Rep. Matt Dean has put together an insightful post on health care on his website that’s well worth the reading. Here’s something that I totally agreee with:

During the Presidential campaign, the Mr. Obama promised “If you like your doctor and your health plan, keep them. But if you want the same kind of coverage that Congress gives themselves, sign up for the new public option!” This plan would be a government-run healthcare plan to “compete” with private health insurance.

When this goes into effect, if you have private health insurance, your premium will skyrocket to subsidize another government-run program. The plan will crush the privately insured by demanding of you more subsidies. Any savings from such a plan would have to come from rate cuts to your provider. Those costs would then be paid by you, just like you do for Medicaid and Medicare. If you can not afford the higher cost, you will be priced out of the private market and presumably onto the “public plan.”

It’s one thing for the federal government to regulate industries. It’s quite another for them to compete with the industries they regulate. If that setup sounds scary, it should.

When Congress passes campaign finance laws, the law is written to give incumbents special advantages. This is no different. H.R. 3200 exempts Congress from living with the coverage that they’re imposing on us. GOP attempts to either force elected officials to use public option insurance or to give citizens the right to buy the same health insurance that Congress gets were defeated in committee. IMAGINE THAT!!!

That’s before factoring in the Democrats’ desire for a single-payer system. I wrote this weekend that Keith Ellison admitted that the public option is just a stepping stone to single-payer:

ERIC ESKOLA: Isn’t the public option really just a step towards the single-payer system that you want so much?
REP. ELLISON: Yes but the reality is that for many people that’s not what it is.

Speaker Pelosi said that any legislation that has a trigger for the public option in it will lead to a robust public option:

Pelosi warned insurance companies that they should accept the Senate health committee proposal that would create a public plan because “if they want no public option but a trigger, you can be sure that the trigger will bring on a very robust public option.”

Based on Rep. Ellison’s admission and Speaker Pelosi’s threat, I’d say it’s a guarantee that the House Of Representatives will have something in their legislation that will quickly lead to single-payer.

Does that sound like you’ll be able to keep the plan you have and the doctor you like? It doesn’t to me.

Those on Medicare are wondering why the AARP is supporting a plan that specifically proposes billions in cuts to Medicare. Medicare Advantage has been targeted for “reform” and offers seniors choice in purchasing private insurance options. That sounds like less choice and fewer options for seniors. Covering more people for less money will create rationing. This has seniors concerned that their care will be delayed or limited by proposed federal boards created to determine “what works.”

When comprehensive health care reform is defeated, seniors will have played a major part in the defeat. They know that dramatically cutting Medicare Advantage’s budget will hurt them dramatically. They know that cutting funding for the most successful Medicare program will likely lead to rationing and fewer good options.

Thanks to clear-thinking public servants like Rep. Dean, holes are getting poked in President Obama’s speeches. The American people are extremely well-informed on this issue because it’s a deeply personal issue, literally a matter of life and death in some instances.

Technorati: Matt Dean, MNGOP, Health Care, Medicare Advantage, Reform, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Keith Ellison, Public Option, Single-Payer, Rationing, Democrats