The Coffee Shop

Don’t bet on it.  Nancy Pelosi, according to her statement recently says that if they are locked out from creating their health care plan she is planning to “pole vault in”, or “parachute in” to make their healthcare bill a reality this year.  And just exactly what is it she is planning to “pole vault” or “parachute” over?  It is the will of the American people who by significant majorities do not want a federal takeover of the American health care industry.

Recently Canadian members of Parliment have been in the news for traveling to the US for medical treatment.  Liberal MP Belinda Stronach traveled to California in June for breast cancer treatment.  Another MP was in the news in the last month for also traveling to the US for treatment.  No wonder US lawmakers who are trying to implement a similar system want to exempt themselves from it.  They know it will cause a drop in the quality of health care available in the US.  Unlike Canadian MPs they will not have another country with an outstanding health industry right on their southern border to fly to if they need care.

Congressional Representative John Fleming MD  from Louisiana’s 4th congressional district submitted a bill to require members of congress to  enroll in any “public option” they enact for the people of the US.    The following is a quote from his office on Feb 5th concerning this bill.

“Like many of you, I am deeply concerned that Congress will press forward to enact an intrusive government administered health care plan, despite the higher costs and lowered level of care other countries with similar systems have experienced.”

“You will be pleased to know that more than 100 Members of Congress joined in support of H. Res. 615, my common sense measure calling on Members who vote for an intrusive government-administered health care plan to enroll in that system.  Since launching this effort, nearly 3 million Americans like you have contacted my office in support of H. Res. 615.  In response I offered an amendment to the Democratic Leadership health care bill to automatically enroll all Members of Congress and all Senators in the public option.  Predictably, my amendment was rejected out of hand by the Majority and was not given a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives.”

Numerous examples have surfaced in recent months of people from Canada, Britain, and other European countries that travel to the US for treatment because of  nonavailability of needed care or life-threatening delays to get such care under their publicly funded plans.   The US news media has been predictably quiet about such because of their blind support of the liberal leadership in Washington.

Many claim that the public health care system will lower costs, but the numbers simply don’t compute.  In Canada for example the average family pays 48% of their income in taxes each year.   Although the costs vary slightly by province, Ontario reports it spends 40% of total tax revenue for health care according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a group that campaigns for tax reform.

That implies that families in Canada are being taxed almost 20% of their total income for health care with no ability to opt out of it.  That much will buy one heck of a good health insurance program here in the US without the extensive delays to get access to specialists that is the norm for Canadians.   The Canadian Medical Association states that there is  an estimated four million of Canada’s 33 million population that don’t have a family doctor and more than one million people are currently waiting for treatment.  Those waits commonly run three to six months or more just for access to specialists, even for critical and life-threatening conditions.  These waits usually measure only a few days in the US.

Unfortunately, that is only the “tip of the iceberg”.  According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the system is suffering serious financial challenges. It calculates that at the current rates of cost growth,  by 2035 Ontario will be spending 85 per cent of its total budget on healthcare!

Doctors in my county are leaving the profession primarily because of the federal meddling in their profession now.  Medicare is grossly underfunded and only pays the doctors a very small percentage of their normally billed amounts for services.  That is why medicare patients often can not find family doctors.  Doctors simply can not afford to provide care when the “single payer” only pays them 10 to 20% of their normally billed fees.  In some cases of tests performed by outside services, but billed by the practitioner, the costs they have to pay for the tests are less than the medicare reimbursement they receive!  I know that figure sounds unbelievable, but my wife and I are on medicare and routinely review the records for our treatments. What I have quoted is common of the “authorized” amounts reimbursed by the medicare system that we have seen in the records of our care.

Older doctors are taking early retirements at an alarming rate and US medical schools are not keeping pace with replacements.  In our community, out of some 60 doctors in private practice that are 50 or more years old over 80% of them have told local sources they will immediately close their practices if the current bills are passed.

Congress is out of touch and out of control.  They are coming up with more and more federal programs that are taking away our liberty and destroying our economy.   They create bills that include “unfunded mandates” that require the states or local government to provide services without providing funds to do so.  They are bankrupting the states with their blatant violations of the 10th amendment and the usurpation of other authority denied to them under  the US Constitution.

The US Post Office is facing bankruptcy, medicare is facing bankruptcy, social security is facing bankruptcy, and the current administration is submitting a new federal budget that includes spending 30% more than it expects to take in for next year.  That is a pretty good definition that the government as a whole is currently bankrupt and yet it wants to continue spending more and more!

Current proposals are claimed to be necessary to provide needed health insurance to the uninsured.  Actually they will destroy the integrity of the outstanding health care industry we have today.  Why should we go down a road that our neighbors to the north are trying to figure out how to extradite themselves from today?

Simple legislation can correct the current problems that people in the US have in maintaining health insurance coverage.  1) Allow people to take their health care insurance with them when they change jobs, or states.  2) Eliminate the arbitrary restrictions that prevent Americans from purchasing health insurance outside of their state.  If you can buy automotive insurance out of state, why not health insurance?  3) Provide the much needed tort reform to reduce the nuisance lawsuits that add as much as 30% to the costs of health care.  The threats of unfounded lawsuits are driving doctors out of a number of critical medical specialties at a high rate.

There is no justification for an inept  government bureaucracy to take over control of the medical industry in the US, especially when the performance of such systems elsewhere is so demonstratively poor.  There should be no government bureaucrat standing between citizens and their doctor.  Contact your representative and senators and tell them to get Washington’s financial house in order and leave the greatest healthcare system in the world alone!