Health Care Reform's Impact on Rising Premiums

Obama and Congressional Democrats are pushing health care reform as the answer to rising health care premiums.  The populist approach to forcing through unpopular legislation is certainly the method of operation of the administration and they are continuing to use it by demonizing insurance companies with their massive 1-3% profit margins… massive.

Why are premiums rising?  Greedy insurers?  Nope, health care costs are rising and insurers have to pay them.  Your co-pay is still $25.00 or $35.00, but that diagnostic test increased in cost by 50%.. the money has to come from somewhere.

What does this bill do to control the costs of the actual health care… nothing.  Not a thing.  In fact, it increases the insulation between the health care consumer (you) and the cost of the service.  Consumers don’t shop around for the best deal on an office visit or diagnostic test.. because they don’t pay for them.  Patients don’t ask if a less-expensive lab test might be good enough, because they don’t pay the bill.

If Congress gets their way, they will be able to limit what insurers can charge (premiums).  In short,  the insurance companies will have to take on the riskiest of consumers, but won’t be able to recover the costs of insuring them.

This is a thinly-veiled strategy by which Congress intends to run the private insurance industry out-of-business so that it can replace it with government-run health care without your consent. Then they can return it to declining coverage, denying procedures, and rising premiums (and taxes) once the private competition is dead.

Surely Congress wouldn’t do something without the “consent of the governed”.  One would expect that the actual bill would certainly be voted on.  Nope.

Using a tactic called “deeming”, Nancy Pelosi is planning to pass the Senate bill in the House, without a single Representative actually voting on it.  Instead, they would vote on bunch of fixes to the Senate bill.  In other words, Pelosi’s House will vote on the bill they like, not on the Senate’s version – which is actually required by the Constitution.  What happens if the Senate doesn’t accept the House’s changes?  The Senate bill would pass without the House having approved it.  Complicated, convoluted, disconcerting..  because it’s just wrong.  Because everyone knows this could never happen in a manner consistent with our Declaration of Independence or Constitution.  Constitutional lawyers are hopefully sharpening their pencils, crisis is coming.

If “deeming” is to be used for something this impactful, imagine which rights they can stomp on next.. without your consent, without actually voting on them.  Call them, call them now.  Send emails, be concerned .. be very concerned.