Healthcare House Bill HR3962 posted online with possible vote by Friday

November 4, 3:14 PMAtlanta Faith & Family ExaminerPatricia Walston

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Caduceus

"Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves."

“Affordable Health Care for America Act.” formerly known as HB 3200 could reach the House floor as early as Friday evening for a vote after many long months of protest, politics, party promises; and now patients who are concerned about their coverage and cost with their health and pocketbooks at stake.

Remember the old song, “No one knows what goes on behind closed doors?” Or how about this one – “Sausage and politics are two things you never want to see processed.” In order for them not to be accused of not reading their own bill – the Democrats are meeting once again behind closed doors to “read” their “own” bill. They promise the public the opportunity to read the 1,919 pages 72 hours before the vote – talk about cramming for an exam. Make sure you have plenty of black coffee – if that doesn’t work try standing on your head while you read it.

http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf    House Bill 3962

This may be the last hurrah. They have little fear of posting this online as they know few will read it, few will understand it, and many will just throw up their hands in surrender. Or check on the web page below where a Constitutional lawyer explains what he has already read; helping you skip to the next step – letting them know what you think of it.

It may have been true in eras gone by that people didn’t want to know what went into politics and sausage; but no more. The American people expect and demand to know what is going on in their country even behind closed doors. It appears that this might be the big weekend for the Democrats to bring their 1,919 page House Bill to the floor for a vote. Yesterday, the rumor was that because of their lack of votes, it might even be the first of the year before this bill is actually passed. It seems the sausage gets a little more pressed; and stew gets a little more stirred everyday leaving most Americans with emptiness in their stomachs. Just as one can only imagine what part of the pig (pork) goes into their sausage, one can really only imagine what “ingredients” are continually being added to this bill.

Side bar: Once I was making homemade vegetable soup – having chopped and cooked all afternoon – and for some unknown reason, my husband put a pound of sausage in it. I began to smell something odd and took off the lid to see inches of fat and grease floating on top of my wonderful soup. I liken that to what is happening to our health care – while my soup may not have been perfect – it was good – and the added ingredient made it bad - even sickening.

Two of the glitches that are holding up the process are abortion and covering illegal aliens in this country. A no brainer for taxpayers. One can only wonder what is more important here – proliferating of the party platform, politics of “my way or the highway,” or the patients (taxpayers) who will be footing all the bills both in taxes, premiums, and co-pays – as well as paying so that tens of millions of uninsured will be able to have a free ride toward insurance coverage; while small businesses will bear the hardest brunt – some going under or quitting because of their inability to meet payroll and added benefits. Many of these employees will lose their jobs and have neither; a job nor insurance. I guess that is when the government steps in and takes over. Question: Will this edict make them cover only their employee, and if so, what of the employees’ family? How much will be taken out of the employee’s paycheck causing a lack of funds to pay for their homes?

Just a few unsolved problems - and one final sales job - stand between House Democratic leaders and a landmark vote on President Barrack Obama's promised remake of the nation's health care system. (We did not need reform. We only needed repair.) Since the Democratic losses in Virginia and New Jersey last night, will this make them even more determined to pass this bill?

It is just a year before many House and Senate seats will be up for grabs, the Democrats have that to consider as well. Last night with Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey, they may be running a little scared; especially those who will be on the auction block for their jobs next year.

Ms. Pelosi said last week when she gleefully introduced the bill, they had been listening to the mobs (uh public) to consider what they want. It seems that listening was done with deaf ears; and there seems to be little changed from the original bill, which in the opinion of several Constitution lawyers is totally illegal. Never in the history of America have citizens been forced to purchase anything; and that with penalty of fine (taxation) if not complied with. The new word for tax is “fine.”

It appears today’s message is a desire to have this on the floor by Friday, November 6, 2009 and tied up with a ribbon bow by Veterans Day. Odd that day would be the target when the veterans of this country have been subjected to less than great care in the government run hospitals; and in light of the H1N1 Vaccine shortage, one can only wonder how they will take care of the medical needs of 300,000,000 people. Have you read the stories about the terrible conditions in our military hospitals?
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who stood on the band wagon last week with Ms. Pelosi, was quoted as saying, “We want to make sure it’s correct.” Well, one could only ask then, what is the hurry? This is slated not to go into effect until the year 2013 for coverage; but premiums could begin much earlier with some, particularly the elderly, who will pay in and die before they reap any benefits.

The suggested cost of this bill over ten years will be $1.2 trillion (with a T); and everyone knows that the government has no idea of how to stay on a budget – so with confidence we can expect this to be much, much higher.

While pretending to have the citizens’ needs as priority number one, which does not appear to be the case, they push on. Those who are perfectly content with allowing free enterprise to continue without government intervention into the lives, businesses and employees of this country are not being heard. After this bill is passed, we could just all sit back and pay the fine, which hopefully will be cheaper than the premiums; and then when we get a costly terminal disease, run out and get insured.

Under this bill which still covers abortion, we can all sit back and grieve that taxpayers will be paying for abortions for women who should stop using sex as a recreational activity; or at least learn to use birth control. But most disturbing for those of faith is to know that one penny of their hard earned money would go to take the life of an innocent pre-born child.

When this bill hits the floor, they will need a 218 vote majority to push it on through with American citizens finding out the results bit by bit when they go for medical care and find all the exceptions, charges, and refusals including rationing.

Ronald Reagan said in the 1960’s that to go into government run health care would be just the beginning of a socialist government. He said once approved there would be no going back.
It will be like tip of the iceberg; and our country would slide into socialism as fast as the Titanic slid into the ocean. Example, our country sends 65 million dollars a year to the island of Samoa when there are about 65,000 people – most who work, work for the government; and the rest do not work. And there is no accounting for the money. When a government official was asked why there was no accounting, he said it would cost too much money to send people over there to follow the money and insure they were fiscally responsible.

At what point and time will government health care in this country become just too big, complicated and expensive to hold people’s feet to the fire for accountability? When doctors and nurses work for themselves, they have competition and incentive to succeed; and therefore, offer better services to their patients (customers.) Some doctors feel under this new health plan, they will simply become employees of the government. They may be limited in what their profits can provide; but also patients will be limited in what they receive.

One representative from Pennsylvania says the bill has improved – when just few months ago we were pitched with the perfect health care solution so why would it need to be improved?

Many lawmakers are not at all sure if they know the whole story as of yet; including the total cost. Many feel the nation will be buying a “pig in a poke.” And many feel the bacon will be sliced thin on actual health care while the lawmakers are serving up huge dishes of pork for ludicrous expenditures like providing the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) with millions like they were handing out Halloween candy. The NEA is financing huge sums of money to a group in San Francisco to produce pornography as art. (Wonder where Mrs. Pelosi is from?)

Minnesota Arts, 1 million, Weisman Museum to get 50,000 – NEA to get 80 million of the 787 billion stimulus (heard recently it is more like 145 million) Rensselaer to get 50 million and South West School of Art to get 30 million and the list goes on. How in all of God’s green earth, can they justify giving hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money when people are losing their jobs, their homes, their families, and all they worked for in a downtrodden economy; while they are buying paint and crayons for art that many first graders could draw? And some of the art being produced is nothing more than propaganda for the Obama administration.

For a President who promised transparency – someone needs to put in a large store of Windex. The windows into the government offices are getting mighty dirty and opaque.

With all the dates being thrown about – this Friday, November 6th, Veterans Day on the 11th; and now Majority Leader Harry Reid says the debate on the floor may not be able to begin until the week before Thanksgiving. It seems they want to shove this bill down the throats of Americans so they can go home to shove that turkey and dressing down their own throats on Thanksgiving. No wonder Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird to be a “turkey.”

Some Democrats are hanging on for a better straight forward language in the bill regarding specifics of abortion coverage – probably those who have folks to answer to back home. They are saying the language should just declare right out that there will be NO funding in this health care bill that will cover abortion and illegals in this country or President Obama and Ms. Pelosi will have to go back and apologize to Representative Wilson or be censured for lying.

Late as it may seem, there seems to be a little life coming from the Republicans as they scramble to prepare a health care bill of their own – one would think they are a day late and a dollar short.

After spending months criticizing Democratic health care plans, House Republicans are preparing to unveil one of their own; though Minority Leader John Boehner was short on details when he described it to reporters Monday.

He said it would omit one of the central provisions in Democratic bills - a ban on the insurance industry's practice of denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. Instead, he said the Republicans would encourage creation of insurance pools for high-risk individuals and take other steps to ease their access to coverage.

Some citizens are beginning to grow so weary they just want this thing over and done with feeling powerless to make a difference anyway. And to lawmakers it seems that the status of their party and their love of politics is overshadowing the issue at hand – the patients (and their pocketbooks.) The Republicans seem to be stuck for any viable solutions other than proposing limitations on medical malpractice lawsuits in an attempt to reduce cost ; while the nitty gritty of the effects it would have on citizens seem to be illusive to them.

Representative Gerry Connolly, D-Va at least hit the nail on the head when he said failure to pass health care would distance them from their base and without them you cannot succeed – meaning they could not get re-elected. Thus, such is the making of politics and sausage – kinda nasty, revolting – but smells good frying up in the pan – even if it does harden your arteries and kills you. “We fail to pass health care reform at our own peril," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., though he has yet to agree to support the bill. "Our base expects health care reform. ... You can't distance yourself from your base and expect to succeed."

Leaving interpretation of this proposed law up to the experts – you can go to this web site and see the analysis of House Speaker Pelosi’s Health Care Bill by a Constitutional Attorney who teaches Constitutional law. You can read his lengthy explanation; but it is certainly far fewer pages than reading the 1,919 pages in the original bill.

Attorney Michael Connelly of Texas begins his analysis with these words, “When I first read HR 3200 in its entirety several months ago I was appalled at the blatant disregard in the bill of the basic tenets of our Constitutional form of government. However, I underestimated what is actually being done to us. The newest version of HR 3200 that has been labeled the Pelosi Bill is the original bill on steroids. It is the most “in your face” challenge to the American people as a whole that has ever occurred. While Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and President Obama continue to reassure the American people about what the bill will do, the proof is there in black and white.” Read the rest of his analysis here:

http://michaelconnelly.viviti.com/  

We still have the right to vote – to write to our representatives – and voice our opinion without standing in front of a firing squad - the greatest of these is the vote. Perhaps if we really are the United States of America and enough people are united, we could see this whole bill die - and without even performing an autopsy as to why it died – and just move on with a new blank sheet of paper writing a healthcare bill in plain English without anything being attached to it. Just a plain, simple health care bill that will take care of the health needs of Americans without all the additions and amendments. It still not against the law to dream is it? Another old adage, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.