Make no mistake™, the current push for "health care reform" is a push for the government to take over and create socialized medicine and a single-payer system. In Obama's own words:
"I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately."
"There's going to be potentially some transition process."
"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that's what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That's what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we've got to take back the White House, we've got to take back the Senate, and we've got to take back the House."
Well, they took all that back and it's apparent that changing the health care system is a major priority for the Dems. The basic problem they realized is that the public doesn't support a single-payer system. That makes congressmen who have to face elections next year pretty nervous. In fact, even with a "public option" proposal, they wanted desperately to get it pushed through quickly so that enough time would elapse before the next elections in the hopes that people would forget. Instead, people are debating it and dwelling on it.
It's to the point where some Dems are now going to be willing to compromise and even drop the "public option" if they can get the federal control part of the plan passed.
They're calling it a federal health care exchange. What it exchanges is the current choices people in most states have for forcing everyone into federal insurance standards that are very similar to a few states. You know, the states traditionally controlled by the progressives, where health insurance rates can be double what they are in more conservative states.
It's bad enough that the states can be very restrictive in limiting health insurance offerings and choices, but now they'll use federal mandates to require certain insurance coverage nationally to drive up the price of health insurance. Then they'll use that as the next excuse to try again for a public option that drives out private insurers and leads to a single-payer system.
That's the new fallback position for when they can't get everything they want through the Senate. Don't let them have that either. It will invariably make the insurance market more expensive and worse for regular people, giving them the excuse they want to try this all again in four more years. Just like they'd like to use that plus government "insurance" to either drive the insurance companies out of business or else turn them into government controlled insurers.
So don't let your congressman or Senator agree to vote for a "compromise". It will lead to anything but!
