health care reform

Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee squashed an amendment by Senator Jim Bunning that would have required Baucus’ ObamaCare bill to be posted on the Internet – for all Americans to read – for 72 hours prior to the Committee voting on it.

Bunning’s amendment also called for requiring the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s tally of how much Baucus’ ObamaCare will cost the American people and what the real impact will be on health costs to be released before it was voted on.

Senator Max Baucus’ health care reform plan calls for new government mandates, higher taxes, increased spending and government-dictated, rationed health care.

Senator Lindsay Graham’s explanation of what is going on: “[T]he Baucus bill… literally changes everyday… we’re making this up as we go… they’re trying to buy votes… the vision here is to pass something… they don’t give a damn what it is and nobody understands what they’re doing.”

Senator Hatch, while calling for a “bi-partisan solution” stated
“Everything is geared to try to get us to a single payer system… if they can’t do it automatically… they’ll do it in increments… a one size fits all health care system right out of Washington.”

There is nothing in the Constitution that gives Congress the right to take over the health-care system. The only reform that is legal, is for the government to obey the Constitution and get completely out of the health care business.

The government has no legal or moral right to be involved in healthcare.

The government has no legal or moral right to be involved in banking.

The government has no legal or moral right to be involved in the automobile business.

The government has no legal or moral right to be involved in education.

The government has no legal or moral right to be involved in funding “community organizers”

And the government has no legal or moral right to be involved in redistributing wealth.

The Senate Version

The Congressional Budget Office has scored the Senate Finance Committee bill at a cost of $500 Billion.

Sen. Rockefeller (D-WV) and Finance Committee Member says the Senate Bill is a “Big, Big Tax” on the middle class.

The Baucus proposal would impose a 35 percent excise tax on insurance  plans and a cap on Medicare.

The tax proposed by Baucus is also a big revenue raiser. It is expected to raise $200 billion, money that Baucus is hoping to use to pay for subsidies for the uninsured.

President Barack Obama, trying to make a case for health-insurance regulation, told a story to a joint session of Congress last week. How an Illinois man getting chemotherapy was dropped from his insurance plan when his insurer discovered an unreported gallstone the patient hadn’t known about.

“They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it,” the president said in the nationally televised address.

Mr. Raddatz’s sister testified before Congress that Mr. Raddatz got a life saving treatment that extended his life for three years. And the insurance company covered it.

For an overview of a free-market approach to improving the nation’s health care system.
go to The Heartland Institute’s Health Care Policy Issue Suite.