I have pretty strong opinions on most things political. I liken it to a baseball or football fan pouring over on base percentages or rushing stats. However, Most of this “research” is for my own edification, or to share with those I know to be similarly devoid of other interests.
Occasionally, however, a snippet of misinformation so egregious is passed along to me (usually via a politically uninformed or “recently energized” email contact) that it simply demands a response. This morning was one of those occasions. I submit to my readers (both of you) the message I received, complete with YouTube video link, as well as my response:
Fwd: THIS WILL KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF – Is this REALLY our AMERICA?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcBaSP31Be8
The contents of the video defy description, and really must be viewed for full appreciation. My response to what I can only imagine was a rather stunned group of recipients was as follows:
HR 3200 no longer exists, and was replaced by HR 3962 (passed by the House on 11/7/09). HR3962 is also now effectively obsolete, having basically been deemed to difficult to pass in the Senate and therefore the ballgame all comes down to the Senate version (HR 3590) . If anyone is interested I’ve linked to the complete text of all three bills above. You can read the official text, searchable by keyword, section number, etc. but NOT by page number as referenced in the video. This is because house bills don’t have “page numbers” since there are several different printing formats required (one for the official record that must be double spaced, one for review and markup that is usually single spaced, etc).
While there are certainly a lot of different perspectives on this debate, all of which deserve consideration, I would encourage everyone to discover the facts for themselves. Don’t rely on someone else to tell you what to be afraid of.
For instance, the “$5,000 to $10,000 yearly cap on coverage” discussed in the video, is actually a $5,000 to $10,000 cap on individual out of pocket expenses per year, mandating that your insurer MUST cover anything above those amounts (HR3200 Sec 122 (a) (3) and (c)(2)(A-C)).
And as for the dire prediction that a shadowy “Health Care Commissioner” will determine the care you will receive (or not receive)? Think about that for a minute. Regardless of the system in place, someone, somewhere, at some time, must determine what procedures and services will be covered under ANY health plan, including the plans we all utilize today. The only difference is that under the proposed legislation the minimum standards for acceptable coverage would be set by a bureaucrat in Washington DC rather than our currently unregulated health insurance companies determining which benefits can be eliminated without losing customers.
Consider this, some of you (like my family) may currently be covered by United Healthcare. As small business owners your premiums have probably gone up exponentially over the last 10 years as coverage has steadily declined. Who made those decisions? I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t the Government. It was this guy, UnitedHealth CEO William McGuire, who stepped down as head of United Healthcare in 2006 with a severance package worth approximately $1.7 Billion. Now, I’m a free market guy, and ALL FOR profit and compensation. Hell, I’m not even criticizing McGuire’s right to that kind of compensation. All I’m saying is that fear of an appointed Commissioner to require companies like UHC to provide a minimum level of coverage should perhaps be weighed against the fact that currently those same decisions are made by a guy who made $1.7 Billion for 15 years of increased profitability. Profitability that likely DOESN’T grow from increased benefit coverage.
I’m not arguing for any of the proposed bills. I think they all have problems. All I’m saying is don’t make your decisions based on a YouTube propaganda video. Read the bills. Ignore the uproar about their length (about 2000 pages double spaced) and look at the word count, about the same as a Harry Potter book. If its worth getting all worked up about isn’t it worth reading the actual bills?
Sorry for the outburst, but we all deserve to know the facts about this situation…
Now I’m not posting this exchange to too my own horn (or incriminate me, as the case my be) but rather to make a point. The recipients of this email aren’t bad people. They aren’t stupid either. On the contrary, most of them are successful small business owners and entrepreneurs. What they ARE is uninformed. They are ignorant. Not of the GOP position, or that of the Democratic Party or the White House, but rather of the undisputed facts of the debate.
No, I’m not posting this as an amusing anecdote about putting someone in their place. I’m posting it to illustrate that unless those of us that understand this debate continuously set the record straight it will remain dominated by the least informed among us. I’m posting it as a plea to those of us that know the facts to politely educate someone who doesn’t. Point them in the right direction at the very least. If we don’t we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.
-EL
