I see all of the attention whores are in red tonight. Obama, has on a bold red tie, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi are in red power suits. Michelle Obama is in a pinkish color, actually looking quite appropriate tonight, her shoulders are covered and she's not stealing too much of the limelight. Nancy Pelosi is like a Jack-In-The-Box jumping up and down to clap like a performing seal every time Obama finishes a sentence. Joe Biden looks quite bored and is slouching in his seat, he does take Nancy's cues and gets up almost everytime she does.
Now is the time to deliver on health care! Now is the season of change! Nothing in our plan requires you to change anything you have. Huh? Why does he keep talking about pre-existing conditions? HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) reduced this issue to nearly nothing. That was 13 years ago. This is not an issue in employer issued healthcare and is limited to six months of non-coverage in all other types, excluding urgent medical conditions, like pregnancy which have no wait at all. Also, no one is ever turned down for employer based care, so the issue of not being able to get insurance is remedied by getting a job with benefits as opposed to being self employed.
He says no one should go broke because of a medical issue. The problem with that is that we are America. What he's talking about is cost sharing, Universal Healthcare, socialized medicine. It just doesn't work. The Canadian system and the U.K. system are shameful. The waiting list is long and people die. Care is bad and outdated. He is speaking about providing a choice, providing competition, when at the begining of the speech he said that the very best system is single payor. This is clearly a gateway into that system that involves no choice or competition whatsoever.
He has now claimed that he will not sign a plan that adds one dime to the deficit now or in the future, so I guess the health care plan is dead!!!! Ohhh, a jab at Bush, that makes the clapping very loud, something about inherited debt, to the tune of 3 trillion dollars. We got into a war, we couldn't pay for, apparantly. War is funny like that, tough to budget for. He just said that this program would eliminate the waste and fraud in insurance companies. That's because there is never any waste or fraud in the federal government, right Obama?
Now he's saying that people are telling scary stories and tall tales about his plan. Kind of like when he was talking about people dying without it in the begining of his speech? So he's going to nail the insurance companies with fees for expensive policies? That's how you foster competition and choice? No, that's how you drive people out of the market. He threw the Republicans a bone by saying that we might be able to slip in some tort reform somewhere.
Here's used car salesman Obama, my door is open, come to me with reasonable offers. I will not waste my time on people who wants to kill the bill.
Did he just say he would call people out who disagreed? Seriously the President says he's going to call people out?
Here's the emotional plea, Ted Kennedy sent me a letter, to be delivered after his death, supporting health care and talking about how it's a moral issue. Sorry, but I'm not really taking moral advice from Ted Kennedy, dead or alive.
In the last few moments of this speech I think I got what Obama wants most of all. A legacy. How sad is that?
One thing to remember is that the United States is a place of many medical advances, we have some of the most advanced technology on this earth. Many vaccines and new drugs come out of this country. The reason? The dreaded pharmaceutical companies fund that very expensive research and the best minds come together to accomplish amazing things. People send their very complicated medical cases here to be treated. I'm sorry, but that system is unique and won't be able to be duplicated once Obama takes away their ability to make a profit on prescriptions.
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