GOP ideas are ignored
Rutland Herald (VT)
By: Kerry O'Hara
9.25.2009
Rutland Herald (VT), September 28, 2009
OK, I'll admit it. I'm a senior fast approaching Medicare eligibility and I'm worried.
I'm worried about our nation's future, and I'm worried that if President Obama's proposed health care plan goes through, Medicare will be reduced by $500 billion. There will be 30 million citizens added to the health plan. (It used to be 46 million until Obama, in response to the town hall "mobs," added the word "citizens" meaning illegal aliens would not be included). And there will be no additional doctors, nurses or hospitals to accommodate these 30 million people.
I'm not going to itemize the many parts of the proposed health plan with which I disagree. If I did that, I would be labeled as part of "the politics of negativity that now dominates the Republican Party" (Rutland Herald editorial, Sept 9).
Although the Democrats, along with their "mainstream" media supporters, continue to say that no options have been offered by Republicans, what they really mean is they don't like their recommendations. Remember, if you disagree with Democrats, you are mean-spirited and out of touch; if you agree with them, you are nonpartisan and courageous.
So what have the Democrats done with the Republican recommendations?
They (the Democrats) refuse to give health savings accounts the same favored tax treatment given job-based coverage.
They will not allow Americans to buy individual health plans without having to pay tax on the premiums.
They ban the sale of individual health care plans across state lines which would provide more choices and competition.
They enacted over 2,000 coverage mandates on insurance carriers where, according to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, this increases the cost of premiums by over 20 percent.
They refuse to consider tort reform because, as Gov. Dean stated, "the Democrats are afraid of trial lawyers." Defensive medicine wastes more than $200 billion a year according to the Pacific Research Institute. (I recently visited a Canadian physician friend who told me that his brother, an anesthesiologist in Los Angeles, pays more for malpractice insurance a year than my friend earns in salary)
If seniors are afraid of the cost of the proposed health care plan, wait until they see what "cap and trade" will cost when anyone using energy will pay more. Additionally, when President Obama allows President Bush's tax cuts to expire next year, the Heritage Foundation estimates that it will cost seniors an average of $2,000 increase in taxes.
If you still don't share my worries, I encourage you, the next time you receive your annual Social Security estimate, to read the narrative which warns of its impending demise - and that's not a "fishy statement that a fellow citizen should report to the White House." That is a statement written by our government.
KERRY O'HARA
Shrewsbury (VT)
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