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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

WHY I OPPOSE OBAMA CARE

Steve Cole reports:

Not that it has any chance of passing in its more virulent forms, but I feel a need to explain why I oppose this. It's not a reform of health care; it's a government power grab.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Post Office are classic examples of mismanaged government programs that are bankrupt (and, except in the case of the post office, riddled with corruption). I don't want to put a government that cannot manage my retirement in charge of my health care.

Obama says I can keep my current plan. Sure, if it's available, assuming that the State of Texas does not decide that it would be cheaper for them and for me to switch from what I have now to Obamacare, leaving me with no choice. (Being a diabetic, the only company that will sell me health insurance is the one company that the State of Texas decided would be forced to sell it to me, and their price is the highest in the country.)

My company does not provide health care (it costs too much). Health care for myself and my employees would cost far more than 8% of the payroll (what I pay personally is about 25%), and if we were forced to do one or the other, we would pay the 8%. A lot of other employers would do so. No, Virginia, you won't get to keep your policy if your employer decides to switch to Obamacare.

There are things wrong with health care, but Obamacare doesn't fix any of them. It doesn't fix frivolous lawsuits (the Democrats get too much money from trial lawyers to allow that!), it doesn't let me deduct my health care premiums (the unions won't stand for anyone taxing their free health care), and it doesn't let me buy health care from out of state. I can buy car insurance from a lizard in Maryland, but I cannot buy health care except in Texas. An identical policy from the same company but bought in another state would cost me about 1/3 less. Did the insurance lobby pay off Obama?

Obamacare supposedly resolves the crisis of 50 million Americans without health care. These include 10 million illegal aliens, 10 million who qualify for Medicaid but haven't been sick, and 10 million who make over $70,000 and decided not to buy it, and 10 million who make over $50,000 and decided not to buy it. The only real crisis is the 10 million who make somewhere between the poverty line and $50,000, and so they get Obamacare with a government subsidy, but then, people making much more can also switch to Obamacare and have the government pay part of their premiums. Why is
this necessary or fair? And if we cannot afford Obamacare for those who don't have insurance, how can we pay the subsides for those who already pay for insurance but now will switch to Obamacare for the lower subsidized premiums?