Health Care Deception

The Obama Administration has apparently shit a brick over this video. They’ve decided that they need to combat the “very deceiving headlines” out there. So they sent out some propagandist to make a video to fight the smears!!!!1

[T]here are a lot of very deceiving headlines out there right now, such as this one — take a look at this one. This one says, ‘Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will Eliminate PRIVATE Insurance.’

“Well, nothing can be farther from the truth. You know the people who always try to SCARE people whenever you try to bring them health-insurance reform are at it again. And they’re taking sentences and phrases out of context, and they’re cobbling them together to leave a VERY false impression. The truth is that the president has been talking to the American people a LOT about health-insurance reform and what is at stake for them.

“So what happens is that because he’s talking to the American people so much, there are people out there with a computer and a lot of free time, and they take a phrase here and there — they simply cherry-pick and put it together, and make it sound like he’s saying something that he didn’t really say.”

Well, let’s review one of Obama’s speeches in full context, before he was president, and before he had to sell socialism to America without it sounding like socialism.

I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.

So what are we supposed to believe? Is Obama in favor of universal, government-run health care, or does he support private insurance? It sounds like he wants to force everybody onto government health care whether they want it or not. So what does he really mean when he says we can keep our current insurance if we’re happy with it? For the answer to that question, let’s look at the actual bill.

(1) LIMITATION ON NEW ENROLLMENT-

    (A) IN GENERAL- Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.

    (B) DEPENDENT COVERAGE PERMITTED- Subparagraph (A) shall not affect the subsequent enrollment of a dependent of an individual who is covered as of such first day.

(2) LIMITATION ON CHANGES IN TERMS OR CONDITIONS- Subject to paragraph (3) and except as required by law, the issuer does not change any of its terms or conditions, including benefits and cost-sharing, from those in effect as of the day before the first day of Y1.

After the first day of the year after the bill becomes law, you can’t be enrolled in an existing plan. You have to enroll in one of the government-approved plans, or the public plan. Also, the insurance company isn’t allowed to change any of its terms or conditions or benefits offered without enrolling you in one of the government-approved plans instead.

In other words, you can keep your insurance as long as you never change anything about it. Because if you change it, you have to get on a government-regulated plan or the public plan. This will end the private insurance market because every plan that you join will have to be part of the government “exchange.” If the regulations required to be a part of the exchange make private insurance plans unprofitable, the private plans will be eliminated, and people will be forced into government health care.

This meets the desire of Barack Obama to move America towards a single-payer, universal, health care plan. By George, I think we’ve got our answer!

But what about employer-based plans?

(b) Grace Period for Current Employment-based Health Plans-

    (1) GRACE PERIOD-

        (A) IN GENERAL- The Commissioner shall establish a grace period whereby, for plan years beginning after the end of the 5-year period beginning with Y1, an employment-based health plan in operation as of the day before the first day of Y1 must meet the same requirements as apply to a qualified health benefits plan under section 101, including the essential benefit package requirement under section 121.

After 5 years, an employer-based plan has to meet the same government requirements and regulations as private individual plans. Whatever that means. Presumably, it means that the government can dictate what kind of insurance employers offer to their employees. How this differs from a government-run plan, I don’t know. But there’s no free market when everybody’s subject to the same regulations and limitations.