill raises serious questions about who actually wrote this legislation. Big Labor has publicly declared they worked on the bill; media has said Big Pharma did the same. We’ve already looked at claims by the president and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that don’t reflect what’s really in these bills. There are more surprises in these bills.

Within the legislation there is a provision for communities “with high percentages of children and adolescents who are uninsured, underinsured or eligible for medical assistance under Federal or State health benefits programs…” or where access to care is a problem. These communities can qualify for school based health clinic programs and those programs will be integrated into the school environment.

What’s wrong with that?

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CBO can’t gauge discretionary spending in HR 3590 because ‘sufficient guidance’ lacking

Rep. Mike Pence addresses the House. On Wednesday, he appeared on MSNBC to explain why the healthcare bill will fail at real healthcare reform.At present Democrats and President Barack Obama are pushing healthcare legislation under the pretense it will save Americans money and make insurance affordable to some of the uninsured. Republicans have criticized the Senate version of healthcare, HR 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, for its cost. Democrats have responded it will save money over time and that position has been echoed by sympathetic pundits and analysts across cyberspace and TV Land.

Fact is, no one really knows exactly what it will cost and a March 15 statement at the Congressional Budget Office explains why. Furthermore, most members of Congress do not know what is in the complicated bill because they haven’t seen it.

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Media report Democrats rant about entitlements, but ignore they blocked reform under Bush

Updated on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 1:03PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

Commentary by Kay B. Day

As Democrats rant about alleged GOP obstructionists and threaten to ram a hybrid healthcare bill down American throats, the only conclusion an informed rational person could come to would be the need to start over. Social Security is in trouble, Medicare is in trouble, and although Congress had a chance to act 4 years ago, they didn’t. Democrats blocked reform and they were proud to do so.

First, consider a report from trustees of the Medicare and Social Security trust funds. In May, 2009, the report predicted Social Security trust fund assets will be depleted in 2037. The picture for Medicare is equally bleak: “[W]hile Medicare's annual costs were 3.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008, or about three quarters of Social Security's, they are projected to surpass Social Security expenditures in 2028…”

When President George W. Bush wanted to reform social security, many of us who would gladly accept responsibility for decisions about the money we are required to pay in were denied the opportunity by Democrat obstructionists.

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Obama grades himself B+ despite low approval numbers

by Chris Carter

In a taped interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, President Barack Obama rated his first-year performance as a “good solid B-plus,” adding that had he would have given himself an “A” if he had more progress on his health care and economic agendas.

[Graph courtesy of Rasmussen Reports]

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On Florida health insurance boondoggle, McCollum gets it right

Attorney General Bill McCollum was the only state official who took a conservative fiscal approach to the issue of free health insurance for approximately 27,479 Florida state employees.The U.S. Census Bureau counted 171,555 fulltime state employees in Florida in 2008, and The Miami Herald disclosed that among those, approximately 27,479 get a big perk. They pay no premiums for health insurance. Of those 27,479, approximately 2,431 are in the $100k plus salary range. A number of officials were quoted in the story about health insurance for state employees, but only one official quoted by the paper demonstrated fiscal conservatism—Attorney General Bill McCollum.

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Kaiser healthcare poll raises questions about public option responses

by Kay B. Day

Leftists in the Democratic Party want another public option for healthcare despite the fact Medicaid and Medicare are taxpayer sinkholes with a level of oversight similar to a cat watching sparrows scritching beneath the bushes. The Chicago Tribune cited a Kaiser Family Foundation September health care survey that showed “57 percent of Americans support the creation of a public health insurance option similar to Medicare."  Questions and analysis of the poll are posted online. But a review of all data provided raises questions about the questions and the analysis.

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Joe Wilson lost his manners but the president wiggled the truth about healthcare reform

Updated on Friday, September 11, 2009 at 9:03PM by Kay B. Day, Editor

by Kay B. Day

Wednesday evening as I watched President Barack Obama deliver another speech with his customary polish, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and I responded simultaneously to Obama’s statement no federal dollars will fund illegals’ healthcare. Wilson yelled, “You lie!” I grumbled, Borat-style, “NOT!”

On the follow-up, Red State beat me to the draw in part, but there’s a wee problem with the president’s statement.

For starters Erick Erickson is right about this when he says: “The Democrats have blocked specific Republican attempts to require citizenship verification to get on the government plan. Why? The State Medicaid agencies are given the ability to set eligibility standards for the low income subsidies that will be used for the plan. And they have no incentive not to enroll illegal aliens, particularly since it’s a 100% federal match.”

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