Top 10 Bizarre Aspects of Obamacare

With David Letterman back in the news, a top ten list is in order. Let’s illustrate the panoply of weirdness that are the health care bills working their way through Congress.

10. Doctors who treat the oldest patients will be fined by the government:The government will create a “hit list” of doctorswho are in the top 10% of Medicare costs per patient nationwide. Those doctors on the list automatically lose 5 percent of their total Medicare reimbursements, which are already abysmally low. Because the most aged patients are the most costly to treat, doctors will shy away from treating the oldest segment of the population for fear it will relegate them to the hit list. Put simply, this stricture will dramatically reduce access to health care for our most vulnerable seniors.

9. Democrats have combined free health care for illegal immigrants with measures to increase the number of illegals in this country: All GOP efforts to amend the health care bills to require a photo ID, a Social Security number and similar measures have been defeated on party lines. This is consistent with a June report (“If the American people found out…”) that “[pro-illegal immigration group] La Raza said if they get this, they don’t even care about amnesty, because they’ve fixed it so that one family member can apply for all extended family members.”

8: Seniors will receive hefty tax hikes for care: Medical devices are taxed by the Baucus bill in order to raise about $4 billion annually. So much for the promises that the middle class won’t see their taxes raised. These newly taxed devices include pacemakers, hip joint replacements, gastrointestinal tubes, artificial hearts, hearing aids, heart defibrillators, powered wheelchairs, etc. In other words, the taxes will hit seniors hardest, make procedures less affordable, and punish the device manufacturing sector.

7: Choose to self-insure? You’ll face a year in prison: Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold [confirmed] the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance: Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty.

6: Taxes for everyone with health care insurance will increase: To pay for the $1 trillion cost of the bill, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wants either an income surtax on the wealthy or higher taxes on “Cadillac” health plans (e.g., most comprehensive plans, including those of union members). Again — so much for the promises that the middle class won’t see their taxes raised.

5: Nearly half of all doctors would consider quitting if ObamaCare becomes law: Two out of three doctors oppose the bills under consideration in Washington. And hundreds of thousands of doctors would take an early retirement or shut down their practices if the bills become law. Lastly, “72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration’s claim that the government can cover 47 million more people with better-quality care at lower cost.”

4: Health care companies are under a “gag order” and can not criticize the bill: In an absurdly illegal repudiation of the First Amendment, “the federal government has now told all companies that provide Medicare Advantage to seniors to stop communicating with their clients about the effects of that legislation — even telling them what they can and cannot post on their websites. This gag order [is] enforced through an agency of the federal government at the request of a Senator… Citizens, either as individuals or grouped together in companies, have a fundamental right to talk about legislation they favor or oppose. That is the core of the First Amendment’s protections on speech. Unfortunately, this is part of a troubling trend of efforts to dismiss the concerns raised by the American people over the past few months.”

3: President Obama says that the health care bill is a job-creating stimulus package: The President stated that small businesses would especially benefitbecause they ‘could buy health insurance through an exchange… ‘where they can compare the price, quality and services of a wide variety of plans’… [and the] government would subsidize health insurance for many businesses and individuals.”

2: 47% of households pay no taxes — and their ranks are growing: Thus,government-run health care is the greatest wealth transfer in history. The 53% of tax-paying households will therefore subsidize the 47% who pay no taxes. And: with the “$787 billion economic recovery package, which included a host of new or expanded tax breaks,” the 47% number is certain to grow.

1: By a margin of nearly 2-to-1, Americans don’t even want government-run health care: Gallup’s latest polling confirms what the 9/12 celebrations, the “tea parties” and other grassroots movements should be telling the bureaucrats in Washington. That is, “89% of Republicans, 64% of independents, and 61% of Americans overall say Americans themselves — rather than the government — have the primary responsibility for ensuring that they have health insurance.”

That won’t stop the Statists, of course, so vote accordingly in 2010.

Hat Tip Hot Air.