Way back when Clinton’s Health Security Act was supposed to be a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans with an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of the health maintenance organizationsir employees through competitive but closely regulated, the Sh*t hit the fan:

Opposition to the plan was heavy from conservatives, libertarians, and the health insurance industry that produced a highly effective TV ad, “Harry and Louise“, in an effort to rally public support against the plan. Instead of uniting behind the President’s original proposal, Democrats offered a number of competing plans of their own. Hillary Clinton was drafted by the Clinton Administration to head a new Task Force and sell the plan to the American people, which ultimately backfired amid the barrage of fire from the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries and considerably diminished her own popularity. By September 1994, the final compromise Democratic bill was declared dead by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell.

The problem is the lack of almost any downward pressure on the price of medical care, particularly medicines – a typical over-the-counter medicine that costs $2 in the Third Word at parity price goes for $28 in the U.S. because no one complains when prices go up – “Medical Insurance will pay” – Tom Dennen

1) Instead of bending the cost-curve down, health care consumers in many states will find the average premium prices rise 30% or 40% next year – still no downard pressure on  prices.

2) The federal government is unprepared to protect Obamacare’s information-technology system from hackers and identity thieves. (See “More Bad” below)…

3) Americans may lose their doctors. The Department of Health and Human Services recently posted this on Healthcare.gov: “Depending on the plan you choose in the Marketplace, you may be able to keep your current doctor.”

4) There are 20 new or increased taxes in Obamacare.

5) The federal government’s own General Accounting Office reports Obamacare will increase the long-term federal deficit by $6.2 trillion.

6) A Heritage Foundation analysis found that Obamacare will force seniors to suffer higher out-of-pocket expenses over the next five years.

7) President Obama negotiated an exemption from Obamacare for members of Congress and their staff.

8) Three of the nation’s most influential union bosses (and Obama supporters) declared that Obamacare is poised to “destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”

9) A Gallup poll found that more than 40% of small businesses have frozen hiring because of Obamacare.

10) The employer mandate requiring employers with 50 or more employees to provide health coverage has been postponed until after the 2014 election. I wonder why?

The list goes on … but the point has been made.

In the run-up to the passage of Obamacare, the president told us that his new law would cut the cost of our health care, would not increase the deficit, would not limit our choice of doctors or health plans and would create jobs. None of that was true.

The time has come to end this charade. The time to defund Obamacare is now.

Jim Signorile
Managing Editor, The Sovereign Investor

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