I'm Only A Bill

I usually do not get Political, in fact I have always said that I am not sure what side of the political side I would be on. I have always thought that Democrats had some good ideas about how to better our country, as well has Republicans have good ideas about how to better our country. If we could just get the two sides to come together and work for us the people, then things would be a lot better off. I most likely lean towards being conservative in most issues. So don't think that I am taking a side on Health Reform, just because I am Republican or Democrat.
As most of you should know, unless you have been living under a rock there is a bill in Washington that's intent is to Reform our health insurance in this country. There are actually two bills, one in the Senate and one in the House. The House bill is somewhat over 1,000 pages and the Senate bill is 615 pages. The thing that I find crazy about both of these bill's is that our elected officials, the ones that we voted into office to look out for our interest, have not even read either bill, but yet were ready to vote on health reform by August 1st. That, thank goodness has been put off.


I am reminded of the song and cartoon on Saturday mornings that I watched when I was a kid, called "I am only a Bill." I showed us what a Bill goes through before it becomes law. Remember the song? "I am only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capital hill......." something like that. If my memory serves me right, I think that song and cartoon showed us that the ones that were voting on that bill actually READ the bill before voting it into law. The following is the link to the school house Rock song. http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ

Maybe our elected officials have not read this bill, but I have. Well not every sentence of it, but I have read a big portion of it and i am still studying it and trying to figure out some of the things that it says, and I have come to some conclusions.

I should say that I want to thank Lauri Beck President of Insurance Network of America for sending me a copy of both of these bills. Also thanks to Al Socher President of Old Surety Life for his insight on these bills and what it would do to our country and our freedom.

One of the things that is great about our country is our freedom. If you listen to the media, most being on the side of the Obama administration, but even the conservative side like fox news. They talk about how much this bill will cost us, and I agree with that, but one thing that jumps out to me is, our freedom is being taken away from us. One thing about health insurance, we all have the freedom to chose what we want, and who we want it with. If my premium gets too high, I shop for another policy that gives me the same coverage or more for less premium. If I decide to upgrade my policy I can do that, or if I decide to downgrade my policy I can do that as well.

Reading the 1,000 page House bill you do not have to get very far before you realize that our freedom to shop for health insurance will be taken away.

Obama keeps saying if you like what you have you can keep it. Makes you think that you can keep what you have and continue to choose private health insurance right? Think again.

Page 16 of the House bill there is a provision making INDIVIDUAL PRIVATE MEDICAL INSURANCE ILLEGAL! Yes this provision would make Individual Private Insurance Illegal, under the heading of the bill called " Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," "Limitation On New Enrollment."


This section states, and I quote straight from the House bill:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day, of the year the legislation becomes law."


So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised, with of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage will not be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

From the beginning opponents of the public option plan have warned that if the government gets into the business of offering subsidized health insurance coverage, the private insurance market will wither away. Companies and businesses that offer YOU group insurance will be drawn to the public option to save them money. Therefore they will put you on the public option, you will NOT have a choice, and you will NOT be able, (because of the provision above) to go out and buy from the private sector. This in turn will start putting private insurance companies out of business. When companies go out of business, we get layoffs. This in turn will make our unemployment rate go through the roof.

This reason among many is why I do not think that a private, government run insurance plan would be good for our country.

Most people in America will be FORCED, into this private government run plan. Why would we think that the government would be able to run an insurance plan. Oh wait, they already do its called Medicare and Medicaid, which are going broke!

Several weeks ago President Obama was at a town hall meeting. A lady asked him a question about her 104 year old mother. The answer was scary! This lady's mother needed a pacemaker to live, yes she is 104 years old. One doctor that she went to said, "I will not put the pacemaker in, she is too old." The second doctor that they went too said, "yes I will put in the pacemaker." The reason, well he took into consideration that this 104 year old woman still had a lot of will to live, she fully understood what she was facing, she was full of life, and was not ready yet to give up. The daughter of this 104 year old woman, asked our President, remember we live in America, we are FREE right, this was not the leader of Korea that this question was being asked, this was not the leader of Iraq that this question was asked, this was being asked of the President of the United States of America, the land of the FREE. She asked, "if my mother would have been on the government run insurance at the time she needed this pacemaker, would she have gotten it, under the government plan?" The answer was telling. Basically our President, the one that is President of America, the land of the FREE, said in so many words, she probably would not have gotten the pacemaker. Does this not tell you something about government run health insurance?

My dad takes cancer treatments every so many months, he is 79 years old, if he is put onto the government plan, those cancer treatments will most likely end. Under the government run plan, President Obama and his admisistraiton will decide who gets treatments, who gets surgeries. The choice and freedom will be taken out of your hands and out of your doctors hands and put into the government hands. I can not believe that in the United States, that a question like the one above would have to be asked. "Will you let me live, or will you let me die, Mr. President?

I should say this, and I know that this is getting long. I do agree with our President, we need to reform health insurance in some ways, but a government run option is NOT the way to do that. Why not figure out what works with our current system and do not fix what is not broken, and figure out what does not work and fix that? I belive that there are many out there that have great ideas on how to fix our health care, if we could just get our gonvenment to listen to us. Understand as well that people come to this country for our health care system, so it must not be that bad.

Since this is getting really long, I will cut it off for now. In a few days, I will post my "bill "on Health Care Reform.

I do belive that God is in control, and I pray every day for our country and for our leaders. I ask you to please write your Represenatives, and remember the Republicans are NOT for this goverment run program, we must reach those who are for this program and change their minds, most are Democrats. Pray for our country and for our leaders and for this bill. As the song states, "I am Only A Bill." That is true for now, we must not let this "Bill" become law.

More later to come.