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Obamacare: good enough for you peons…

July 18th, 2009

…but not for your Congressional overlords:

On Tuesday, the Senate health committee voted 12-11 in favor of a two-page amendment courtesy of Republican Tom Coburn that would require all Members and their staffs to enroll in any new government-run health plan. Yet all Democrats — with the exceptions of acting chairman Chris Dodd, Barbara Mikulski and Ted Kennedy via proxy — voted nay.

In other words, Sherrod Brown and Sheldon Whitehouse won’t themselves join a plan that “will offer benefits that are as good as those available through private insurance plans — or better,” as the Ohio and Rhode Island liberals put it in a recent op-ed. And even a self-described socialist like Vermont’s Bernie Sanders, who supports a government-only system, wouldn’t sign himself up.

Rope. Tree. Socialists. Some assembly required. And on a related note: still foolishly swallowing those lies about being “allowed” to keep your own private insurance? Think again, sap:

PRESIDENT Obama promises that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it,” even after he reforms our health-care system. That’s untrue. The bills now before Congress would force you to switch to a managed-care plan with limits on your access to specialists and tests.

Two main bills are being rushed through Congress with the goal of combining them into a finished product by August. Under either, a new government bureaucracy will select health plans that it considers in your best interest, and you will have to enroll in one of these “qualified plans.” If you now get your plan through work, your employer has a five-year “grace period” to switch you into a qualified plan. If you buy your own insurance, you’ll have less time.

And as soon as anything changes in your contract — such as a change in copays or deductibles, which many insurers change every year — you’ll have to move into a qualified plan instead (House bill, p. 16-17).

When you file your taxes, if you can’t prove to the IRS that you are in a qualified plan, you’ll be fined thousands of dollars — as much as the average cost of a health plan for your family size — and then automatically enrolled in a randomly selected plan (House bill, p. 167-168).

It’s one thing to require that people getting government assistance tolerate managed care, but the legislation limits you to a managed-care plan even if you and your employer are footing the bill (Senate bill, p. 57-58). The goal is to reduce everyone’s consumption of health care and to ensure that people have the same health-care experience, regardless of ability to pay.

Congress should pursue less radical ways to cover the uninsured. We have too much to lose with this legislation.

Yeah, like decent, competent health care. And our freedom.

Update! And here’s what your lords and masters think of you and your opinions, proles.

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Comments appear entirely at the whim of the guy who pays the bills for this site, and may be deleted, edited, ridiculed, or otherwise pissed over as he in his capricious fancy sees fit. Thank you.
  1. July 18th, 2009 at 19:59 | #1
    I'm sometimes resentful of the ability of Muslotards to get suicide bombers to do their bidding. Unfortunately they're usually motivated by religious ardor rather than simple greed, so it's hard to have a couple of them boys on retainer.

    Having said that, I really hate these cocksuckers in DC.

  2. emdfl
    July 19th, 2009 at 02:30 | #2
    Hell the boyos of congress have been exempting themselves and their offices from their own legislation for years. Examples - minimum wage, sexual harrasment to name just two
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