Discussing the Affordable Health Care Act - my latest Boyne City Gazette column

  As we await the verdict of the Supreme Court, we should revisit some of the things that are wrong with this health care law.  In order to aid 10% of our population, the government would now control 100% of us.  President Obama admits that his highly touted pledge that “we can keep our current insurance if we wish” has disappeared, saying, “I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge”.   The law dictates that we MUST go onto government insurance once we change or lose our jobs, for there is no insurance portability. 

   Ten to forty percent of doctors have stated their refusal of having their once private practices taken over by the government, saying they will retire instead. There would then be far fewer physicians taking care of 30 million more patients, translating to much longer waiting times, as well as rationing - by necessity.  Medicare fees paid to doctors would be reduced 30% in three years, which will cause some doctors to stop seeing new Medicare patients.  As more state monies must then support Medicare, states will fund colleges at lower levels, thus forcing colleges to raise their tuitions.  Some community hospitals have been and will be forced to close, to form partnerships or to sell, as seen here in Michigan with Cheboygan Hospital and Petoskey’s Northern Michigan Hospital. 
   Some employers will decide to just pay the government fines and quit providing insurance, while up to 35 million Americans may lose their employer-based insurance with no guarantee of a resulting pay raise.  The Congressional Budget Office has just announced that the cost of Obamacare will be at least double what we were told prior to the passing of the law.  Waivers have been given to many “friends” of our President, mostly to companies employing union members. 
   Unbridled power now rests in the hands of the Secretary of Health and Human services to mandate any regulation she desires, such as free birth control and the new requirement for free sterilizations for college-age females.  The Independent Payment Advisory Board’s appointed “experts” will determine which treatments are in their view worthy of the expense of care in relation to the expected length of life of each patient.
   Some free market solutions to our health care problems without Big Brother include:
1)  Making legal the sale of health insurance across state lines.  This will cause great competition for customers resulting in lower costs to the insured.
2)  Enrolling the approximately 12 million Americans who now qualify for Medicaid and S-Chip but who have not yet enrolled
3)  Insurance portability - the ability of those who are insured to keep their current insurance policy when they change jobs or are laid off, greatly reducing the number of people who can’t get new insurance because of a pre-existing condition, for they will continue the insurance they already had. 
4)  Enhancing health care for the uninsured thru government insurance, vouchers, tax credits, and more free clinics.
5)  Allowing small businesses and individuals to join a larger group for lower-priced insurance coverage, known as Association Health Plans.

   Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid all passed with true bi-partisan support, unlike The Affordable Health Care Act which received not one Republican vote in either the House or the Senate. Various well-documented bribes and pay-offs were used to gain the last Democrat votes in the Senate.

Our President has recently attempted to intimidate the Supreme Court by saying, “Ultimately I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented extraordinary step [by unelected Justices] of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”  Actually, it is not unprecedented (happening 159 other times in our history), nor was it a strong majority.  Mr. President, that is exactly what the Supreme Court is empowered to do if they believe it to be unconstitutional, in spite of your shocking and public scolding of any possible disagreement with your argument.  It’s called the Separation of Powers, and any student of the Constitution, or a Constitutional law professor, should understand why that is so.

   If deemed unconstitutional, Congress will renegotiate the law, this time without giving ultimate power to any government entity.