Charles Krauthammer (in wheelchair) is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Mr. Krauthammer's Wikipedia entry:
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Alan: To avoid "getting lost in the weeks" of America's needlessly complicated healthcare system -- complications ensured by the Republican members of Congress who exercised themselves to make Obamacare as shoddy as possible -- please take a look at the following posts. The Canadian healthcare system "focuses the forest," not the bark of a single unhealthy tree.
Canadian Healthcare: Not Perfect, Just Better. Lots Better
Canadian Healthcare Better Than U.S.
Bloomberg News Service
Pax On Both Houses: Blog Posts About Canada
(I am an American citizen and a proud graduate of The University of Toronto where I received world-class education at the same steeply subsidized cost as Canadian citizens. While a Toronto undergraduate from 1965 - 1970, I received free healthcare under Canada's Single Payer system)
Founder Of Canada's Single Payer Healhcare System Is "The Greatest Canadian Ever"
The Gruber Confession
by Charles Krauthammer
The lie of the year, according to Politifact, is “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” But the story of the year is a nation waking up to just how radical Obamacare is — which is why it required such outright deception to get it passed in the first place.
Obamacare was sold as simply a refinement of the current system, retaining competition among independent insurers but making things more efficient, fair and generous. Free contraceptives for Sandra Fluke. (Alan: The government cost for not giving away contraceptives is astronomical.) Free mammograms and checkups for you and me. (Alan: The government cost for not giving away contraceptives is astronomical.) Free (or subsidized) insurance for some 30 million uninsured. And, mirabile dictu, not costing the government a dime. (Alan: The psycho-spiritual cost of not giving away or subsidizing insurance for the uninsured is exacted by Satan Himself.)
That was a fraud from the very beginning. The law was designed to throw people off their private plans and into government-run exchanges where they would be made to overpay — forced to purchase government-mandated services they don’t need — as a way to subsidize others. (That’s how you get to the ostensible free lunch.) In fact, Obamacare is a full-scale federal takeover. The keep-your-plan-if-you-like-your-plan ruse was a way of saying to the millions of Americans who had insurance and liked what they had: Don’t worry. You’ll be left unmolested. For you, everything goes on as before.
Alan: The following article describes the rising cost of employer-supplied health insurance. If read attentively we learn that the key cause of upward price pressure is capitalism "doing what it does best": cutting business costs by passing those costs on to consumers. This sort of capitalist profiteering at the expense of The Common Good is an longstanding trend, not a sudden "imposition" by Obamacare which, in fact, provides less expensive healthcare to most American citizens. "Yes, You Are Paying A lot More For Your Employer Health Plan Than You Used To."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/10/yes-you-are-paying-a-lot-more-for-your-employer-health-plan-than-you-used-to/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/10/yes-you-are-paying-a-lot-more-for-your-employer-health-plan-than-you-used-to/
It wasn’t until the first cancellation notices went out in late 2013 that the deception began to be understood. And felt. Six million Americans with private insurance have just lost it. And that’s just the beginning. By the Department of Health and Human Services’ own estimates, about 75 million Americans would have plans that their employers would have the right to cancel. And millions of middle-class workers who will migrate to the exchanges and don’t qualify for government subsidies will see their premiums, deductibles and co-pays go up. (Alan: Many more millions will be qualify for government subsidies.)
But it’s not just individuals seeing their medical care turned upside down. The insurance providers, the backbone of the system, are being utterly transformed. They are rapidly becoming mere extensions of the federal government.
Look what happened just last week. Health and Human Services unilaterally and without warning changed coverage deadlines and guidelines. It asked insurers to start covering people on Jan. 1 even if they signed up as late as the day before and even if they hadn’t paid their premiums. And is “strongly encouraging” them to pay during the transition for doctor visits and medicines not covered in their current plans (if covered in the patient’s previous — canceled — plan).
On what authority does a Cabinet secretary tell private companies to pay for services not in their plans and cover people not on their rolls? Where in Obamacare’s 2,500 pages are such high-handed dictates authorized? Does anyone even ask? The bill itself is simply taken as a kind of blanket warrant for HHS to run, regulate and control the whole insurance system.
Alan: Where in The Social Contract does it say capitalist profiteers can deny people health insurance for pre-existing conditions; that capitalist profiteers can cut coverage when an insured party's ongoing health costs become a drain on corporate profits; that capitalist profiteers can cut coverage when children turn 18 rather than 21 or 26 (as is the new age limit under Obamacare)? To quote Mr. Krauthammer: "For too long no one has even asked." Charles should be ashamed of his ignore-ance.
"Politics And Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"
"Politics And Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"
"Plutocracy Triumphant"
Cartoon Compendium
"The Rich Aren't Just Grabbing A Bigger Slice Of The Pie. They're Taking It All"
http://paxonbothhouses.
http://paxonbothhouses.
Remember the uproar over forcing religious institutions to provide contraception coverage? The president’s “fix” was a new regulation ordering insurers to provide these services for free. Apart from the fact that this transparent ruse does nothing to resolve the underlying issue of conscience — God sees — by what right does the government order private companies to provide free services for anyone?
"American Theocracy," By Kevin Phillips
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/american-theocracy-by-kevin-phillips.html
Three years ago I predicted that Obamacare would turn insurers into the lapdog equivalent of utility companies. I undershot. They are being treated as wholly owned subsidiaries. Take the phrase “strongly encouraging.” Sweet persuasion? In reality, these are offers insurers can’t refuse. Disappoint your federal master and he has the power to kick you off the federal exchanges, where the health insurance business of the future is supposed to be conducted.
Alan: For decades prior to Obamacare, American conservatives advocated a central repository where a wide range of insurers' rates could be easily compared. Now that this comparison is possible, conservatives resort to their two core positions which are immeasurably more deceptive than anything Obama entertained. To wit:
Moreover, if adverse selection drives insurers into a financial death spiral — too few healthy young people to offset more costly, sicker, older folks — their only recourse will be a government bailout. Do they really want to get on the wrong side of the White House, their only lifeline when facing insolvency?
Alan: Krauthammers big "IF" needs contextualization: Big insurance companies were among Obamacare's biggest supporters.
"Don't Buy The Hype. American Insurance Companies Think Obamacare Is Going To Be Fine"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/15/dont-believe-the-hype-health-insurers-think-obamacare-is-going-to-be-fine/
I don’t care a whit for the insurance companies. They deserve what they get. They collaborated with the White House in concocting this scheme and are now being swallowed by it. But I do care about the citizenry and its access to a functioning, flourishing, choice-driven medical system.
Alan: The particular form of "free market healthcare" that prevailed before Obamacare was dysfunctional, fading and "choice-driven" only for those who could pay-to-play. In Canada, (where Krauthammer and I went to college) citizens are overwhelmingly satisfied with their single payer healthcare system and -- according to the results of a nationwide six month poll -- they consider Presbyterian minister Tommy Douglas, who first proposed "National Healthcare," The Greatest Canadian. Ever! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Canadian
Obamacare posed as a free-market alternative to a British-style single-payer system. Then, during congressional debate, the White House ostentatiously rejected the so-called “public option.” But that’s irrelevant. The whole damn thing is the public option. The federal government now runs the insurance market, dictating deadlines, procedures, rates, risk assessments and coverage requirements. It’s gotten so cocky it’s now telling insurers to cover the claims that, by law, they are not required to.
Welcome 2014, our first taste of nationalized health care.
Canadian Healthcare: Not Perfect, Just Better. Lots Better
Canadian Healthcare Better Than U.S.
Bloomberg News Service
Pax On Both Houses: Blog Posts About Canada
(I am an American citizen and a proud graduate of The University of Toronto where I received world-class education at the same steeply subsidized cost as Canadian citizens. While a Toronto undergraduate from 1965 - 1970, I received free healthcare under Canada's Single Payer system)
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/compendium-my-blog-posts-concerning.html
Founder Of Canada's Single Payer Healhcare System Is "The Greatest Canadian Ever"
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