A bill was introduced in Congress this week which is co-sponsored by over 100 Democrat house members. It sets up a national health care plan and the sponsors are touting it as the answer to all of the nation's healthcare problems. Here's a sample of what it does:
1. It ends all private health insurance. The 180 million people who get health insurance through their jobs would lose that and get lumped into the national plan instead. The two to three million people who work in health insurance related jobs would lose those jobs. The companies that sell health insurance would be put out of business.
2. It ends Medicaid and also Medicare as we know it. It's rather funny that for the last fifty years, the Demcrats run in every election saying that the Republicans want to end Medicare as we know it, and yet the first bill with major support in Congress to do just that comes from the Democrats. People who are satisfied with their Medicare or Medicaid coverage will lose that and it will be replaced by the new system.
3. It keeps the separate Veterans' Administration healthcare system. The Democrats haven't yet explained why they are still keeping a separate system for veterans. If they think the new system is so good, why not put the veterans into it? If they think that the current veterans' system is better than the new plan that they are espousing, then we had all better be extremely afraid of what is coming. The failings of the veterans' system are well known even after the improvements made in the last two years since President Trump got into office.
Here's a sample of what the new bill doesn't do:
1. The Democrats don't say anything about how they would pay for the new system. We've heard talk of taxes on the wealthy, but even at very high rates, such taxes would not raise enough money to fund the newly proposed system. There will have to be massive tax increases on poor and middle income taxpayers and on business as well. The cost of the system is estimated by some to be more each year than the federal government currently spends in total. Where do we get the four trillion bucks each year?
2. The bill does not explain how medical care would be rationed. If all care is free, then there are those who will use it over and over again for the simplest issues. The system will be swamped in now time. How will it get decided who the doctors see and when the appointments are set for. In other countries with similar systems, it can take many months or even years to get certain types of operations. Will we move to a system under which people die while waiting for needed treatment?
3. The bill also does nothing to promote the addition of doctors into the system. In order for the system to work, it is inevitable that doctors will see the payments received for their services cut substantially. In other words, the income of the average doctor is going to take a big hit. How many current doctors are going to retire? How many students are going to decide to go into a different field than medicine so that they can earn more money?
These are just a sample. America needs to ask the Democrats to explain these issues. We cannot just move blindly into a system that seems designed to fail quickly once it is in place.
1. It ends all private health insurance. The 180 million people who get health insurance through their jobs would lose that and get lumped into the national plan instead. The two to three million people who work in health insurance related jobs would lose those jobs. The companies that sell health insurance would be put out of business.
2. It ends Medicaid and also Medicare as we know it. It's rather funny that for the last fifty years, the Demcrats run in every election saying that the Republicans want to end Medicare as we know it, and yet the first bill with major support in Congress to do just that comes from the Democrats. People who are satisfied with their Medicare or Medicaid coverage will lose that and it will be replaced by the new system.
3. It keeps the separate Veterans' Administration healthcare system. The Democrats haven't yet explained why they are still keeping a separate system for veterans. If they think the new system is so good, why not put the veterans into it? If they think that the current veterans' system is better than the new plan that they are espousing, then we had all better be extremely afraid of what is coming. The failings of the veterans' system are well known even after the improvements made in the last two years since President Trump got into office.
Here's a sample of what the new bill doesn't do:
1. The Democrats don't say anything about how they would pay for the new system. We've heard talk of taxes on the wealthy, but even at very high rates, such taxes would not raise enough money to fund the newly proposed system. There will have to be massive tax increases on poor and middle income taxpayers and on business as well. The cost of the system is estimated by some to be more each year than the federal government currently spends in total. Where do we get the four trillion bucks each year?
2. The bill does not explain how medical care would be rationed. If all care is free, then there are those who will use it over and over again for the simplest issues. The system will be swamped in now time. How will it get decided who the doctors see and when the appointments are set for. In other countries with similar systems, it can take many months or even years to get certain types of operations. Will we move to a system under which people die while waiting for needed treatment?
3. The bill also does nothing to promote the addition of doctors into the system. In order for the system to work, it is inevitable that doctors will see the payments received for their services cut substantially. In other words, the income of the average doctor is going to take a big hit. How many current doctors are going to retire? How many students are going to decide to go into a different field than medicine so that they can earn more money?
These are just a sample. America needs to ask the Democrats to explain these issues. We cannot just move blindly into a system that seems designed to fail quickly once it is in place.
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