Sen. Bob Bennett from Utah and Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon should have their offices filled with mail from consumers asking why their HEALTHY AMERICANS ACT (S 334) is trying to sell the American people on the worst of both worlds regarding health insurance: Mandatory health insurance that individuals MUST purchase alone because it phases out the "group" power of employer-sponsored health insurance.
In a twist on words, the American people can now discuss HAPI (Happy? Big business and our representatives, not US citizens) plans.
HAPI, Healthy Americans Private Insurance Plans are described in the bill (section 111 introducing consumers to the next phase of the US "letting 'em die out" approach to health services in this country).
(you can find the text here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.334:)
As taxpayers, we should all be demanding that the first PHASING OUT of employer sponsored benefits should be those sponsored by the Federal government for its OWN employees. The Office of Personnel Management boasts that its insurance plans are the "LARGEST" in the nation, insuring more people than others.
All health insurance proposals, plans, and concepts should first be experienced by those imposing it on others...end the Federal government handouts to its own...Bennett and Wyden support phasing out of all employer-sponsored health insurance, get rid of governmental health insurance benefits FIRST and then we can hear about the benefits of going it alone in negotiations with the insurance company monopolies created by the Federal government.
NOTE the latest transition in selling natural selection (survival of the fittest) to the American people, it seems like now universal health care coverage will refer to any TAX on citizens, requiring that they purchase some sort of health insurance no matter how inadequate, substandard and unaffordable such health insurance is for the consumer.
Without provision for MAXIMUM cost for any policy including those covering American citizens with health issues, including those health issues that are seen as moral deficiencies such as addiction, unhealthy lifestyle, or risky recreation such as motorcycling, this tax represents NO benefit to populations.
There is no free market when consumers are told they MUST choose from among the bad choices in the marketplace.
