[rj8806]

I took some time yesterday to write a letter to both of my Senators and my House of Rep. asking them about the Healthcare reform bill that was being shoved down our throats.

I asked them to please explain in plain english, what the "public option" would mean to me, a normal citizen. I also asked about the real defintition of covering (or not covering) illegal immigrants.
I followed that up by asking about the so called penalty tax that would be levied on businesses who do not provide coverage to their employees. I had heard that it would be 8%. I asked them that if it was 8% and that in turn was less than what they were paying to insure their employees, what would prevent the business owner from dumping coverage, paying less by paying the 8% and thus forcing the employess into the public option.

My last question was asking them to expand on the "fine" that would be levied against individuals who did not choose to carry insurance.

We will wait to see if they respond and if they do, what their answers are. I will post up their response as soon as I get it.

I encourage EVERYBODY on here to write their Congressmen/women as well. Here are the links I used to find my Senators and House Rep. and their contact information.....

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=TN

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml#tn



Hopefully in 2010 the tide will turn and the Republican party will take back the Senate. Personally, I would love it if everyone voted out the ones that have made a life long career of politics and vote in fresh, new faces. If we did this every election, we might see some real changes.

[rj8806]

Wow....20 something views and no one could chime in with their .02?

I follow politics on a corvette forum and 1 guy just posted a response to a "Liberal" who had asked what he would do differently with regards to the health care bill being proposed. I am copying and pasting his response because to me, it says it all and is right on the money......

The first "copy" is the Liberal's question.....

" You cons are a bunch of whining dorks. Always bitching and moaning and NEVER offering a solution.

Whats YOUR solution to giving illegals free healthcare out of your wallets and what YOUR solution to paying for all the free abortions!?!?!?"

Here is his response and I must say, I think he hit a home run....

" Well glad you asked. Its quite a simple explanation...but even so I'll try to leave out larger than 2 syllable words so you can follow along.

1) Deport illegals as soon as they are identified. Make every business run the database check against socials being provided.

2) Explicitly state (if a healthcare bill MUST be passed...which it doesn't) that non US citizens are barred from being covered.

3) State in the health care bill that no monies will go towards abortion coverage. Abortions should be covered out of pocket if someone feels the need to get one.

4) Drop the healthcare bill altogether since it will become the largest boondoggle ever created by our Govt. Its not a matter of "IF" it will...its only a matter of "WHEN" it will.

5) Instead of the healthcare bill how about opening up interstate options so I can shop a policy around to 1000 companies instead of the 2 I currently can choose from.

6) Post insurance company track records in an easily searchable place. Those that excel will be rewarded by increased customers...those that don't will fail.

Health care is NOT a right. People in America enjoy assistance now if they are critically injured. They can be seen in a hospital emergency room. Insurance is for the unexpected. It is to be purchased in case its needed. Just like a life, home, car policy.

Finally, the govt never gets anything right (DEMS OR PUBS) they are all the same anyway (shades of gray). I've busted my hump for 22 years and sacrificed time and energy becoming upwardly mobile. I don't care if you think I'm heartless...I don't want someones poor choices to be something I have to pay for.

I don't think I could have put it better myself. I wish I had thought of these points when I wrote my letter yesterday. I just may have to re-send it again with this as my questions.....

[tripleblack]

LOL, sorry, I was busy trying to earn a living elsewhere, Richard.

As for writing your congressmen, good job, I hope they write you back more than a form letter, though I really doubt it.

As for the Republicans re-taking the Senate, there is only a very remote chance of that.

There are 19 Republicans and 19 Democrats up for re-election.

This means that 41 Democrats are GUARANTEED to keep their seats, as are the 2 independents (1 socialist who always sides with the Democrats, and Joe Lieberman, who votes their way about 70% of the time).

So anyway, the odds of the Republicans winning all 19 of their own contested seats AND 11 of the 19 Democrat seats is pretty much nill. This would constitute a turn-around of the current picture unlike anything seen before.

More likley is that the Republicans will re-elect about 17 or 18 of their own guys, and win about 4 or 5 of the Dem seats, for a net gain of 2 or 3 (maybe 4 if they are really lucky).

This would probably re-establish the Republican party's ability to ocassionally block legislation via a closure vote or fillibuster, but would put them at least 1 or 2 more elections away from winning sufficient seats to regain control.

They have a shot at accomplishing a change of control in the House, where ALL the seats are up for grabs every 2 years, but not in the senate.

I can also hazard a resonse to your questions based upon my reading of the 3 source documents (from 3 seperate House committees) for the final bill, but far as I know, the FINAL consolidated bill is NOT available anywhere, and no politician has read it (assuming it exists, which I doubt).

The idea will be to release the final version about 30 minutes before the Democrats exercise the "nuclear option" and push it through the House and Senate in votes along party lines.

Whatever is released 24 hourse BEFORE the vote will also be changed at the last second with an amendment tacked on by the Democratic leadership to slip through any really slimey things they want to keep quiet until there is no way to stop them.

This is the method used for Porkzilla/stim and Obama's Budget.

The fix is in.

Our only hope is that the Dem leaders can't properly count their own party supporters.

[rj8806]

Originally Posted by tripleblack

LOL, sorry, I was busy trying to earn a living elsewhere, Richard......

I knew you would be along soon Stan, I was referring to the other 19+ views.....


I didn't realize that the Republicans were that far behind and that retaking the Senate would be a shot in the dark.....My hope is that the American people comes to realize the mistake they made and make a genuine effort to change it.

[tripleblack]

Originally Posted by rj8806

I knew you would be along soon Stan, I was referring to the other 19+ views.....


I didn't realize that the Republicans were that far behind and that retaking the Senate would be a shot in the dark.....My hope is that the American people comes to realize the mistake they made and make a genuine effort to change it.

Actually, first I saw the thread I jumped in.

Elections have consequences. This last one in particular. I had multiple arguments with friends and associates before November, and finally concluded that a large number had decided to vote AGAINST Bush despite the fact that he was not on the ballot, regardless of any potential consequences.

My Uncle Jim had a saying about this sort of situation:

"Some folks will listen to reason, and some won't. And some will pee on the cattle prod just to see if it's plugged in."

Now it will take us at least 1 more election to fix the disaster in the Senate, and probably not even in 2012 (Senators are tough to dislodge, once established).

[Nagakilo]

Not to slide off topic a little bit, but I'd like to see real people who are educated such as yourselfs debate amongst the politicians instead of the debates that are currently different media outlets slandering each other. It would be much more fascinating to see. Personally all I ever hear going to school is health care is good and all other sorts of liberal political views.

I love that idea about opening up health insurance across state borders. An absolutely fantastic resolution, that will end this "Shared" monopoly that we currently have. It doesn't matter if you have options in health insurance if they all have the same agenda. Hell I'm sure if I looked up the board of directors of the different companies they would all have shared members.

[BlueStreak03]

Man I really miss having time to post on these forums. School has me hopping right now though. ll I'll say is 'ditto' to what Same and the other dude had to say.

[rj8806]

Originally Posted by Nagakilo

Not to slide off topic a little bit, but I'd like to see real people who are educated such as yourselfs debate amongst the politicians instead of the debates that are currently different media outlets slandering each other. It would be much more fascinating to see. Personally all I ever hear going to school is health care is good and all other sorts of liberal political views.

I love that idea about opening up health insurance across state borders. An absolutely fantastic resolution, that will end this "Shared" monopoly that we currently have. It doesn't matter if you have options in health insurance if they all have the same agenda. Hell I'm sure if I looked up the board of directors of the different companies they would all have shared members.

Then find out if and when your area is having a town hall meeting and go join in. I know here in east TN, they have had a few of them. If I'm not mistaken, even Senator Corker(R-Chattanooga) was at one of them answering questions.

[tripleblack]

Yes, I despair of what I will do when my daughter heads off to college - just tell her to accept the C- slam from the leftists who run the place, to hold her head high, and continue to hold to her conservative views.

Frankly, I have lost respect for our system of higher learning. It has become so thoroughly corrupted by marxist ideologues that it does more harm than good to our young people.

Originally Posted by Nagakilo

Not to slide off topic a little bit, but I'd like to see real people who are educated such as yourselfs debate amongst the politicians instead of the debates that are currently different media outlets slandering each other. It would be much more fascinating to see. Personally all I ever hear going to school is health care is good and all other sorts of liberal political views.

I love that idea about opening up health insurance across state borders. An absolutely fantastic resolution, that will end this "Shared" monopoly that we currently have. It doesn't matter if you have options in health insurance if they all have the same agenda. Hell I'm sure if I looked up the board of directors of the different companies they would all have shared members.

[pcfrisch]

I hate it when they say there is no other solution offered. A bad solution is no solution at all. But also if they don't agree with an alternate solution, they say there is none.

[tripleblack]

Originally Posted by pcfrisch

I hate it when they say there is no other solution offered. A bad solution is no solution at all. But also if they don't agree with an alternate solution, they say there is none.

Don't be fooled, this is a very clever strategy.

There is really no way for the Democrats to lose this way.

First the opposition is portrayed as fumbling and unprepared by the fellow travelers running the media.

Next the Republicans either come up with their own plan, which is the wrong thing to do since the nation cannot afford to install ANY plan at the current time...

OR they actually do the right thing, and point out that now is a poor time to make such a gigantic investment, while the treasury is empty...

In which case the fellow travelers in the media portray them as heartless brutes seeking to kill us all.

What SHOULD happen first, an ideological discussion over whether or not this is a proper function for government, never happens at all, and is presented as a viable topic by neither party.

[rj8806]

Well, I got 1 response this morning from Senator Alexander.......




Thanks very much for getting in touch with me and letting me know what's on your mind regarding health care reform.

Providing every American with genuine access to quality, affordable health care is one of my highest priorities as a member of the U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, the health care bills we're debating right now flunk their most important test, which is cost. These bills - including the Kennedy health care bill that I voted against in committee on July 15, 2009 - are good faith efforts to find the best way to go in the wrong direction. We have to start over to get it right.

Why do we have to start over? People at home in Tennessee, the Mayo Clinic, 1,000 local chambers of commerce and businesses, Democratic governors, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office all basically say, "These plans have too many problems." Add all those problems up, and this is what you'd get in Tennessee:
· Dumping 300,000 low-income Tennesseans into the failed Medicaid program (known as TennCare in Tennessee), even though right now 40 percent of doctors won't see Medicaid patients. Then they're going to shift the cost to the states after about five years - the equivalent of a 5 percent to 10 percent new state income tax in Tennessee.
· Around 900,000 Tennesseans could be affected by proposed cuts to Medicare.
· Up to 1.6 million Tennessee workers could lose their employer-provided health insurance.
· As many as 2 million Tennesseans are at risk of being forced into a new government-run plan.

I believe that the era of the thousand-page bill is over. The best way to get a result on health care and other major issues facing our nation is to re-earn the trust of the American people by working step by step to begin solving the challenges facing our country. Instead of a trillion-dollar, thousand-page comprehensive health care bill centered around a government-run plan, as a first step we might allow small business pooling to reduce health care costs and increase access to affordable coverage. We could reform medical malpractice laws so runaway junk lawsuits don't continue to drive up the cost of health care. We could allow individual Americans to purchase health care across state lines like they can with their car insurance today. We could enact meaningful insurance market reforms, such as making sure that people aren't disqualified from getting health coverage because of preexisting conditions.

These are some steps we could take in the right direction, which would improve our existing health care system without adding trillions more to the national debt and dumping new debt on the states. I appreciate your taking the time to let me know where you stand on this important issue, and I'll be sure to consider your comments as health care is discussed and debated in Washington and in Tennessee.
Sincerely,
Lamar






Funny, he didn't answer any of my questions....

[tripleblack]

RJ, I can parse some of this for you...

He is implying that they CAN pay for a trillion $ program without raising taxes or increasing the deficit, AND without decreasing MediCare or MedicAid benefits.

He is implying that they can do it with a bill smaller than 1000 pages.

And he is implying that he will vote for this piece of science fiction.

NOTE: He mentions "small business POOLING". LOL, this is the part where the fines hit any small business either unable to supply health insurance - or as an INCENTIVE to stop doing so!

"Pool" is code-speech for "co-operative" which is code speech for "public option", which is the smiling government rigging the game to suit themselves.

Also, the "deficit neutral" ASSUMES that their pledge to cut other programs (like Medicare Advantage) will actually HAPPEN. This bill CREATES spending, it CUTS nothing.

That means that the hard part, carving bleeding chunks out of huge portions of the American voter base, is just being "promised", LOL. Don't hold your breath for THIS to actually happen!

Originally Posted by rj8806

Well, I got 1 response this morning from Senator Alexander.......




Thanks very much for getting in touch with me and letting me know what's on your mind regarding health care reform.

Providing every American with genuine access to quality, affordable health care is one of my highest priorities as a member of the U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, the health care bills we're debating right now flunk their most important test, which is cost. These bills - including the Kennedy health care bill that I voted against in committee on July 15, 2009 - are good faith efforts to find the best way to go in the wrong direction. We have to start over to get it right.

Why do we have to start over? People at home in Tennessee, the Mayo Clinic, 1,000 local chambers of commerce and businesses, Democratic governors, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office all basically say, "These plans have too many problems." Add all those problems up, and this is what you'd get in Tennessee:
· Dumping 300,000 low-income Tennesseans into the failed Medicaid program (known as TennCare in Tennessee), even though right now 40 percent of doctors won't see Medicaid patients. Then they're going to shift the cost to the states after about five years - the equivalent of a 5 percent to 10 percent new state income tax in Tennessee.
· Around 900,000 Tennesseans could be affected by proposed cuts to Medicare.
· Up to 1.6 million Tennessee workers could lose their employer-provided health insurance.
· As many as 2 million Tennesseans are at risk of being forced into a new government-run plan.

I believe that the era of the thousand-page bill is over. The best way to get a result on health care and other major issues facing our nation is to re-earn the trust of the American people by working step by step to begin solving the challenges facing our country. Instead of a trillion-dollar, thousand-page comprehensive health care bill centered around a government-run plan, as a first step we might allow small business pooling to reduce health care costs and increase access to affordable coverage. We could reform medical malpractice laws so runaway junk lawsuits don't continue to drive up the cost of health care. We could allow individual Americans to purchase health care across state lines like they can with their car insurance today. We could enact meaningful insurance market reforms, such as making sure that people aren't disqualified from getting health coverage because of preexisting conditions.

These are some steps we could take in the right direction, which would improve our existing health care system without adding trillions more to the national debt and dumping new debt on the states. I appreciate your taking the time to let me know where you stand on this important issue, and I'll be sure to consider your comments as health care is discussed and debated in Washington and in Tennessee.
Sincerely,
Lamar






Funny, he didn't answer any of my questions....

[countymounty]

Stan when I read this I get something totally different from it.

The fact is healthcare does need to be reformed, that is a given.

Purchasing health care across state lines would end the monopoly and be a step towards a free market.

Rewriting the way they disqualified people for preexisting conditions needs to be done. My blue cross payment on one of my kids is higher because of a “preexisting condition” she is prone to ear infections. Aren’t all kids 1-5 prone to that! Or my buddy who’s wife works for an insurance company. She was dropped because in the first 6 months after her higher date she got pregnant, they called it…….a preexisting condition. AND SHE WORKS FOR INSURANCE COMPANY!

Small business pooling to me is instead of trying to get insurance on 10 people getting a policy for 1000 people will have a better rate. I know from having to fill out 3 sets of papers a year my employer checks every single year and often switch to whoever has the best rates.

He voted against the health care bills in committee and I see these suggestions as positive.

[tripleblack]

DOn't get me wrong, County, I agree, our Healthcare system can certainly stand to be improved - particularly the 100% which is laboring under backward government fiat - and the 50% which is already coming FROM the government.

But its like a lot of events in our national existance, there is a proper time and place for everything.

The devil is in the details for this sort of re-do, and we simply have the utter WRONG group running the show right now to do it correctly.

We are supposed to believe that the Fox guarding the henhouse will be GOOD (really, we promise) this ONE TIME, and TRUST us, we PROMISE, it will all turn out OK...

But no, we won't allow ANYONE time to read the final bill, no, not even the promised 72 hours...

BUT you can TRUST us.

Would ANY of us buy ANYTHING under this sort of pressure from these shysters?

The cherrypicking of cherished items from the ancient Republican wish lists on Health Care reform should be viewed with much caustion. This particularly includes the bit about breaking down the nutty state line barriers which form tiny insurance fiefdoms and monopolies, DENYING interstate commerce in the NAME of protecting interstate commerce. The razor blade buried in the apple will be that none of this will matter at all if the sneaks achieve their primary goal. If they end up driving everyone NOT covered by a collective bargaining agreement INTO a government provided program, there will be no private options, and the fact that those options (which don't exist) can now operate across state lines will mean squat.

Note that the COST estimates are all a shame as well, with outlying years seeing huge increases further pushing companies and individuals into the waiting arms of government.

Finally, this is crazy to be considering all of this while we are overspending by trillions of dollars. The ability to plan anything of this size and scope right now is based upon pure fantasy numbers, whether from leftist politicians who are now pretending to be choirboys, cross their hearts, who would NEVER dream of installing any program that would increase the deficit - or from befuddled Republicans who have been outmaneuvered at every turn.

In the end I just envision the faces of Obama, Pelossi, Wasman and Reid, and tell myself, sure THESE are the folks I want to trust to get this job done right!

Sure...

Originally Posted by countymounty

Stan when I read this I get something totally different from it.

The fact is healthcare does need to be reformed, that is a given.

Purchasing health care across state lines would end the monopoly and be a step towards a free market.

Rewriting the way they disqualified people for preexisting conditions needs to be done. My blue cross payment on one of my kids is higher because of a “preexisting condition” she is prone to ear infections. Aren’t all kids 1-5 prone to that! Or my buddy who’s wife works for an insurance company. She was dropped because in the first 6 months after her higher date she got pregnant, they called it…….a preexisting condition. AND SHE WORKS FOR INSURANCE COMPANY!

Small business pooling to me is instead of trying to get insurance on 10 people getting a policy for 1000 people will have a better rate. I know from having to fill out 3 sets of papers a year my employer checks every single year and often switch to whoever has the best rates.

He voted against the health care bills in committee and I see these suggestions as positive.