Real Facts

Originally Posted At Patients United Now

1. Washington May Be Close to Taking Over Your Health Care

Could a government takeover of my health care lead to waiting lines and denied care? Yes. Politicians who want government-centered and not patient-centered health care prefer to look at patients as ‘costs’ rather than human beings. They want to save money by giving government bureaucrats the power to deny or delay care.

The recent ‘Stimulus’ bill created the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (FCCCER). Everyone supports research that helps determine which treatments work best. But councils like this in other countries have gone further, analyzing and making recommendations about whether some people are worth getting care or treatment.

In a government-run system, controlling costs means reducing the quality of care, making people wait in long lines, and even denying procedures based on a bureaucratic determination that some people are too old or too sick or some treatments are too expensive.

Real health care reform will put patients in control of deciding, with their doctors, which choices make the most sense for them.

2. Medicare-for-All Is Bad News
This is often viewed as the holy grail for many who want a “single-payer system” (which mean completely government-run). Medicare, even for those seniors who have it, has severe limitations on patient-centered medicine, preferring to put the political interests of Washington ahead of the well-being of patients.
There are countless stories of Medicare fraud and abuse. Take this for example, in January 2009 the Government Accountability Office reported that some $60 million to $90 million in Medicare payments went to pay dead doctors, some of whom had been dead for more than ten years.

More importantly, the costs of the Medicare and Medicaid programs are out of control and bankrupting our country. Expanding Medicare would create a flood of new patients into already overburdened health care providers.

3. The "Public Option" Is a Step Toward Total Government Control

The "Public Option" is just the first step on the path to government-run health care. Some politicians openly admit that a single, government-only, payer system is their end game.

Others claim that the "Public Option" is not government-run health care.

No matter what the politicians say, government will use its power to manipulate the rules and force people into its plan. The Lewin Group recently published a study showing just how many people would lose their private insurance with a government option. The number reached as high as 119 million Americans.

And if current government health insurance options are any sign, taxpayers will be forced to bail out the government plan sooner or later.

4. Your Medical Privacy Is in Jeopardy

Arizona offered a public plan option: the state’s taxpayers needed to bail out the plan, and benefits and options were reduced for the families who relied on the plan. See The Arizona Republic: instead of becoming self-sufficient, the growth only increased costs.

A public plan for health insurance for all children in Hawaii was introduced in 2008. After only 7 months, the plan was repealed and abandoned because of high costs. 85% of all children who enrolled in the government plan ALREADY had private coverage. See Heartland Institute: unwise to spend public money to replace private coverage that children already had.

Massachusetts instituted a plan for “universal health insurance” for all of its residents. Since enacting the plan in 2006, the state’s spending on health care has increased 42%. And compared to the national average, Massachusetts, which already spent on average 25% more per person, now spends 33% more than the national average. New York Times: The day of reckoning has arrived.

5. The Impact of Government Health Care Mandates

A mandate that we be forced to purchase health insurance—or pay fines, tax penalties, even have our wages garnished—will do nothing to reduce overall health care costs or improve access for most Americans. In fact, in Massachusetts where there currently is an individual mandate, average health insurance premiums are over three times the national average. The private health insurance industry would like nothing more than to see individuals being forced to buy their product. This is really just a bailout for big insurance companies.

The health insurance industry has worked alongside Washington politicians to advance a national health insurance mandate. Politicians and bureaucrats are busily hammering out the details in secret, and patients have no voice.
Some people who can’t afford insurance—possibly based on political considerations—will likely receive care at taxpayer expense. Subsidized care cost Massachusetts $794 million last year.

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