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| Image Source: NBC News |
March 2, 2016
Americans are only beginning to realize what a colossal mistake allowing the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act actually was. Far from being true universal health care delivery (a system that could easily be created by taxing Wall Street turnover), Obamacare was nothing more than a combination of forced participation in a private market and the ultimate rationing of that health care once the purchase of insurance was made.[1]
Since the passage of the AHA, Americans have seen the premiums they have been forced to buy from private insurers sky-rocket in cost while those on government-based healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid have seen cuts and gutting.[2] [3] Those large numbers of individuals who are unable to afford coverage, do not have it provided by their employers, or not enrolled in a government program, are forced to either buy extremely expensive plans or go without. For those that go without, a massive tax penalty awaits at the end of the year. This has succeeded in creating an entire class of Americans who pay large sums of money without actually receiving health care.
In addition, those fortunate enough to receive healthcare through their employers are subject to a special tax at the end of the year to ensure that every American loses something in the deal.
Even more concerning is the trend toward rationing, an inevitable aspect of the law that was part of the plan from the very beginning. With cuts to government programs and, at the same time, forcing Americans to buy private insurance plans, dire decisions will be made by insurance boards and oversight committees such as the CCCCER as well as Medicare and Medicaid boards. Health care decisions will be based on “cost-effectiveness” instead of what is best for the patient.[4]
These horrors aside, it is important to note that the ACA was not merely a dream of the Obama administration. Nor was it even the dream of the Democratic party. After all, forcing Americans to buy private insurance was a Republican plan for years. During that time, however, leftist onlookers denounced the plan as a bailout for the insurance industry (which it was). Conservative heroes like Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich supported the ACA-style plan, complete with the individual mandate, the most onerous aspect of the plan, with special backing and support providing from institutions like the Heritage Foundation.[5]
Heritage supported the plan and the individual mandate as far back as 1989 when Stuart Butler of Heritage proposed a plan he called “Assuring Affordable Healthcare To All Americans.” Butler wrote,
Hillary Clinton and her treacherous husband then took up the mantle of the individual mandate and began championing a plan that was extremely similar to the one proposed and passed by the Obama administration. Even the famous Obama lie, “If you like your plan, you keep your plan” was prepared during the Clinton administration as the recent release of a Clinton-era memo reveals. While not Obama’s exact words, “If you like Blue Cross, you can keep your Blue Cross,” is similar enough to say the least, demonstrating that even the deceitful propaganda campaign was devised years earlier.[7]
As Discover the Networks describes the Clinton plan,
DTN rightly points out that the individual mandate was an integral part of Hillary’s healthcare plan.
As the New York Times reported on September 11, 1993, the Clinton plan required that “Everyone, working or not, would have to carry health insurance and contribute to its cost. . . .”[9] [10]
DTN continues:
While Hillary was unable to get her way in 1993, Americans were eventually browbeaten by catcalls of racism and a false dialectic of choice between oppressive rationed healthcare at the barrel of a gun versus allowing the current oppressive privatized health insurance industry to continue. The reality was that a 1% Wall Street Sales Tax on all Wall Street turnover would have been more than enough to provide Medicare For All at no cost to the American taxpayer, no rationing, and no force being used to compel citizens to participate.[12]
Thus, every American suffering under rationed or cut health care options, confiscated tax returns, fines/taxes as a result of lack of health insurance or receiving employer insurance, or higher premiums must look at Hillary Clinton as the tip of the spear in producing these obstacles to healthcare and reasonable standards of living.
Brandon Turbeville’s new book, The Difference It Makes: 36 Reasons Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President is available in three different formats: Hardcopy (available here), Amazon Kindle for only .99 (available here), and a Free PDF Format (accessible free from his website,BrandonTurbeville.com).
[1] Turbeville, Brandon. “The Case For The 1% Wall Street Sales Tax.” Activist Post. February 25, 2013. http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/the-case-for-1-wall-street-sales-tax.html Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[2] Luhby, Tami. “Obamacare Sticker Shock: Big Rate Hikes Proposed For 2016.” CNN. June 2, 2015. http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/02/news/economy/obamacare-rates/ Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[3] Turbeville, Brandon. “Political Debt Compromise Will Be Austerity Not Real Economic Solutions.” Activist Post. October 23, 2013. http://www.activistpost.com/2013/10/political-debt-compromise-will-be.html Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[4] Turbeville, Brandon. “Obamacare Is A Eugenics Program.” Infowars.com September 4, 2009. http://www.infowars.com/obamacare-is-a-eugenics-program/ Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[5] Roy, Avik. “The Tortuous History Of Conservatives And The Individual Mandate.” Forbes. February 7, 2012. http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[6] Butler, Stuart M. “Assuring Affordable HealthCare For All Americans.” Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Lectures. Vol. 218. http://healthcarereform.procon.org/sourcefiles/1989_assuring_affordable_health_care_for_all_americans.pdf Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[7] Ballhaus, Rebecca. “Clinton-Era Memo: ‘If You Like Blue Cross, You Can Keep Your Blue Cross.’” Wall Street Journal. April 10, 2015. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/04/10/clinton-era-memo-if-you-like-your-blue-cross-you-can-keep-your-b Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[8] “Government-Run Healthcare In The United States.” Discover The Networks. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=615 Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[9] “How It Would Work.” New York Times. September 11, 1993. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/health/HEALTHCARE_TIMELINE/1993_clinton.pdf Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[10] “Excerpts From Final Draft Of Health Care Overhaul Proposal.” New York Times. September 11, 1993. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/health/HEALTHCARE_TIMELINE/1993_clinton.pdf Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[11] “Government-Run Healthcare In The United States.” Discover The Networks. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=615 Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[12] Turbeville, Brandon. “The Case For The 1% Wall Street Sales Tax.” Activist Post. February 25, 2013. http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/the-case-for-1-wall-street-sales-tax.html Accessed on September 4, 2015.
Americans are only beginning to realize what a colossal mistake allowing the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act actually was. Far from being true universal health care delivery (a system that could easily be created by taxing Wall Street turnover), Obamacare was nothing more than a combination of forced participation in a private market and the ultimate rationing of that health care once the purchase of insurance was made.[1]
Since the passage of the AHA, Americans have seen the premiums they have been forced to buy from private insurers sky-rocket in cost while those on government-based healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid have seen cuts and gutting.[2] [3] Those large numbers of individuals who are unable to afford coverage, do not have it provided by their employers, or not enrolled in a government program, are forced to either buy extremely expensive plans or go without. For those that go without, a massive tax penalty awaits at the end of the year. This has succeeded in creating an entire class of Americans who pay large sums of money without actually receiving health care.
In addition, those fortunate enough to receive healthcare through their employers are subject to a special tax at the end of the year to ensure that every American loses something in the deal.
Even more concerning is the trend toward rationing, an inevitable aspect of the law that was part of the plan from the very beginning. With cuts to government programs and, at the same time, forcing Americans to buy private insurance plans, dire decisions will be made by insurance boards and oversight committees such as the CCCCER as well as Medicare and Medicaid boards. Health care decisions will be based on “cost-effectiveness” instead of what is best for the patient.[4]
These horrors aside, it is important to note that the ACA was not merely a dream of the Obama administration. Nor was it even the dream of the Democratic party. After all, forcing Americans to buy private insurance was a Republican plan for years. During that time, however, leftist onlookers denounced the plan as a bailout for the insurance industry (which it was). Conservative heroes like Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich supported the ACA-style plan, complete with the individual mandate, the most onerous aspect of the plan, with special backing and support providing from institutions like the Heritage Foundation.[5]
Heritage supported the plan and the individual mandate as far back as 1989 when Stuart Butler of Heritage proposed a plan he called “Assuring Affordable Healthcare To All Americans.” Butler wrote,
Many states now require passengers in automobiles to wear seatbelts for their own protection. Many others require anybody driving a car to have liability insurance. But neither the federal government nor any state requires all households to protect themselves from the potentially catastrophic costs of a serious accident or illness. Under the Heritage plan, there would be such a requirement.
This mandate is based on two important principles. First, that health care protection is a responsibility of individuals, not businesses. Thus to the extent that anybody should be required to provide coverage to a family, the household mandate assumes that it is the family that carries the first responsibility. Second, it assumes that there is an implicit contract between households and society, based on the notion that health insurance is not like other forms of insurance protection. If a young man wrecks his Porsche and has not had the foresight to obtain insurance, we may commiserate but society feels no obligation to repair his car. But health care is different. If a man is struck down by a heart attack in the street, Americans will care for him whether or not he has insurance. If we find that he has spent his money on other things rather than insurance, we may be angry but we will not deny him services—even if that means more prudent citizens end up paying the tab.
A mandate on individuals recognizes this implicit contract. Society does feel a moral obligation to insure that its citizens do not suffer from the unavailability of health care. But on the other hand, each household has the obligation, to the extent it is able, to avoid placing demands on society by protecting itself…
A mandate on households certainly would force those with adequate means to obtain insurance protection, which would end the problem of middle-class “free riders” on society’s sense of obligation.[6]
Hillary Clinton and her treacherous husband then took up the mantle of the individual mandate and began championing a plan that was extremely similar to the one proposed and passed by the Obama administration. Even the famous Obama lie, “If you like your plan, you keep your plan” was prepared during the Clinton administration as the recent release of a Clinton-era memo reveals. While not Obama’s exact words, “If you like Blue Cross, you can keep your Blue Cross,” is similar enough to say the least, demonstrating that even the deceitful propaganda campaign was devised years earlier.[7]
As Discover the Networks describes the Clinton plan,
In 1993 President Bill Clinton launched an effort to provide universal health care coverage based on the idea of “managed competition,” where private insurers would compete in a tightly regulated market. The plan called for everyone, whether or not they were employed, to carry health insurance and to contribute to its cost, though government subsidies would be made available for the poor. Moreover, the plan required employers to bankroll 80 percent of all policy premium costs for workers and their families. People who were already covered by existing government programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, Department of Veterans Affairs, Indian Health Service, etc. -- would simply continue to use those programs. The Clinton plan proposed to cover all services related to hospitalization, emergency care, office visits, preventive care, mental health, substance abuse, abortion, prenatal care, hospice care, home health aides, laboratory and diagnostic tests, prescription drugs, rehabilitation, durable medical equipment, prosthetic devices, vision and hearing care, preventive dental care for children, and health education classes.[8]
DTN rightly points out that the individual mandate was an integral part of Hillary’s healthcare plan.
As the New York Times reported on September 11, 1993, the Clinton plan required that “Everyone, working or not, would have to carry health insurance and contribute to its cost. . . .”[9] [10]
DTN continues:
Americans rallied against what was called Hillarycare because of the First Lady’s role in drafting the legislation. One of the reasons for their opposition was that Mrs. Clinton, who headed the 500-member Health Care Task Force (HCTF), attempted to conduct all HCTF business in secret meetings led off from public scrutiny. This modus operandi was in violation of so-called “sunshine laws” forbidding such secret meetings from taking place when non-government employees are present.[11]
While Hillary was unable to get her way in 1993, Americans were eventually browbeaten by catcalls of racism and a false dialectic of choice between oppressive rationed healthcare at the barrel of a gun versus allowing the current oppressive privatized health insurance industry to continue. The reality was that a 1% Wall Street Sales Tax on all Wall Street turnover would have been more than enough to provide Medicare For All at no cost to the American taxpayer, no rationing, and no force being used to compel citizens to participate.[12]
Thus, every American suffering under rationed or cut health care options, confiscated tax returns, fines/taxes as a result of lack of health insurance or receiving employer insurance, or higher premiums must look at Hillary Clinton as the tip of the spear in producing these obstacles to healthcare and reasonable standards of living.
Brandon Turbeville’s new book, The Difference It Makes: 36 Reasons Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President is available in three different formats: Hardcopy (available here), Amazon Kindle for only .99 (available here), and a Free PDF Format (accessible free from his website,BrandonTurbeville.com).
[1] Turbeville, Brandon. “The Case For The 1% Wall Street Sales Tax.” Activist Post. February 25, 2013. http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/the-case-for-1-wall-street-sales-tax.html Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[2] Luhby, Tami. “Obamacare Sticker Shock: Big Rate Hikes Proposed For 2016.” CNN. June 2, 2015. http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/02/news/economy/obamacare-rates/ Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[3] Turbeville, Brandon. “Political Debt Compromise Will Be Austerity Not Real Economic Solutions.” Activist Post. October 23, 2013. http://www.activistpost.com/2013/10/political-debt-compromise-will-be.html Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[4] Turbeville, Brandon. “Obamacare Is A Eugenics Program.” Infowars.com September 4, 2009. http://www.infowars.com/obamacare-is-a-eugenics-program/ Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[5] Roy, Avik. “The Tortuous History Of Conservatives And The Individual Mandate.” Forbes. February 7, 2012. http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[6] Butler, Stuart M. “Assuring Affordable HealthCare For All Americans.” Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Lectures. Vol. 218. http://healthcarereform.procon.org/sourcefiles/1989_assuring_affordable_health_care_for_all_americans.pdf Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[7] Ballhaus, Rebecca. “Clinton-Era Memo: ‘If You Like Blue Cross, You Can Keep Your Blue Cross.’” Wall Street Journal. April 10, 2015. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/04/10/clinton-era-memo-if-you-like-your-blue-cross-you-can-keep-your-b Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[8] “Government-Run Healthcare In The United States.” Discover The Networks. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=615 Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[9] “How It Would Work.” New York Times. September 11, 1993. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/health/HEALTHCARE_TIMELINE/1993_clinton.pdf Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[10] “Excerpts From Final Draft Of Health Care Overhaul Proposal.” New York Times. September 11, 1993. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/health/HEALTHCARE_TIMELINE/1993_clinton.pdf Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[11] “Government-Run Healthcare In The United States.” Discover The Networks. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=615 Accessed on September 4, 2015.
[12] Turbeville, Brandon. “The Case For The 1% Wall Street Sales Tax.” Activist Post. February 25, 2013. http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/the-case-for-1-wall-street-sales-tax.html Accessed on September 4, 2015.
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