James C. Capretta & Yuval Levin at The Weekly Standard have published a very detailed explanation of what is in store for us if President Obama's healthcare program is passed. The basics of the program seem harmless, but the consequences are not.
1. Employers would be required to provide healthcare for employees of pay a fine. The money paid as a fine would be used to support the creation of a new government-run insurance option. They would be setting up the mechanics for people without jobs or the money for private health insurance to obtain it. So far, so good. This is for the purpose of transition. The idea here is to make it cheaper for an employer to pay the fine than to provide health insurance, thus phasing out private coverage. This creates more people opting for the public plans. It gives the illusion of choice while quietly making the choice more difficult to fund.
2. The Obama plan puts the government in charge of deciding what healthcare is appropriate for whom. This is dangerous. The statistic you need to look at before deciding on government healthcare is the cancer survival rate in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Those statistics tell us all we need to know.
The summation of the article states:
"Conservatives can make it clear they support reform. But they must make it even clearer that the Democrats' plan would displace tens of millions of happily insured Americans and exacerbate the worst elements of the current system: gross inefficiency, high costs, and bureaucracy. President Obama and his congressional allies are pursuing a mammoth, complex, hugely expensive, ill-designed reform that is not likely to be popular when understood. Conservatives have a very real chance at stopping it if they highlight its key weaknesses and supply a superior alternative."
Government healthcare will eventually hurt us all. We need to oppose it early and often!!
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