Letter to the Editor of the Contra Costa Times

This will not be 200 words, nor will it be something your staff would write and it too complicated to argue in 200 words. However, in fairness it should be presented to your readers for them to consider and to accept or reject.

It is amazing whats going on in the country with Health Care and other great issues of the day. It is clear from the many speeches of Democrats and the from the President's Health Care Forum the arguments of Democrats are emotional and anecdotal. In many cases these are sincere, heart felt concerns; however, they do not question nor address the following question: If it takes, as the new health care legislation does, 10 years to fund 6 years of benefits in the first decade, how in the second decade and beyond will this bill be able to fund 10 years of benefits?

The standard reply is "Congressional Budget Office said it would". We don't always believe what the government says. Trust yourself. So I ask you again; if it takes 10 years to fund 6 years in the first decade, how in the second decade and beyond will this bill be able to fund 10 years of benefits? It is critical for you as citizens to come up with a viable answer to that question. It is not to say the the stories of pain and suffering noted by the Democrats are not real and don't need to be resolved. It is to say, is this the right solution for those in need and for the long term prospects of this country and this state? 

It is not possible, as this bill requires, to have insurance companies provide extended coverage for kids up to 26 years old, no pre-condition restrictions, and no maximum annual and lifetime coverage for free. The administration says the insurance company will get extra revenue to cover these new costs from the new 30 million people the bill requires to obtain insurance. TMany of the people that don't pay for insurance today are not going to buy insurance at hundreds of dollars a month, just because the government says so. They will simply pay the $650/year fine the new health care imposed and that the 16,500 new IRS agents, the bill hires, will collect from them if they don't. If and when if these people get sick enough they will simply sign up with one of the insurance companies since there are no pre-condition exclusions. The insurance company will not have had the opportunity to collect premiums from these people while they were healthy (the insurance company that signs up these people doesn't even get the fine the government was collecting), but they will immediately have to start paying for this new person's illness.

Because of all these new costs the insurance companies will have to increase premiums. We recently heard the administration's response to premium increases and they have gone record saying this new legislation would limit premium increases. Therefore, the government will say "no" to the increase. (The new law gives this power to the Secretary of Health and Human Services). The insurance companies cannot take on all the new costs without increases in premiums and they will start to go out of business. The government will then jump in to replace the insurance companies and we will have single payer government health care in five to seven years. Look how well that works at the Veteran's Administration or in Canada and Europe.

In the meantime people will be loosing their insurance and many will have to go into Medicaid. Obama says "there is no government takeover of health care. Its not in the bill". He is right it is not in the bill, but it is the natural consequence of the bill. He knows this. He is being deceptive. He is on tape saying his goal is single payer, government run health care. This new law assumes an additional 15-20 million people will go into state Medicaid which the law requires the States to fund. Most states are broke now,as is California. How can they support this new mandate? Taxes will go up significantly. If Medicaid is is available, doctors will not take the limited payment provided by Medicaid and these people will still not get care the bill provides. This, as Obama likes to say, "is a false choice".  

Even if doctors would take these patients at lower payment rates there probably won't be enough doctors to handle these new people. There will then have to be rationing to match the limited numbers of doctors to patients and to keep cost down. People say doctors will quit. Not so, but many will retire early and people who in the future would have become doctors will probably do something else. And we will run out of doctors. Maybe we can hirer illegal immigrants to be doctors, because being a doctor will be one of the jobs "Americans will not do".

To many Democrats this new heath care law is 'Social Justice". But this bill will send the country and the state to financial ruin. And it will take us to a new level of government control in out lives we cannot imagine. Remember, at the outset this new law funds the hiring of 16,500 additional IRS agents to enforce it. Do you want the IRS to have 16,500 more IRS agents? That is only the beginning. To the Democratic leadership this bill is a strategic initiative with the intent to gain for the Democrats long term sustainable votes and power. To some Democrats this is the beginning and fulfillment of dream of social/democratic society as found in Europe today. Do you want to power plays and finagling we have just witnessed in Congress to become the norm?

As citizens of a State on the brink of financial collapse you must go deep and ask is this where you want to go? Do you want your country to follow? If the citizens would think it through for themselves they would see it is not viable. In the long term this bill will fail to do what it promises and it will collapse in on itself; as has been said "the problem with Socialism is you eventually run out of other peoples money". But unless you act now it will be too late to repair the damage.

Hopefully, those against this new legislation will not forget and will replace the democrats who have taken this state to the brink failure and are allowing the country to follow. Remember, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

Whether this new health care legislation can be repealed is questionable. Hopefully it is possible. On the positive side 38 states have started legislation or legal action to take the Federal Government to court to stop this legislation because of the individual insurance mandate and the unfunded state Medical mandate. If you are against this bill and you are in a district that has the slightest chance of replacing a Democrat with a Republican in the House or the Senate you should contribute as money and time as you can to get it done.  And you should get involve now, as soon as you can. Get the right candidates who will promise and prove to you they are for financial solvency. Do this now before the primaries. Don't wait until the fall elections. It may be too late by then.