Ground Shifting Fast in Health Care Battle

Political heat is causing House Dems to have second thoughts! Keep it up!

The last 24 hours have brought a slew of positive changes to the effort to stop Obama's plan to socialize America's health care and force Americans to become more dependent on the Federal Government.

Yesterday, in this ACTION ALERT I implored readers to write, call or email their Congressmen and Senators and deliver this simple message: STOP BIG GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE!

As an addendum to that post, a reader emailed and suggested that letters would take too much time to pass the layers of security necessary now for outside correspondence to members of Congress. Good point! If you have yet to send a letter, better to fax it instead. If your Congressman or Senator does not list a fax number in their contact information, call the office to get it.

Also, some readers have suggested that it's a waste of time to write Democrat members of Congress. While I believe it's important to put them on notice I get your point. Those in that situation might consider making a contribution to a candidate running to replace those dinosaurs. If no candidate currently strikes your fancy, make a contribution to one of the many fine groups working to get out the message of how dangerous Socialized Obama care would be for the country. The point is, you can and MUST do something!

House Democrats Retreating on Health Care Takeover!
Obviously, the calls and letters of millions of Americans are having an impact!

Members of a key House committee is having second thoughts. So Obama summoned them to the White House:

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce panel are headed to the White House, not their committee room, on Tuesday.

Instead of continuing their markup, Energy and Commerce Democrats will be lobbied by President Obama at the White House. Tuesday’s continuing markup was canceled, but the panel is scheduled to meet again on Wednesday.

The delays and intense effort by the White House cast more doubt on whether the House will meet its deadline of voting on the landmark bill before the August recess.

Conservative Democrats on the panel have criticized the healthcare reform bill’s costs, and complained it does not do enough to reduce long-term healthcare spending. Freshman Democrats have also been worried about growing fiscal deficits and the risk the healthcare bill could add to them, while members from wealthy districts are upset about a surcharge on the wealthy that would be used to pay for some of the bill’s costs.

Another report has House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) admitting that the bill is in trouble.

Perhaps when Obama meets with House Dems he will finally learn what is in the bill. In a conference call with liberal bloggers on Monday he had this exchange:

During the call, a blogger from Maine said he kept running into an Investors Business Daily article that claimed Section 102 of the House health legislation would outlaw private insurance. He asked: “Is this true? Will people be able to keep their insurance and will insurers be able to write new policies even though H.R. 3200 is passed?” President Obama replied: “You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about.” (quote begins at 17:10)

Audio of that exchange is here.

I cited the Investor's Business Daily editorial on July 16th. Since then, more information has come to light confirming the conclusion that Obama Care would force you into Government Care.

The Wall Street Journals goes into detail on the plan here. They conclude:

So when Mr. Obama says that “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what,” he’s wrong. Period. What he’s not telling the American people is that the government will so dramatically change the rules of the insurance market that employers will find it impossible to maintain their current coverage, and many will drop it altogether. The more we inspect the House bill, the more it looks to be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever introduced in Congress.

And this:

O'S BROKEN PROMISES
By BETSY MCCAUGHEY
New York Post
July 17, 2009

...Two main bills are being rushed through Congress with the goal of combining them into a finished product by August. Under either, a new government bureaucracy will select health plans that it considers in your best interest, and you will have to enroll in one of these "qualified plans." If you now get your plan through work, your employer has a five-year "grace period" to switch you into a qualified plan. If you buy your own insurance, you'll have less time.

And as soon as anything changes in your contract -- such as a change in copays or deductibles, which many insurers change every year -- you'll have to move into a qualified plan instead (House bill, p. 16-17).

When you file your taxes, if you can't prove to the IRS that you are in a qualified plan, you'll be fined thousands of dollars -- as much as the average cost of a health plan for your family size -- and then automatically enrolled in a randomly selected plan (House bill, p. 167-168).

It's one thing to require that people getting government assistance tolerate managed care, but the legislation limits you to a managed-care plan even if you and your employer are footing the bill (Senate bill, p. 57-58). The goal is to reduce everyone's consumption of health care and to ensure that people have the same health-care experience, regardless of ability to pay.
...
One troubling provision of the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years (and more often if they become sick or go into a nursing home) about alternatives for end-of-life care (House bill, p. 425-430). The sessions cover highly sensitive matters such as whether to receive antibiotics and "the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration."

This mandate invites abuse, and seniors could easily be pushed to refuse care. Do we really want government involved in such deeply personal issues?

Shockingly, only a portion of the money accumulated from slashing senior benefits and raising taxes goes to pay for covering the uninsured. The Senate bill allocates huge sums to "community transformation grants," home visits for expectant families, services for migrant workers -- and the creation of dozens of new government councils, programs and advisory boards slipped into the last 500 pages.

The most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll (June 21) finds that 83 percent of Americans are very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the quality of their health care, and 81 percent are similarly satisfied with their health insurance.

They have good reason to be. If you're diagnosed with cancer, you have a better chance of surviving it in the United States than anywhere else, according to the Concord Five Continent Study. And the World Health Organization ranked the United States No. 1 out of 191 countries for being responsive to patients' needs, including providing timely treatments and a choice of doctors.

Congress should pursue less radical ways to cover the uninsured. We have too much to lose with this legislation.

Betsy McCaughey is founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former lieutenant governor of New York. betsy@hospitalinfection.org

Obama's Popularity Continuing It's Slide

From USA Today:

Barack Obama, who completed six months in office Monday, has a 55% approval rating in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, putting him 10th among the dozen presidents who have served since World War II at this point in their tenures.

And while some may try and spin that fact, it's undeniable that even Jimmy Carter had a higher approval rating at this time in his doomed presidency!

Obama is meeting his Waterloo and conservatives are leading the charge. Individual calls and letters from readers like you will make the difference. Don't sit on the sidelines this time! We are winning!