Obama-Car

While talking about healthcare reform with my wife, our teenage son started asking questions. We tried to answer him in a way he could understand, but we just weren’t getting through. Health insurance is a foreign language to him. However he is dreaming about which car he will soon purchase. So we introduced ObamaCare to him by way of the Affordable Car Act… a.k.a. Obama-Car:

Obama says his reforms will include additional mandated essential health benefits AND reduce health insurance costs by $2500 per family. That’s simply impossible. That would be like requiring all 2014 cars to be either hybrid or fully electric (more energy efficient), include run-flat tires with electronic low-pressure warnings (better fuel economy), HID headlights (better night vision), GPS (less fuel wasted getting lost), and satellite radio (because it sounds good) at a lower price.

Yes, these OPTIONS are nice if you have the money to pay for them, but they should remain OPTIONS, not REQUIREMENTS.

Instead of a Chevy Cruze starting at $17,000 the new Obama-Car compliant version (such as the Chevy Volt) would be priced around $34,000.

Obama claims these new cars will only be paid in full by the “millionaires and billionaires” because anyone making less than 400% of the poverty level will have some (or all) of their car subsidized by the government.

Now let’s talk about used cars…

Let’s say you like your existing car.  As long as you owned it before March 23, 2010, you would be allowed to keep it. You cannot make any changes to it or it would no longer be “grandfathered” and you would be forced into buying a new Obama-Car next year or pay a penalty.

If it doesn’t get good enough gas mileage or include all the new Obama-Car required Overpriced Bureaucratically Authorized Mandated Add-ons (OBAMA), then you would also be penalized.

Our son is glad Obama-Car doesn’t exist. He can save his own money to purchase any car he chooses… as long as Dad (not Obama) approves of it!

Dislaimer:  This article was never meant to suggest Obama-Car legislation is needed or should ever become law.

Prepare For ObamaCare

Dear Nancy Pelosi,

After 3+ years and 20,000+ pages of additional clarifications…
WE STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT’S IN IT!

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) points up at ObamaCare

What was Obama texting during Dr. Benjamin Carson’s HSA explanation?

Here is proof that Obama has heard the truth about the right way to reform healthcare:

Dr. Carson’s low income / Medicaid proposal:
“Instead of sending it [big pot of government money] to some bureaucracy, let’s put it in their HSAs. Now they have some control over their own healthcare. And what are they going to do? They are going to learn very quickly how to be responsible.”

The real question is what was so important that Obama needed to be texting during Dr. Carson’s excellent HSA explanation?

Here are a few of my initial guesses:
– This just ruined breakfast. What’s for lunch?
– Need a distraction NOW… How about a round of golf with Tiger?
– I hope this guy doesn’t run for president
– Who scheduled this guy?
– FIRE HIM!

So what are some of your guesses?
(the best ones will be posted here)

Massachusetts is working so well… Why not force it on everyone?

So now that the people have spoken very loudly (just ask Claire McCaskill) against socialized medicine congress is trying to get support for another bill that is eerily similar to the Massachusetts healthcare reform plan. The good news is we now have a track record to see how well these mandates work. The bad news is that nobody in the majority party seems to care about results.

Three Lessons from Massachusetts

We can’t afford to make the same mistake.

And would somebody actually read the bill before they vote?

We want Canadian style socialized medicine… right?

Before congress passes a sweeping healthcare bill intending to wipe out private insurance companies and replacing it with a government controlled socialized medicine plan similar to Canada’s, shouldn’t we find out just how efficient the Canadian system really is?

Do you have a story to share about you or someone you know who received treatment from a country with socialized medicine? Please let us know. I will post all experiences both good and bad.

Just say no… to OBAMACARE!

 

If you are upset about how Congress is trying to take over our healthcare system, there are a host of ways to express your views on-line. Here are a few.

• NCPA has been promoting a “Free our health care now!” (http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/) petition that already has 400,000 signers. It also has an “action pack” (http://actionpack.ncpa.org/) so you can spread the word even further.
• The Galen Institute has put together a “Do no harm” (http://www.donoharmpetition.org/) petition calling on Congress to follow the Hippocrates oath to “First, do no harm” when it tries to heal health care.
• This one calls on Members of Congress to sign up (http://www.healthtransformation.net/cs/public_plan_petition) for any government-run insurance program it may come up with. Just imagine getting Congress to put itself on Medicaid.
• And the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest says Keep your “Hands Off my Health!” (http://www.handsoffmyhealth.org/)
• And here is a terrific resource for physicians but together by our friend Dr. David McKalip, “Take Back Medicine.” (http://www.takebackmedicine.com

16 pages into Obamacare bill… individual private medical insurance will be ILLEGAL!

So the Prez says we can keep our current private health insurance plan as long as we choose to. But what does the bill say?

IT’S NOT AN OPTION!

It's Not An Option

 

www.ibdeditorials.com

Those of us that are self employed and have enjoyed the low cost options that individual health plans can offer will be forced into Obamacare whether or not we want to.

This is NOT a plan to compete with private health insurance plans, it’s a plan to ELIMINATE THEM!

Luckily Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) and GOP members of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee have released the following chart explaining how the House Majority’s health care plan is structured.

Obamacare simplified

Now it all makes sense!

The scariest part about this complicated scheme is that they want to vote on it as early as next week! 

Sign the “Free Our Healthcare Now” petition

Finally… a common sense healthcare solution out of Washington!

As Washington continues to steamroll private businesses under the assumption that the last election results created a mandate for “change” healthcare reform is the ultimate target. Yesterday it was banks and the auto industry, today is credit cards, tomorrow is socialized medicine. For those of us that feel that Washington meddling in the private sector rarely (if ever) has positive results, what can we do to stop this?

There are a few people in Washington that are working towards a free market cure based on empowering physicians and patients to make healthcare decisions instead of forming a new Washington bureaucracy that will ultimately end up rationing healthcare.

An Alternative to Obamacare  

Congressman Paul Ryan unveils the Patients’ Choice Act at a May 20, 2009 press conference in the U.S. Capitol:

So why does our current healthcare delivery system focus on employer based plans? This common sense solution is based on portable privately owned health insurance plans.

If you feel the best healthcare solution lies within empowering individauls to control their own healthcare plans and healthcare dollars with Health Savings Accounts along with lower cost health insurance plans, now is the time to act… before it’s too late!

If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until it’s free!

For those of you that are captivated by the eloquent speeches out of Washington telling us the primary reason for healthcare reform is to cover the millions of uninsured in America, listen up!  …

Washington is treating healthcare as if it’s a right.  Just when did the historical revisionists rewrite the Declaration of Independence to say, “The Right to Life, Liberty, and Health Insurance”?

I agree we have a problem with our healthcare system in America.  It is WAY too expensive.  I have said many times I am an insurance agent that doesn’t like insurance.

Co-pay based healthcare plans are doomed to failure by design.  When you incentivize people to spend money, don’t act so surprised when they overspend!  The way to change utilization is to give every American a vested interest in NOT spending their healthcare dollars.  Every time I pull out my Health Savings Account debit card, I’m spending MY MONEY!

Where is personal responsibility in this conversation?  How many uninsured people are actually spending more money on cell phones, cable tv, alcohol, tobacco, eating out, movies, and other entertainment than what an HSA qualified health insurance plan would cost?  You might be surprised at how affordable these plans can be.  Go to www.myHSAguy.com and see for yourself.  You do need to be healthy enough to qualify, but most states have guaranteed issue plans available that will cover any health condition.  So why doesn’t Washington put a few more dollars into these state plans and make them more affordable?

Now THAT’S a healthcare reform plan I would support!