Posted on 03/15/2010 10:16:54 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
This week could be the last push to re-create Virginia's health care system in Barack Obama's image. The House Democrats plan to hold votes this week aimed at replacing the system that has made our country one of the best health care innovators in the world, with a new plan where government regulates prices and procedures, and citizens are required to buy government-dictated health insurance whether they like it or not.
Virginians and Americans are outraged at the plan. Opposition is so great that a Republican won a Senate seat in Massachusetts. Democrats are so scared of public opinion they are actually considering declaring the bill has been passed, without actually voting on it—a move aptly named the "Slaughter House Rule." They have crafted a never-before-used trick to amend a bill that hasn't even been passed yet so Virginia's Senators can't vote down the entire package.
Virginians don't like what Congress is trying to do to our health care. Last October, a Richmond Times poll found only 39 percent supported Obama's plan, while 49 percent opposed it. A late February poll by the Research 2000 polling firm found only 36 percent of Virginians supported the latest version of the bill, while 56 percent opposed it—a whopping 20 point rejection of the Democrat-only health plan.
In November, Virginia turned decidedly Republican, no doubt thanks in part to the desire to protect our health care. Our legislature has acted—this month, Virginia became the first of likely many states to vote to save our citizens from Obama's plan to enslave us to health insurance companies. By a broad bi-partisan majority, Virginia passed a law prohibiting the federal government from forcing us into health insurance we don't want. More than half the House Democrats voted for the bill, along with five Senate Democrats, ....
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.insidenova.com ...
we are slaves
The rest of the column “paraphrased” in my own words:
Virginia’s founding fathers were at the forefront of the protection of individual and state rights from an overbearing federal government.
Those supporting the Virginia law cite the 10th Amendment’s protection of states and individuals against overreaching by Congress. And while the 14th amendment gave the feds power to protect the rights of individuals against state law, the purpose of that act was to provide freedom for all citizens of the United States regardless of what state they were ine, NOT to take away our freedoms for the sake of federal power to take over our health care decisions.
Unfortunately, I think the Virginia anti-mandatory insurance law is unlikely to help us. No matter what we think should be true, it is settled case law that federal law trumps state laws. The Constitution’s supremacy clause states “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; … shall be the supreme Law of the Land; … any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
If Congress passes Obamacare, it will override the will of the people of Virginia, as expressed by our legislature in their anti-Mandatory insurance bill. Our only hope then is found in the constitutional phrase “in pursuance thereof”—which says a law must be constitutional to replace state law.
Never before has Congress tried to force citizens to enter contractual arrangements with private businesses under penalty of law. It is clear that brazenly doing so, for example under criminal penalty, would be unconstitutional. So the Democrats have tried to skirt the problem by using a “tax” charged only to those who fail to buy insurance.
However, as David Rivken and Lee Casey explain in a Wall Street Journal article, this “solution” if allowed to stand, would make a mockery of individual rights: “A “tax” that falls exclusively on anyone who is uninsured is a penalty beyond Congress’s authority. If the rule were otherwise, Congress could evade all constitutional limits by “taxing” anyone who doesn’t follow an order of any kind—whether to obtain health-care insurance, or to join a health club, or exercise regularly, or even eat your vegetables.”
Still, I am not counting on the Supreme Court to save us from Obamacare. If Obamacare passes, slavery will once again be the law of this great Nation. Doctors will be enslaved to provide health care — First voluntarily but under slave wages set by the government, and then when the inevitable shortages occur, government will coerce people to become doctors, require them to serve in under-staffed areas either through penalty of law, or by licencing which makes it impossible for them to do otherwise. Conscription like the draft will eventually be necessary.
Citizens will be enslaved to purchase insurance, at first under penalty of an unconstitutional tax, and then by putting us in jail. Government will define what insurance we are required to buy, and how much it will cost us — a cost based on on market forces, but on what is “necessary” to fund their socialist agenda. They will force us to work to earn money, so we can give that money to the insurance companies. That is the essense of slavery.
Insurance providers will be enslaved to take all clients. Where insurance once made sense, government will instead for people providing insurance to “insure” against conditions which already exist, and for which payment will be woefully inadequate for the task . When insurance providers try to raise prices to meet costs, government will dictate the price they can charge, and when they go bankrupt, government will take over.
Hospitals will be enslaved to provide abortions and other services, regardless of the conscience of their owners and doctors and nurses. Catholics will be slaves to the dictates of Government rather than the precepts of their faith. Christians will be driven from their professions or forced to kill babies, pharmacists will be required to give out pills that violate their religious principles.
Our only hope is to convince our representatives to vote against this bill. Now is the time—the vote is this week. Call, write, and visit your representative, and tell him/her to listen to the people he represents. Virginians reject Obamacare—and he should vote NO.
bump
Grim.
I just heard tonight that Virginia is going to borrow something like $600,000,000 out of the state pension fund to cover revenue shortfall. I am partially surviving on my late husbands teaching pension.
I also have my health insurance through the local board of education from my late husband’s days as a teacher. Unfortunately I can only choose one plan from two choices. I have Kaiser Permanente for which I pay about $250 a month. A close friend has a Kaiser policy for which he pays about $100 per month. He has a higher deductible and has to pay a bit more for doctor visits, but his plan would be much cheaper for me and I can afford the deductible and other differences. I called the school office and asked if I could change to the other policy. They said the only way I could would be to drop their policy which I could then NEVER get back. If I go directly to Kaiser, they do not have service in several places I might move to, but if I keep the schools policy, I am covered anywhere in the country. I am really ANGRY that I cannot get the cheaper policy through the school’s insurance program.
BTTT
Most company plans roll over at the beginning of each year, after an “open enrollment” process. My company has a similar setup (low/high deductible) but nowhere as cheap.
Once you make a choice, you’re stuck with it for a full year.
Don’t you get to choose your plan annually?
They aren’t borrowing money OUT of the pension fund.
Each year, there is an amount put in the pension fund for each employee, it’s 5%, and it used to be split between employee and employer but since 1983 the state pays it all. Anyway, each year they also calculate the estimated future need of the system, and if it needs more money the state puts more money into the system.
For this year and the next, the state will NOT be paying INTO the system that extra amount needed to fund the future retirement liabilities of the people now working. The budget does pay part of the liability next year, but only 20%, and only for teachers.
But in 2013 they will pay it back, with 7.5% interest. Now, this isn’t what you really WANT to do, but the unfunded liability is for the people currently employed, not people already retired. And if you were given a choice to either be fired, or to have your pension underfunded, possibly risking your future payout, which would you choose?
This was actually the idea of the Senate Democrats, and it was the House Republicans who forced the rule to pay back the money.
In addition, they ruled that for all NEW hires, the new hires will go back to paying the 2% (1% the first year) that they used to pay way back when. However, the law gives localities the right to pay that for the local workers — of course, no locality can afford that right now, I’m guessing.
Anyway, when you have a 4 billion deficit, you have to cut back on something. We are essentially back to 2006 spending levels — a REAL cut, not like all the “cuts” to the expected big increases.
That is government health care for you -- limiting choices, forcing you to buy what they think is best for you. Private companies do this as well -- this year I had no choice anymore in health care.
If we banned all job-related health care, and the companies paid us the extra and then we could get tax-deductable insurance on our own, you could have chosen any plan you wanted, there would be competition for health insurance like there is with other insurance.
BTW, if anybody is just looking at this, it would be great if you could go to the paper’s web site and read the comments and post if there is something you can answer. I haven’t checked, but almost always there’s some liberals probably from the local democratic party committee who’s job it is to make comments on all the columns in the paper. It helps of there are new, different names attacking them.
I do my part but I’m the author so it’s expected I’ll agree with what I wrote.
“Don’t you get to choose your plan annually?”
Yes, I can choose one of two plans annually, but I do not have high or low options within those plans is what I was told. I shall look again to see if I was misinformed.
Usually, only the high-deductible plan allows for the Health Savings Account (HSA). The lower-deductible plans use the Flex Spending (use it or lost it) accounts.
A decent estimation of your annual expenses will help determine which plan works best for you.
Thank you for the information. Perhaps you can answer another question. It seems to me that the amount of pension paid by Arlington Country has not increased for a number of years, whereas the amount I have to take out for health insurance goes up each year. Do you have any info on why the state pays more each year, but the county does not?
If we banned all job-related health care, then I suspect a lot of people would just use the money to get a larger car or TV and we would be stuck having an add-on to our bills to cover the emergency room usage. The same problem we have now only much larger.
No idea.
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