Hidden Gems of the Health Care Bill Part 1

by Arokk Darkkstarr

I have never made it any secret that I am against the health care bill that was recently passed by the House or those currently being kicked around in the Senate. My problem was not a reactionary one where I point to liberals and scream "EVIL!!!!!!"

I don't like the bill for two main reasons:

1. Cost. We are broke as a nation and this just adds to the problem. The projections are staggering regarding cost, and it doesn't matter what side of the issue serves as your source.

2. The health bill and requisite national health database (which is, ostensibly, a good idea to prevent problems with drug interactions and conflicts of care) combined with travesties such as the Patriot Act can combine in really funky ways to cause severe privacy breaches, and I don't like it. Do I think that this is the goal of Congress? No, but all it takes is another Bush/Cheney-like regime to come into power with these tools at their disposal and kablooey! There goes the last semblance of privacy that HIPAA and other health care-related privacy protections provide.

When the supporters of the health care bill claimed that they would be able to work out a system so that reductions in coverage, increases in premiums, and waiting lists would not be an issue, I believed them. Necessity is the mother of invention, I reasoned. In the minds of the health care bill's supporters, this is a necessity, and I trusted them to get creative. While I initially latched onto the idea that waiting lists and such were going to be a problem, I eventually decided to go for broke (heh) and trust Congress and the President on this one part of the health care bill.

It turns out, on this one, the neocons were right...Gods help us all (you know they will never let this slide, if they can stop blubbering about Obama long enough to actually read the bill).

On pages 25 and 26 (out of almost 2000 pages), the following can be found:

"INSUFFICIENT FUNDS--If the Secretary estimates for any fiscal year that the aggregate
amounts available for payment of expenses of the high-risk pool will be less than the amount of the expenses, the Secretary shall make such adjustments as are necessary to eliminate such deficit, including reducing benefits, increasing premiums, or establishing waiting lists."

Now, I know this represents a POTENTIAL problem, and not something that is set in stone as "going to happen without any doubt". Given the track record of such governmental programs in the past, however, I have to believe that it's a virtual guarantee that problems will arise. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the list of underfunded and deficit-operating programs goes on and on. We have heard "this time, it's different" on every social betterment program the government has brought into being since the Civil War. To this day, I can't seem to find one instance of "different" equating to "not the same" in the government lexicon.

I feel like, while I was against this bill from the beginning (for other reasons), I have been lied to and betrayed, and I am only on page 26 of a 2000-page bill. Gods only know what else will come to light as people such as myself look at this monstrosity.

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