Charlotte Iserbyt -- Obama's Health Care Plan

OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE PLAN

By Charlotte Iserbyt

August 8, 2009

NewsWithViews.com

This writer was surprised to hear on the nightly TV news startling information regarding Obama's health care plan (HR3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009). Internet link. Unfortunately, I did not get the name of the person citing statistics related to coverage, but, if I recall correctly, he was an apolitical type out of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget or the Congressional Budget Office. The statistics he cites follow:

15% of Americans are uninsured. He went on to break down that 15% as follows::

5% are illegal aliens.

5% can afford coverage but prefer to spend their money in other ways.

5% are legitimately uninsured.

So, if the figures are correct, Obama's health care plan (the complete trillion + dollar restructuring of our private health care system) will take place due to this uncovered 5%. I have no problem with that 5% being covered; in fact, I believe those individuals should be covered.

What I have a problem with is the radical socialist/fascist restructuring of our health care system, which a majority of Americans (60%) find acceptable or better, in order to take care of the legitimate 5% who should be covered.

If you need a new bathroom, do you tear down your whole house and build a new one in order to have that new bathroom?

Since I unfortunately cannot attribute the above information to any one individual...I couldn't grab a pen in time to get the name...I decided to try to verify the information by calling Senator Olympia Snowe's office in Washington, D.C. Perhaps the response from her office tells us more about what is wrong in our country than the fact that we are going to overhaul our entire private health care system in order to to deal with 5% of the population who are legitimately uninsured and about whom something relatively inexpensive, in comparison, should be done.

Phone call went like this: I asked to speak to a staff member regarding some questions I had related to the health care legislation. I was told that all staff members were in meetings. I asked if one of them familiar with the legislation could call me back. I was told no one could discuss the bill since it is a work in process. She told me that Senator Snowe could respond to my concerns by letter, that no one is able or willing to discuss the issue over the phone. From past experience I know that whatever response I receive by mail will arrive long after the August recess...not in time to affect the vote which will probably come sometime in September, and that I have often received letters from my elected officials which do not even relate to the question asked in my original letter to them. I pointed out to her that although Congress does not always read the legislation upon which they vote, this time a few UNPAID Americans have voluntarily gone through the 1,017 pages of draft legislation, line by line, and have some very legitimate concerns. I said I felt it important to call and to discuss and/or confirm some of the most controversial provisions of the legislation before I write an article or send information out on the Internet. I simply wanted to verify the breakdown of the 15% in order not to be providing incorrect information to the public.

The futility of my effort to carry out the responsibility of a good citizen became apparent when she again said there was no way any staff member was going to call me back since they are constantly in meetings. My goodness...how interesting that Congressional staff members are all in meetings during the August recess, or could they be kayaking on the Potomac? And even if they are not kayaking and are in meetings, do they not have lunch break , or some reason to leave their meetings, in order to respond to the people who pay their salaries?

Although I feel that verification of the above 15% breakdown is of utmost importance, there are several other very controversial provisions in the 1,017-page draft legislation. Some of these provisions were discussed during an interview by former U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Fred Thompson, TN, with Betsy McCaughey, New York State's Former Lt. Governor, Chairman Committee to Reduce Infectious Deaths, who had just finished reading the new House bill for Health Care Reform:

Betsy McCaughey:

"As a patient advocate I am shocked. I hope people listening will protect their parents from what is intended under this bill. Half of it paid for with a $500 billion dollar cut in health care benefits for seniors. This is a vicious assault on older people and the boomer generation. Seniors will bear one-half the cost themselves. Some will say this is to cut waste, fraud and abuse, although the Congressional Budget Office says only 1% will be used to attack waste, fraud and abuse issues. They are really cutting patient care.

"One of the most shocking parts of bill is on page 425 which says:

"Congress would make it mandatory every five years for people on Medicare to have a required consultation during which they will be told how to end their lives sooner. You will be told how to decline nutrition, decline hydration, how to go into hospice. If you get sick during that 5-year period (cancer, whatever), you have to go through that session again. All will be geared to society's or the family's best interest, not the best interest of the patient. These are sacred issues of life and death with which government should have nothing to do!

"This is just the latest very dangerous assault on the elderly. Back in February when stimulus passed, something was slipped in regarding 'comparative effectiveness research', which sounds good, but isn't. This is code language for denying care based on person's birth date. Treatments for Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, macular degeneration, etc. turned down since patient has too few years to live to make treatment worth it.

Page 16 and 17 says 'You can't keep your health insurance, will be forced to switch to low-grade HMO plan. Will pay a lot more for that plan you don't want."

Fred Thompson said: "Can you imagine the response of the American people when they find this out?"

Betsy: "Well, I hope they do find out."

So, the reason for this rather lengthy letter to the editor is to make sure the people DO find out and let their Senators (such as Senator Snowe) know that "they" are "our" servants, not the other way around. When those who elected them have questions, they (who we elected) are obligated to discuss our concerns, regardless of their involvement in staff meetings or paddling on the Potomac during August recess.

If the above information does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that Senators and Congressmen have their own healthcare plan that has a very low co-pay which they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives -- and are not subject to this new law if it passes. Don't you think the language in this legislation should be amended to include a provision for Senators and Congressmen to give up their present "cushy" health care system in order to be covered by the fascist system they are foisting onto their constituents? Debate on such an amendment would really slow down this socialist/fascist train wreck and very possibly keep it from happening.

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We should all be marching on D.C. carrying placards which say:

"ALL MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SHOULD BE SUBJECT TO ALL LAWS THEY PASS AFFECTING UNITED STATES CITIZENS"

Charlotte Iserbyt is the consummate whistleblower! Iserbyt served as Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, during the first Reagan Administration, where she first blew the whistle on a major technology initiative which would control curriculum in America's classrooms. Iserbyt is a former school board director in Camden, Maine and was co-founder and research analyst of Guardians of Education for Maine (GEM) from 1978 to 2000. She has also served in the American Red Cross on Guam and Japan during the Korean War, and in the United States Foreign Service in Belgium and in the Republic of South Africa.

Iserbyt is a speaker and writer, best known for her 1985 booklet Back to Basics Reform or OBE: Skinnerian International Curriculum and her 1989 pamphlet Soviets in the Classroom: America's Latest Education Fad which covered the details of the U.S.-Soviet and Carnegie-Soviet Education Agreements which remain in effect to this day. She is a freelance writer and has had articles published in Human Events, The Washington Times, The Bangor Daily News, and included in the record of Congressional hearings.