Saturday, November 7, 2009

Health Care By Coercive Government

The November 6, 2009 Washington Examiner editorial, "Health care by coercive government" summarizes the major problems with ObamaCare.

Here is an excerpt:
That American citizens should be fined or even put in federal prison for refusing to purchase government-approved health insurance is as un-American as any idea we can imagine.

But such a mandate is the very heart of the bill written behind closed doors by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her privileged pals. If their bill is approved by the House tomorrow, we will be a big step closer to the day when everybody gets their health care insurance through the government or from an approved insurer offering policies that meet meticulously detailed specifications contained in thousands of pages of federal regulations.

...Besides rationing care, the bill adds expensive new mandates on people (compulsory insurance for all), as well as costly new regulatory burdens on insurance companies (thus increasing premiums) and on your employer (which will reduce your wages). The Democrats' bill also creates multiple new layers of federal bureaucracy to look over your doctor's shoulder.

This plan is doomed to fail, but in failing it will likely inflict severe collateral damage on the quality of your health coverage and your health care.
(Read the full text of "Health care by coercive government".)

The battle is not just about health care, but about basic American freedoms.