<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16981" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@aol.com href="mailto:tanstl@aol.com">David Sladky</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=usgp-media@gp-us.org
href="mailto:usgp-media@gp-us.org">usgp-media@gp-us.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, March 24, 2010 7:40 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Fact Sheet: The Truth About the Health Care
Bill</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial color=black size=2><FONT
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></FONT><BR><BR>
<H1 class=western>Fact Sheet: The Truth About the Health Care Bill</H1>
<DIV>March 22, 2010 by <A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/author/jtmhcn/">Healthcare-NOW!</A>
<BR>Filed under <A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/category/single-payer-news/">Single-Payer
News</A> </DIV>
<UL>
<LI>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in"></DIV></LI></UL>
<DIV>Firedoglake released <A
href="http://static1.firedoglake.com/1/files/2010/03/mythfactshcr-2.pdf">this
fact sheet</A> that exposes some myths about the bill passed on Sunday.</DIV>
<DIV>By <A
href="http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/19/fact-sheet-the-truth-about-the-health-care-bill/">Jane
Hamsher for Firedoglake</A> – </DIV>
<DIV>The Firedoglake health care team has been covering the debate in congress
since it began last year. The health care bill will come up for a vote in the
House on Sunday, and as Nancy Pelosi works to wrangle votes, we’ve been running
a detailed whip count on where every member of Congress stands, updated
throughout the day.</DIV>
<DIV>We’ve also taken a detailed look at the bill, and have come up with 18
often stated myths about this health care reform bill.</DIV>
<DIV>Real health care reform is the thing we’ve fought for from the start. It is
desperately needed. But this bill falls short on many levels, and hurts many
people more than it helps.</DIV>
<DIV>A middle class family of four making $66,370 will be forced to pay $5,243
per year for insurance. After basic necessities, this leaves them with $8,307 in
discretionary income — out of which they would have to cover clothing, credit
card and other debt, child care and education costs, in addition to $5,882 in
annual out-of-pocket medical expenses for which families will be responsible.
Many families who are already struggling to get by would be better off saving
the $5,243 in insurance costs and paying their medical expenses directly, rather
than being forced to by coverage they can’t afford the co-pays on.</DIV>
<DIV>In addition, there is already a booming movement across the country to
challenge the mandate. Thirty-three states already have bills moving through
their houses, and the Idaho governor was the first to sign it into law
yesterday. In Virginia it passed through both a Democratic House and Senate, and
the governor will sign it soon. It will be on the ballot in Arizona in 2010, and
is headed in that direction for many more. Republican senators like Dick Lugar
are already asking their state attorney generals to challenge it. There are two
GOP think tanks actively helping states in their efforts, and there is a booming
messaging infrastructure that covers it beat-by-beat.</DIV>
<DIV>Whether Steny Hoyer believes the legality of the bill will prevail in court
or not is moot, it could easily become the “gay marriage” of 2010, with one key
difference: there will be no one on the other side passionately opposing it. The
GOP is preparing to use it as a massive turn-out vehicle, and it not only
threatens representatives in states like Florida, Colorado and Ohio where these
challenges will likely be on the ballot — it threatens gubernatorial and
down-ticket races as well. Artur Davis, running for governor of Alabama, is
already being put on the spot about it.</DIV>
<DIV>While details are limited, there is apparently a “Plan B” alternative that
the White House was considering, which would evidently expand existing programs
— Medicaid and SCHIP. It would cover half the people at a quarter of the price,
but it would not force an unbearable financial burden to those who are already
struggling to get by. Because it creates no new infrastructure for the purpose
of funneling money to private insurance companies, there is no need for Bart
Stupak’s or Ben Nelson’s language dealing with abortion — which satisfies the
concerns of pro-life members of Congress, as well as women who are looking at
the biggest blow to women’s reproductive rights in 35 years with the passage of
this bill. Both programs are already covered under existing law, the Hyde
amendment.</DIV>
<DIV>But perhaps most profoundly, the bill does not mandate that people pay 8%
of their annual income to private insurance companies or face a penalty of up to
2% — which the IRS would collect. As Marcy Wheeler noted in an important post
entitled “Health Care on the Road to NeoFeudalism,” we stand on the precipice of
doing something truly radical in our government, by demanding that Americans pay
almost as much money to private insurance companies as they do in federal
taxes:</DIV>
<DIV>When this passes, it will become clear that Congress is no longer the
sovereign of this nation. Rather, the corporations dictating the laws will
be.</DIV>
<DIV>I understand the temptation to offer 30 million people health care. What I
don’t understand is the nonchalance with which we’re about to fundamentally
shift the relationships of governance in doing so.</DIV>
<DIV>We started down a dangerous road with Wall Street banks in the early 90s,
allowing them to flood our political system with money and write our laws so
that taxpayers would subsidize their profits, assume their losses and remove
themselves from the necessity of competition. By funneling so much money into
the companies who created the very problems we are now attempting to address, we
further empower them to hijack our legislative process and put more than just
our health care system at risk. We risk our entire system of government.</DIV>
<DIV>Congress may be too far down the road with this bill to change course and
save themselves — and us. But before Democrats cast this vote, which could
endanger not only their Congressional majority but their ability to “fix” things
later on, they should consider the first rule of patient safety: first, do no
harm.</DIV>
<DIV>Tags: <A href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/barack-obama/">Barack
Obama</A>, <A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/firedoglake/">firedoglake</A>, <A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/health-care/">health care</A>, <A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/healthcare/">Healthcare</A>, <A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/healthcare-reform/">Healthcare
Reform</A>, <A href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/jane-hamsher/">jane
hamsher</A>, <A href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/nancy-pelosi/">Nancy
Pelosi</A>, <A href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/public-option/">public
option</A>, <A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/single-payer-healthcare/">Single Payer
Healthcare</A>, <A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/tag/universal-healthcare/">universal
healthcare</A></DIV>
<H4>Comments</H4>
<DIV><B>One Response to “Fact Sheet: The Truth About the Health Care Bill”</B>
</DIV>
<DIV id=div-comment-7558 dir=ltr>
<OL>
<LI>
<DIV style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in"><IMG height=48
src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/84522068f027169aea3e3ce31534eefa?s=48&d=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D48&r=G"
width=48 align=bottom border=0 name=graphics14> <CITE>Cathy Deppe</CITE> says:
</DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/fact-sheet-the-truth-about-the-health-care-bill/comment-page-1/#comment-7558">March
23, 2010 at 9:56 am</A></DIV>
<DIV>I believe we on the left should also refuse this mandated insurance that
just enrichs insurance company profits and ultimately insures, instead, the
total corporate control of our government. We should say no to this – and no
again, to paying for the wars our government has sold us. Our lives are in the
balance, as Jackson Brown sang: “They sell us the president the same way, they
sell us our clothes and our cars, they sell us everything from youth to
religion, the same time they sell us our wars.” We must begin to refuse to pay
for defective products, be they useless insurance plans or endless
wars.</DIV></LI></OL></DIV>
<OL start=2>
<LI>
<DIV></DIV></LI></OL>
<DIV style="CLEAR: both"></DIV></FONT><br />--
<br />This message has been scanned for viruses and
<br />dangerous content by
<a href="http://www.mailscanner.info/"><b>MailScanner</b></a>, and is
<br />believed to be clean.
</BODY></HTML>