Healthcare Lies

Let’s face it: pretty much everything that comes out of D.C. is either “edited” to fit a political narrative or simply an outright lie. Healthcare is no exception. Let’s look at Healthcare Lies.

Obamacare Lies

• “You can keep your insurance plan if you want to.”
• “You can keep your doctor if you want to.”
• “Premium costs per family will go down an average of $2500 per year.”
• “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits,” Obama stated in his 2009 State of the Union address.
• “Obamacare will not raise a single tax on middle income Americans.”
• “Obamacare will reduce emergency room visits.”
• “Obamacare exchanges would increase competition for policy premiums.”

I almost did NOT include the above lies, simply because we’ve heard them over and over. I listed them simply to illustrate my first line above: all those Obamacare lies were either purposeful or simply for “a specific narrative or political expediency.” Regardless, you and I are paying for those lies.

What about the “new” Healthcare proposal? The Graham- Cassidy Plan details are included in my previous post including a link to the actual legislation that will go before the U.S. Senate next week. In the meantime, you can bet the Left — both inside and outside of D.C. — are going nuts, attacking it in every way imaginable and some ways that are simply unimaginable. Even television host Jimmy Kimmel weighed in. When watching this 9 minute clip of his attacks on Senators Cassidy and Graham AND Fox and Friends Brian Kilmeade against whom Kimmel makes personal attacks including name calling, note the claims he makes about the Cassidy-Graham Plan are lies that we will “document” below:

Kimmel’s lies? Graham-Cassidy DOES protect those currently under any pre-existing condition situation going forward. How? Money being spent now by the Federal Government — the same amounts being spent now (which Kimmel lied saying funding would be cut) — in block grants to the state include monies for pre-existing conditions. States will have the prerogative to structure their programs as they wish, even creating “high risk” pools which would include such individuals. Let’s face it: there is no “well” for which to go to for unlimited funds. Obamacare made that claim expecting that the exorbitant costs for many of those with pre-existing conditions would be offset by all the young people who would enroll and pay premiums without using the insurance. When that didn’t happen, the Federal Government (who don’t have any money but get it always from us through taxes, fees, and penalties) said, “No problem. We’ll just pay those claims and let taxpayers eat them.” Imagine having a REAL plan with REAL provisions that will work to cover those stuck in that position.

Kimmel also said that Cassidy lied when he stated every American regardless of physical condition should be able to get insurance coverage and that Cassidy would never vote for any bill that did not state that. Cassidy did NOT say “every American would have insurance.” Think about how ridiculous that is: there are millions of young Americans who are healthy, just getting started as adults, who don’t want health insurance — especially at the prices for premiums under Obamacare. 45% of those who rejected insurance under Obamacare and chose to pay the penalty instead are under the age of 37. They paid $1000 or more to NOT have insurance. Why? BECAUSE THEY DON’T NEED OR WANT IT! Also, if they were suddenly afflicted with something serious, they could simply pay $1000 and be immediately covered under Obamacare — even if they had never paid a dime for any coverage AND were diagnosed with terminal cancer. Obama promised these young Americans would run to the Exchanges the first day of enrollment to signup and begin paying premiums. Didn’t happen. Without those millennials in Obamacare paying premiums, blanket pre-existing coverage does not work financially. Under Graham-Cassidy it would.

Sidenote: does it seem American to you that the government forces Americans to pay for insurance, even if they don’t need it and don’t want it? It is purely socialist for a government to forcibly confiscate money from its citizens who don’t need or want medical services so that the government can pay for others’ medical services — “forcibly” being the operative world. Doesn’t that sound a little like the way Venezuela operates? And it’s working REALLY well for them!

Other Lies about Graham-Cassidy

• It makes abortion illegal. Graham-Cassidy prevents government funding for abortions other than for the life of the mother, rape, or incest.
• It terminates health insurance for over 30 million who have insurance under Obamacare. Graham-Cassidy terminates NO insurance policy. What it does is stop forcing Americans who choose to not have insurance (and didn’t have it until Obamacare forced it) to buy insurance. Those on the Left to confuse Americans state that this is “canceling insurance policies” when in fact it allows Americans to make their own health insurance decisions.
• Graham-Cassidy cuts federal funding for healthcare. Graham-Cassidy actually STOPS government payments to insurance companies and exchanges for health insurance to instead block grant THE SAME AMOUNTS BEING PAID NOW to the states. It is true Graham-Cassidy terminates both the employer and employee mandate, but allows each state to re-instate those mandates at the state level “IF” the state decides to.
• Graham-Cassidy Healthcare block grants shrink over time, then ends. This is absolutely false. Please go back to the previous day’s blog post that spells out provisions of the structure of the plan and see IN WRITING this claim is absolutely false.
• “We don’t need a new plan. We have a plan to fix Obamacare ready to go that would be much more effective and inclusive that Graham-Cassidy.” I’ve heard this claim for months now from the Democrat leadership. What do you think about their “fix” plan? Uh…..I can’t find it, even though I’ve looked really hard. You know why? THERE ISN’T ONE!

Summary

Do you know the thing that shocks me the most about the furor in Washington and in all of the media about Graham-Cassidy? NO ONE HAS READ THE BILL. In the midst of their cries and complaints saying “We haven’t even seen the bill and don’t know what’s in it;” “The Republicans are waiting until the last minute to ram it through the Senate and House leaving bi-partisanship possibilities out.” (Imagine “IF” the GOP wanted to do that: kinda’ like the Dems did with Obamacare, right?) Even Sean Hannity today griped on his program that he has not been able to find the bill anywhere. (I sent him an email with a link to my story yesterday just in case he can’t find it tonight)

Folks, this is crazy! If we do not take control of the spending on health insurance now, our economy is doomed to slide into oblivion in a matter of just a few years. Yes, some say American healthcare is not #1 in the World. I disagree. Either they’re wrong or I am. In either case, it is at least in the top five. Why then was it necessary to spend more than $1 trillion more on Obamacare than we spent on our private/government healthcare finance partnership before Obamacare during a corresponding time period? This is crazy! Our healthcare didn’t get better. People who had insurance got poorer coverage at much higher premium costs, then couldn’t use their outlandishly priced policies because they could not afford the deductibles! In the meantime, thousands of doctors and other health professionals headed for the hills, retiring early or just switching professions. Why? BECAUSE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CANNOT GET ANY MARKETPLACE OPERATIONS RIGHT — NEVER HAS AND NEVER WILL!

Bottom Line: Healthcare should be operated and managed primarily by the private sector in conjunction with the federal government for Medicare, Medicaid, VA, CHAMPUS, and the existing other federal programs, just like it so successfully has done for so many years.

Think about this: for all those before Obamacare that wanted insurance but couldn’t afford the premiums, we could have spent less than half the $1 Trillion we spent extra on Obamacare and bought each a commercial insurance policy. And if we had taken that route, we wouldn’t be scrambling to save the entire American Healthcare system today.

We can blame the previous Administration for that. And unless “WE” the People get this one right, American Healthcare as we have known it in our lifetimes is dead.