Democrat Health Plan Means a visit to the DMV? It's in the Bill

And you thought we were joking when we said putting the government in charge of health care would be like visiting the DMV?

You Will Get Health Insurance at DMV—Literally (It’s in the Bill)
By Terence P. Jeffrey
CNS.com
Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The most revelatory passage in the so-called “plain English” version of the health care bill that the Senate Finance Committee approved on Tuesday (without ever drafting the actual legislative language) says that in the future Americans will be offered the convenience of getting their health insurance at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

This is no joke. If this bill becomes law, it will be the duty of the U.S. secretary of health and human services or the state governments overseeing federally mandated health-insurance exchanges to ensure that you can get your health insurance at the DMV.
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Page 19 of the committee’s “plain English” text says: “The Secretary and/or states would do the following: ... Enable customers to enroll in health care plans in local hospitals, schools, Departments of Motor Vehicles, local Social Security offices, and other offices designated by the state.”

This is the bill’s most revelatory passage because it sublimely symbolizes the bill’s true aim: a government takeover of the health care system.

You do not get food at the DMV. You do not even get auto insurance at the DMV. But under what The Associated Press inaptly calls the Finance Committee’s “middle-of-the-road health care plan,” you will get health insurance at the DMV.

What will the DMV and health care have in common if this bill is enacted? Government will control both.

And if you don't think the current plan is the road to a socialist takeover of health care consider this:

[H]ere is the whip the government will use to drive most Americans into government-approved, government-subsidized, government-controlled health insurance: An employer that decides not to provide health insurance for its workers will be required to pay a fee to the government for each of its workers that receives a federal subsidy. But the total paid to the government by any employer will be capped at $400 times the total number of that employer’s workers.

Even though this fee will not be tax deductible, it will be far cheaper for a business to pay the government $400 per worker than to pay a private insurance company thousands per worker for an insurance plan.

The Finance Committee has created an irresistible incentive for American businesses to drop their workers off at the DMV where they can enroll in government-funded, government-approved, government-regulated health insurance plans.

Senate Bill Moving from Bad to Worse As Obama Aides Pile On in Secret Meetings

Now that the Senate Finance Committee has completed weeks of deliberation, their product, which isn't anything more than a conceptual framework, which will be merged behind closed doors by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid with assistance from Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chris Dodd (D-CT). They will be joined by Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff and Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office for Health Reform; Peter Orszag, budget director; Phil Schiliro, director of Legislative Affairs and Shawn Maher, White House Senate liaison.

Despite Obama's claim that this was a "bipartisan" process after the Senate Finance Committee yesterday not one Republican has been invited to join the meetings which will determine the final shape of the Senate bill.

Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT)summed up the product of the Senate Finance Committee and describes it's failure to meet even the low standards Obama promised repeatedly throughout this process. Hatch's remarks are worth reading in full.

Health Care Legislation Lurches Left

With Reid and the Obama Administration writing the Senate's health care bill in secret it's undeniable that Obama has broken yet another campaign promise, this one to negotiate the details of health care reform in public.

We have no assurance that the legislative language which emerges will be any better than the conceptual framework we saw voted on in the Finance Committee. In fact, it's likely to be much worse as it must be merged with the very liberal Kennedy bill. Then, the House of Representatives is also merging their various bills which ultimately must be merged with the Senate's version. Nothing in this process indicates a propensity for compromise or the inclusion of bipartisan solutions.

As usual, Democrats are in a hurry to complete this charade before the public catches on. Watch for bills to emerge quickly and Senate and House Democrats move for immediate votes before anyone has time to read the language.