| | All four plans include more spending and potentially reduced access by patients to treatment. Commentators are predicting quick action by the Democratic Congress and Presidency in 2009 on this.<ref>http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20081203/OPINION/812030387/1049/OPINION</ref> | | All four plans include more spending and potentially reduced access by patients to treatment. Commentators are predicting quick action by the Democratic Congress and Presidency in 2009 on this.<ref>http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20081203/OPINION/812030387/1049/OPINION</ref> |
| − | Health care constitutes one-seventh of the economy, and there are 46 million uninsured residents of America. But millions of those are uninsured by choice, or uninsured only temporarily, or in the country illegally.<ref>A similar claim that there are 6.5 uninsured Californians was described as "hogwash. First, the study the governor quotes DOES NOT say that there are 6 1/2 million Californians without health insurance. It says that 6.5 million Californians don’t have health insurance AT SOME POINT DURING THE YEAR. But 45% of those Californians have it within four months. So 45 percent of these people are not chronically uninsured individuals – they’re people changing jobs. And of those 6.5 million – 45 percent of whom WILL HAVE health insurance within four months — 2 ½ million are illegal aliens; 2 million earn over $50,000 per year, 1 million are already eligible for MediCal or Healthy Families.[http://blog.tommcclintock.com/2008/09/26/mcclintock-on-health-care/]</ref> The real [[liberal]] motivation to change health care, which was the first priority of [[Hillary Clinton]] when her president took office back in 1993, is to effect social change. Greater government control, [[abortion]] and the [[homosexual agenda]] can be advanced under the banner of health care reform in a way that would never pass otherwise. | + | Health care constitutes one-seventh of the economy, and there are 46 million residents of America lacking in health insurance. But no one in America may be denied emergency medical, because federal law (EMTALA) requires emergency rooms to accept and treat patients regardless of their ability to pay. Also, millions of the uninsured ''choose to decline'' expensive insurance; millions more are uninsured only temporarily; and still more millions in the statistic are [[illegal aliens]].<ref>A similar claim that there are 6.5 uninsured Californians was described as "hogwash. First, the study the governor quotes DOES NOT say that there are 6 1/2 million Californians without health insurance. It says that 6.5 million Californians don’t have health insurance AT SOME POINT DURING THE YEAR. But 45% of those Californians have it within four months. So 45 percent of these people are not chronically uninsured individuals – they’re people changing jobs. And of those 6.5 million – 45 percent of whom WILL HAVE health insurance within four months — 2 ½ million are illegal aliens; 2 million earn over $50,000 per year, 1 million are already eligible for MediCal or Healthy Families.[http://blog.tommcclintock.com/2008/09/26/mcclintock-on-health-care/]</ref> The real [[liberal]] motivation to change health care, which was the first priority of [[Hillary Clinton]] when her president took office back in 1993, is to effect social change. Greater government control, [[abortion]] and the [[homosexual agenda]] can be advanced under the banner of health care reform in a way that would never pass otherwise. |
| | None of the proposed plans are "single payer," at least not initially and publicly so. "[T]his option has been declared 'off the table' by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who's among those leading the charge for health-care reform in America. Top Democrats who will be deciding policy in America in 2009, including Baucus and President-elect Barack Obama, say single-payer is 'not politically feasible,' because the public won't strongly support it."<ref name="Single Payer">http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/12/03/state/80st_081203_column.txt</ref> The biggest supporter of "single payer" was Michigan Democrat John Conyers,<ref name="Single Payer"/> but he lost a key committee chairmanship for the new Congress in 2009. But note that Baucus's approach does provided for a taxpayer-subsidized government plan to "compete" with private plans, and supporters of this approach may intend for the taxpayer-subsidized plan to squeeze out the private plans over time in order to become a "single payer." | | None of the proposed plans are "single payer," at least not initially and publicly so. "[T]his option has been declared 'off the table' by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who's among those leading the charge for health-care reform in America. Top Democrats who will be deciding policy in America in 2009, including Baucus and President-elect Barack Obama, say single-payer is 'not politically feasible,' because the public won't strongly support it."<ref name="Single Payer">http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/12/03/state/80st_081203_column.txt</ref> The biggest supporter of "single payer" was Michigan Democrat John Conyers,<ref name="Single Payer"/> but he lost a key committee chairmanship for the new Congress in 2009. But note that Baucus's approach does provided for a taxpayer-subsidized government plan to "compete" with private plans, and supporters of this approach may intend for the taxpayer-subsidized plan to squeeze out the private plans over time in order to become a "single payer." |