Obamacare: Mandatory Socialized Medicine

Obamacare
Mandatory Socialized Medicine

Note: You might want to start at the Obama Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine.

The United States already has a multi-billion-dollar system of socialized medicine, called Medicare and Medicaid. Federal, state and local governments spent a total of $783.8 billion on health care in 2006.* Any deadbeat who doesn't have private insurance (which one ordinarily acquires by purchasing it with part of his or her income) can take advantage of Medicaid.

Other taxpayer-funded "safety nets" include SCHIP and a relatively new prescription drug entitlement. In reality, Obamacare extends beyond medical care. It is a system of unmitigated socialism which promises to improve service and low costs for everyone. Only those who attended public schools could possibly believe that the government can make anything more efficient and more convenient while lowering costs. The government is parasitic. Everything the government undertakes is paid for by taxes and debt.

When this idea was proposed in 1993, it was derisively called "HillaryCare" because president Clinton put his wife in charge of its development. The idea was even more unpopular that she was, so it was tabled until the return of the Democratic Party in 2008.

Obamacare is being developed by leftist politicians who are determined to take over the medical care industry regardless of public opinion. Liberals simply do not care if they're out of step with mainstream America. This is about control, not medicine.

Subsections on this page:

Obamacare is wildly unpopular and is sure to result in voter backlash

Pelosi and Reid forge ahead, ignoring public outcries

Democrats have been obsessed with socialized medicine for decades

Can Obamacare be stopped?

Totalitarianism = Unstoppable one-party rule

Who is to blame for all this? Who are the enablers?

Obamacare will affect families and small businesses

The Obamacare bill is over 2,000 pages long. Who knows what's hidden inside?

Does Obamacare include blanket amnesty for illegal aliens?

Obamacare is Hillarycare in a new wrapper

Other objections to Obamacare

Similar subtopics on other nearby pages:

Liberals are using lies and deception to sell this idea.

Liberals resort to lies and emotional outbursts to silence their opposition.

Examples of dishonesty and prevarication related to Obamacare.

What's the rush?

Secrecy, closed-door meetings, and midnight votes.

Liberals are not telling you that Obamacare will bankrupt the United States.

Obama's Big Health Care Summit.

Obamacare is obviously infeasible.

Obamacare won't work as advertised. The promised benefits will never come to pass.

Doctors won't work under these conditions!

Obamacare solves problems that don't exist and doesn't address problems we already have.

Obamacare will result in the loss of your freedom...

Obamacare is socialism -- or worse!

Obamacare opens the door to tyranny.

The Senate bill includes an unprecedented trap: It can't be repealed!

...or perhaps your life.

Rationing and "End of Life" issues.

Taxpayer-funded abortions.

Obamacare will cost far more than the Democrats are letting on.

Obamacare will be horribly expensive.

Obamacare is an affront to the rule of law.

Obamacare will be mandatory -- and therefore unconstitutional.

Despite what you may have heard, health care is not a right.

Reid, Pelosi and Obama shamelessly buy votes

Obamacare carries an odor of corruption.

Related topics on older pages:

Look at the British experience with socialized medicine.

Other countries' experiences, especially Canada's.

Tea parties, town hall meetings and other organized rejecion of Obama's plans.

Medicare, Medicaid, and Prescription Drug Benefits

SCHIP: (State Children's Health Insurance Program)

HillaryCare -- the earlier, simpler version of Obamacare.

The Invasion of the Food Police

Liberals out out of step with mainstream America

Dems intend to bypass GOP on health compromise. House and Senate Democrats intend to bypass traditional procedures when they negotiate a final compromise on health care legislation, officials said Monday [01/04/2010], a move that will exclude Republican lawmakers and reduce their ability to delay or force politically troubling votes in both houses.

National Health Care With 51 Votes. Late last week President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders agreed to use "budget reconciliation" if necessary to jam a massive health-care bill through Congress. Most Americans probably greeted this news with the glazed eyes and yawns that should rightfully accompany any discussion of "the federal budget process" longer than 30 seconds. But this decision is a deeply troublesome attempt to circumvent the normal and customary workings of American democracy.

Irreconcilable Differences. This week, there was a major development that could give one political party carte blanche to remake the country's health care system. ... A procedural vote ... increased the likelihood of a federal government takeover of health care. Both houses of Congress passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution. Included in the conference report was reconciliation language that would allow health care legislation to be rammed through the expedited budgetary process with no amendments, no filibusters, and minimal debate.

Reconciliation Is Not Negotiation. The President's plan is drafted in a way that envisions the use of a highly partisan parliamentary tactic, reconciliation, to pass the bill. Reconciliation could allow liberals in Congress to ignore the concerns of Republicans, moderate Democrats and the American people during the legislative process.

Their words come back to haunt them:
Obama, Biden, Clinton, Dodd & More Believe Reconciliation is Unconstitutional. The Obama White House has recently announced that they will go forward with a reconciliation process — sometimes called the "nuclear option" — to try and pass their government run healthcare plan in the Senate. This process circumvents a Republican filibuster and only requires a simple majority vote of 51 rather than 60. What did top Democrats think of this process previously?

As Despotic as They Need to Be. Critics of the Senate's 60-vote cloture threshold have come out in full force since the Democrats lost their 60th Senate seat (and some before). ... The argument made is that a majority vote carries the day. But the very structure of our Constitutional Republic sets limits on majority power. From the amendment process to the state-strengthening 10th Amendment to the Senate itself, the American system has built-in defenses against what Thomas Jefferson called "mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."

ObamaCare is Tyranny, Not Legislation. What we're seeing in Washington, D.C. is not "politics as usual" with the arm twisting and "horse trading" that is typical in getting a bill passed; instead, it is ideological warfare. What Obama, Reid and Pelosi are doing is not legislating; it is an act of tyranny — overturning all the rules and principles of government in a representative democracy. ... Apparently Obama, Reid and Pelosi aren't worried about losing control of Congress in 2010 or even the presidency in 2012, because their higher goal is to irrevocably institutionalize their ideology.

Who is to blame for Obamacare? Who are the enablers?

Who's to Blame for Obamacare? Two Republicans. The real culprits are two Republicans who ran the show the previous eight years: George W. Bush and his "master political strategist" Karl Rove. If it weren't for these two in the White House, the Democrats wouldn't have sixty senators, including a professional comedian from Minnesota, to close off debate and ram down our throats a bill worse than Hillary Care.

Behind the Curtain: Why AARP Supports ObamaCare. When the AARP began its full-throated support for the President's Health Care Scheme many wondered why this venerable organization would support a plan which would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, mostly by putting strict price controls on the very popular Medicare Advantage program.

Thousands Quit AARP Over Health Reform. CBS News has learned that up to 60,000 people have cancelled their AARP memberships since July 1, angered over the group's position on health care. Elaine Guardiani has been with AARP for 14 years, and said, "I'm extremely disappointed in AARP." Retired nurse Dale Anderson has 12 years with AARP and said, "I don't wanna be connected with AARP."

AARP loses members over health care stance. About 60,000 senior citizens have quit AARP since July 1 due to the group's support for a health care overhaul, a spokesman for the organization said Monday [8/18/2009].

GOP Report Charges AARP Getting "Kickbacks" In Dem Health Care Bills. One of the subplots to the health care debate I've been following is the cozy relationship between AARP and the Obama administration, as the group has thrown its full-throated support behind the Democrats' health care push even though their membership comes from the age group most opposed to Democratic health care proposals. Today, House Republicans have issued a report providing evidence that AARP is in a position to recieve tens of millions of dollars in "kickbacks" if Democratic health care legislation becomes law.

Quittin' time. My only regret about not being a "joiner" is that I don't have many opportunities to quit organizations. I am a member of AARP, though, and this is looking like the perfect time to quit.

Insurer Gagged, AARP Rewarded. [Scroll down] To further keep the American people in the dark, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which administer benefits under Medicare, issued what can only be called a gag order after Humana warned its Medicare Advantage customers in a letter that the president's plan might cause them to lose some benefits.

Don't Trust the AMA. "I was surprised, shocked, and saddened." That's how Donald J. Palmisano, former president of the American Medical Association, described his reaction upon learning that the organization had endorsed the House Democrats' health-care-reform plan. "I am a loyal member of the AMA, a lifetime member, but I believe the AMA made a serious mistake in endorsing this bill." He's not the only one.

What's Up, Docs? The AMA is essentially saying that if doctors get paid more, all else is negotiable. Other industry lobbies such as the insurers and drug makers have made the same calculation, putting their short-term self-interest — usually ensuring that government programs remain generous (enough) — ahead of the long-run threats. It can't last.

AMA Doesn't Speak for Most Doctors. The American Medical Association officially endorsed the Democrats' health reform bill. An eager Barack Obama, of course, used this endorsement to claim that "doctors" support his healthcare takeover. This misleading statement plays on the common misperception that the AMA represents some huge block of American physicians. Not true. In fact, excepting membership given to students and residents in training, the AMA represents only 17-19% of physicians actually in practice.

Who's Funding the Obamacare Campaign? If you believe the White House, there are 30 million Americans who support a government health care takeover. But if you look at the funding behind the Obamacare campaign, it's the same few leftist billionaires, union bosses and partisan community organizers pushing the socialized medicine agenda. Let's connect the dots.

Are We Ready for Soros Care? Most of Barack Obama's stated plans for America are indistinguishable from those of George Soros. As the left forces nationalized health care on us, we may want to consider the George Soros funded Project on Death in America.

Obamacare will affect families and small businesses

The Ministry of Wellness. As a restaurateur, I've been following the heath care debate especially attentively. I have already determined that the health care bill, if passed, will cause a significant reduction in our net profits — depending on how many employees we can shed. After reading the fifty or so pages of the Senate "Affordable Health Choices Act" devoted to "Employers' Responsibilities," I still have no idea whether my businesses are "small" or "large" — but I am pretty sure that it will cost me $100-$150 a month in bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll service fees just to find out.

The Three-Step Plan to Stop Nationalized Health Care. Congressional Democrats, after all their faux wrangling, open bribery and bully tactics, are poised to reach agreement on a massive makeover of the American health system. This makeover will bankrupt the insurance companies, raise premiums, and eventually lead to the full nationalization of health care. That's what it is intended to do.

Merry Christmas: Obamacare Slaps $15,000 Annual Fee on Middle Class Families. The Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the final Senate health care bill indicates it would slap a mandatory annual fee of about $15,000 on middle-class families that earn an annual income greater than 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($88,200 for a family of four) and are not provided with health insurance by their employer.

The Obamacare bill is over 2,000 pages long. Who knows what's hidden inside?

Health Reform Doesn't Have To Be So Hard. The fundamental problem with the 2,074-page Senate health care bill (as with its 2,014-page House counterpart) is that it wildly compounds the complexity by adding hundreds of new provisions, regulations, mandates, committees and other arbitrary bureaucratic inventions. Worse, they're packed into a monstrous package without any regard to each other. The only thing linking these changes — such as the 118 new boards, commissions and programs — is political expediency. Each must be able to garner just enough votes to pass. There isn't even a pretense of a unifying vision or conceptual harmony.

House health bill clocks in at 1,990 pages. It runs more pages than War and Peace, has nearly five times as many words as the Torah, and its tables of contents alone run far longer than this story. The House health care bill unveiled Thursday [10/29/2009] clocks in at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words. With an estimated 10-year cost of $894 billion, that comes out to about $2.24 million per word.

Masterfleece Theater. The King James version of the Bible runs more than 600 pages and is crammed with celestial regulations. Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathematica" distills many of the rules of physics in a mere 974 pages. Neither of them has anything on Nancy Pelosi's new fiendishly entertaining health care opus, which tops 1,900 pages.

House Republicans Find 111 New 'Bureaucracies' in Health Care Bill. House Republicans claimed Monday [11/02/2009] that the health care reform bill pushed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi would create a whopping 111 new "federal bureaucracies." In its latest attempt to portray the Democrats' reform package as an unwieldy expansion of federal government in the health care sector, the House Republican Conference circulated what it called a list of "new boards, bureaucracies, commissions and programs" created in the House health care bill.

Connect the Dots on ObamaCare. Critics of those who have exposed ObamCare's contradictions and incoherencies are either unwilling to connect the dots or too stubborn (dare I say stupid) to acknowledge what the dots really mean. Connecting the dots in this case doesn't require unusual skills, much less a background in symbolic logic, merely perseverance in reading the text of HR 3200. Let's start with Sec 123, the formation of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee, and Sec 124, the creation of the Health Choices Administration and Health Choices Commissioner.

Health Care Reform Vaporizes Obama Presidency. In the fledgling days of the personal computer industry, software vendors frequently announced products that were not yet ready for release. The term "vaporware" was coined to describe such software. Most of these products never reached the marketplace; some that were sold to the public should not have been.

The Dog That Was Not Allowed To Bark. On November 7th, 2009, Speaker Pelosi marched to the podium and paraded her lap dogs to the microphone to proclaim "Victory" for herself, her Democratic House colleagues, and President Obama. What about every other American? The "Victory" was the passage of the second part of ObamaCare, "The Health Care Bill." That's right, the second part of ObamaCare is the 1,990 page bill that created 118 new boards, commissions, offices and bureaus.

159 Big Spending, Big Government Features of Obamacare: When Obama says that his Obamacare healthcare plan isn't a big government take over of healthcare he really is simply lying outright to the nation. ... Here is [part of] a list of 159 new programs, administrative boards, and bureaucracies that the Democrat Party's healthcare bill creates:
[#50] Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women's Health (Section 3509(a), p. 1098)
[#51] Centers for Disease Control Office of Women's Health (Section 3509(b), p. 1102)
[#52] Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women's Health (Section 3509(e), p. 1105)
[#53] Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women's Health (Section 3509(f), p. 1106)
[#54] Food and Drug Administration Office of Women's Health (Section 3509(g), p. 1109)
[#55] National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council (Section 4001, p. 1114)
[#56] Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health (Section 4001(f), p. 1117)
[#57] Prevention and Public Health Fund (Section 4002, p. 1121)
[#58] Community Preventive Services Task Force (Section 4003(b), p. 1126)

That Other Government Takeover. Everyone knows Democrats are planning to use the budget reconciliation process to get ObamaCare through the Senate. Less well known is that Democrats are plotting add-ons to that bill to get other liberal priorities enacted — programs that could never attract 60 votes. One of these controversial measures rewrites the Higher Education Act to ban private companies from offering federally guaranteed student loans as of this July.

We don't need to pass health care reform to find out what's in it. As you can see, the Senate's Christmas Eve Bill originated in the House satisfying the Constitutional imperative that tax bills originate there and it gets them around the ex post facto provision of the Constitution; you and I will be retroactively responsible for paying the taxes on Obamacare from the January 1 of 2010. (Perhaps, as far back as 1/1/2009.)

Does Obamacare include blanket amnesty for illegal aliens?

Obama Won't Give Federal Insurance Benefits to Illegal Aliens, He'll Make Them Legal First. It is true that both the House and Senate health care bills as they are now drafted would make illegal aliens ineligible for federally funded health care. But President Obama has stated as recently as last month at a press conference in Mexico that he will seek "comprehensive immigration reform" legislation that will put illegal aliens on a "pathway to citizenship."

The "Myth" that Health Care Reform Won't Cover Illegal Aliens, Is Itself a Myth. Nowhere does H.R. 3200 say that illegal aliens are ineligible to enroll in the proposed "public option." To the contrary, Section 202 provides that "all individuals" are eligible for benefits offered through the government exchange unless they are enrolled in another health insurance plan.

Obamacare for Illegal Aliens. Big Nanny Democrats want to ration health care for everyone in America — except those who break our immigration laws. Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee defeated an amendment that would have prevented illegal aliens from using the so-called "public health insurance option." Every Democrat on the panel voted against the measure.

Illegal immigrants already put a strain on America's health care system..

Healthcare Crusaders Out To Plunder System. Since Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, proponents of socialized medicine have bombarded us with nonstop demagoguery about the 40 million-plus uninsured to create a crisis mentality sufficient to catalyze sweeping "reforms." Their efforts didn't stand much of a chance until the advent of the pseudo-crisis-exploiting administration of President Barack Obama, which never met a "crisis" it couldn't leverage.

Government Medical Care Always Becomes Political Medical Care. Americans did not invent democracy. What America rightly did, for the first time in history, was institutionalize the concept of limited government — based not on majority rule, but on individual rights. Sadly, this foundation is not properly recognized and is rapidly giving way to an ever-expanding government. … Those who say that government should seize control of all of our medical care are ultimately advocating the elimination of all restraint on government.

Obamacare is Hillarycare in a new wrapper

Reading the Bill... The White House has pointedly refused to say whether President Obama will read the 1,000+ page health care bill — HR 3200 — now pending before the House of Representatives. ... The language may seem innocuous, but Sec 1866D actually describes the plan for American health care that was first proposed as HR 3600 in 1993 and known as HillaryCare.

Never Seen The Left So Out-Of-Control Desperate. Try looking at this health care debate from the Democrat perspective. It has been a Democrat dream for decades to control the nation's health care delivery system. They thought they had it made in 1993 after Clinton's defeat of George H.W. Bush. Hillary got to work and created a monstrosity of a plan for government control of our health care, and it died a well-deserved and rather painful death. Within a year the Republicans had control of the House and the Senate.

Obama to America: Bend Over and Cough. [Scroll down] Eighty-five percent of Americans have health insurance, and 89 percent of them are satisfied with it. This poses a problem for "reform." MSNBC's Chris Matthews once wrote that because HillaryCare failed to calm the satisfied, it collapsed. "People," said Matthews, "saw their hard-won benefits and options being siphoned off to fund the health needs of all comers. Instead of securing the health care of the 'working family,' Hillary Clinton was offering 'universal coverage' for those who didn't work, financed by those who did. It was an offer people were eager and quick to refuse."

Did someone mention Hillarycare?

Other objections to Obamacare

The Strange Case of the Obama Meltdown. Who made the following decisions? [1] to propose a 1,000 page bill that no one had read, much less could explain?; [2] to ram down the greatest change in the US economy in fifty years by the August recess?; [3] to talk loosely of the "uninsured" without knowing why they were not insured, how much it would cost to insure them, or whether they currently in fact find some sort of care?; [4] to reference Rahm Emanuel's doctor brother as a source of wisdom? [5] to demonize the health-care industry as greedy?

On being ruled by fanatics: The looming ObamaCare fiasco is a classic example of a public policy plan that has never been weighed against the alternatives. Even liberal economists are saying it. Any consistent reader of the Wall Street Journal knows more about healthcare options than the Obama administration's "experts" do.

Obama's Health Care Mess. Health care is stalled and insidiously undermining the presidency of Obama precisely because the public senses he has not leveled with the American people. Of the uninsured, how many millions are young people who feel no need right now to buy insurance, how many million are illegal aliens, how many millions chose to use their optional income for things other than a low-cost catastrophic health plan, how many millions still find care outside the insurance system? Nor do most Americans feel their system is broken.

ObamaCare as a Moral Clunker. Though a relevant consideration, cost is among the least of ObamaCare's problems. Leading the argument against ObamaCare with cost considerations sells the American people short and betrays a moral insecurity that, if not addressed, will cause some future form of ObamaCare to sneak in — if not now, in the not very distant future.

Obama's Health Expert Gets Political. President Barack Obama's health-care plan is in jeopardy because of serious concerns that costs will spin out of control. As much as anyone, it's White House budget director Peter Orszag's job to save it. Mr. Orszag is the administration's point man for controlling health-care spending. So when the director of the Congressional Budget Office, which Mr. Orszag used to run, testified eight days ago that none of the health plans pending on Capitol Hill would control long-term spending, Mr. Orszag knew that meant trouble.

Politicans, Heal Thyselves! If Democrats in Washington think their health care reform with a public option is a good thing, why have they exempted themselves from it? Why isn't what's good for their constituents good for them?

A Cancer In The Capitol Is Killing Us. Hillary Clinton fractured her elbow on Wednesday and was scheduled for surgery in less than 48 hours. As a primary sponsor and advocate of nationalized, government run healthcare, shouldn't Clinton have had to wait a year before surgery — just as she wants the rest of us to do? Apparently, the conditions of nationalized healthcare shouldn't apply to the royal members of Congress, government employees, or their gay partners. Those programs apply only to the commoners who pay their salaries.

The Marriage Penalty in Health Care. Hidden in Obama's health care bill is a huge marriage penalty. Both the Senate and House bills would set up yet another federal program to provide financial incentives to subsidize marriage avoidance and illegitimate offspring.

Political plunder — again. If President Obama and Congress have their way with the so-called health reform bill, the American people will have had their pocketbooks and liberties plundered once again. The basic purpose of government is to protect individuals and their property and to ensure their liberties. However, Congress and most other legislative bodies spend the bulk of their time doing just the opposite.

These are the good old days, Part Two. A friend and occasional Power Line contributor writes: "If [Obamacare] passes, the Dems will own every doctor complaint out there. Moreover, the complaints will multiply, and not just because care will deteriorate as demand increases and supply decreases."

Obamacare's Biggest Losers: A recent study by the Urban Institute, a prominent liberal think tank, lists "the biggest losers" should congressional health care legislation fail to become law. Interestingly enough, this is oddly similar to an earlier Heritage Foundation assessment of the "biggest losers" — if the liberal bills do become law.

16,500 more IRS agents needed to enforce Obamacare. New tax mandates and penalties included in Obamacare will cause the greatest expansion of the Internal Revenue Service since World War II, according to a release from Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

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