Someone forgot to send the CNN health care kool-aid over to the office of Fortune editor at large Shawn Tully in the days leading up to July 24. Tully in turn forgot to toot his own horn, and ObamaCare opponents forgot to take a peek inside what is normally enemy lines to find it.
In a must-read special report at affiliate CNNMoney.com, Tully lays bare Barack Obama's core claim, while identifying five freedoms many Americans will lose if ObamaCare passes in its current form. In fact, Tully's piece is so good, it should be the equivalent of Betsy McCaughey's 1994 broadside that helped torpedo HillaryCare -- if only people knew about it.
Anyone who knows the e-mail address of CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, who, as Matthew Balan of NewsBusters noted earlier today, is an ardent ObamaCare defender, should forward Tully's column to her. Copies to Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Howard Kurtz, and many others at CNN wouldn't hurt either.
Here are the introductory paragraphs and key points Tully made (bolds in text are mine):
5 freedoms you'd lose in health care reform
If you read the fine print in the Congressional plans, you'll find that a lot of cherished aspects of the current system would disappear.In promoting his health-care agenda, President Obama has repeatedly reassured Americans that they can keep their existing health plans -- and that the benefits and access they prize will be enhanced through reform.
A close reading of the two main bills, one backed by Democrats in the House and the other issued by Sen. Edward Kennedy's Health committee, contradict the President's assurances. .... page by page, the bills reveal a web of restrictions, fines, and mandates that would radically change your health-care coverage.
If you prize choosing your own cardiologist or urologist under your company's Preferred Provider Organization plan (PPO), if your employer rewards your non-smoking, healthy lifestyle with reduced premiums, if you love the bargain Health Savings Account (HSA) that insures you just for the essentials, or if you simply take comfort in the freedom to spend your own money for a policy that covers the newest drugs and diagnostic tests -- you may be shocked to learn that you could lose all of those good things under the rules proposed in the two bills that herald a health-care revolution.
In short, the Obama platform would mandate extremely full, expensive, and highly subsidized coverage -- including a lot of benefits people would never pay for with their own money -- but deliver it through a highly restrictive, HMO-style plan that will determine what care and tests you can and can't have. It's a revolution, all right, but in the wrong direction.
Tully then lists and discusses the five freedoms lost under ObamaCare:
- Freedom to choose what's in your plan
- Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs
- Freedom to choose high-deductible coverage
- Freedom to keep your existing plan
- Freedom to choose your doctors
The following paragraphs from Tully about Point 4 should be enough to shut down the nonsensical claim that ObamaCare won't ultimately end up being state-controlled and state-run, whether you're currently in an ERISA (i.e., company-sponsored) plan or not (bolds are mine):
The bill gives ERISA employers a five-year grace period when they can keep offering plans free from the restrictions of the "qualified" policies offered on the exchanges. But after five years, they would have to offer only approved plans, with the myriad rules we've already discussed. So for Americans in large corporations, "keeping your own plan" has a strict deadline. In five years, like it or not, you'll get dumped into the exchange. As we'll see, it could happen a lot earlier.
The outlook is worse for the second group. It encompasses employees who aren't under ERISA but get actual insurance either on their own or through small businesses. After the legislation passes, all insurers that offer a wide range of plans to these employees will be forced to offer only "qualified" plans to new customers, via the exchanges.
The employees who got their coverage before the law goes into effect can keep their plans, but once again, there's a catch. If the plan changes in any way -- by altering co-pays, deductibles, or even switching coverage for this or that drug -- the employee must drop out and shop through the exchange. Since these plans generally change their policies every year, it's likely that millions of employees will lose their plans in 12 months.
Wow. After ready Tully's column, even those who have deeply imbibed the kool-aid won't be able to say they weren't warned.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters
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Comments Policy
Oh this is more than
August 10, 2009 - 23:02 ET by bigtimerOh this is more than delicious...talk about short, to the point and more than eye-opening....
...and they say they don't understand why we are so angry out here in the real world, at the grass-root levels of life!
Pass it on indeed!
Obama's a Community Agitator, a walking, talking destroyer. ~ Rush Limbaugh
Well, Duh.
August 10, 2009 - 23:20 ET by R D Helm-Dave
If it's CommieCare you want, then move to Cuba.
Dave: Something I think
August 11, 2009 - 08:07 ET by BDDave:
Something I think we could propose that would bring the whole notion of socialized healthcare to a screaching halt would be that before congress modifies the current healthcare system in the US, Congresswould by law give up their very adequate health insurance program and reapportion that money to the DOD medical services budget.
Then pass a law that forces all 500+ members of the legislative branch and their dependants to utilize the DOD Healthcare system in their districts for all services.
Teddy Kennedy would be transferred to the medical clinic at Hanscom AFB where the dedicated staff would do their all for his advanced condition. Of course, their all with limited resources for the highly dedicated staff would likely be to give him a regular dose of aspirin or maybe if the budget allowed ,morphine and keep him on a gurney until he expires in six or eight weeks.
That in a nutshell is socialized midicine and we already have examples of it.
You would see socialized healthcare SCREAM to a halt overnight.
I've been trying to beat
August 11, 2009 - 08:50 ET by G. MayI've been trying to beat that into people's heads for years about government being involved in healthcare - send them to the DoD. You are 100% spot on that the DoD is America's current socialized medicine.
Once people get a taste of the substandard care and bureaucratic mess the DoD and even VA dole out on a daily basis, people will be screaming for the good old days of private healthcare.
You are very correct.
August 12, 2009 - 07:36 ET by BDYou are very correct. What I find interesting is that as the military medicine structure is slowly privatized, our counterparts in the civilian world are going to a governmental structure.
Most mid sized military bases no longer have hospitals anymore, rather they are farmed out tot he commercial or community hospitals in the surrounding towns for increasing levels of care.
Whereas twenty years ago the hospitals I visited on posts were overrun with dependants, now they are ghost towns mostly doing physicals.
Tom....Thanks for the link to Tully's article. ObamaCare would
August 10, 2009 - 23:58 ET by Rush Fanalso eliminate Medicare Advantage Plans.
Cato Institutes Michael F. Cannon in an article titled Obama Proposes Eliminating Medicare Advantage, Ousting 9 Million Seniors from Their Health Plans wrote:
Obama is without a
August 11, 2009 - 03:50 ET by ckc1227Obama is without a doubt....an idiot. Medicare doesn't necessarily make people healthier either.
Look, let's be brutally
August 11, 2009 - 06:40 ET by motherbeltLook, let's be brutally honest. The human body deteriorates. That's a fact. After a certain age (different for different people) there IS no making one "healthier." It's all about maintaining function, decreasing pain, and quality of life.
So basically he is saying that after a certain age, no more medical care for you, because you are never going to be any "healthier." So "take the pain pill" as he said elsewhere, and shut up. So you can't do certain things that you used to do...too bad.
And I forget who the congresswoman was that we had the video yesterday, saying that what they wanted to do was remove the insurance companies from between you and your doctor. (More demonization, in keeping with their new theme of "Health Insurance Reform")
Yeah, that's right. And put the government there instead.
Tully realy only concentrated on Employer plans
August 11, 2009 - 07:40 ET by Tom BlumerObama would indeed scrap Medicare Adavantage. It puts private-sector features into a "cherished," one size fits all government program. He can't allow that.
Tom, when I wrote the
August 11, 2009 - 08:27 ET by motherbeltTom, when I wrote the comment above, and mentioned Obama's "take the pill" approach, I forgot to mention someone else's assertion (or maybe it was Obama's, I don't recall for sure) that people had to accept the limitations that come with age, and not expect treatment for everything.
That quote has been diligently buried by the media.
Re Obama Quote
August 11, 2009 - 10:02 ET by slickwillie2001That was in a townhall meeting that the Bamster held:
[q] Jane Sturm [questioner] told the story of her nearly 100-year-old mother, who was originally denied a pacemaker because of her age. She eventually got one, but only after seeking out another doctor. “Outside the medical criteria,” Sturm asked, “is there a consideration that can be given for a certain spirit … and quality of life?”
Obama answered, “I don’t think that we can make judgments based on peoples’ spirit, maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking painkillers.“
There is plenty of similar material and quotes out there, from the Bamster and from his ghoulish czar John Holdren, and from the loonie Ezekial Emanuel. How would you feel if you were a senior in the hospital for a problem and those two showed up? It's very plain to me that many in the Bamster's administration see our seniors as shovel-ready projects.
Let's not forget that these seniors have paid the Medicare Tax when they were working, 1.45% at present with no upper limit like the Social Security tax, matched by employers, so they have this care coming to them in a contractual sense. Many of them paid this tax for decades. Do we renege on that agreement to give the benefits to illegal aliens?
mb & slick
August 11, 2009 - 10:29 ET by BlondeI'd refer you to stratman's post on the Healthcare Forum, here. (Slick...a bit of a circular reference as he refers to your post, which outlines a bit of what we were talking about).
Basically, Rahm's brother Zeke, who is Obama's chief medical advisor, has proposed a "Complete Life System" of determining who gets what health care, and when. He flat out begins with the premise that universal care, by definition, will cause rationing.
Some of his statements are absolutely frightening:
And the icing on the cake:
The link above will take you to the discussion we've been having here since March, which has a wealth of health care issues, links, etc. I bet there's more information there than any of the congresscritter's staffs have done before trying to ram this mess down our throats.
I hope he fails, too.
to add to Tully's statements on HSAs
August 10, 2009 - 23:59 ET by mom_roxI can't speak to the 'hundreds of companies', but I'd like to add that HSAs are not just used by companies.
My husband and I are self-employed, and we use an HSA for our 5-person family. No matching contribution, though...
~~save your tea, dump congress~~
Five Years...
August 11, 2009 - 14:49 ET by beauxdogFive years seems to be a recurring theme in this plan.
I have an idea... add medicare and medicaid to the same plan the congress now enjoys at our expense. After five years, if they maintain the same level of coverage and quality... without an increase in cost... then they can discuss adding the rest of us. To be fair, they can include the current cost of medicare and medicaid in their budget.
Also to be fair, they should be assigned an alias so that the beaurcrats approving appointments, tests and treatments won't know they are congressmen.
I think we should allow the constituents to designate the appropriate alias.
My representative is Lincoln Davis (D)... hmmmm... two presidents on opposing sides. Maybe his alias should be Bush Clinton, Jr. or Nixon Kennedy III?
My senators are Lamar Alexander (R) and Bob Corker (R).
Hmmmm. Lamar Alexander sounds like a 40's film star... how about Hedley Lamar... wasn't he from Blazing Saddles?
Bob Corker... sounds like a lush to me. How about Robert Stopper?
Nancy Pelosi doesn't represent me (officially), but I think I would call her "Nancy Pelosi"... I think that is insulting enough.
I guess I am just weird.
Thank you.
Beauxdog
The Party of Treason
August 11, 2009 - 00:48 ET by WesenThe philosophy of Democrats is best summed up by Ceasar the ape (Conquest of Planet of the Apes) where he makes the statement, "We can not be free until we have power" - and this is exactly the problem we face. Legislative fiats and quota appointments are the purest expression of Democratic thought because they do not know what freedom is.
As N. Grigsby put it in 1890, "They are the party of treason".
Fishy?
August 11, 2009 - 06:05 ET by KTSavageThis article seems to be critical of ObamaCare. Has anyone notified the White House yet? I mean, the author admitted he read the bill. Not even Congress will stoop that low.
How do you ask thousands to die for Obama's mistake?
August 11, 2009 - 08:37 ET by ekslibObama wants to insure the uninsured, which is a noble enough goal.
But Obama also want to disassemble the medical care system that millions of people have come to rely on.
It doesn't matter which radically different health care bill comes out of Congress and is signed by Obama.
Fact is, thousands of people will needlessly die as we switch to a different health care system.
They will die when the new system is too overloaded .
They will die when administrators are unable to resolve problems.
People unfamiliar with the new routine will die when they fall between the cracks.
They will die when the system decides their lives are not worth extending.
How do you ask fellow Americans to die for Obama's mistake?
Please read
August 11, 2009 - 09:22 ET by Georgia Girlhttp://www.dickmorris.com/blog/2009/08/10/four-steps-to-save-health-care/#more-619
Do this
August 11, 2009 - 19:59 ET by Joe CamelI have crafted my next letter to Claire McCasill and Emanuel Cleaver, Democrats that will support the Presididents bill. It is plain, simple and to the point:
Question: If anything in the bill comes to life that you said would not, would you now immediately step down from your position, and apologize to the public for your misguided vote? I will await their reply. I would encourage everyone to pose this to their representatives..see what they say. After all, truth is truth.
Repubs have a bill requiring
August 11, 2009 - 20:13 ET by Radical1979Repubs have a bill requiring congress people who vote health care in must take part in the government plan. Not surprisingly, no democrats have signed on.
employer sponsored health care is the problems
August 11, 2009 - 21:46 ET by nyk1973I have family member who have had excellent care in VA hospitals, care conducted by dedicated staff members, I feel those here who are critical of the VA are misguided. Also, as a former employee in the insurance, why would you want some nameless bloke in Columbus OH making health care decisions for anyone? This "debate" that is going on is senseless. I worked in an insurance department called cost containment and that is what I did all day, worked on policies and procedures to lower cost, which included rationing health care. Some decisions had sound medical foundations, but others were just motivated by a profit seeking industry. We have socialized hospitals, highways, safety forces, the military, etc... Are all these failures? Perhaps the writer, should as he suggested, get into the "weeds" and look at how insurance companies are operated