Are You Tired Of Hearing About Healthcare Reform Yet ?

Are you tired of hearing about healthcare reform yet?  I know I am, but the issue is not going to go away.  If it passes tonight, which I expect it to, that will be only the beginning of the fight.  I have watched and listened all day, and (as usual) I have a few throughts (and a good link).

The Democrats who support the bill are touting the provision that allows children to remain under their parent's health insurance policies until age 26.  Now, my youngest child is in her mid-thirties, so admittedly I am not affected by this, but wait a minute.  Isn't the whole idea of parenthood to teach the bird to fly out of the nest at some point?  I realize these are difficult times and there may be cases where this is necessary, but do we really want to make it the rule?  I love my children, but my worst nightmare would be to have them dependent on me at age 26.  To set up that situation routinely troubles me.

The other thing being touted by the people who support the bill is the immediate insurance for pre-existing conditions.  Look at that one closely--for the first year or two, it only applies to children.  Also, are the insurance companies going to have to raise their rates to pay for this? There are such things as actuary tables that are used to assess risk in providing insurance coverage.  Are we throwing those tables out the window?

Now to the link.  In an article in today's Washington Examiner, Michael Barone points out that the healthcare reform bill will vastly increase government spending. 

 "Over the last 40 years federal government spending has hovered around 21 percent of the gross domestic product. The Obama budgets have pushed that up to 25 percent. The health care bill threatens to keep it in that vicinity indefinitely. And that, as the CBO has said, means deficits around 5 percent of GDP as far as the eye can see -- or higher taxes. Pelosi and other Democrats have been eyeing a value-added tax, i.e., a national sales tax."

Some of the taxes coming our way--3.8 percent more in Medicare tax, from 35 to 39.6 percent in income taxes, a 3.8 percent tax on interest and dividend levels beginning in 2013.  These tax increase will in no way help the coming problems in Medicare and Social Security--they will be used to fund the new healthcare reform.  This bill is a fiscal nightmare and a job killer.  Hopefully it will be repealed before it can do any serious damage.