Watching the debate on the health care package currently before the Congress reminds me of one of the old television programs in the 1960s, “To Tell the Truth.”

The basic premise of the show was a panel of distinguished New York personalities would ask questions to see if some invited guests could guess the real person whose background was described by the announcer.  If the panel could not identify the person, the question was asked, “Would the Real (Person) Please Stand Up?” We are reminded of this show due to the debate going on over the health care bills, trying to figure out if the “real health care bill” will stand up.

We hear about a number of provisions that seem to be dangerous and the administration saying that they do not exist. Considering the volume of rhetoric back and forth, it becomes difficult to discern what the real bill says, unless you read it.

The debate in the newspapers is interesting. The New York Times is trying to marginalize those opposed to the plan, generally serving as a trumpet for the White House line on the issue about euthanasia, “death panels” for the elderly, that these and other provisions receiving a lot of attention are conservative hysteria.

On the other hand, on the same day, The Wall Street Journal, in its lead editorial said this:     

While claims about euthanasia and “death panels” are over the top, senior fears have exposed a fundamental truth about what Mr. Obama is proposing: Namely, once health care is nationalized, or mostly nationalized, rationing care is inevitable, and those who have lived the longest will find their care the most restricted.

If restricting care for the elderly is not a subtle form of euthanasia, I do not know what is — panel or no panel.

The first of the “8 common myths about health insurance reform” from the WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck series of counter arguments for proponents states this:

1. Reform will stop “rationing” — not increase it: It’s a myth that reform will mean a “government takeover” of health care or lead to “rationing.” To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.

Note the wording and the term “many forms,” not all, “being used by insurance companies.” It does not say by Medicare, where the rationing of care by the denial of reimbursement is well known among physicians and surgeons.

It is not unusual for the latest and best procedures, the only methods available to reverse a condition or save a life regardless of age, to be denied. And, Medicare is currently the government-run health care for the poor and elderly. It seems doubtful they would change their attitude or policy under any new law that gives even more power to the government over medicine.

Also, note that the White House says it is “a myth that reform will mean a ‘government takeover.’” Read the bill and it does not take long to see that this is entirely false.

At the top of the web page outlining these reforms and myths about the reforms are words calling the opposition: “negative fear-mongers.”
Interspersed as well in the site is a subtle but continuing disparaging of private insurance companies and policies.

When you get through reading the site you realize that it is the private insurance companies who are to blame for the high cost of medical care and the rationing of care according to the White House.

The truth is that the growth of government regulation, paperwork, and bureaucracy, along with the sue-happy world we live in, are responsible. Malpractice insurance to cover the latter problem is very expensive and the cost is embedded into the doctors’ fees.

The real danger of the health care “reform” is that not only will care be rationed, specialized disciplines in medicine and surgery will also be rationed as they become rarer. This will be as a natural result of government mandating that all medical staff receive lower pay, reimbursement, and the denial of innovative care by the approval or disapproval by government health boards.

This is already happening and is the reason many physicians and surgeons refuse Medicare patients. They will not be able to refuse under the new “reform.”

The current administration is using the natural desire of people for security to accomplish several things: To place everything that has to do with medicine and health care under the state. Whether it will be a huge leap in this direction, a small step, or an out and out rejection of this notion remains to be seen. And a very disturbing development is the movement to marginalize the opponents in the minds of the American people.

First, the groundwork is being laid for mobilizing masses of people to work for this and future legislation. The administration’s enlisting of liberal and Left organizations to rally to the support of health care legislation by the government is unprecedented in American history at the level we are witnessing.

Second, already we are witnessing tactics by these organizations to silence free speech at public venues against opponents of any legislation. This we are beginning to see at town hall meetings.

These tactics are the harbinger of the problem with government providing security for the people.

Freedom is always the cost.

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still free said:

The nightmare continues ... Thank you for a great article and you are 100% on target. One question for everyone. If Obama's plan succeeds, where will the wealthy Europeans, Middle Easterners, and South Americans, et al, go for their top-of-the-line health care? And let's not forget the Canadians, who already are on this plan (socialized medicine, Obama's answer to all our problems), and yet flock to America for their medical care and especially their surgeries. I hope that we can stop this nightmare from becoming a reality. And if you don't believe that this is a nightmare waiting to happen, please read the bill. God Bless America, and keep up the fight.

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August 14, 2009
Votes: +7

danwhitehead1 said:

	I'm almost certain - - - - - - that the lying, murderous, satanic scum that would rule are going to win out on this one. I say again, the only thing that will sopt them is a repeat of 1776. WAKE UP AMERICA!!! SMASH THEM DOWN!!!
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August 15, 2009
Votes: +1

TF said:

The handwriting is already on the wall for Socialized medicine and the government has written This information should be getting much wider exposure. It is a direct admission by the government that socialized medicine is a failure and already on the way to contributing to a fiscal collapse of the U.S. economy: The Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Outlook- 8/07 Update http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d071261r.pdf "GAO’s updated long-term simulations illustrate that despite some improvement in the annual deficit estimate for this fiscal year, the longterm fiscal outlook remains essentially the same and is clearly unsustainable...By definition, what is unsustainable will not be sustained. Although Social Security is a major part of the fiscal challenge, it is far from our biggest challenge. Spending on the major federal health programs (i.e., Medicare and Medicaid) represents a much larger, faster growing, and more immediate problem. In fact, the federal government’s obligations for Medicare Part D alone exceed the unfunded obligations for Social Security. Over the past several decades, health care spending per capita has grown on average 2.5 percentage points faster than average annual GDP per capita, absorbing increasing shares of the Nation’s resources, and this rapid growth is projected to continue. For this reason and others, rising health care costs pose a fiscal challenge not just to the federal budget but to American business and our economy and society as a whole." End of excerpt I don't see how you can put it any more succinctly than that and this was the Government Accounting Office and the economic situation has gotten much worse since this report was first issued including the deficit which has sky rocketed.

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August 15, 2009
Votes: +3

danwhitehead1 said:

Heard just this morning - - - My Mom was watching some tv program this morning. It was apparently a Town Hall meeting somewhere about the health care thing. Obama was participating. Some man made comments about cost and who was going to pay. Obama said: "You're right, I can't cover etc., etc.". "I""????? That single letter word tells me all I need to know about his mindset. "I"? Whose money it it anyway? It certainly does NOT belong to him. You know, the office of the president of these United States has been on a severe downhill slide ever since Ronald Regan. Each one since Reagan has been successively more wretched and more unfit. I thought that filthy pig Clinton was the worst, but now I'm not so sure. Where do these awful creeps come from? Some corner of hell? Is there no end of them? I still think Thomas Jefferson was the last good and truly Constitutional president this nation had.

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August 16, 2009
Votes: +1