I had a whole response typed up, and then the forum ate it
Obama claims that Medicare benefits would not be cut, and yet part of the proposal on how to fund a $1 trillion UHC is to cut $500 billion from Medicare. The claim is that these cuts would only apply to waste, duplication and overpayments to doctors and hospitals. Yet we've proven that physicians are not in fact overpaid by Medicare to begin with, in fact they're reimbursed very little for their time. $1,100 on the high end of average for a foot amputation, including the pre-op consultations, the surgery itself, and follow-up care for up to 90 days. Yet Obama claims that those same physicians/surgeons get $30-50k for this surgery. He also claims that doctors perform tonsillectomies in order to "make lots of money"; Mr. President, go do some fact checking... the vast majority of tonsillectomies are performed because of persistent infections, and the rest are done because of an acute medical problem such as strep that is presenting at the time. His other ludicrous claim is that the imaginary $30-50k that a doctor supposedly gets for performing one of these "unnecessary" surgeries is received "immediately" by the physician. Mr. President, please do some fact checking... Medicare payments take 60-180 days to process. My dad is one of those Family Practice physicians that apparently send people off for unnecessary surgeries for the hell of it... and he is just now receiving reimbursement from Medicare for services rendered at the end of last year and the beginning of this year... and that is for simple office visits.
The other lies Obama has spread include the fact that the AARP has endorsed the plan, when it hasn't. He also claims that you'll be able to keep your existing health insurance... but what he doesn't mention is the fact that you get to keep it for up to 5 years if certain conditions are met, and if at any point during those 5 years you lose coverage, the terms change, or your insurance doesn't meet up with the standards set forth by the government, then you lose it and are put under the UHC. At the end of the 5-year "grace period", it is directly implied though not outwardly stated, that all citizens will be put onto the UHC. Has the economic impact of this even been considered... whether you like or dislike insurance companies, the fact still remains that the industry employs millions of people, but within 5 years most of those jobs will be gone because the insurance companies will cease to exist, or at least cease to exist as they do today. Don't believe me? Go read pages 16 and 17 of HR 3200 and see for yourself.
The claims that Democrats are the only ones who have "ever" put forth legislation that helps the American people is an outright lie, though I'm not surprised to hear it considering the sources. I suppose neither of you were either around to remember or have chosen to forget the Contract With America. The Republicans are the only ones in my lifetime that have ever lowered taxes for the American people... but they've also raised them.
You're hanging your hat on Obama's claims that illegal immigrants will not be covered under a UHC, as though an American President has never lied to the American people. Oh wait, we've already demonstrated that Obama has lied about this very UHC bill. Bush 43 lied about the reasons to invade Iraq in order to suit his own purposes. Clinton lied about Lewinsky, Whitewater, and numerous other things while in office. Bush 41 told the American people directly, "read my lips, no new taxes", and then raised taxes. Politicians lie, it's a proven fact... they lie all the freaking time, it's a way of life for most of them. I'm not saying that they all do, and that all politicians have their own needs placed over their constituents, but I'm willing to bet that there's at least a simple majority that do. So if Obama is willing to lie about everything else having to do with the UHC, why wouldn't he be willing to lie about the coverage of illegal immigrants.
Now, as far as the parts of the bill that I referenced, they seemed to my understanding, that they provided the ability for illegal immigrants to obtain coverage under this UHC... I may have been incorrect and am willing to do more research on it. But as AA has stated above, all that it would take would be the issuance of amnesty to all current illegal immigrants to cover those that are currently living here illegally, and make them legitimate. That's not too hard to believe, because it's something that the left has been pushing for quite some time now. I've also not found anything prevent illegal immigrants from being covered under the Senate bill... but I haven't fully read that one yet. Yes, there's a concept... I've actually been *reading* these bills in order to familiarize myself with them.
I'm also going to assume that since there was no attempt to defend the fact that Obama outright lied about physicians and their reimbursement for surgeries. As well as outright slandered them and their motivations to recommend such surgeries to patients, that either a) you're okay with the lies, or b) you're not okay with them, but to say such would further lower your credibility.
I realize that I'm more than likely not going to change anyone's mind here... especially people who are willingly ignoring facts and believe lies; but I had to give it a try.
