Let's Put Patients and Doctors Back in Control of Healthcare!

09/27/2010 - http://www.RonPaul.com

This week marks six months since Congress passed the healthcare reform bill in what has become all-too-typical legislative chicanery. Those in power crafted a mammoth piece of legislation and rammed it through Congress under a dire sense of emergency. Insisting on time enough to read the bill was dismissed as dangerous and crazy in a time of crisis. We were told that if we really wanted to see what was in the bill we would have to pass it first. I cannot imagine the Founding Fathers intended that Congress legislate in this manner. I would think if a member is not absolutely certain the entire legislation meets constitutional muster, the default vote should be "no" in accordance with our oath of office. But now that Congress has had six months to read the new law, there is a significant amount of buyer's remorse on Capitol Hill.

The more constituents learn about the law, the more angry they become. 60% of Americans are now to be said in favor of repealing the entire thing. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to repeal a law than it is to pass a bill. I wrote a while back about the egregious provision to require businesses to issue 1099s for all transactions over $600 as a way to partially pay for it. I have co-sponsored legislation to fix this issue, yet this is just the tip of the iceberg.

First of all, in spite of the administration repeating over and over that this legislation would not increase costs for Americans, they are now saying they knew all along that it would. The Congressional Budget office estimates that American families will see their premiums rise by an average of $2,100 by 2016. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the cost of compliance is forcing some insurers to increase premiums by up to 20% as soon as next year. Also, in spite of repeated claims from the administration that we could all keep our plans and doctors if we liked them, the administration's own officials are now predicting that won't be true for up to
117 million Americans who will lose their current plans.

Major insurers are also dropping child-only plans because of mandates and price fixing on such policies leaving parents with fewer choices for their children, not more. In addition, in spite of claiming this law would contain government costs, not increase them, administration actuaries now predict it will increase healthcare spending by over $300 billion. This additional spending comes along with doctor shortages, fewer choices and more taxes, perhaps, worst of all, increases in labor cost because of health insurance mandates are discouraging employers from hiring new workers and even triggering more layoffs.

Anyone with a basic understanding of Austrian economics could have predicted the unintended consequences of these new healthcare policies. Central planning never increases choices and quality or cuts costs as promised. Price controls and government mandates always create artificial scarcity. Healthcare is not a right or privilege. It is a product, like food or clothing. As with any good or service, the free market regulation of supply and demand provides the optimal quality to the maximum number of people.

Once we realize the problems we are trying to solve today were created by government intervention beginning in the 1960s, we can begin to put patients back in control of healthcare, rather than third party oligopolies and government bureaucrats. The sooner the better.

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Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, a return to sound monetary policies, and a sensible foreign policy that puts America first.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ron paul
• obamacare
• healthcare
• 1099
• congress
• policy
• politics
• news

[yetanother0user]

@katey1dog - Of course it's a necessity. And it's a product. It's a necessary product. Like food or a place to live. And what about clothes? Would't you say they're not necessary? Food in my opinion is even more necessary to survive than helthcare, so why don't we create a foodcare for everybody? I''l tell you why - because everybody would starve to death in few conscutive months.

[katey1dog]

@GaryVolts

Nothing wrong with free enterprise. That's why I support Dr. Paul. I don't support a welfare state on the scale of the USSR or perhaps even France.

But we need to take these ideas and work with them. Why? BECAUSE THEY WORK. These nations are free countries, perhaps a little to liberal for our American tastes, but they remain free. And when accounting for health and well-being (judging life expectancies of adults and survivability rates of newborns), these nations win.

[ashkaji]

@yetanother0user Agreed, people would eat way to much because theres no reprocussions (cost) to being a fatfuck. Its the same reason people who smoke there entire life get lung cancer, want someone else to pay to fix it, and they KEEP SMOKING. CONSIQUENCES AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!! That is where morals and common sense are learned!

[ecosby100]

i say every body do there taxes so that you have to pay at the end of the year and then every body just dont pay what would the IRS do they wouldn't know where to start

[kmg501]

@taylorkerz

He isn't Superman, expecting him to go after 9/11 truth when he doesn't have the power to do so is really foolish if not suicidal. And just for the record, I'm not committed either way when it comes to 9/11 truth. I certainly want to know for sure but you first have to get to a position of power without getting tangled on highly questionable issues.

Cart before the horse...

[taylorkerz]

@kmg501 he cannot be entirely forthcoming about some truths quite yet. he "can t handle the controversy"

youtube. com/watch?v=88x6JdfjwCY

[TreachMarkets]

Ron Paul is the last Jedi left in the Republic. I want to be a padawan!

[YoDudeRock]

@katey1dog Let me help you out Gary. The Constitution spells out what the government can do, health care isn't listed in the powers of the president, Congress or Judicial. The 10th amendment of the Constitution also says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." In other words, what's not in the Constitution, can't be done by the Federal government.

[KillBaddBugz]

Ask any MD in the country how they like the new law. Better yet- ask how they like having Medicare pay only 80% of the bill. Good luck even finding an MD in 2 years.

[DaveTammy1]

Please YouTube / Google Clift for congress He is a true liberty candidate running for the House of Representatives in California CD10. He is running against John Garamendi the deciding vote for Obama care. Thats C L I F T for congress.

Obama care would be great if it worked but let's face it, it won't work as promised and will further bankrupt the country. See also Fairfield CA Town Hall John Garamendi

[katey1dog]

@GaryVolts

As would I. But unfortunately, people are becoming more and more trapped. People can no longer afford quitting a job for fear of losing healthcare. Men and women are trapped in a tedious positions at a job which happens to have medical insurance. And most importantly, men and women are losing work and can no longer afford even the cheapest insurance. That creates fear.

And FEAR is NOT freedom. The unemployed as well as the employed would no longer be trapped.

[GaryVolts]

@katey1dog There are lots of different ways to live, I happen to like our free enterprise system and the freedoms we enjoy in this country.

[GaryVolts]

@katey1dog The Constution was written to specifically innumerate the responsibilities of the federal government. The states had had enough of an central authoritarian control. It says that anything not listed is held by the states and their people. So the constitution talks about a lot of things, for example national defense, but nowhere does it say anything about a national healthcare system. Change the Constitution if you want to live in a country like that. I don't.

[katey1dog]

@GaryVolts

If you have ANY more doubts of the feasibility of a single-payer system, then here are some wonderful nations that accept it: United Kingdom (England, N. Ireland, Wales, Scotland), France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan (ROC), Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, just to name a few.

[katey1dog]

@GaryVolts

First what you're hoping for is against the Constitution.

Where is it written in the CONSTITUTION which openly states the notion that National Health Care is in some way flawed or illegal? Especially when there are millions of Americans that take advantage of Medicare and Medicaid every day? They tried guaranteeing all that stuff, and the place collapsed, it was called the USSR.

Uh, Russia still has National Health Care. It's probably the only true benefit.

[katey1dog]

@YoDudeRock

I mean the government not giving anyone anything,

Listen, now you're drifting off into something is ambiguous, government spending. The government is OBLIGATED to provide everything from law enforcement to meter maids. I've got my problems with both, but then again, there is a need for certain programs which are non-profit, yet benefit the body politic.  Road construction/maintenance, bridge construction/maintenance, the military, NASA, medicare/aid, etc.

[GaryVolts]

@katey1dog The reason people can't afford health care or an insurance policy from an insurance corporaiton is because government has outlawed the less expensive forms of health care for the benefit of the health care industry. Things have gotten so far out of whack that people think health care and an insurance policy are one in the same. We need to brings back competition and let the market provide difference levels of care for different budgets.

[GaryVolts]

@katey1dog First what you're hoping for is against the Constitution. By your reasoning, more pressing needs like food and housing should be guaranteed by the federal government before medical care. They tried guaranteeing all that stuff, and the place collapsed, it was called the USSR. It takes away people's incentive to work when they feel like at the very least, they have their basics covered. You're basically arguing to discard our capitalist system, that's a pretty big change.

[katey1dog]

@GaryVolts

You have no point.

The government doesn't have anything to give that it hasn't first taken from another.

That's taxation.

That which a person receives without labor, another bust labor without receiving.

You lost me :-/. If you can't give a fair enough reason why National Health Care is wrong, then stop arguing. Because you haven't proven your point. And if you've got no point, then we're finished.

[GaryVolts]

@katey1dog Your exception doesn't change the point I was making. The government doesn't have anything to give that it hasn't first taken from another. That which a person receives without labor, another bust labor without receiving.

[YoDudeRock]

@katey1dog The preamble also says, "promote" the general welfare, not "force".

I'm very offended you would volunteer me to pay the same taxes you want to cheerfully pay for the "greater good". It's called the "greater good" because your doing evil to achieve it. It results in more bad stuff happening.

By the way, there is no such thing as "society", there are only individuals.

[YoDudeRock]

@katey1dog I absolutely don't mean that at all. I mean the government not giving anyone anything, because everyone can't live at the expense of everyone else. Equality is a myth. Most of the power needs to be in the hands of individuals. The government's only job should be to maintain freedom and punish actual crimes, that's it. People left to their own devices will flourish and achieve prosperity, not self-destruct.

[YoDudeRock]

@yetanother0user I'm sure, when they run out of real food, so they provide the people cardboard to eat. Keeping freedom is important. Socialism is self-destructive.

[katey1dog]

@GaryVolts

Put simply, the government currently houses 2 million convicts. As your comment stated, it isn't the role of government to house people.

[GaryVolts]

@katey1dog I'm not sure if I understand what you wrote. Can you put it another way?