The Christian Coalition of American sent out an e-mail blast today demanding that Congress repeal last year’s landmark health care reform bill. The e-mail decries the “government takeover of our nation’s health care system” and includes a list of claims about the terrible things the bill would do: fund abortions, limit doctor choice, cause health care costs to increase, raise taxes, kill jobs and cause people to lose their current insurance:
We can demand that Congress repeal it!
We can speak out for free market reforms, not government run schemes that stifle innovation, ration care and increase our taxes.
And we can demand reform that focuses on empowering personal choice and freedom – not government.
Every bit of that — like “government takeover,” “kill American jobs,” “limit our choice of doctors,” “ration care,” “free market” — comes from talking points promoted by the Republican Party. And it’s more evidence that the religious right isn’t really a religious movement. It’s a political movement that manipulates its supporters on behalf of an agenda that has very little to do with faith and “traditional values.”
The Christian Coalition’s e-mail letterhead features this slogan: “defending America’s Godly heritage.”
Yeah. Sure you are.
(By the way, the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund explored the religious right’s ties to the Republican Party in a 2006 report: The Anatomy of Power.)
The central question of what is provided by “Obama Care” as to whether it is a health care program or a health insurance program. So far as I can see, it is the latter, a health insurance program, particulalry since the “public option” was omitted.
Having been a certified life and health agent in Texas, the public isn’t getting relevant information regarding the fundamentals of health insurance to accurately understand the issues. Therefore:
1. In order to have enough cash in the kitty to pay claims, the healthy pay for the sick, the young pay for the old, and men pay for women.
2. The healthy don’t want to pay for the sick, save themselves, and given the option will opt out. This results in “adverse selection” in which the more that opt out means that the rates must be raised to pay for the sick. This becomes a vortex and the plan goes down the drain.
3. The only way to keep the healthy in a place to pay for the sick is make it mandatory, else adverse selection takes place.
4. Bean counters want to save money with bigger deductibles which encourage the sick to get sicker. 3
5. There is no such thing as a health care market for individuals save for the healthy. The market for group life exists only between corporations, companies, etc as inducements to gain and retain employees. The precipitous decline of corporate health and retirement plans shows that this option is dead or dying.
6. The sick get sicker and the government picks up a tab at the emergency room.
7. Death squads already exist in corporate health plans, the worst of which cover government agencies. Like government, large corporations will squander dollars to saeve dimes, with the adminsitrative costs of approving, auditing, and adjudicating claims. There are more administrative people dealing with claims than providing health.
8. My son died of denial of needed mental health care in multiple health care deniers. It cost more to deal with his death than the necessary care would have cost. Mental health care is considered by accountants as frivolous, and only the crazy need it.
9. The best health care plans I have experienced are both US government issue: Medicare and Tricare for Life. And that is from the viewpoint of responsiveness and efficiency of care.
10. Those who would benefit from health insurance programs mandated (like car, property, casualty, and flood) insurance are the insurance companies. So why ther surm and drang, sound and fury, and vicious propaganda?
Methinks they protesteth too much
I use the “bass boat” as the common denominator for this sort of thing. The only way we are ever going to solve the health care problem is for all of us to make a little sacrifice in our lives. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s pretend that I want to go out tomorrow and buy a Mercedes car. I can afford some of those models and probably all of them if my wife was working. Lets just say that one of those cars costs $75,000–the one I want. Well, the truth of the matter is this. I only need a car to get me from Point A to Point B. So, a Honda Civic DX would do me just fine, save me about $60,000, and avoid maxing out my paycheck. I could be willing to give up a percentage of that $60,000 I would save to help a sick person that needs insurance coverage. It might only be $5000 a year, and I would not even miss it. However, if I were to go ahead and buy the Mercedes, there is no way I would have enough money left to surrender some to help a sick person. The problem today is that no one wants to make that small sacrifice.
The basic problem is that everyone—even the Christian community in this country—is totally sold out to the idea that whoever has the largest number, best quality, and most expensive toys in their possession at the end of life wins the big game. Put another way, we Americans are the first people in human history to actually have our hands within mortal reach of achieving HEAVEN ON EARTH. Forget the afterlife. I could HAVE IT ALL right now—because there might not even be an afterlife.
What we are really saying is this:
“I have my heart set on a new bass boat. If I have to give up some of my money to help that sick person, I will never be able to buy my new bass boat. Well, nothing is going to get between me and my new bass boat, so she had just better crawl off into some moist hole somewhere and die.”
Then they’ll just go off to church on Sunday morning and ask Jesus to bless that—in some screwed up way or other. The pastor with his fat belly and TV news anchor haircut will smile and bless it—in some screwed up way or other. The sick lady will die.
I would just like for someone—anyone—to write back to me and explain where the Christian love is in that sickening crock of truth that I just opened above.
Spot on, Charles. I was always a fiscal conservative, and still am in many ways, especially in my own life. But even when I was at my most conservative, I was always aware that we flat-out wasted enough money in this country to take care of the poor. It never seemed right to me. Our “disposable income” could cover the health care bill without a lot of effort. I bet most people in the middle class could live on half of what they currently spend, and they wouldn’t even miss it. I’m all for making sure our taxes are spent wisely, and that the system roots out abuse, but I was never against helping those who truly needed it.
The biggest single source of waste in governmental expenditures is the cost of saving money, bar none. Accountants are hired to mandate and measure, expenditures, Conferences will be held to set out guidelines for saving money. Such savings can suck the life out of a program and still leave the bureaucracy intact.
Jesus would throw up if he saw the antics of the so-called “Christian” Coalition, founded by nutcase Pat Robertson and run for a while by the sleazy/creepy Ralph Reed. Clowns like the CC give Christians a bad name.
Weird. I would have suspected a “Christian Coalition” to want to expand it, not repeal it. Interesting.
Hmmm… My bible says that Christians should help the sick and poor. I guess I haven’t checked in on the Conservapedia’s version lately.