We all will have to have health care by 2014 or face the penalties, but exempt from this requirement are low income people.

No Incentive for Low Income Folks To Work Hard For a Better Life

The incentive for low income people to work hard for a better life and become self sufficient has now been eliminated. Not all of these folks mind you, but the fact that many will now think their health care coverage is “free,” will be in for a rude awakening at some point in the future when the system comes crashing down upon them.

Who pray tell do you think makes up the majority of the 40 million uninsured today? Could it be low income people?

This Bill Is a Complete Sham On American Tax Payers

This bill is a complete sham put on the American tax payers who actually are productive in society to take care of those who are unproductive or less productive.  At the same time the bill benefits, Big Pharma, Big Insurance and of course the IRS.

Almost all insurance and pharma stocks are higher today on the news.  Surprisingly the U.S. Dollar is also up as the market believes the hype presented by Obama and Pelosi.

Obama and Pelosi Don’t Even Agree On the Savings

Do people actually believe their government when they say this Health Care Plan will save us money? Obama, in his celebratory speech last night, said the health care bill will save $1.1 Trillion and Pelosi comes on 10 minutes later and says it will save us $1.3 trillion.

If anything, it will COST us that much, not save us that much.  If you disagree, please comment as to how government programs actually lower costs and provide examples.

Health Care Doesn’t Work In Massachusetts and It Won’t Work for the Nation As a Whole

You need proof, look no further than Republican Mitt Romney’s MassCare for the citizens of Massachusetts.  Howard Dean was on CNBC today telling everyone that the ObamaCare plan is modeled after Romney’s “health care for all” plan in Massachusetts.

Romney’s “MassCare” has put the tax payers of Massachusetts in “dire” straits as cuts in spending over the last two years haven’t worked in resolving their budget crisis and the threat of more taxes is all that is left.

Health Care Won’t Be Free

I remember watching the MTV Music Awards show (I do it for research to keep tabs on the youth of today, not for the enjoyment of the entertainers) and listening to the host Russell Brand say to the American audience, “and we have free health care” referring to the fact that those in England, his home country, don’t have to pay for health coverage like us Yanks have to.  According to Russell Brand’s mentality, health care is “free” in England.

Of course anyone with half a brain knows that this young Brit knows nothing about the real cost of Health Care in England which taxes anything and everything to pay for said “free” health care for its citizens.  No mention by Brand of the waiting lists and long lines either.

England’s Tax Rates For Their “Free” Health Care

11% of the citizens of England’s income goes to what is known as the “national insurance tax” on top of the 40% that goes to the income tax not to mention the 17.5%  VAT tax (rising to 18.5% soon) in addition to excise taxes on motor fuel, alcohol, tobacco, betting and vehicles.  We’re up to 63% so far.  Add to that, a capital gain tax of 18% (ours is 15%), council (property) tax and after you’ve been taxed your whole life in England, if you were lucky enough to accumulate some wealth, you’ll pay an inheritance tax of 40% on any amount over $503,000 upon your demise.

Free health care indeed….

Don’t Be Fooled By the Ignorant

Does anyone think providing free insurance for 40 million people comes without a cost? Is it even conceivable for an educated person not to envision their taxes will be higher in the years to come?

Does anyone think that Cap and Trade isn’t next and won’t pass? Come on now… the government is on a roll!  The promised “change” is here!

Congress Turning Us Into Serfs – That’s the “Change” Obama Promised

These people (Congress) will never stop taking until their hands are cut off. But since it’s against the law to take up sword and cut off their hands, the grass roots efforts to remove them from office must accomplish the same goal.

But they can’t be replaced by just anyone (think Scott Brown here who voted with the Democrats on a recent jobs bill). They have to be replaced by true Liberty candidates. There needs to be a stamp of approval for those we want in office.

Sean Hannity would have you just vote for who he wants you to vote for on his site. These people will be the same ones that “talk the talk,” but still do the same spending that Hannity was silent about during the Bush administrations drunken sailor spree.  Hannity’s silence was the norm while the Republican Party who had control of the House and the Senate disbanded fiscal conservativism that they so embrace today….when it’s just too late in the game.  We reap what we sow indeed…

What Can You Do?

Campaign for Liberty and Daily Paul are two sites that offer the best opportunity for people to discuss true fiscally conservative Liberty candidates that are in We the People’s best interest.

People are “Fed Up!” and it’s time to put an end to this Homer Simpson mentality where Homer sticks his finger in the electrical outlet, gets shocked and sticks it in again thinking he won’t get shocked by repeating the same behavior.

Aren’t you tired of being shocked again and again?

It’s time to stop being a Homer!

It’s time to say “ENOUGH!” to Congress!

Make your vote count come November…

Related posts:

1. Health Care Reform Didn’t Work for Romney and Won’t Work For Obama – Here’s What Will Work
2. Defend Your Health Care; Stop Obama’s Health Plan
3. Digger’s Friday Triple Play

While reading below, keep in mind that Romney’s Health Care Plan isn’t working in Massachusetts and neither will Obama’s Health Care Plan work for America, but there are solutions.

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3/21/2010 UPDATE NYTimes: “Massachusetts, which has made a series of painful cuts over the past two years, is gearing up for more. Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, told The Boston Globe: “There’s no end to the bad news here. The state fiscal situation is already so dire that any additional bad news is magnified.”

Even with the cuts that Massachusetts has been making the last couple years, “the situation is dire.”  This will be the future for America if the Health Care bill is passed and if it is passed, who knows what the Senate will do with the reconciliation bill if they get the 51 votes to pass…  All Republicans in the House are voting against it, but just enough (by a count of “1″) Democrats are voting for it that it looks like the bill will pass.

Be careful what you wish for Americans, because government has proven they can’t do anything right and who pays for their mistakes?  You and I.  Look how Congress through the advice of the governments great Harvard and Yale economists ruined the economy.  This health care plan is a guaranteed failure and most in America know it. But those you elected aren’t listening to you.  The good news though is that 16,000 jobs will be created with the passing of this bill.  The bad news, those jobs will to expand the IRS.  Next step: State Nullification. To be continued…

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Romney’s Intent; Health Care For All

Romney’s original intent to provide health care for all citizens of Massachusetts was to make sure “the costs of health care will be reduced.” In accomplishing this goal he stated; “And we will need no new taxes, no employer mandate and no government takeover to make this happen.”

Read My Lips “No New Taxes!”

Has anyone heard this line before; “we will need no new taxes?”  Of course Romney had to say this as the alternative, “we will raise your taxes to cover all citizens of Massachusetts” would have been suicide for his goal from the beginning (think Walter Mondale here).  No politician will get something passed by telling people they will raise taxes to pay for it, unless of course the smokers pay for it.

Unfortunately, people believe that what comes out of a politicians mouth is the Gospel truth.

So How Did Romney’s Health Care Mandate Pan Out?

Inquiring minds are interested in learning what effect Romney’s MassCare has had on the citizens of Massachusetts.  According to Irwin Stelzer, director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute;

Overall health insurance costs in Massachusetts are almost a third higher than the national average, with a basic plan costing almost $17,000 for a typical family of four. Nearly 30 percent of Massachusetts residents report that their medical costs have increased since MassCare’s implementation.

It’s a similar story for government health care spending. Public health insurance expenditures are expected to be up 42 percent, to roughly $595 million, this year compared to 2006.

Have Taxes Increased for the Citizens of Massachusetts Since Romney’s MassCare Was Implemented?

According to Jennifer Nassour, chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party, “Democrats in the [Massachusetts] House and Senate decided that right now is a great time to increase our sales tax by 25 percent during a recession.” Trudy Lieberman of the Columbia Journalism Review adds, “the state needed the money to pay for health reform.  Massachusetts has no dedicated funding source for the subsidies it pays people to buy insurance, and the cost of those subsidies goes up because medical costs keep going up.”

Remember folks, states can’t just print money to pay for things like the government does via the Federal Reserve.  States have to raise taxes which means you pay more.

Are Citizens of Massachusetts Even Getting Promised Health Care Coverage?

While the citizens of Massachusetts are realizing their taxes are going higher, are they even getting the promised health care coverage?  Trudy Lieberman states;

In 2008, some 352,000 Massachusetts residents did not have coverage, even though the law requires that they do. That’s about 5.5 percent of the state’s population; up from the 2.6 percent who were uninsured in the years after reform took effect.

The state still uses the 2.6% figure to hide the truth.

Christians Won’t Go for This On a National Level; Romney’s Health Plan Subsidizes Abortions

Christians won’t like the fact that Romney’s 2006 universal health-care law subsidizes abortions.  This makes me wonder how many Republicans would vote with Romney on National Health Care if he was elected President in 2008.  Naturally, Romney doesn’t make for a good Presidential candidate choice come 2012.  He did come in second to Ron Paul in the recent CPAC straw poll so there are people out there that actually think Romney would be good for our country.  Seeing how good he was for the state of Massachusetts, clearly he is not.

Are There Solutions for Health Care in America?

Of course there are.

For Individuals

For those that have the means, the first thing to do before any real “change” occurs is to self insure yourself.

How do you do that?

For starters, you establish an emergency fund that is kept separate from all other funds.  How much this amount will be will depend on the next step, but it will be at least $5,000.

Once this fund is established, you instruct your current health care provider or new provider if your existing one doesn’t have this option (like with HMO’s) that you wish to increase the deductible to the highest amount available.  Here in California, that amount is around $5,000.

The first thing that will come to people’s mind here is that “I have to come up with $5,000 before I get any medical coverage?”  The answer is, yes, for most.  But as Paul Harvey used to always say….and now…for the rest of the story.

If you are currently undergoing treatment where you use your health coverage often, then by no means change to a different plan.  But for most, we don’t go and see the doctor between the ages of about 14 to age 55, and possibly age 65 if you take care of yourself.  It’s only later in life that your health deteriorates from natural causes.  Knowing your family history can also play into one’s thinking.

In the meantime, odds are you don’t need health coverage except for routine physical exams and normal preventive measures like mammograms.  You know…the things that for the most part aren’t even covered under the Obama Health Care plan.  Remember, the government is not in the business of keeping you healthy.

Your emergency fund will pay for the routine exams and should also be large enough to pay for the coinsurance amount you will be liable for should there be a catastrophic illness.  The total amount out of pocket that you would have to come up with if you were to become sick or injured and need your coverage to pay for your bills is the total of the deductible you would have to pay plus the coinsurance amount.  Any competent insurance agent can give you these amounts.

If one didn’t have the deductible or coinsurance emergency fund available, they can go in with some family members, friends or neighbors and sign a contract where each side provides a stated amount to the fund until that time where the emergency fund can be established individually.

Remember, the odds are you won’t need to use your health coverage until later years in life and you’ll be able to take control of your preventive costs by negotiating with your health care provider on a cash basis.  These routine checkups are always negotiable.  Just ask!

The money you save from moving to a higher deductible will eventually equate your emergency fund and from that point forward you are ahead of the game.  You win, not the insurance company!

For Employees (and Employers)

Many of us work for employers that provide some sort of health coverage.  They provide this coverage because it is the law to do so if the company is over a certain amount of employees.  Employers thus pay for this coverage for you in lieu of paying you more in income.

Wouldn’t it be nice for you to have a higher income and take control of your health insurance costs by doing the planning yourself as outlined above?  For some the answer will be no because their employer is footing the entire bill for their health coverage.  Believe me, these folks are in fact paying for this one way or another.

For most of us, we have to pay something each month out of our paycheck.  First, the fact that your employer gets to deduct the premiums for your health care and you don’t needs to change.  While some self employed individuals can write off some of their premiums, it isn’t a fair system when employers can write off all of their premiums and individuals can’t.

What one company, that should be a model for all employers in the United States, is doing, is giving their employees more control of their health coverage.  John Mackey from Whole Foods has set up his employees with a high deductible plan like I mentioned above for the individual.  He then pays the employee an amount that can be set aside in a Medical Savings Account (similar to the emergency fund above) that can go to pay for preventive care, massages, dental work, chiropractor work, many of the things that are NOT covered under today’s insurance plans.

The employees in turn take control of their health care expenses by negotiating for services in advance of paying for them.  Why?  Because it is THEIR money that is paying for the services, not the health insurance companies.

Why Health Insurance Companies Keep Raising Their Rates

You want to know why health insurance companies keep raising your rates?  It’s because there is no incentive to the insured to negotiate with the Doctors and hospitals.  The Doctors and Hospitals can keep raising their rates because they know the insurance company is going to pay them.  It’s a racket that is on par with organized crime.

We need to get government out of the health care business, not give them more of us to provide health care for!  Medicare is going broke and Congress is trying to push through some sort of legislation that claims they will provide health care coverage for us in the future, years down the road, but will have us start paying for it today!  Why?  Because they’re broke!  They know the system can’t go on as is, so who better to turn to under the guise of “health care for all” in getting money to pay for Medicare (a government program mind you).

It’s time to wake up people.  It’s time to take control of your own destiny and not leave it in the hands of the greedy politicians.

For Uninsured

But what about the uninsured some of you may ask?  Think of it from the Health Insurance providers point of view for a moment.

How nice is it for Health Insurance Companies to have a built in business mandated by government where employees have to be covered?  How nice is it for Health Insurance Companies that when an unhealthy person loses their job or decides to go work on their own, they can’t continue their same plan but for 18 months under COBRA law?  As long as someone pays premiums on a health insurance plan, they should be able to carry that plan with them for life.  This means across state lines too.  Health insurance should be portable.

A 5 Step Plan Is All That Is Needed To Reform Health Care Reform

You don’t need 2,400 pages to reform Health Care!  Just do these 5 things…

1. Allow health insurance companies to compete across state lines – competition hasn’t hurt the computer, cell phone or Lasik surgery industries has it?
2. Utilize high deductibles and establish an emergency fund (From an insurance company provider perspective, they will rake in premiums from the majority that won’t even use their health coverage any longer.  People don’t use their auto or home owners coverage often either, providing more than enough income to pay for the unhealthy minority and still provide profit for shareholders – From an insured perspective, competition for your preventive care needs will drive Doctor’s and hospital costs down making it more affordable for all ).
3. Make premiums for health insurance tax deductible just as they are for employers (this utilizes the incentive for people to buy health insurance, similar as to the incentive to save for retirement via an IRA – unfortunately many people won’t do it without an incentive.  Also, more income would be available to individuals to pay for health insurance as Employers would no longer be paying for it.  One way or another, the employee is paying for it.  Free health coverage from your employer is in lieu of higher income/salary to the employee.).
4. Make health coverage portable (including across state lines) – solves most of the problems related to the uninsured.
5. Keep the government out of health care.

It may not be a perfect plan, but it’s better than anything the government will force us to do.  It’s either We take control or Government takes control.  The Constitution states; “We the People” not “We the Government.” Do nothing and the Constitution will soon have to be changed to, “We the Serfs.”

What You Can Do Now To Stop Government Health Care

Write your congressman and let them know what you think.  For those that need information on who their congressman is and how to contact them, please go here.  Do it now or you more than likely won’t do it at all.  If you don’t know what to write, then copy and paste this article.  If there’s not enough space to copy and paste the entire article, then copy the 5 step plan.

Any replies from your congressman, please post here for all to read, and thank you for making a difference…

Related posts:

1. Low Income Folks Get Free Health Care and You’ll Pay Higher Taxes
2. Defend Your Health Care; Stop Obama’s Health Plan
3. The Government Is Not in the Business of Keeping You Healthy

Today comes the news that new guidelines stating women should get mammograms starting at age 50 instead of age 40.  This new recommendation came from the United States Preventive Services Task Force, chaired by Arizona State University Professor, Diana Pettiti, former field epidemiologist for the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and presently the Vice-Chair, United States Preventive Services Task Force.

What a perfect person to do the shilling for the U.S. government in saving the proposed new Obama proposed Health Plan money at the expense of young women’s lives.

According to the above New York Times article,

Congress (presently) requires Medicare to pay for annual mammograms. Medicare can change its rules to pay for less frequent tests if federal officials direct it to.

It doesn’t take much speculation to claim that this reduction in the number of women who should get mammograms comes at a time when Obama’s Health Plan was to cover it but now won’t have to.  That’s 10′s of millions of dollars  saved just because of the study done by someone who used to work for the CDC, the government organization that wants to vaccinate you because they know what’s best.  They’re the ones along with the WHO that told you to get the Swine Flu Vaccine despite only 145 deaths worldwide.

But what do the statistics for women age 40 to 49 say about how many actually are at risk of getting breast cancer?

From the governments own, National Cancer Institute:

• from age 30 through age 39 . . . . . . 0.43 percent (often expressed as “1 in 233″)
• from age 40 through age 49 . . . . . . 1.44 percent (often expressed as “1 in 69″)
• from age 50 through age 59 . . . . . . 2.63 percent (often expressed as “1 in 38″)
• from age 60 through age 69 . . . . . . 3.65 percent (often expressed as “1 in 27″)

So to save a little money, our government will now decide that “1 in 69″ (age 40-49) women will get breast cancer is less important than “1 in 38″ (age 50-59).  This is an example of what lengths government will go to in cutting costs.  Yet to keep people from dying they’ll gladly have you pay for a Swine Flu vaccine. It hasn’t hurt the profits of the vaccine makers either.

Government is NOT in the business of keeping you healthy.

They would rather women age 40-49 get the disease and cost the system more dollars to take care of them and their cancer.

You see how backwards government can be?  And people expect Obama’s Health Plan to make the system better?

Government is in charge of the railroads and has been since 1917.  Has it improved since then?  Ever see an Amtrak train zip by you at 300 mph?

Government is in charge of our schools yet millions drop out every year.

Government is the reason our higher education costs are so high.

Government run Post Office is facing a $7 billion loss this year.

Government runs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that has already cost taxpayers $111 billion and Fannie Mae lost $19 billion last quarter and is asking Congress for $15 billion more.

The public says that health care is not governments responsibility.

What makes one think it is and what degree of confidence do they have in its success when the government has the above kind of track record?

Learn how we got to where we are by watching this short video:

If you want the government to control your health care, do nothing. If you don’t want government to control your health care because you realize that it will cost you more in the long run, then Tell Congress To Support the Health Freedom Plan:  http://www.operationhealthfreedom.com/  Please do it now.

Related posts:

1. The Government Is Not in the Business of Keeping You Healthy
2. Health Care Reform Didn’t Work for Romney and Won’t Work For Obama – Here’s What Will Work
3. Low Income Folks Get Free Health Care and You’ll Pay Higher Taxes

He also wrote an analysis on the alleged 46 million uninsured:  How many uninsured people need additional help from taxpayers?

Here are all 20 posts in his series analyzing President Obama’s claims about the proposed government health plan:

1. The President’s overpromise that everyone can keep their health plan
2. Putting the government in charge of your health insurance
3. Waiting in line
4. Government-mandated benefits
5. Preventive care does not save money (in the aggregate)
6. The House bill would increase short-term, 10th year, and long-term budget deficits
7. The President was incorrect — AARP opposes the bill
8. The bills would take Medicare savings needed for solvency and spend them on a new entitlement
9. Medicare is not a good example of government-run health care because Medicare is fiscally unsustainable
10. Even if the public option drops out of legislation, other parts of these bills would put private insurance under government control
11. The President says the public option will keep private insurers honest at the same time he proposes cutting payments to private insurers competing with the Medicare public option
12. The pending bills would move more cost-benefit decisions from insurers to people chosen by the government
13. Guaranteed renewal and guaranteed issue
14. The President says “we may be able to get even more than” the $80 B of budgetary savings that the pharmaceutical industry thought was a ceiling promised by the White House.
15. The President says he’s not “promoting” a single-payer plan, but the only concern he raises is a disruptive transition.
16. Many examples suggest that the government cannot compete on a level playing field with private firms.
17. The President trashes the U.S. Postal Service and undermines the case that government can run a complex health system.
18. The President understates the annual cost of new spending by a factor of two.
19. The President says that 2/3 of the offsets come from Medicare and Medicaid spending, while the only public estimate (for the House Bill) shows 21% instead.  He also advocates a tax proposal that Congressional Democrats killed last Winter.
20. There are 46 million people who are technically uninsured, but the target population is probably one-third to one-half that size.

Related posts:

1. Health Care Reform Didn’t Work for Romney and Won’t Work For Obama – Here’s What Will Work
2. The Government Is Not in the Business of Keeping You Healthy
3. Defend Your Health Care; Stop Obama’s Health Plan

When seniors first turn 65 and are eligible for Medicare, they are offered a one-time “Welcome to Medicare” physical exam. This “welcome” benefit isn’t free as seniors will have to pay20% of the Medicare-approved amount and has to be completed within six months of enrollment.

Think back to the advice of your doctors over the years.  How often do they recommend you get a physical?  Typically the answer is once a year.  This is how physicians have felt over the years and a recent study showed that 88% of physicians still give annual physicals.

Just like with Medicare, under the Obama Health Care Plan there would still be only one physical exam covered for those over age 65.  There is no mention of any covered physical exams for those under 65 except for some preventive measures.  They do mention the following on page 428 and repeated again on page 484:

An initial preventive physical examination under subsection (WW), including any related discussion during such examination, shall not be considered an advance care planning consultation for purposes of applying
the 5-year limitation under paragraph (1).

There is no other mention of the words “physical examination” in the rest of the 1018 page plan.

While it is true that studies have been performed to show that an “annual” physical exam may not be necessary, their conclusion was not that they weren’t necessary, but rather 80% of the preventive care occurs through other office visits throughout the year.  Even further, according to Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a policy analyst at RAND Corp., “no major North American health-related organizations recommend the routine annual exams.”  I’m sure this is news to most reading this.

But Douglas K. Owens, MD, senior investigator, VA Palo Alto Healthcare System and professor of medicine at Stanford University, says that “If they are getting them (preventive services) as part of their routine care, that is great.  If not, a periodic health exam may be a good avenue to get them.”

So the conclusion from these studies and that of the MD’s is that yes, routine physical exams are necessary but there is a need to reduce repetitive preventive services and the interval between exams may be dependent upon family and personal history.

How Do Periodic Physical Exams Relate to Current Medicare and Proposed Obama Health Care Plans?

There’s an interesting caveat to this “one” physical exam currently offered through Medicare and continued with the Obama Health Care Plan.  It doesn’t include most laboratory tests. This means that the physician doesn’t have the necessary information needed to spot or diagnose preventable conditions.  What are the results of this lack of screening?  The undiagnosed contition gets worse and costs the system more.

In other words, its a self defeating prophecy.  It’s a system that is set up to treat the disease after the fact rather than preventing it to begin with.  This is the fallacy known as government health care.

Granted there are things covered by Medicare at present that would be continued under the Obama Health Plan.  This includes:

1. Colorectal cancer screening

2. A pelvic exam and pap smear for older women

3.  A yearly mammogram for women

4. A bone density test for women

5. Yearly prostate cancer tests for men

6. Diabetes screening as needed

7. Yearly glaucoma tests

8. Cardiovascular screening (but you need to talk with your doctor to see if you qualify)

9. Ultrasound screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm for certain individuals

10. Pneumococcal and influenza vaccines and their administration and hepatitis B vaccine and its administration for certain individuals

But what about all these other preventive service recommendations  outlined by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in their “Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, 2008?”  How is it that none of these recommendations by the Medical Doctors (MD) who make up the task force are “covered” under Medicare or the Obama Health Plan?  Isn’t being proactive with preventive services the key to staying healthy and thus not needing the expensive services later in life?

Perhaps individual responsibility and taking control of one’s own health care is the answer.

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods implemented a plan to do just that.  Since the odds are against you needing any type of catastrophic coverage, he has implemented a high deductible plan ($1,000) for his employees and provided them with Health Savings Accounts to handle the little things (even those things that aren’t covered under most insurance plans like Acupuncturists and Chiropractor’s) including preventive care (see attached Appendix).

If the employee doesn’t use the money in the account, it keeps growing.  It’s their money.  The company decreased its costs at the same time as they no longer had to pay the higher costs for the lower deductible plans.  All companies should be doing this.

So why aren’t physical exams and many preventive measures part of any current (Medicare) or proposed (Obama Health Plan)?

Costs.

According to the aforementioned Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, “If every U.S. adult got an annual physical, the U.S. health care system would need to provide up to 145 million additional visits annually, the researchers estimate.”

But What Would It Really Cost to Cover Preventive Care?

There are 921,900 physicians in this country according to the AMA’s Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the U.S., 2008.  If only half of these physicians, to use a conservative estimation, were to conduct physical examinations on these 145 million people, it would amount to one extra person seen a day (given time for vacations and golf outings on Wednesdays).

So doing the financial calculations, if it cost $7.8 billion to pay for 44 million folks who received Preventive Health Examinations (PHE) and Gynecological Health Examinations (GHE) according to the Preventive Health Examinations and Preventive Gynecological Examination Study,  then it would cost approximately $25 billion more for the additional 145 million to receive these preventive measures.  Since these numbers can only be assumed to be correct, and don’t account for all preventive care screening that the USPSTF recommends, lets add an additional $60 billion to the $25 billion making it a total of $85 billion available for preventive care, the same amount that was given to AIG.  And if that’s not enough, we’ll hold an additional $65 billion in reserve, the same amount which incorporates the additional amount given to AIG.

So to recap, on the one hand we have the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommending preventive care services and on the other hand, no government current or proposed Health Care Plan offering many of these preventive services, including periodic physical examinations.

The result: treating the disease rather than preventing it which costs the system and consequently taxpayers more.  Just look what’s going on with Medicaid as an example of what is to come should Obama’s Health Care Plan come into fruition.

Perhaps if more people got physical examinations on a regular basis, the cost of health insurance wouldn’t be so expensive.  As usual, the U.S. government has it all backwards.  Can we really expect them to keep us healthy when its clear they don’t want to prevent us from disease with little more than a few preventive care measures and no periodic exams?

I’m not for government involvement in Health Care.  But if they were to eventually be involved, you’d think they’d understand Benjamin Franklin’s advice; “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Related posts:

1. The Government Is Not in the Business of Keeping You Healthy Revisited: No Mammograms Recommended for Women Aged 40-49
2. Health Care Reform Didn’t Work for Romney and Won’t Work For Obama – Here’s What Will Work
3. Digger’s Friday Triple Play

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UPDATE: 3/19/2010

President Obama and Congress are doing all they can to ramrod a health care bill into existence. I wrote an article that addresses REAL health care reform that you can send to your congressman.

I direct people how to take action at the bottom of the following article: Health Care Reform Didn’t Work for Romney and Won’t Work For Obama – Here’s What Will Work

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Dr. Betsy McCaughey PhD, makes some startling discoveries in the Obama Health Plan.

The title of this article, “Defend Your Health Care” comes from the website of Betsy McCaughey, PhD, founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and former Lt. Governor of New York State.  Please go to her website and sign up to keep up to date with what’s going on with Obama’s Health Plan.

Some of the facts she presents after a thorough analysis of the plan:

Obama says: You can keep your own health care plan:

The Truth:  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).

Obama Says: No one is going to reduce your Medicare Benefits

The Truth: The Congressional majority wants to pay for its $1 trillion health bills with a $500+ billion cut to Medicare. This cut will come just as Medicare enrollment increases by 30%. Less money and more patients will necessitate rationing.

Did Obama Really Say Those Things?

Mandatory Five Year Counseling for Those in Medicare On How to End Their Life Sooner

The following is an excerpt of an interview that Dr. McCaughey did with Fred Thompson:

“Page 425 of the bill, Congress will make it mandatory, absolutely required, that every five years people in Medicare will have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner. How to decline nutrition, how to decline being hydrated, how to go into hospice care and if you get sick within that five year period, like getting cancer for example, you have to go through that session again all to do what’s in societies best interest or your families best interest, and cut your life short.”

Here is what the Plan actually says;

Page 425:

“(FF) advance care planning consultation (as defined in subsection (hhh)(1));”; and

(B) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

“Advance Care Planning Consultation

“(hhh)(1) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), the term ‘advance care planning consultation’ means a consultation between the individual and a practitioner described in paragraph (2) regarding advance care planning, if, subject to paragraph (3), the individual involved has not had such a consultation within the last 5 years. Such consultation shall include the following:

“(A) An explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to.

“(B) An explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses.

“(C) An explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.

“(D) The provision by the practitioner of a list of national and State-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning, including the national toll-free hotline,

What are other physicians in Congress and elsewhere saying about this bill?

Congressman Tom Price, MD, Georgia:

“You know this has not been a bipartisan effort.”
“The American people will have access to get in line.”
“What you all are planning is to drastically intrude on health care in this country.”
“This plan will destroy health care in this country, you should be ashamed.”
“Physicians will exit the practice because of this bill.”
“The American people have no desire to have the government intrude in their health care.”

Dr. Dave Janda, orthopedic surgeon and a world-recognized expert on the prevention of sports injuries, particularly in children had this to say:

Excerpt:

“I rest my case. The ObamaCare Plan is hazardous to the health of every American.

After I finished my Capitol Hill presentation, I was asked by a Congressman in the question-answer session: “I’ll be doing a number of network interviews on the Obama Health Care Plan. If I am asked what is the one word to describe the plan what should I answer.”

The answer is simple, honest, direct, analytical, sad but truthful. I told him that one word is FASCIST.”

What you need to do now to stop the Obama Health Plan

Contact your Senator

Contact your House Representative

Learn About the Real Cause of Our Health Care Crisis and the Solution

The Right to Medical Care Versus Socialized Medicine

Synopsis: “A demonstration that government intervention inspired by the philosophy of collectivism is the cause of America’s medical crisis and that a free market in medical care is the solution for the crisis.”

Ask Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin, Medved, Boortz etc. Why They Never Talk About Supporting These Bills:

H.R. 1233: “Taxpayers’ Freedom of Conscience Act of 2009″ which prohibits a federal official from expending federal funds for any foreign or domestic population control or population planning program or family planning activity (including any abortion procedure).

Protect Patients’ and Physicians’ Privacy Act, HR 2630: which allows patients and physicians to opt out of any federally mandated, created, or funded electronic medical records system. The bill also repeals sections of federal law establishing a “unique health identifier” and requires patient consent before any electronic medical records can be released to a 3rd party.

H.R. 2629 Coercion is Not Health Care Act: This legislation forbids the federal government from forcing any American to purchase health insurance, or conditioning participation in any federal program on the purchase of health insurance. Forcing Americans to purchase government-approved health insurance is a back door approach to creating a government-controlled healthcare system. Congress would define what policies and coverage requirements satisfy their mandate. Does anyone then doubt that what conditions and treatments are covered would be determined by who has the most effective lobby? Or that Congress would be capable of writing a mandatory insurance policy that fits the unique needs of every individual in the United States?

Congress should put the American people back in charge of healthcare by expanding healthcare tax credits and deductions, increasing access to Health Savings Accounts, respecting privacy and the doctor/patient relationship. Further politicizing and bureaucratizing of healthcare will only increase costs and reduce quality, as demonstrated by most other countries with socialized medicine.

Ask Yourself Why?

Why won’t these media pundits who are decrying Obama’s Health Care plan talk about these bills that are getting zero media attention and as a result the public hardly knows about them?  These bills are in the public’s best interest!  AND, each of these bills were written by a Medical Doctor (MD).

The reason Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin, Medved, Boortz et al. don’t talk about these bills is they were all written by Ron Paul.  And although Ron Paul has been right all along about the deteriorating economy with repeated warnings, when it comes to health care, something he knows a little about having been a physician, Ron Paul is again shunned by the media.

If you’re a conservative reading this, I hope you can see the light and put pressure on those who are supposed to speak for all conservatives by calling into their shows and getting behind some of these bills that will keep the Obama Health Care plan from infringing upon your liberty and freedom of choice.

If you don’t challenge them, who will?

Thanks to George Reisman for some of the links in this post.

Related posts:

1. Health Care Reform Didn’t Work for Romney and Won’t Work For Obama – Here’s What Will Work
2. Low Income Folks Get Free Health Care and You’ll Pay Higher Taxes
3. The Government Is Not in the Business of Keeping You Healthy