Healthcare Repeal and Private Health Insurance Policies

I can’t say how many other people feel the same way I do about the healthcare law and its repeal. I know an article about a recent Gallup Poll says 47% of American’s agree the healthcare law should be repealed.

Here’s where I stand as an individual.

I just bought a private health insurance policy. I have a $7500 deductible, because insurance is a hedge against the risk of facing a situation that would destroy my wealth and leave me bankrupt. I work a part-time job which doesn’t supply me with healthcare insurance. I’m quite happy not to be emotionally tied to a job because I’m worried I’ll lose my health insurance coverage. But my coverage costs less than $100 a month, and that leaves me with money I can save to use for medical expenses. Most cell phone plans with talk and texting cost more than this these days! Yes, you can save money and have health insurance on a salary or wage of $24,000 a year. I do it.

The very fact that we’ve become so scared of life’s risks has put us in the situation we’re in, where insurance is thought of as a wealth building tool, instead of a protection, and it says a lot about why most people freak out when I tell them my deductible.

"Aren’t you afraid you’ll have to be put in the hospital?"

Well, yes. But only because that means I’ll be very, very sick and who wouldn’t be a little afraid of that?

As for the money, that’s what emergency funds and savings are for. And if you’re not paying for coverage you don’t need, you can usually afford to accumulate a bit of that! I visit the doctor about 3 times a year. Rarely more often. I’ve had two surgeries in 25 years. With the money I save from paying lower premiums for just the protection I need, I can accumulate enough to cover a variety of life-altering health care needs. A $7500 deductible isn’t something I’ll want to meet every year, but it’s unlikely that will ever be the case. And if it is, it’s going to be tough, but not impossible and my INSURANCE against something financially devastating will have fulfilled its purpose.

But if I wanted to risk it all and have no health insurance because I felt like it, then that’s my own damn business, not the business of the federal government. That’s how I feel about the individual mandate to purchase health insurance. I don’t like it when people take advantage of the system and not keep health insurance when they have the means to buy it and still expect everyone else to pay. I’ve never said I didn’t have a problem with that. And I do believe it is morally wrong to deny urgent care for life threatening or serious injuries or illness. But I believe it is even more morally wrong to take away our right to choose how we meet life’s risks and what we do with our own lives. And I believe it is wrong to force a doctor to care for someone without compensation for his or her time, because we sure wouldn’t expect a plumber or a car repairman to work for free.

Forcing someone to pay for the majority of their care forces that person to learn to be more realistic about what constitutes an emergency and what illnesses a doctor should have a hand in healing. Prevention also becomes more important. Why worry about staying healthy if you can just get a prescription?

A lot of what’s wrong with healthcare in America is the problem of everyone being told to see their doctor for every little thing and few people taking responsibility for their own health. It’s behavioral and character issues. Those that need care have had the cost of care driven up by the many who waste healthcare services with frivolous doctor visits.

Anyway, I just thought I would give readers an idea of where I’m coming from when it comes to healthcare and insurance. If you want more information about the healthcare law and what it really means, check out this book, The Truth about Obamacare. I voted for Obama, but that was before I woke up to a bucket of cold water in my face with the passage of the healthcare reform bill. I won’t make that mistake again.

What is the Healthcare Bill?

There are more people than makes me comfortable who know nothing about what’s going on in Washington these days. Many sit back and let everyone around them tell them what’s important. Why seek out important news when you can let it come to you?

In fact, I’ve taken that attitude many times in my own life, until more recent years. The passing of the Healthcare Reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was my wake up call.

For those who are just waking up to the mess that was the passage of the healthcare reform bill back in March 2010, here is the answer to my title question, what is the healthcare bill?

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

According to Healthcare.gov, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act healthcare reform bill "have brought an end to some of the worst abuses of the insurance industry."

"These reforms have given Americans new rights and benefits, by helping more children get health coverage, ending lifetime and most annual limits on care, allowing young adults under 26 to stay on their parent’s health insurance, and giving patients access to recommended preventive services without cost."

But that’s not all.

"More rights, protections and benefits for Americans are on the way through 2014."

The truth about Obamacare and the healthcare reform bill as it stands now though is that most real experts believe it will lead to even higher costs and yet still leave millions uninsured.

If you really want to learn about the new health insurance legislation, then follow that Healthcare.gov link above and read what the government has to say about the healthcare law, but when you’re done with that, be sure to look at some other sources for information, sources that won’t give you a whitewashed version of the alleged benefits of Obamacare. The book, The Truth About Obamacare, is a great place to start.

Petition to Repeal Healthcare Reform

Don’t forget that you can sign the petition to repeal healthcare reform if you want to do more than mourn the loss of our rights and freedoms and the ability of United States citizens to make their own decisions about their healthcare insurance and spending.

The particular petition I’m talking about is the Repeal It Now campaign supported by the Restore America’s Voice Foundation. Only people and businesses who have no interest in the healthcare system can donate to the campaign.

Our legislators and many others have decided that it’s okay to abdicate personal responsibility in favor of a government that tells us what is right or wrong and what we do and don’t need when it comes to our health care. They try to make this country into something that fits only their vision, without regard for the vision of the opposite viewpoint. Many of these people have control issues, thinking it’s okay to put legislation into effect just because they think it’s best.

We told them we didn’t want the healthcare reform bill to pass, with phone calls, letters, in-person meetings, through polls, through town hall meetings…none of it mattered. They passed the bill anyway, because of course, they knew more than us, even though most of them hadn’t read more than a few pages of the bill they were passing, but they believed they could make a more informed, better, decision than the rest of us. The arrogance astounds me to this day.

If you would like to support efforts to repeal the healthcare reform legislation known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act before it’s too late, this petition at RepealitNow.org is a good place to start.

The Truth About Obamacare: Sally C. Pipes Reveals Just How Bad it Could Get

If you’re concerned about the coming problems resulting from the passage of the The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, then this book is a great place to start reading and learning about the law.

Buy The Truth About Obamacare at Amazon

Available formats include paperback, Kindle ebook, audio CD, and MP3 audio book.

The Truth About Obamacare outlines what you need to know about the impact of this law, how it will affect you and your family, your doctor, and your cost for healthcare. It also explains how the health care law will affect the health care industry and America’s economy.

If you’ve been wondering what the big deal is about the current health care reform, The Truth about Obamacare is a book about the new health care law that will open your eyes.

Product Description

The Truth About Obamacare

In her new book, The Truth About Obamacare, Sally C. Pipes—president of the Pacific Research Institute and an acknowledged expert on health care reform—reveals what Democrats in Congress and President Obama don’t want you to know: Obamacare is even worse than most critics suspect. Debunking the myths that the current administration has touted, Pipes shows exactly what the new health care law will mean for you, your family, your doctor, and your wallet. She also reveals how, contrary to its promises, Obamacare will make health care more expensive, limit your options, lead to deteriorating medical care, and weaken America’s already frail economy.

From the Bookcover’s Inside Flap

This is going to hurt.

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that will lead to the largest expansion of government in the history of the United States. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was more than 2,400 pages long and will reportedly cost a cool $1 trillion over ten years, give or take a few hundred billion.

But sticker shock is just the beginning. In The Truth about Obamacare, Sally Pipes shows how Obama’s health care “reform” will crash into our economy and culture with a tidal wave of regulations that, taken together, will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and see our doctors. How will all those changes affect you, your family, and your fellow Americans? Pipes goes over the bill with a fine-tooth comb, laying out the specifics of how and why Obamacare:

• will drive the country’s health care bill ever higher, according to the government’s own economists 
• empowers bureaucrats to deny coverage of cutting-edge medicines in order to save the government money 
• will exacerbate our nation’s shortage of doctors—and in fact, is already causing many to close up shop 
• will make health care less affordable by forbidding insurers from offering inexpensive, bare-bones policies 
• ratchets up Medicare payroll taxes—and adds brand new taxes on income—interest, capital gains, and dividends 
• achieves every penny of its supposed “savings” through a series of legislative and accounting gimmicks 
• creates a huge new enforcement bureaucracy—including 16,000 new IRS agents and an astounding 159 new boards and commissions—to hound taxpayers, businesses, hospitals, doctors, and insurers into compliance 
• will still leave 23 million Americans uninsured by 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Is it too late to stop Obamacare? By no means, argues Pipes—who shows how Americans can, and must, force its repeal. Then, she offers ten principles for real reform that would make health care accessible and affordable for all without destroying individual freedom, quality treatment, medical innovation, and the economy.

Sally C. Pipes doesn’t stop with giving us a breakdown of what’s wrong with Obamacare. She discusses how we can fix the system we currently have that will not lead us down the path toward government run health care.

Click here to read the reviews of The Truth About Obamacare

Why Might the Supreme Court Overturn the Health Care Reform Law?

In an interesting article at The Atlantic, Megan McArdle speculates about what might happen if the Supreme Court declared the Health Care Reform Law unconstitutional.

What Would Happen if the Supreme Court Struck Down Health Care Reform?

(Excerpt Below)

This weekend, I had a conversation with someone non-crazy who thinks there is a not-insignificant chance that the Supreme Court will overturn health care reform, or at least the individual mandate (it’s not clear what happens to the rest of the law if the mandate goes down; there’s some possibility that this would invalidate the entire law).  Mind you, this person was not suggesting that the chances were, say, 85%; more like 25%.
But in a case like this, 25% is a big chance.  So we spent a bit of time speculating about what would happen next.

At one point in the article, there’s an interesting link to a discussion of insurance and risk that touches on the issue of moral hazard.

(Excerpt Below)

The problem of moral hazard also affects government programs that insure people against misfortune. A variety of programs help people who suffer the misfortune of poverty. Aid to dependent children helps people who suffer the misfortune of having children to raise that they cannot financially support. Unemployment compensation pays people who suffer the misfortune of losing their jobs. Food stamps and public housing help the poor. Yet all these programs also suffer from problems of moral hazard. They increase children born out of wedlock, unemployment, and poverty.

Moral hazard is the result of maximizing behavior. A person weighs the costs and benefits of an action, and when benefits exceed costs, he takes the action.

This idea of moral hazard and maximizing behavior is one very good reason why the U.S. goverment should stay out of the healthcare (and charity) business. Bureaucracies are notorious for allowing the perpetuation of fraud, abuse, and scams.

But even more striking is the idea that if the penalty for not carrying health insurance were lower then the cost of purchasing a plan, and one didn’t qualify for significant assistance in the purchase of health insurance, then many people might choose to forgo coverage altogether. Therefore, the reasons given for the necessity of including within the law a mandate that everyone have approved coverage don’t hold up. If everyone must have coverage to keep rates affordable, but people can opt out by paying a lower-cost penalty instead, then the rates won’t be affordable, because the moral hazard is that people will choose the option that is best for them—not the option that’s best for everyone else—and who can blame them when it’s merely human nature and valid self-interest?

But back to my point.

By declaring the Healthcare Reform Law unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court could redraw the lines marking the boundary of the Federal government’s power. The mandate, to me, seems the most likely area where the Federal government has overstepped its bounds. There’s also the issue of the Federal government using the commerce clause as the authority that gives it the power to regulate the health care insurance market. I think this is a clear stretching of the clause’s intent and purpose and I have high hopes that the Supreme Court will agree.

Would the entire law be thrown out if the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated any particular part of the law? I don’t know, but I would certainly hope so.

Free Health Insurance – A Disturbing Myth

According to Google, almost 10,000 people search for "free health insurance" each month. The sad thing is some people actually believe there’s free health insurance coming their way since the passage of the recent health reform law. Misinformation abounds and no one wants to hear that free is never really free.

Even if you do qualify for "free" health insurance under the plan, and I don’t know what the qualifications for that might be, somebody, notably taxpayers, are paying for that free care.

Recent reports have stated that nearly half of all American’s don’t actually have to pay federal income taxes (the portion of taxes paid that will be used to fund the expenses of the healthcare law). This means that only about half of America is going to be expected to pay for or subsidize health insurance premiums for the other half of the country. That number should disturb you.

If you went into work one day and was told that half of you were going to have to pool your money so that it could be distributed to the other half of your company’s workforce, how would you feel?

Robbed is the word I’d use, and yes, that’s exactly how I feel now—and it’s probably not even that much of my money that’s going to be used because I come from a small rural community where incomes are modest by national standards and my federal tax liability last year was a meager $981 after the $800 making work pay tax credit.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anyone else’s money unless I’ve earned it, and I know I haven’t earned it just by living and breathing.

The thing is, I would be phenomenally angry to discover that someone was stealing money out of my family money jar to pay for something for someone else, no matter the reason. This kind of forced charity does nothing but create resentment and anger, and I don’t like what it’s doing to Americans as a whole. We’re becoming angry enough not to want to give anything, because we’re sick and tired of being forced to give and give and give.

The healthcare reform law is imposing a form of collectivism and socialism on the American people, no doubt about it. Going against the founding principles of our nation is never the right thing, even though many people will tell you that giving is the right thing to do. Forced giving? How is that right?

There’s no such thing as free health insurance—just free-to-somebody health insurance.

States Suing Federal Government Over Health Care Reform

Arizona and Nevada to Sue Federal Government Over Health Care Reform

A significant percentage of the states, 32% in fact, are challenging this law. I have hopes that this challenge will result in this law being completely thrown out. However, in case this doesn't happen, we need to continue the push for repeal of this law.

Recent Bias in the News about Passing of Healthcare Reform

Opinion: GOP needs to grow up, get back to work

(Selected Excerpts Below)

By Roland S. Martin

Republicans on Capitol Hill are acting like spoiled brats after Democrats snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by passing health care reform.

This is where President Obama should say the heck with all of this partisan nonsense. He should say, "Either you get in the game or get out of the way."

This is the nonsense that voters have tired of. If politicians on both sides are there to represent their views, then they have to do it. For the GOP, stop canceling hearings. Stop threatening not to engage in legislative negotiations. And if Republicans make it clear they will say no to everything, the Democrats must learn to lead and go it alone.

The author of this piece is clearly expressing a biased attitude in this editorial, as the quote above shows. Read the entire article for more samples of biased opinion. Expressly, "If politicians on both sides are there to represent their views, then they have to do it" offends me.

Did the polls not show that the majority of Americans were against the Healthcare Reform Bill that has since become law? Why are the Democrats not being held up to this standard? Democrats did not vote to represent the views of their constituents.

I am one of those constituents feeling very betrayed right now. I voted for Obama in the last election, which I dearly regret now, even though overall I do still like him—but I do not approve of the growth in government and spending and I despise the healthcare reform law that puts my individual rights into the hands of the federal government.

So that they can do what feels "right" is not why I voted my Representative and Senators into office. I voted them into office to represent my views in Congress.

I was betrayed, as were a majority of the American people. Whatever happens after the fact, even if people do begin to believe the healthcare reform law is satisfactory, never forget that a majority of Americans did not want their Representatives and Senators to vote for this legislation and that their views were not represented by the Democrats in Congress.

Obama on the Cry for Repeal of the Healthcare Law

FoxNews.com covered a recent speech from President Obama in which he reference the call for repeal of the healthcare law.

Obama Dares Republicans to Pursue Repeal of Health Care Law

(Selected Excerpts Below)

President Obama mocked Republicans’ campaign to try to repeal his new health care law, saying Thursday they should "Go for it" and see how well they fare with voters.

Frankly, they’re likely going to fare pretty well with this Independent, formerly Democrat, voter who voted for Obama in the last election.

A different article from The Hill about the speech in question elaborates on President Obama’s comments.

President Obama to repeal-minded Republicans: ‘Go for it’

(Selected Excerpts Below)

President Barack Obama on Thursday flipped into campaign mode and dared Republicans to repeal the healthcare law.

With his signature agenda item signed into law, Obama switched from selling the bill to aggressively promoting it during a speech in Iowa City, Iowa, the town where Obama announced his healthcare reform agenda as a candidate in 2007.

“This is the reform that some folks in Washington are still hollering about. And now that it’s passed, they’re already promising to repeal it,” Obama said. “They’re actually going to run on a platform of repeal in November. Well, I say go for it.”

Watch Thank You Ads for Clues of Who Not to Vote for in November

Pro-Obama groups plan health care ad blitz

(Selected Excerpts Below)

Washington (CNN) — Democratic legislators in 40 Congressional districts are about to see TV ads thanking them for their support of the health care reform bill the president signed into law Tuesday, Democratic officials told CNN.

The $5 million ad campaign is being paid for by several pro-Obama groups, three officials said, and will target Democrats like Rep. Tom Perriello in Virginia and Rep. Bob Etheridge in North Carolina, who serve in tough swing districts and have been under heavy pressure from anti-reform groups from the business community and elsewhere.

The Democratic National Committee, the Obama-affiliated grassroots group Organizing for America and labor unions like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union are among the key sponsors of the ads.

Catholics United, a group of Catholics who support abortion rights and supported the reform effort, is also involved in the coalition.

The Democratic officials vowed the ads would only be the first phase of a sustained campaign between now and the mid-term elections in November to support endangered incumbents who supported Obama’s top domestic priority.

Since many people I know were against this bill, watching these televised thank you ads is a good way to pick out who you shouldn’t support come November. As this news article says, these will likely be the endangered incumbents and are the most easily ousted from the next Congress.

Next Page »