The following letter is from Doctor Max Stanley Chartrand, of Rye, Colorado. It’s longish, but brilliant (even if I don’t agree with every word of it). Please forward it along:
Recently, some of my letters to the editor in papers across the nation have generated requests from people who want to know what they can do to stop the steamroller juggernaut we call ObamaCare. This is offered in response to them and some of you who may not have requested this information. It is my sincere hope that every thinking, breathing, freedom-loving American will step up the plate on this issue and speak with one voice: This, and any variation of it, is bad medicine for America and we want no part of it.
To give you the background you need to be armed with facts that our legislators say they are too busy to analyze, we’ve highlighted some of the 1,018 pages of the bill. There are entire organizations and think tanks who have analyzed this bill down to the nth degree. Some of the sites featuring there work can be found at www.nationalcenter.org, www.myheritage.org/, and www.freedomfirstsociety.org
1. All of the socialized systems that are routinely held up liberal Democrats as “ideal” and “low cost” have crashed and burned over time. Like free taxi service, there has been an almost instant shortage and hence, rationing, in every program of any size. ObamaCare’s middle name is “rationing” as attested by dozens of sections dealing with how the federal government is going to handle that from the beginning. Today, the socialized models barely exist in these countries, because the citizens have demanded a return of the private system after decades of crippling taxes.
2. Obama is the fork-tongued spokesman for this erstwhile program. He routinely says publicly that “if you like your present private coverage, you will not lose it”. That is utterly false on its face. Another: “everyone will be covered”, when not everyone will; another yet: “your current coverage at work will continue”, when large corporations salivating at the chance to dump millions of employees into the federal program. Instead of giving straight talk with terms like euthanasia, rationing, government healthcare, job displacement, and penalties, he uses terms like end of life, distribution, public option, job retraining, and new costs borne not entirely on the middle class. The list of doublespeak goes on and on. Like most things we hear from this president his actions are so loud we can barely hear his words.
3. We can conservatively estimate that during the first year of enactment, up to a third of private hospitals will close and that millions of healthcare workers will be lined up for unemployment checks. Chicago-style politics, this president’s governing style, will decide winners and losers in terms of which suppliers, services, and medications are “authorized” and which are not. The economic turmoil resulting from this alone is beyond anything this nation has experienced since World War II.
4. The term “end of life counseling” pops up so often in the bill that one would fully expect to see the words “euthanasia” when expounding on limited resources and older Americans. Indeed, everyone that is 65 & up will be required to submit to “end of life counseling” every five years to remain eligible for a very down-scaled version of MediCare. Yes, we call it “down-scaled” because the bulk of the expected “savings” ObamaCare promises to provide come at the expense of reduced MediCare payments to hospitals, rationing, and the implementation of “end of life” (read euthanasia) policies .
5. Obama, Congress, and federal workers will be exempted from having to enroll in the government plan. The so-called “rich”–the 5% who already ante up to 61% of all taxes–will have their gold-plated policies as long as they are willing to pay an additional 25% tax on the private policy. In fact, the 25% tax rate that the conference committee agreed on last week kicks in no matter who you are, even if your policy happens to what we now consider a standard low-deductible major medical policy. That’s where standard policies begin disappearing, because few will want to pay the price for them. The subsidized public option plus an unfair tax of 25% on standard health policies will assure the destruction of the private healthcare sector in short order.
6. Now, to those of you who are already saying, “Calm down, Dr. Chartrand, the bill has not been passed yet and there’s already changes in the compromise bill”, I can say this: So far, none of the bad items have been eliminated. The core intent and process of the bill is still in tact. The so-called conservative Blue Dog Democrats caved-in without a single substantive change to the bill, when they should have stood firm until a free market bill was ready. The supposed lynchpin (read “face saver”) for last week’s negotiations were the “co-op” approach, which will in time just devolve into single payer. If you want to wait to see what the fellows who cannot manage a hot dog stand, balance a budget, or take the medicine they dish out to the rest of us come up with in a compromise bill before acting, I’m sorry to say, you will be far too late. There is no Constitutional basis for this power grab. It is a Trojan Horse of the first order and will eventually destroy freedoms and free enterprise. It is the first of several steps toward all- powerful government and then, with the collapse of the world’s largest economy, a one-world government. (It was no small thing that Obama campaigned in Germany and other foreign nations during the last election cycle.) The healthcare bill did not come about over a concern for the tragedies the president regularly talks about. Almost all of it was written as far back as 15 years ago, and then cobbled together during the early months of this president’s term. It is all about government power.
7. At the end of this analysis, I will provide a brief outline what CAN be done to alleviate the current crises. But be forewarned that what is wrong with the current system today is too much government involvement. Now, more than 55% of all expenditures of medicine come from government. Even so, it is a terribly inefficient conduit, much less administrator, for such expenditures! The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in two past studies in the past, found that it costs the federal government between 72-74 cents to collect, administer, and spend one federal dollar. That is a high price to pay for anything: 72-74 cents over every federal dollar going to collecting (IRS), waste, fraud, bureaucracy, double spending, mismanagement etc., the measley 24-26 cents of that dollar is left for you and me to spend on our family’s healthcare? I don’t think so. Like the nutty “Cash for Clunkers” program, ObamaCare resources promise to surpass expenditures in record time, while implementation of the program will more resemble the government’s “stimulus” program now being administered by the same gang of incompetents!
8. The reader will notice that Obama and the liberal Democrats have very carefully avoided doing anything about the Achilles heel of the current system: Tort Reform. Up to 25-30% of healthcare costs go into this crucial oversight. Defensive medicine, unfathomable professional liability insurance premiums, and rampant litigation: no socialized system in the world allows it. But ObamaCare does.
9. The kicker is this: We have no doubt that Obama knows all of this. The hierarchy of liberaldom all know this. They have the computer models and studies, and our research of several decades in front of them. But, you say, “Why would our president want this bill so badly and why is he in such a hurry?” Read the very abbreviated analysis below and I believe you will find the answer to that question staring back at you:
Page 16 When your current health insurance policy expires and you do not renew it for any reason (usually because premiums change) you will lose private coverage and must apply for the public option or a convaluted “co-op” version of it (which is in the compromise bill passed by committee last Friday). The end result is there will be no private insurance over time, except for heavily taxed private plan available to the few who can or will pay for it. We can be clear on this: The committee discussions to-date have not even broached the fact that all of us now on private policies will only be allowed to have these until such time that we make a change (we change ours every year because of cost-shifting premium increases); then, it becomes public option or nothing.
Page 22 MANDATES the Government will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self-insure!! Many businesses will be put out of business, and will certainly have layoffs, because of this intrusion. It is already plain that Obama and Democrats do not care if private jobs are lost. They only want government and politically-engineered jobs to grow.
Page 30 THERE WILL BE A GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get. There has never been a socialized plan instituted that did not eventually take over all decision-making.
Page 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill - YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!! At first it appears that everyone gets free healthcare, so why pay for it privately, or even worry about the consequences of lifestyles involving alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, drugs, junk food, or poor lifestyle—shortages always arise in time and then rationing lest the coffers go completely bare. Rationing always begins with the “expendable” groups, primarily the very ill and elderly. Euthanasia by any other name is still euthanasia. Rationing by its nature must set priorities and limits—a side consequence of which will be that all medical progress and investment will eventually stop cold in its tracks.
Page 42 of HC Bill - The Health Choices Commissioner will choose UR HC Benefits 4 you. You have no choice!
Page 50 Section 152 in HC bill - HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise.
Page 58 HC Bill - Government will have real-time access to individual finances & a National ID Healthcard will be issued! Government intrusion into personal choices will be unlimited and be constantly bolstered by the politics of envy and class warfare. The middle class has always and will always pay for such schemes, but is always lulled by dishonest politicians into thinking that the rich will pay it all. Not so…they are maxed out under Obama at this time. The top 5% of taxpayers pay 67% of all taxes paid in the U.S. , while the bottom 95% pay 33%. They can pay no more. They are taking their money overseas now as quickly as they can find safe havens. Many are converting to Euros and gold. The so-called rich are not dummies; most of them were once ordinary wage earners and invested wisely and worked long hours to achieve what they have achieved. When the tax burden is increased on the “rich” they simply report less income and otherwise take their hard earned dollars that fuel jobs overseas. (See Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is the current and growing response to Obama’s economics). Rationing is coming if this bill passes.
Page 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Government will have direct access to your bank accounts for electronic funds transfer. See above for consequences of this invasion of privacy.
Page 65 Sec 1 64 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions & community orgs (ACORN). Recently added a morsel for the AMA that will not be sustainable in the long haul. Doctors who have looked at this bill have all rejected it. But their main professional society the AMA signed on late Thursday night when the doctors were promised a significant raise in MediCare reimbursements. It is only good until reality forces them to back down and reduce those payments. Like all other carrots and sticks, they are designed solely to get the bill passed and then let the chips fall where they may, which will be socialism, job displacement, and the complete abrogation of the US Constitution.
Page 72 Lines 8-14 Govt is creating an HC Exchange 2 bring private HC plans under Government control.
Page 84 Sec 203 HC bill - Govt mandates ALL benefit packages for private HC
plans in the Exchange.
Page 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Governtment will ration your Healthcare!
Page 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill - Govt mandates linguistic appropriate services; example - Translation for illegal aliens.
Page 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Government will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps
to sign up individuals for Govt HC plan, and to facilitate the plans.
Page 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members - Your health care WILL be rationed. MediCare payments to be reduced as part of the “savings” Obama promised, while Medicare taxes will rise on all workers.
Page 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill - Medicaid Eligible Individual will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.
Page 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Government Monopoly.
Page 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The Govt will tell YOU what you can make. This is where the compromise of increased MediCare was made the other evening. The AMA caved in for a mess of pottage!
Page 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST automatically enroll employees into public option plan (now, they have added the co-op plan as a compromise, but will ultimately end up as public option no matter what it is called). NO CHOICE.
Page 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families. This is subject to changes. Minimum number of employees will change as needed.
Page 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer with a total payroll of a mere $400,000 & above, who do not provide public option will pay 8% tax on all payroll. The workers will already be on the public option, so this is their way of forcing the employers to pay for it. In reality, they will layoff workers and effectively reduce outlays by 8%. There is no free healthcare and never has been.
Page 150 Lines 9-13 Businesses with a miniscule total annual payroll of between $251,000 & $400,000 annually, who do not participate in public option will pay 2-6% tax on all payroll. This group comprises millions of mom and pop businesses.
Page 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who do not have an approved HC plan according your Govt will be taxed 2.5% of income. This is mostly the 20 million young, single, and financially capable group that have chosen not to buy insurance today…this is the largest chunk of the so-called “uninsured” group that Obama and his liberal politicians use now as a reason why we need this freedom-destroying bill. We now that NO ONE can get around paying for this boondoggle! (Except illegal aliens, as you will see on Page 170 and later those on welfare—my, how those ranks will grow under this plan!)
Page 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay).
Page 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access to ALL Americans financial/personal records. (See above)
Page 203 Line 14-15 HC - “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that. In other our current tax burden of 48% will not reflect the true amount of new taxes imposed upon the population. Funny accounting writ large.
Page 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected.
Page 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill - Specialists receive same payments as general practitioners.
Page 253 Line 10-18 Government sets value of Dortor’s time, professional judgment, etc. Literally value of humans.
Page 265 Sec 1131 Government mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries.
Page 268 Sec 1141 Fed Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs. Expected that this will regulation will extend to all prosthetic devises and therapies.
Page 272 SEC. 1145. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS - Cancer patients - welcome to rationing! Or rather, euthenasia. Who deserves to live is decided by actuarial scales as in all socialized medicine schemes.
Page 280 Sec 1151 The Government will penalize hospitals for what Government deems preventable readmissions. The implications of the power in this wreaks of the recent GM government takeover. Practical result is the closure of most private hospitals, while those that do survive (political favoritism) will likely be turned into public hospitals. Millions of healthcare workers will lose their jobs and/or be shifted in government-controlled jobs. The glut of workers will drive down wages and will bring forced compliance.
Page 298 Lines 9-11 Doctors, if you treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission - ObamaCare will penalize you.
Page 317 L 13-20 PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells Drs. what/how much they can own in terms of medical facilities.
Page 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Government is mandating hospitals cannot expand.
Page 321 2-13 Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can you say ACORN?!!
Page 335 L 16-25 Page 336-339 - Govt mandates establishment of outcome based measures. HC the way they want. Rationing. Who lives, who dies, who gets a hospital bed and for how long—we see it now in MediCare.
Page 341 Lines 3-9 Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs, etc. Forcing into in two Government plans.
Page 354 Sec 1177 - Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs peoplel! No more cochlear implants etc. Today, nearly 50% of such procedures are carried out in the U.S. where only 5% of the population lives—the other 95% of the world’s population gets the other 50% mostly under private pay for the wealthy and some by socialized plans. Under ObamaCare, the US will look like the rest of the world, bleak and stark unless you are wealthy and can afford the huge taxes imposed on private pays.
Page 379 Sec 1191 Govt creates more bureaucracy - Telehealth Advisory. Committee. Can you say medicine by phone?
Page 425 Lines 4-12 Govt mandates Advance Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life. Euthenasia writ large.
Page 425 Lines 17-19 Government will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney. Mandatory! Soylent Green all over again!
Page 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Government provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in death. Completely changes the meaning of “undertaker”. See above.
Page 427 Lines 15-24 Govt mandates program for orders for end of life. The Government has a say in how your life ends. Those 65 and over will have mandatory end of life counseling once every five years to keep benefits (described in another area).
Page 429 Lines 1-9 An “advance care [end of life] planning consult” will be used frequently as patients health deteriorates.
Page 429 Lines 10-12 “adv. care consultation” may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOVERNMENT!
Page 429 Lines 13-25 - The government will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.
Page 430 Lines 11-15 The government will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life.
Page 469 - Community Based Home Medical Services=Non profit orgs. Hello, ACORN Medical Services here!!?
Page 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment
to a community-based org. Like ACORN? The vagueness of this section opens the door to all kinds of nonsense. In fact, this entire bill leaves so many details and who can give authorization that that that fact alone will create tons of confusion in the process. But then, the aim of this whole thing is to shut down private care and force all but the elite (read politicians and career government employees) onto a single payer system. We are surprised that more is not made over the fact that Congress and all federal employees (including Obama himself) have exempted themselves from being subjected to such a spartan, arbitrary system.
Page 489 Sec 1308 The Govt will cover Marriage & Family therapy. Which means they will insert Government into your marriage. The current and past track record foretells lots of social engineering.
Page 494-498 Government will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, rationing those services. To-date, 95% of government covered mental healthcare is strictly pharmacology (drugs) to control behavior, and drugs to offset the side effects of the drugs designed to control behavior.
I promised you an alternative. It is simple. It is elegant, and it will, yes, cover everyone that wants to be covered. One thing it will not be is arbitrary, except to the mischief makers of the current mess, the politicians, tort lawyers who abuse us, and would be dictators. In the case of these three we will be utilizing the Constitution of the United States to bind men down from mischief by the chains of the constitution,” as so ably said by Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. In lieu of the freedom and free enterprise killing proposals laid out by the president and the Congress, here is what I propose we do:
1. To assure coverage of the poor and those who cannot afford their own health policy, provide them with federally subsidized vouchers for a Medical IRA that can be used with the private plan of their choice. We have ample data showing how people stop smoking, drinking, and begin to adopt healthy lifestyles under this model (see the Golden Rule study at http://www.goldenrule.com/newsroom/news-release-2006-08-08.shtml). Those who cannot afford health insurance, as a rule, are the most intensive consumers healthcare. This plan will cost taxpayers very little and will produce incentives that will change behaviors for the better without coercion.
2. Dramatically reform TORT professional liability law. Place lower and more reasonable caps on malpractice/professional liability lawsuits and watch the cost of malpractice insurance nose-dive. Along with it will be the end of defensive medicine, where myriad unnecessary tests and dangerous surgical procedures are no longer carried out. The effect of this change would lower healthcare prices by about 15-20% after just one year in effect.
3. Eliminate hundreds of costly state and federal insurance regulations and laws. There are myriad laws now on the books that limit consumer choices. Let the players in the market decide what they want. So many of these rules are so out of date that they no longer apply to the changing demographics. This is an area that Obama and the Congress can really be heroes.
4. Gradually transfer current federal programs, such MediCare and Medicaid into the Medical IRA model over time. This will shrink government involvement and meddling and allow them only to monitor the program on behalf of taxpayers. In fact, suggestion #1 of this plan will eventually eliminate the need for MediCare as we know it today. Under the Medical IRA program, the government would provide the premium of a high deductible Major Medical policy for those 65 and over, and the deductible area ($5000-$8000) would be paid for into a designated tax-deferred savings account by the recipient. The major medical subsidy would be considerably lower cost than the current MediCare system, and would yield much better care from the provider of the consumer’s choice. Call it MediCare IRA, if you will. Think of what phenomenal investment yields would arise if most of the American people invested into their own medical savings account and became healthy in the process!
5. Support effective CAM and nutritional approaches to health practice. End the government’s current war against complementary and alternative medicine. For chronic disease, which is increasingly bogging down this nation with totally ineffective therapies and treatments, we would integrate safer and gentler methodologies into the healthcare milieau. Then, preventative healthcare would actually mean something!
In doing so, we can assure that everyone can be covered with the best care. Healthy lifestyle choices will be rewarded. And we will dramatically lower healthcare costs while preserving freedom and the enviable engine of free enterprise.
Thank you, and here is to victory for freedom and We the People!
Max Stanley Chartrand, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Behavioral Medicine
Post Office Box 706
Rye , CO 81069
(719)676-3277 (O)
(719)489-3440 (H)
(719)676-6882 (F)
www.digicare.org
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This entry was posted by rayharvey on Friday; August 14th, 2009 at 2:46 am and is filed under Fact Of The Day, Health Care.
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Tags: Doctor Max Stanley Chartrand, H.R. 3200, Obamacare, single-payer healthcare, Universal Healthcare.
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