Even as I write this, Obama is spinning, lying, half-truthing, and manufacturing his bumper sticker arguments for his suckers and his health plan. He’s set into motion the machinery that will either doom or actuate movement on his health care initiatives. Behold the silvertongue and his platitudes, his handshake promises without a handshake, his blurry and opaque “let me be clears”, and his mistaken “make no mistakes.” The right has their information and disinformation, some of which I agree and some that I do not. Deflate the emotions, restrain the outrage, and put aside the partisan and the only thing that is left is what is being asked on the right, “Dear God, let’s not move forward on this legislation.”
So here am I, with my own “Let me be clear.” I assure you that you will not get a more fair assessment on HR3200, certainly not from the state-run media and more certainly not from the propagandist-in-chief. This is sucker health care revealed.
Obama says: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”
THIS IS A LIE. The CBO shows that an estimated 23 million will lose their private insurance and will be forced on the public option. I believe that the Heritage Foundation estimates higher (around 85 million), but they are partisan so I’ll place them in the worst case scenario. Even if you have a private provider, those private insurance companies will need to have conforming plans that meet government standards. Therefore, you might still have private insurance but a government sanctioned plan. As I understand it, there is a grandfather clause, but in effect the legislation phases out non-government conforming plans.
If Obama was going to be honest, he should have said, “If you like your private health insurance provider, you have a one in ten chance of keeping them, but your plan is simply not going to be available for much longer.”
Obama says: “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”
THIS IS AN EMPTY PROMISE. I may be misinformed and please correct me if I am, but there is nothing in HR3200 that mandates health providers to accept the government plan. This means, if you are forced onto the plan, you like your doctor, and your doctor will not accept the government option, then you will lose your doctor.
If Obama was going to be honest, he should have said, “If your doctor does not accept the public plan and you were forced onto the public plan because of the legislation I support, then you will lose your doctor.”
Obama says: “The rate of health care spending is unsustainable and this health care reform is needed to curb rising costs.”THIS IS A HALF-TRUTH. The truth is that well thought out health care reform is needed to answer skyrocketing health care costs. Experts expect health care costs to out pace GDP growth for the next few decades. This means that as things currently stand in the do-nothing scenario, more and more of your income will need to be used to pay for your health insurance. Although the need to curb costs is real, HR3200 does nothing to curtail this problem. In fact, it makes the problem worse. This immutable truth has been voiced by the director of the CBO and the author of this blog.
The future cost crisis in health care is very real. Obama continually reminds us of this reality. The problem is that he is ignoring the issue, like he did the recession, in order to pass legislation that agrees with his ideology instead of his rhetoric.
If Obama was going to be honest, he should have said “The rate of health care spending is unsustainable and well thought-out reform is needed, but I’m not going to fix it. I have ideologies and special interests that are far too important for me and since I am President, I am entitled to have you pay for them, even if it costs you more money.”
Obama says: “I will not sign legislation that adds to the deficit”
THIS IS AN EMPTY PROMISE. As it stands, HR3200 is still adding to the deficit to the tune of about $239 billion according to the CBO. This is nearly 25% of the bill! The fact that congressional democrats have falsely claimed that the bill is deficit neutral speaks to their poor credibility.
If Obama was going to be honest, he should have said “I know I promised not to sign any health care bill that would add to the deficit. However, like my promise to refuse earmark laden legislation, I refuse to be bound by my promises.”
I have only covered four of the silvertongues forked statements and already my post is getting long. Tomorrow I will cover more. I intend to expose his promises on taxes, his untruths on WHO and the US health system, deaths panels, rationing health care, and more. More important than the truths exposed from the lies emerges a larger question that must be asked. If we can’t trust Obama to represent the truth in the health care debate, how can he expect Americans to trust his administration with the nation’s health care?
5 comments
I see that you have done your homework as well.
August 11, 2009 at 11:39 PMHere is another little tidbit.
Who currently, is the largest debtor to the Health Care System?
A. The French
B. Drug Companies
C. NASCAR
D. Health Insurance Companies
E. THE US GOVERNMENT
Need a Hint Liberals?
It not A threw D.
Still need Help?
It's the US GOVERNMENT. They owe the Health Care System billions of dollars in Medicare payments.
Why?
Because they do not pay their bills. Federal law
mandates that Health Providers must file claims for those who have Medicare. Yet when a Health Care Provider files a Medicare Claim it is
always denied and sent back for more information.
It is not unusual for claims to be repeatedly denied and the provider continually asked to provide more information. When finally approved,
providers generally receive only a token partial payment and it can take from several months to years before the claim is totally paid. Image if you are the Health Care Provider (like a Hospital, Doctor's Office, Ambulance Company, Physical Therapist, etc.) and your patients repeatedly denied payment of their bill for one reason after another and then only sent you a check for 1 or 2 percent of what they owed you.
How long would it be before you were out of business or had to raise your rates to cover your expenses.
Who takes up the slack?
The vary same companies that are being demonized by the government, PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES.
THEN YOU BLAME THE HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES FOR THE RATE INCREASES BECAUSE YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS TELL THE MEDIA THAT THEY OR THE DRUG COMPANIES ARE THE ONES WHO ARE BEHIND THE RISE IN HEALTH CARE. THE MEDIA then begins THE SMEAR CAMPAIGN.
Trust me, I've been in Emergency Health Care for
almost 40 years and I've talked to Health Care Providers in every area and the story is always the same.
Yes, their are cheats who over bill or order tests where the necessity may be questionable. Compared to the number of legitimate claims that are filed its a very small percentage.
The denial of payment on claims is 100%.
You want to fix health care. Tell your Congressman/women to pay up.
Brother_J
Great post Cgen, one of the best argument/counter argument posts I have seen. Did you notice yesterday how it was apparent that the 'town hall' was entirely stacked? It seems that they are losing the argument in a big way. Waterloo here we come....
August 12, 2009 at 2:43 PMObama established the roots to destroy and health care as we know, this in turn leads to people losing what they cherish. He may not directly order people to lose their doctor, but he establishes an enviornment that causes it anyway as part of his goals.
August 12, 2009 at 4:17 PMKeeping your insurance: You are right that the claim you can keep your existing policy is an out-and-out lie. I don’t know how he gets away with it.
August 26, 2009 at 12:24 PMKeeping your providers: It depends on your situation. It’s probably too early to tell.
Controlling Costs: Measures to control cost are already springing up due to market forces. I am fine with using gov’t monies to help poor people pay for expensive medical treatment. (I know you’re not.) There’s no cheat, however, that works to make the expensive treatments come about for low prices. We should let the market control prices. This plan attempt to cheat.
Deficit Neutrality: Isn’t it too early to say? It depends on the amount of the tax increase, the amount of Medicare cuts, and the amount of subsidy given the “public option” and/or to co-ops. It’s wrong to say at this point that the plan will increase the deficit.
I am pushing my Congresswoman for changes to this bill so it focuses on helping the poor rather than on trying to manage an entire industry and middle class people’s lives. This thing is WAY bigger than it needs to be.
@ CJ - I love your comments.
August 26, 2009 at 2:30 PMYeah, scoring is not accurate, however, what is concerning is that the CBO said $1 trillion and congress can't seem to work out a way to meet that amount. What if the true costs are $1.5 trillion? We're nearly $1 trillion in the hole. For me it's not the deficit neutrality per se, it's the fact that politicians cannot find a way to cover the costs of the entitlements they want to run. I don't want to reform the reform in ten years :) I'm more concerned about the cost curve.
Also, it's not so much that I'm not in favor of covering the poor. In fact, they are already covered, it's just that there are a number of them that don't take the responsibility to sign the paperwork. I want to see the underpriviledge stand up on their own two feet. I'd like to see insurance plans that are more like insurance (covering major health issues like cancer). I don't see why such plans could not be implemented and cost very little. We insure death for very cheap. Let the underpriviledge pay for a $30 health care plan for major health issues and use medicaid for small things like doctor visits and screening.
There is much more I'd like to see.
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