Could you explain something to me, Virginia?

Something passed in the Senate last night that I just can’t figure out. Senators who voted for the passage of the Senate Health Reform Bill lost no time in saying that they would vote against it in the debate. Even Sen. Lieberman, so tough on the floor and on his party, really failed in the trenches by voting to pass the monster bill, and states that he will oppose certain provisions in the debate. Huh?

In other words, they voted for it before they will vote against it? Hello? Sounds so very Kerryesque.

Are they dumb or meretricious …grabbing for those little goodies that Sen. Reid proffered for votes to bring other goodies to constituents who don’t want health care reform?

Well, they are really scoundrels, Virginia. They are protected when and if the Health Care Bill becomes law. You see Virginia…they have their own health care plan which will not be changed or amended so that they won’t suffer with the rest of us.

Experts, like the Dean of Harvard Medical School, pasted a “Do Not Resuscitate” sign all over the bill. Economists from all sides of the political landscape demonstrated with charts, graphs and research that the bill would increase taxes, deficits, medical costs while robbing Americans of drugs, tests, technology and innovations which save lives through early detection and timely administration of medications and procedures.

The American Association of Retired Persons must assume that everyone over their age bar – 50 years – is a dunce. The assenting legislators….almost to a person…quoted AARP’s endorsement of the bill that will curtail services to the elderly. This is not an example of stealing from the rich to help the poor. It is an example of stealing from younger taxpayers to “eliminate” the older taxpayers by denying them tools and medicines to treat adult onset illnesses.

Even the bloated bureaucracy of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services offered caveats about potential losses of medical care under several stipulations of the bill. Gov. Palin stuck to her guns about the “death panels” and was immediately called a liar by the Obama troops in their latest solicitation for funds.

Are the Congressmen/women smarter than their colleagues in the Senate? (Don’t answer this without omitting Nancy Pelosi). It would appear so since the House bill squeaked by with a tiny margin, whereas the Senate voted in herd formation. Did they see or hear about or read about the citizens’ rebellion known as the “tea parties?”

The grassroots Americans know better. They know that their taxes will rise; they know that their employers may go out of business leaving them with no jobs and no coverage; they know that more spending means more deficits; they know that government breaks institutions it seeks to dominate; they know that actuaries will decide which, if any, treatments and medications they can get; and they know that their elected officials were totally derelict in failure to consider other alternatives such as catastrophic care insurance, private sector options, and medical savings accounts which reward people for avoiding abuses and over-testing.

The citizens also know that there the bill contains no hint of tort reform without which malpractice premiums will continue to rise and physicians will continue to rely on technology and gratuitous tests rather than clinical judgment in order to avoid lawsuits.

Americans of every region also know that other nations that have enacted socialized medicine have reduced quality and care and increased waiting time for treatment and procedures, even when delay causes death.

The so-called “waste cutters” who promise savings and quality are practicing smoke and mirror deception. The boomer generation will enter the rolls of Medicare within the next decade and increase spending on healthcare as quickly as the so-called cost cutting will be implemented, so how can we provide more care with lower costs without irresponsible rationing? It’s a lie – an unsustainable lie. Even some of the president’s economic advisers and representatives of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and the Government Accounting Office are saying this.

The bill does not even mention cost cutting by encouraging the incredibly efficient and non-invasive procedures developed by doctors which cut morbidity, shorten or eliminate hospital stays and concomitantly save money. Not only will we lose our choice of doctors and have limited access to those chosen by the government but innovation and technology will shrink as the brightest and the best students will be lured away from the medical profession that reduces their rank to that of mid-level government employees.

Furthermore, the President warned of a swine flu epidemic, but how is it that neither the House nor Senate bills discuss the availability of inoculations, stockpiling of medications or the ramping up of America’s public health administration? In fact, can you name a legislator who has actually brought this up?

Where are the doctors and why were they so poorly represented at the tea parties and town hall meetings. They know the amount of paperwork required to remove a wart from a finger and get some reimbursement. They know how many times they have to submit a form in order to justify both the procedure and the charge. They know how often they must refer patients to specialists in order to avoid law-suits. And they know the looming bill is a disaster.

Many physicians have written cogent opinion columns denouncing the government’s plans. But how many addressed their patients and colleagues and friends to warn them? How many denounced their representative American Medical Association and resigned their affiliation for its craven bow to the President when they lined up in white coats for a silly photo-op with their potential tormentor? Every doctor deserves to be told about your concerns.

The only recourse is to confront all elected officials by making the vote on healthcare a litmus test for re-election. Get their hands out of our pockets and our lives before the robbing hoods destroy the best health system in the world and ruin our economy and our future in the process.

You too Virginia! You are getting older too and the government’s grim reapers cast a wide net.

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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About the author

Ruth S. King
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ruth King is a freelance writer. She has written a book and articles on gardening, and also writes a monthly column in OUTPOST, the publication of Americans for a Safe Israel.