Lady Liberty's Constitution Clearing HouseLady Liberty's Constitution Clearing House
 

Lady Liberty

 

 

 

"One man with courage is a majority." Thomas Jefferson

 

 

 

Faith Healing

by Lady Liberty

A friend of mine mentioned that the priest at her church this morning told his congregation to contact their political representatives in opposition to health care reform. This isn't really much of a surprise since it's been made clear that abortions will be funded with tax dollars should the proposed plan go through. Catholic churches are among several that oppose abortion on moral grounds. Me? I oppose making people pay for things they oppose on moral grounds.

I told my friend that I understood why a priest would suggest Catholics oppose the health care reform plan as is, but I remain at a loss when I wonder why anybody would support it at all. If certain aspects of opposition are a matter of faith, well, the truth is that the plan itself is comprised at least as much of faith and wishful thinking!

If you're inclined to read the entire 1,990 pages of the House version of health care reform (which I like to refer to as the Pelosi Plan since it that's pretty much what it is), you're welcome to do so. It's available on the Internet for download (so is the Baucus Bill, which is the Senate version of healthcare reform). But permit me to mention a few of the highlights:

Health care reform will result in far higher rates of taxation.There are myriad new taxes in the Pelosi Plan. They're not all called taxes (though Speaker Pelosi seems quite proud to call some of them just that), but that's what they are.

There is, of course, the practically obligatory tax on the wealthy (defined here as individuals who make more than $500,000 per year, or couples making over a million dollars annually). It's tempting to let that one pass since that's a lot of money, and these people can afford to pay a little more, right? Well, kind of...

First of all, the wealthy are the ones that, because they are wealthy, have disposable income they can use to buy things like cars, boats, fancy shoes, and delicious gourmet dinners. Because they do those things, less wealthy people like automobile factory workers, boat storage facilities, shoe stores, and waiters can all make money. Secondly, the wealthy are the ones who can afford to invest in the growth of their businesses, who have the wherewithal to start new enterprises, or who can undertake the risk of investing in somebody else's business. When they do, additional people are hired and they get paid for what they do. More product is produced, so more supplies are consumed and those selling the consumables make money. Finally, remember the story of the goose that laid the golden egg? Keep adding this tax and that tax against the so-called "wealthy," and it won't be too long before they're not wealthy any more, even by Nancy Pelosi's standards!

Then there are the taxes on "medical devices." You might think that's not a big deal. Add a few dollars to the price of a pacemaker or an artificial hip joint and then bury those costs into the total of the entire process needed to implant those items, and it really isn't too much of a big deal. But don't forget that these are far from the only things legally classified as "medical devices!" Strictly speaking, band-aids are medical devices. So are tampons, heating pads, hot or cold packs, and orthopedic stockings. These things, too, will be taxed, and every time you buy one of them, you're being taxed, and it doesn't matter that you're not rich!

Oh, and just in case you still don't think this includes you, wait 'til the Pelosi Plan really kicks in and we all have to pony up to fund it!

There are, of course, all sorts of complicated calculations incorporated into the Pelosi Plan. That's probably fair since health care is a complex industry, and reform will necessarily be at least as complicated. But in broad and simple terms, there are some items worthy of some real concern.

Under currently proposed health care reform legislation, there will be health care rationing.One thing that I find particularly bothersome is that there are built in dis-incentives for doctors to perform too many procedures of a certain type (don't even get me started on the penalties hospitals will face for readmitting people, whether they need it or not). Now it might be that some doctor somewhere performs too many angioplasties because he likes to do angioplasties (or at least likes charging for them), but I don't think that doctor is representative of the vast majority of cardiac specialists out there. Maybe a doctor performs a lot of angioplasties because he's really, really good at them.

If we're being honest with each other, tell me: Do you think it's a good idea to tell the best surgeon in the area he can only perform a certain number of his specialty operations simply because if he does more than ten (or whatever other number it may happen to be) a month he'll be penalized? If you can't get the best surgeon, do you think you'd want to go down the street to a doctor who can also do the surgery but who doesn't get very good outcomes? Me, neither, but we may not be given a lot of options. And the gods forbid the doctor down the street has also met his operation quota for the month, because then we've got no options at all!

Whether you've read the plan or not, unless you've been hiding under a rock you know that it includes the so-called "public option." That's basically government insurance. Right now, Nancy Pelosi is pretending it's something else (a non-profit insurance company run by a civilian board), but you might as well cut to the chase and call it what it is: government insurance. In theory, it will provide no cost or low cost health insurance to the people who can't afford it otherwise (you know, sort of like Medicare and Medicaid already does, only apparently different).

Nancy Pelosi says we need the public option to ensure competition between insurance companies. The public option, though, won't provide that. What it will do is provide a single competitor that can and will undercut everybody else. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the Pelosi Plan will also require insurance companies to take new customers on regardless of such "unimportant" factors as pre-existing conditions. As you doubtless know, insurance companies make a business out of taking on risk. They calculate the probabilities, and they charge their customers based on those calculations. They might be wrong sometimes, but on average, they're right more often than they're wrong so they make money. Take that ability away from them, and they'll lose their shirt! Unless, of course, they raise premiums for everybody across the board, at least until no one can afford it and they turn to government insurance largely by default.

What does all of this mean? It means we're paying taxes on tampons and we're paying higher insurance premiums in the hopes that the services we need when we need them haven't exceeded their ration for the month. It also means that, in the end, we'll all end up insured via the government insurance plan because there won't be any private insurers left out there at any price.

There are other salient points at issue as well: Cuts to Medicare (which is already in serious financial trouble and the inefficiencies and unreasonableness of which has generated complaints from doctors and beneficiaries alike for years) and the forced purchase of health insurance (you'll be fined via the IRS if you don't have insurance or if you have insurance that's not approved by the government) are among the more objectionable.

Surveys suggest almost half of all doctors will quit if the government runs health care.Some 45% of doctors have said they'll no longer be doctors if the Pelosi Plan goes into effect. 45%! And we already have a shortage. But I don't blame them! Some health-related businesses will, according to experts, not be in business long if the Pelosi Plan goes into effect. That's perfectly understandable. I imagine it's obvious what will happen to most health insurance companies under the Pelosi Plan!

Despite these many very serious problems, there are those in Congress who say that this is the ideal health care reform plan. A few of them even seem to believe it. But even if government hadn't historically botched every program remotely comparable to this one, it takes a whole lot of faith and a blindness to the facts to buy into this one given that obvious and significant trouble spots are not only foreseeable but built right into it. Catholic or not, rich or not, we must work to ensure the Pelosi Plan (the Senate plan isn't much better) does not pass. It won't fix the problems with our health care system. It will, in fact, likely kill the patient all together. And what do you suppose that will do to our country