“If you like your doctor, you can keep him. If you like your health insurance, you can keep it. The only difference you will see when we pass the AHA is lower premiums.” – Barack Obama (2009)
Americans start celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve to commemorate the birth of our savior. They blend religious and secular customs and family traditions with decorations, food and rituals passed down from ancestors. Many spend Christmas Eve caroling, visiting friends and loved ones while imbibing in regional dishes and decorating their Christmas trees. Almost half of all Americans attend church services, while others pray together at home with their families and close friends.
But this was not the case Christmas Eve 2009. From the day he was elected, Barack Obama had campaigned to socialize American health care to give everyone equal coverage from government. With Democrats in control of Washington, all of America was tuned into a news feed from Congress Christmas Eve 2009. They prayed that night they’d not get his federal present they never wanted.
Republicans invoked Thomas Jefferson’s observation that “great innovations should not be forced on a slender majority – or enacted without broad support.” They cited broad legislative innovations like Social Security and Medicare, both of which enjoyed bipartisan support. Democrats responded vociferously that their health-care reform package was too important to delay or compromise.
“Republicans better accept this is the best bill they’ll ever get from this administration.” – Joe Biden
Most Americans will never forget Obama is the grinch who stole free market health care Christmas Eve 2009. But few recall the AHA’s legislative genesis, with the twists, tweaks and bribes the left used to get votes from reluctant Democratic party members to ramrod the AHA through Congress.
Obama and his generals Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi waved a tempting carrot under the noses of states to expand Medicaid with federal bucks. Like Peter Rabbit who snuck into McGregor’s garden to snatch a few of his prized carrots, every blue state took the bait. Today, 40 states have given in to federalism and have budgets stuffed with federal carrots from overly generous taxpayers.
“Yes I believe healthcare is a right and that government is best at maintaining our rights.” – Nancy Pelosi
According to Peter Ferrara, director of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a decade and a half later few people have the doctors or insurance they had in 2009. There are co-pays on everything from office visits to transplants. We have a major shortage of providers and local hospitals are closing since they are now obligated to treat people for free, under unpopular Obamacare EMTALA laws.
Most all health insurance companies left the Obama exchanges, which increased premiums and lowered coverage. HMOs cut the number of doctors people can see. Obama’s mandate to cut the price on a handful of drugs forced companies to increase prices on many essential drugs two-fold. Most people “Don’t like their doctors or insurance but they have no other choice but to keep them.”
A study by the Peterson Foundation found there is a huge cleavage between revenue government collects and gives to the states, which makes Obamacare the most untenable health-care system in the world. As more people qualify for Medicare and Medicaid, the federal budget will implode under its own weight. “Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.” – Herbert Hoover
Most Americans say Obamacare went too far and it’s a total failure. But the left says it did not go far enough in providing “free health care.” That’s why progressive Kamala Harris is pitching Medicare-for-all. “I think ideally, everyone should have identical health insurance coverage.” – Kamala Harris
The Democrats’ new queen bee’s priorities are Medicare-for-all, federalizing abortion as a right, and the New Green deal. Medicare-for-all has been a progressive talking-point for years. Polling shows 70% of voters support Medicare-for-all as a “fix” for Obamacare until they learn the details. Like the past campaigns of Obama’s “change” and Clinton’s war-cry,“Stronger Together,” Harris’ Medicare-for-all are empty words. It’s her progressive moniker to continually force federalism on the states.
Kaiser Foundation’s last poll on health care found 56% of Americans would support Medicare-for-all it they could get government insurance. When told it would be single-pay taxpayer funded, 11% said they’d support it. When told they could only see Medicare-for-all doctors, 94% said it was a bad deal. “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” – Elvis Presley
Medicare-for-all would ban all insurance that competes with government health care. That’s a real serendipity for those who thought it would fix Obamacare. When people learned they will have no private insurance, over 75% oppose it. Voters have been totally misled by progressives who bill this as health-care reform? Yet America wants reforms that improve private insurance coverage!.
Julia Cameron wrote “Nothing dies harder than a bad idea.” In the last three years, Kamala Harris has had the lowest approval rating of any U.S. VP due to her lack of knowledge about foreign and domestic policy. Making Medicare-for-all her top priority shows voters how far out of touch she is.
It also affirms she learned nothing when Joe Biden over-spent America into record-setting inflation.
Every country in the world that has socialized medicine pays for it with high taxes. Most revenue is derived from personal income taxes. Denmark’s tax-to-GDP ratio is 46.9%, Norway’s is 42.2% and Sweden’s is 42.6% while the ratio in the U.S. is at 24.5%. Canadians pay up to 51% more in taxes, plus out-of-pocket health costs which are about the same as those in the U.S. for equal coverage.
According to the Peterson Foundation, 90% of U.S. earners pay a real tax rate of below 20.3%. The average real tax rate in the European Union is 45%. Belgium’s personal tax rate is 39% for a family of four. For a similar American family, the real rate is about 19.4%. They found people in countries with socialized medicine pay about the same as the U.S. with far less coverage than Americans.
Economists estimate it would take a tax rate of around 50% to pay for Medicare-for-all since all taxpayers would foot the bill for those who pay no income taxes. How long do progressives think taxpayers will do that? How many politicians will continue to praise Medicare-for-all with so many voters squealing about continual tax increases to pay for the health care of freeloaders and illegals?
Do we have more sense than Peter Rabbit, who got fat and ill from eating so many of McGregor’s carrots? When Peter was trying to sneak under the fence to go home he was so fat he had to take off his clothes to fit under it. When Peter got home he was sent to bed without dinner. Peter not only lost his health, but he lost his shirt. What happened to Peter Rabbit can happen here if we imbibe on too many tempting federal carrots. We’ll lose our health care, our shirts and our liberty.
Americans must never forget: “If you demand the collective to pay for your medical expenses, then be prepared for the collective to demand to make your medical decisions for you.” – A.E. Samaan
