Forwarded email: "Maxine on Health Care!"

I don't normally pass on forwarded emails, but this one is both funny and true.

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Maxine on Health Care!


Let me get this straight.

...we're going to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it,

passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it,

to be signed by a president that also hasn't read it and who smokes,

with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes,

all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese,

and financed by a country that's nearly broke.

What could possibly go wrong?

Letter to my Senators: "Please REJECT the current healthcare bill."

I just sent this letter to my Senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner.

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Please REJECT the current healthcare bill.

The current healthcare "reform" bill does NOTHING to reform malpractice suits, frivolous or otherwise, which are the major cause of increasing healthcare costs.

The bill requires, for the first time in US history and with neither legal nor Constitutional precedent, that all citizens purchase a product or service for simply living, and provides steep penalties for those who choose not to have the service.

The bill includes heavy taxes on the healthcare industry, which will further increase costs as these taxes are passed on to the customers.

The bill requires government-sponsored insurance "options", which inherently and unfairly compete against existing insurance companies, since the government plans have no need to operate at a profit, to break even financially, or to provide good customer service once the existing insurance has been run out of business.

The bill does not provide for private competition, as existing prohibitions against purchasing services from companies in other states are still in effect.

The bill continues biases against personal insurance coverage by not allowing tax deductibility unless the insurance is provided through an employer.

The bill includes government bureaucratic oversight, contrary to promises that "no government bureaucrat will come between you and your doctor."

As an example:

A "task force" has already been established that now "recommends" women who were previously recommended to get mammograms every year after age 40 now only get them every other year and then only after age 50. Just to be clear, the data has not changed, only the recommendations.

Right now, the United States has the best cancer survivorship in the world. If this healthcare plan is instituted, many thousands of women will die who would before have survived, and thousands of women who would have had a simple treatment and rapid recovery will now have to endure long, complex, painful (and expensive) treatments, because their cancer was not caught early.

In summary, this plan causes more problems without solving the existing ones.

Please both vote and speak against this horrendous plan.

Cancer, Rationing, Broken Promises

President Obama said that "no government bureaucrat will come between you and your doctor."

Really?

The healthcare community has long recommended that women over 40 get mammograms every year. But now, as Congress and Senate try to pass a government takeover of healthcare, a government "task force" has just recommended that be changed. Just to be clear, the data has not changed, only the recommendations.

They now say that only women over 50 should get mammograms, and then only every other year.

Right now, the United States has the best cancer survivorship in the world. If the government enforces this "recommendation" as part of its new healthcare plan, many women will die who would before have survived, and many women who would have had a simple treatment and recovery will now have to endure long, complex, painful (and expensive) treatments, because their cancer was not caught early.

Well, that last part, "expensive," may not come. European countries with government-controlled healthcare don't allow expensive treatments for people over 60. That means that those who are over 60 and get cancer don't get treatment - they get management. Pain therapy. Don't treat the problem; manage the symptoms.

Guess what? It's not (for the most part) the Republicans who are telling people to "die quickly". It's those who are pushing for this government takeover of what is right now the best healthcare system in the world.

It's not perfect, and it can use some tweaks (mostly protection from already overbearing government, like allowing frivolous lawsuits and outrageous penalties), but it's the best anyone has.

States can opt out of Federal health care? Really?

Sorry. After six years, states have to participate, whether they want to or not. If they don't join, they lose the healthcare subsidies that they have had for years, including Medicare matching funds.

New letter to Congressman Rick Boucher

Subject: DO NOT APPROVE THE CURRENT HEALTHCARE BILL!

An amendment (the Ellsworth-DeLauro amendment) has been added to the healthcare bill that supposedly removes taxpayer funding of elective abortion.

It does not.

Analysis by National Right to Life legislative director Douglas Johnson (http://www.lifenews.com/nat5607.html) reveals that the amendment is complex subterfuge, and that all cases of elective abortion will still be permitted - and funded - by other provisions of the bill.

As you are no doubt aware, Creigh Deeds' candidacy for governor was rejected locally 71.85% to 27.25%. If you support this bill, which local voters such as myself are adamantly against, the same may happen to you next year.

New VA Governor: Bob McDonald in total domination

The year after every Presidential election since Carter in 1976, the Virginia gubernatorial election has always gone to the candidate of the other party. That means that Bob McDonald had to win, just according to the way Virginia voters always do things.

But we weren't expecting a 17 percent spread between the two candidates. Particularly since there was only a 12% difference in polling yesterday.

In politics, a 6% difference is considered a landslide. What do they call a 17% difference?

Update: It's actually a 17.41% difference, 58.64% to 41.23%. And Bristol, where I live, was 71.85% to 27.25%, an overwhelming 44.6% difference approaching 3-to-1.

Healthcare Bill: Adding 800 MORE pages the day before the vote?

The current draft of the Congressional healthcare bill is 1990 pages long. Some experts say that it will take a week just to read it, not to mention deciphering it and looking up all the other laws to which it refers.

But wait - there's more!

Nancy Pelosi is working on an 800 PAGE amendment. No telling how much pork and government control is in there.

But that's not all!

She wants a vote on the bill on Friday!

The bill already cuts $500 BILLION from Medicare. Democrats regularly accuse Republicans of wanting to reduce care for seniors. Democrats say that Republicans are against seniors, and that is proven by their opposition to this bill. But this bill will actually do just that.

The bill outlaws any new private health insurance after 2013. We can choose our own insurance? Not with this bill.

The bill pays for elective abortions. Most Americans, even those who think abortion is fine, don't want it paid for by taxes. But this bill will allow mothers to kill their babies and have other people pay for it.

The Congressional Budget Office says that this bill - not including the extra 800 pages - will cost over a TRILLION dollars ($1.055T). Nancy Pelosi says that it won't add anything to the debt? That it won't cost taxpayers "a dime"? Yea, right.

The number Nancy Pelosi herself keeps using is $894 billion, just under the $900 billion cap that President Obama wanted. But that $894 billion is the funding the bill provides for health coverage, not the cost.

Letter to Congressman Rick Boucher

I just sent this email to my Congressman, Rick Boucher.

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Subject: DO NOT APPROVE THE CURRENT HEALTHCARE BILL!

The current healthcare bill requires all private healthcare insurance (new registrations) to end in 2013.

I want to choose my own healthcare plan. Please vote against this bill.
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There are many other problems in this 2000-page bill, including $500 Billion in CUTS in Medicare, but letters to Congress or Senate members must be short and to-the-point.

I sent similar letters to my Senators, saying to vote against the bill if it gets approved by the House and comes before the Senate.