The Sanchez Report

The Ugly Reality of Obamacare and Socialized Medicine

I found this interesting article that reminded me why Obamacare and Socialized Medicine is bad. Once again, the American people have been led to believe that Obamacare is a wonderful thing that will provide free healthcare to all Americans. Not only will everyone be insured, but the cost of providing that care will come down. But wait, there's more, not only will we cover everyone at a lower cost, but it will pay for itself and will not add a dime to the national debt. On the surface this sounds great, except for the fact that it has been tried in many other countries before and there's plenty of evidence to prove otherwise. Read this gem of an article!

From Forbes:

The worldwide recession has forced countries around the world to curb public spending — or risk defaulting on their debt.

The United Kingdom is the latest to tighten its belt. The National Health Service (NHS) — the centralized public agency that runs Britain’s government healthcare system — is being forced to shave $31 billion from its budget by 2015.

These cuts are leading to a precipitous drop in the quality of care patients receive. The NHS has been living well beyond its means for quite awhile. And now brutal government-enforced cost controls are exacting a heavy human toll.

Thanks to Obamacare, America will soon face the same sort of reckoning.

Other nations with government-dominated healthcare systems offer a preview of the fiscal woes and substandard care that lie ahead thanks to the president’s spendthrift reform plan.

In order to realize some savings, the NHS is raising the threshold at which patients qualify for treatment and lengthening wait times for surgeries determined “non-lifesaving.” The Service is also cutting more than 20,000 NHS jobs over the next two years and shuttering a number of hospitals.

The British healthcare system may “guarantee” access to care — but that doesn’t mean patients actually receive it.

Read "The Ugly Realities of Socialized Medicine Are Not Going Away"

The Supremes To Rule On Obamacare

The United States Supreme Court today announced that it will hear challenges to Obamacare. Twenty six states have followed Florida in challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate feature which requires that all Americans purchase health insurance.

This signature piece of legislation was pushed through Congress on a highly partisan vote and against the overwhelming opposition of the American people. This law has become known as Obamacare and is the President's watered down, some would even say backdoor version of universal healthcare. The type of healthcare that has plagued Canada, the UK and most of Europe.

The timing of this case will undoubtedly render a decision of monumental consequences next June at the height of the 2012 Presidential Campaign. The real question is, will Justice Elena Kagan recuse herself from this case? Keep in mind that she is the former Solicitor General of the United States, appointed by President Obama, who crafted the legal defense for Obamacare before her appointment to the Supreme Court. If there was ever a case that provided a conflict of interest, this is it. Let's see what the Democrats say given their insistence for months that Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself because his wife has been involved with political groups that oppose Obamacare. This connection they say would prevent Justice Thomas from remaining impartial.

From Politico:

Seventy-four House Democrats are asking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from any health care reform cases, citing reports that his wife financially benefited from efforts to repeal the legislation.

The members, led by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), ask that he “maintain the integrity of this court.”

“The appearance of a conflict of interest merits recusal under federal law. From what we have already seen, the line between your impartiality and you and your wife's financial stake in the overturn of healthcare reform is blurred,” the members wrote.

It looks like we have partisan double standards at work. At the end of the day, it's highly unlikely that Justice Kagan would recuse herself. Given her ultra liberal political views, she would never pass up an opportunity to ensure that the United States move towards the Socialists dream of universal healthcare coverage.

Fidel Castro Cheers The Passage Of Obamacare

This week President Obama succeeded in passing his massive government takeover of the healthcare industry. While an overwhelming majority of the American people disapprove of his plan, the President and the Democrats received an endorsement from none other then their comrade Fidel Castro.

From the (AP):

It perhaps was not the endorsement President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress were looking for.

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Thursday declared passage of American health care reform "a miracle" and a major victory for Obama's presidency, but couldn't help chide the United States for taking so long to enact what communist Cuba achieved decades ago.

"We consider health reform to have been an important battle and a success of his (Obama's) government," Castro wrote in an essay published in state media, adding that it would strengthen the president's hand against lobbyists and "mercenaries."

Real Healthcare Reform

It's no secret that I've been a staunch critic of President Obama's domestic policy agenda. His attempt to shove Obamacare down the throats of the American people tops my list of reasons to oppose him. I'm amazed that he and the Democrats have been successful in their attempts to fabricate a health care crisis. How can we have a crisis when most polls show that 85% of the American people are happy with their health care? There's no doubt that something should be done to control the cost of health care. The question is whether or not he should have made this his top priority when unemployment is at 9.7%.

The card has been dealt and so where do we go from here. I've often been asked why would the Democrats move forward in the face of strong public opposition to Obamacare? They see this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to move closer to the liberal utopia of universal, single payer health care. They have longed for the day when the federal government would take over health care and move it from the private sector to government control.

The Democrats have combined the need for reform with their desire to provide universal coverage. These are two separate issues. This debate started in during the 2008 campaign and we were led to believe that there were 46 million Americans uninsured. According to Blue Cross, approximately 14 million qualify for an existing government program such as Medicare and Medicaid but have chosen not to enroll. Another 13 million have incomes above $50,000 and could probably afford some type of coverage on their own. In addition, there are 6 million who are considered "short term uninsured" or people who are in between jobs. That leaves around 6-8 million people who are chronically uninsured. That's a far cry from 46 million. Nevertheless, the question we need to answer as a nation is whether we should blow up our entire health care system in order to insure those who fall into the chronically uninsured category? The President's allies have accused their critics as obstructionists with no real ideas or alternatives. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm no expert in this public policy area, but even I have a plan that makes more sense.

Several of my friends have asked me to step up and give my vision of health care reform and so I’ve taken them up on the challenge.  Here you go:

1) Health insurance should be easy, flexible and accessible like purchasing your car insurance. There should be plenty of competition across state lines. Your employee should provide a credit that YOU can use to purchase your own plan online. We shouldn't be forced to choose from just a few plans through our HR department. You should be able to customize your own plan, just like car insurance based on your family's needs. This would drive efficiencies in the delivery supply chain, which would lower costs.

2) Tort Reform- We should reform the laws concerning frivolous lawsuits. One of the reasons costs are out of control is because of the cost of malpractice insurance. Your doctor pays tens of thousands of dollars each year for insurance. They need to make up the cost by charging inflated rates for some services. This reform would lead to the biggest reduction in costs.

3) Young people in their 20's, who are relatively healthy do not need a traditional managed care health plan. They should have access to cheap catastrophic plans that they can tap into in case of an emergency. This would immediately cover most of the 6 million short-term uninsured who are in school or between jobs.

4) We need to change the law as it pertains to pre-existing conditions. People should not be prevented from purchasing health insurance or have their policy canceled because of a change in their status. This would lead to higher premiums, but those are costs that I'm sure some families would pay if they were just given the opportunity.

5) You would be left with 3-5 million families that truly need the government to pay their way. If that's the case, it would be far cheaper for the govt to provide a debit card with $300-400 per month to temporarily pay for their plan. That would amount to no more than $25-30 billion per year. Much cheaper than what President Obama is trying to push through!

Unfortunately, it looks like the Democrats are hellbent on ramming through their plan. If they were to take a step back and truly seek compromise, they would find that it is much wiser to fix health care in incremental steps. We still have the best health care system in the world. Leave it in the hands of the private sector.

Obama Feeling The Heat: "You're Going To Destroy My Presidency"

President Obama is starting to feel the heat. I suspect the President has never experienced push back in any way shape or form. He has been accustomed to getting his way throughout his brief public career. His adoring fans and media have hung onto his every word, but this love affair has been disrupted. Not only are his poll numbers falling, but he doesn't even have the support of his own party in Congress. Just six months into his presidency and he is already concerned about his legacy. In a recent meeting with a Democrat Congressman, he was candid in expressing his concern about the lack of support of his healthcare plan by stating " You're going to destroy my presidency."

From Congress Daily:

A telling episode recounted by Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassleyreveals the Obama administration might be more worried than they are letting on that a Republican senator's comparison of the healthcare overhaul to Waterloo might be dangerously close to the truth.

Grassley said he spoke with a Democratic House member last week who shared Obama's bleak reaction during a private meeting to reports that some factions of House Democrats were lining up to stall or even take down the overhaul unless leaders made major changes.

"Let's just lay everything on the table," Grassley said. "A Democrat congressman last week told me after a conversation with the president that the president had trouble in the House of Representatives, and it wasn't going to pass if there weren't some changes made ... and the president says, 'You're going to destroy my presidency.' "

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Read article here

CBO Director: The Federal Budget Is On An Unsustainable Path

The Director of the Congressional Budget Office confirmed what most of us already knew. Namely that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path. I'm sure the White House isn't happy with having another credible source weigh in on their reckless spending.

From the CBO Director's Blog:

Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario for current law. Unless revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits. Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress economic growth in the United States. Over time, accumulating debt would cause substantial harm to the economy. The following chart shows our projection of federal debt relative to GDP under the two scenarios we modeled.

   

 

Read entire post here

The Case Against Obama's Healthcare Takeover

From Kudlow's Money & Politics:

It looks like President Obama’s big-bang health-care reform is going down to defeat. This is good. But my question is why do we need it at all? According to a recent ABC News/USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 89 percent of Americans are satisfied with their health care. That could mean up to 250 million people are happy. So why is it that we need Obama’s big-bang health-care overhaul in the first place?

There’s more. According the U.S. Census Bureau, we don’t have 47 million folks who are truly uninsured. When you take college kids plus those earning $75,000 or more who chose not to sign up, that removes roughly 20 million people. Then take out about 10 million more who are not U.S. citizens, and 11 million who are eligible for SCHIP and Medicaid but have not signed up for some reason.

So that really leaves only 10 million to 15 million people who are truly long-term uninsured.

Yes, they need help. And yes, I would like to give it to them. But not with mandatory coverage, or new government-backed insurance plans, or massive tax increases. And certainly not with the Canadian-European-style nationalization that has always been the true goal of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.

Instead, we can give the truly uninsured vouchers or debit cards that will allow for choice and coverage, and even health savings accounts for retirement wealth. According to expert Betsy McCaughey, instead of several trillion dollars and socialized medicine, this voucher approach would cost only about $25 billion a year.

Read entire post here