It explains why health care is so expensive when government regulates it.
There are 5 points in the article, let’s look at the first one.
Excerpt, showing the quality of the article:
The bills in both houses require that Americans purchase insurance through “qualified” plans offered by health-care “exchanges” that would be set up in each state. The rub is that the plans can’t really compete based on what they offer. The reason: The federal government will impose a minimum list of benefits that each plan is required to offer.
Today, many states require these “standard benefits packages” — and they’re a major cause for the rise in health-care costs. Every group, from chiropractors to alcohol-abuse counselors, do lobbying to get included. Connecticut, for example, requires reimbursement for hair transplants, hearing aids, and in vitro fertilization.
The Senate bill would require coverage for prescription drugs, mental-health benefits, and substance-abuse services. It also requires policies to insure “children” until the age of 26. That’s just the starting list. The bills would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to add to the list of required benefits, based on recommendations from a committee of experts. Americans, therefore, wouldn’t even know what’s in their plans and what they’re required to pay for, directly or indirectly, until after the bills become law.
You will not be able to save money under Obama’s plan by choosing to live clean. This bill is a massive transfer of wealth from the productive to the non-productive. It does NOTHING to reduce the costs of health care so that everyone, rich or poor, can pay their own way.
The other four points are:
All patients will pay the similar rates, regardless of their lifestyle and choices
Patients will be barred from purchasing catastrophic care alone, as with Health Savings Accounts
Many patients covered through their employers will be dumped into the public option plan
Patients will not be able to choose their own doctors, and care will be rationed
Obama has really put his foot in his mouth this time by insulting police officers just for performing their duties.
Normally, I would always blog about policy issues and leave these Obama gaffes for other blogs. But in watching the story explained on Fox News below, I began to realize that there was a policy angle after all.
And pay attention to the part of the transcript that Deb snipped out from NRO, where Charles Krauthammer makes the point:
I think it was important, because the Democrats have suffered for almost a half a century of a reputation of being soft on crime. The flip side of that is tough on cops, or insensitive to the duties and the sacrifices of law enforcement.
In 1998, Obama was one of only three senators to vote against a proposal making it a criminal offense for convicts on probation or on bail to have contact with a street gang.
In 2001, Obama voted against a measure that would have expanded the penalties for some gang activity to include the death penalty. The bill was vetoed by then-Gov. George Ryan (R ) not long after he had issued a moratorium on the death penalty in the state.
Obama, at the time, said the bill would unfairly target minorities, stating, “There’s a strong overlap between gang affiliation and young men of color … I think it’s problematic for them to be singled out as more likely to receive the death penalty for carrying out certain acts than are others who do the same thing.”
Obama opposes the death penalty except for terrorists, serial killers and child-murderers, but his campaign added that he does not support the death penalty as it is currently administered in this country.
On a 1999 vote making adult prosecution mandatory for aggravated discharge of a firearm in or near a school, the senator voted “present.”
He explained the vote, saying, “There is really no proof or indication that automatic transfers and increased penalties and adult penalties for juvenile offenses have, in fact, proven to be more effective in reducing juvenile crime or cutting back on recidivism.”
And in 2001, Obama voted “present” on a bill that would increase penalties for trafficking in Ecstasy and other designer drugs.
The senator questioned the length of some drug penalties when compared to other crimes, noting that selling 15 tablets of Ecstasy was a Class X felony, as was raping a woman at knifepoint.
…During Obama’s campaign against Rush, the senator missed a vote on the Safe Neighborhoods Act that would have made illegal gun possession a felony, and Ryan blamed Obama and two other lawmakers for missing the vote and dooming the legislation, though it failed 31-17.
As an Illinois state senator, for example, he acted more as a friend to criminals than to cops, legislating among other things:
• Curbs on what he called a “broken” death penalty system.
• A measure to expunge some criminal records and give job grants to ex-cons.
• Tougher handgun controls.
• A vote against making gang members eligible for the death penalty if they kill someone to help their gang.
• Opposition to a bill requiring juveniles to be prosecuted as adults for firing a gun at or near a school.
At the federal level, Obama would:
• Repeal “unfair” mandatory sentences for crack convictions.
• Provide drug counseling instead of jail time for some abusers.
• Rethink criminal penalties for pot.
• Ban profiling by federal law enforcement, even if it helps catch violent criminals including terrorists.
• Strengthen hate-crime laws and beef up civil rights enforcement against police chiefs who profile.
• Provide job training, drug rehab and counseling for ex-cons.
• “Re-enfranchise” felons denied the right to vote.
In addition, Obama, who once vowed to repeal the Patriot Act, still talks about reforming it. He also once proposed banning executions of inmates, arguing he was against capital punishment.
…”In our criminal justice system, African-Americans and whites are arrested at very different rates,” Obama recently complained. “It has to do with how we pursue racial justice.”
This Cambridge, MA story is consistent with Obama’s previous voting record against public safety and law enforcement.
I was just telling Andrew and Jen about the importance of chastity for enabling men to think of the needs of women around them whether they are attracted to them or not, whether they are married or not.
Well, just now I was chatting on my cell phone outside the building and it started to rain. One of the ladies who I work with came out and stopped there staring at the rain with a frown, so I offered to go and bring her car to the door for her so she would not get wet. And she agreed! (Even though she voted for Obama and doesn’t like Sarah!)
Anyway, let this be a lesson to you women of all ages – it is nice for men to be able to do nice things for you, even if you can do it yourself, you should let men help because it makes them happy to help. Men should always have one eye open for the needs of other people, especially women, around them.
By the way, if you like this post, I could tell you more about some of the other chivalrous things I do. So be sure and leave a rating or a comment, so I know. If you have a chivalry story to tell, leave it in the comments.
WINTERY KNIGHT 