Pirate's Cove

Taking the advice of Dr. Melissa Coulthier, I’m going to stop referring to the Democrat health care proposals as ObamaCare. Like she writes, “government run health care” doesn’t poll well, and “”Obamacare” sounds snipey and non-descriptive.” Another good way to term it would be “government taking away your freedom health care,” but, that tends not to roll off your tongue so well

In promoting his health-care agenda, President Obama has repeatedly reassured Americans that they can keep their existing health plans — and that the benefits and access they prize will be enhanced through reform.

A close reading of the two main bills, one backed by Democrats in the House and the other issued by Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Health committee, contradict the President’s assurances. To be sure, it isn’t easy to comb through their 2,000 pages of tortured legal language. But page by page, the bills reveal a web of restrictions, fines, and mandates that would radically change your health-care coverage.

If you prize choosing your own cardiologist or urologist under your company’s Preferred Provider Organization plan (PPO), if your employer rewards your non-smoking, healthy lifestyle with reduced premiums, if you love the bargain Health Savings Account (HSA) that insures you just for the essentials, or if you simply take comfort in the freedom to spend your own money for a policy that covers the newest drugs and diagnostic tests — you may be shocked to learn that you could lose all of those good things under the rules proposed in the two bills that herald a health-care revolution.

The five freedoms lost?

1. Freedom to choose what’s in your plan
2. Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs
3. Freedom to choose high-deductible coverage
4. Freedom to keep your existing plan
5. Freedom to choose your doctors

All are huge, and, rather than excerpt, I would highly recommend reading the breakdown. #3 is very interesting, in that it pretty much mandates that, within 5 years, everyone and every company must offer only the approved plans. Essentially, what is happening is the government is appropriating your right to make your own choices, as NY Times writer David Leonhardt unintentionally points out

The issue was clear: Who controls the doctor-patient relationship? That question has been at the core of every big subsequent battle over health care. Should doctors determine not only their patients’ treatment but also their own pay, through the fee-for-service system that has survived since the 1920s? Or should patients have more power in the relationship? And who could claim to act on patients’ behalf, monitoring treatments and bargaining with doctors?

A succession of presidents — from Harry S. Truman to Richard M. Nixon to Bill Clinton — volunteered the government for the role of patients’ advocate, and their grand efforts all failed. Now it is President Obama’s turn to try to remake America’s medical system.

The issue is clear: this is America, not the Soviet Union of old. The people should decide. Doctors should decide what their services are worth. Interestingly, out in Apex, North Carolina, there is a doctor who doesn’t accept any insurance. He has a posted schedule of fees, which are low because he has no insurance overhead. He is also able to actually spend time with the 8-10 patients he schedules each day, because he doesn’t have to rush around in order to see a ton of patients because of, you guessed it, insurance overhead. And, his practice is growing by word of mouth.

Unfortunately, there are too many who have been indoctrinated that government is great!!!! and are will to abrogate their freedom so that Nanny will take care of them and they do not have to think.