Fw: Obamacare is a government takeover

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Obamacare is a government takeover

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By: Grace-Marie 12/21/10 8:05 PM

OpEd Contributor

Calling Obamacare a government takeover of health care is the " lie of the year, "

according to the self-proclaimed oracle of all things true and untrue in the

political debate. That outrageous proclamation from PolitiFact shows that its

editors need a Truth-O-Meter of their own.

Obamacare is a uniquely American government takeover of health care. Its 2,801

pages of legislation and insidious regulatory structure give the Secretary of

Health and Human Services almost unlimited authority to rule over every corner

of our health sector.

The legislation that passed in March creates the scaffolding for the

government-controlled structure the administration is busily constructing.

Because the law doesn't call for an immediate nationalization of hospitals or

include the " public option " that liberals wanted, PolitiFact claims that it

isn't a government takeover. Even worse, it says Obamacare " relies largely on

the free market " to achieve health reform.

PolitiFact, like so many other political elites, disregards the legitimate fears

of millions of Americans who spontaneously rose up against Obamacare in town

hall meetings, marches, and voting booths. Here are 10 reasons why they are

right that it is a government takeover of health care:

1. For the first time in our nation's history, the government will order

citizens to spend our private money on a private product -- health insurance --

and will penalize us if we refuse.

2. Any employer with more than 50 employees will be told it must provide

government-decreed health insurance to its workers -- or face financial

penalties.

3. Government has the authority to the destroy the private insurance market by

preventing insurers from earning a reasonable return. If companies charge

" unreasonable " premiums, as determined by Health Sec. Kathleen Sebelius, she can

block them from participating in a huge sector of the market -- as she already

has threatened to do. Barone calls this " gangster government. "

4. The law provides the foundation -- and $6 billion -- for a stealth public

plan. The Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) program will help set up

non-profit, member-run health insurance companies in all 50 states.

5. As many as 80 to 100 million people will not have the option of keeping the

coverage they have now, per President Obama's promise. According to analyst

Allisa A. Meade of McKinsey & Company, they will be switched into other policies

after the insurance mandates take effect in 2014 ?-- whether they like it or

not.

6. The federal government will determine what health benefits are essential --

or not.

7. Doctors and hospitals will face an avalanche of new reporting rules to make

sure they are providing health care that fits the government's definition of

" quality care. "

8. The legislation creates the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute that

is modeled on rationing boards in other countries with government-run health

systems. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the U.K.,

for example, has a record of denying access to the newest drugs, with government

officials often deciding they just aren't worth the cost. That's already

happening here with the FDA'S withdrawal of its approval for Avastin last week.

9. States are being treated like contractors to the federal government, ordered

to expand Medicaid to levels that could bankrupt them, and to set up new Health

Exchange bureaucracies lest the federal government sweep in and do it for them.

10. Obamacare expands Medicaid, the worst health plan in the country, to cover

84 million people by 2019, stretching yet another of our government-run health

programs to the bursting point.

Attorney Hoff, in a paper for the Heritage Foundation, calls Obamacare " a

new exercise in old-fashioned central planning. " PolitiFact needs to revisit its

decision or it will soon find that its own pants are on fire.

Grace-Marie is president of the Galen Institute and focuses on true

free-market ideas for health reform. www.galen.org

Read more at the Washington Examiner:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2010/12/obamacare-government-takeov\

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