Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Dirty little secrets in the House Bill reveal Obama’s claims for health reform are lies

"You lie." And this time it's the non-partisan and independent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services saying it, not a "Southern racist congressman" as the media tried to portray Joe Wilson.

" A report released Friday by the non-partisan and independent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency in charge of running Medicare and Medicaid, blows the lid off of every one of Obama’s claims. All of the following quotes are from the report itself [this summary is from The Morning Bell webpage]:

Health Care Costs Increase: “In aggregate, we estimate that for calendar years 2010 through 2019 [national health expenditures (NHE)] would increase by $289 billion, or 0.8 percent, over the updates baseline projection that was released on June 29, 2009.” In other words, Obamacare bends the cost curve up, not down.

Millions Lose Existing Private Coverage: “However, a number of workers who currently have employer coverage would likely become enrolled in the expanded Medicaid program or receive subsidized coverage through the Exchange. For example, some smaller employers would be inclined to terminate their existing coverage, and companies with low average salaries might find it to their - and their employees’ - advantage to end their plans … We estimate that such actions would collectively reduce the number of people with employer-sponsored health coverage by about 12 million.” In other words, Obamacare will cause millions of Americans to lose their existing private coverage. . .

Seniors Access to Care Jeopardized: “H.R. 3962 would introduce permanent annual productivity adjustments to price updates for institutional providers… Over time, a sustained reduction in payment updates, based on productivity expectations that are difficult to attain, would cause Medicare payment rates to grow more slowly than and in a way that was unrelated to, the providers’ costs of furnishing services to beneficiaries. Thus, providers for whom Medicare constitutes a substantive portion of their business could find it difficult to remain profitable and might end their participation in the program (possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries).” In other words, the Medicare cuts in the House bill are so out of touch with reality that hospitals currently serving Medicare patients might be forced to stop doing so. Thus making it much more difficult for seniors to get health care."

There is much more--go here to read the news about the lies we’ve been told or bring up the report and read it. Few, including your congressional representative, read the bill--so you might as well read the analysis.

Here in central Ohio radio land we are being annoyed by syrupy radio ads for Mary Jo Kilroy extolling her part in this mess (I think the ad campaign is sponsored by a union). Over half of government workers (local, state, federal) are now unionized, up from 17.3% in the early 1970s. Guess who your representative is really representing? Guess who wants to unload onto the taxpayer their health care responsibilities and pie-in-the-sky promises after taking workers' dues all those years?

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