After hearing for the umpteenth time that Obamacare was really a conservative initiative, I did a little research and found the original 1989 Heritage Foundation document. There was a household individual mandate involved…for catastrophic (high deductible major medical) insurance, which Heritage has since repudiated. Certain Republicans (Newt) also used points from this lecture during the Hillarycare debate. I’m not sure if this lecture ever represented official Heritage Foundation policy, there is a disclaimer which seems to suggest otherwise. The truth is that this outline has nothing in common with Obamacare today. The often heard progressive talking point is that Obamacare and the individual mandate is originally a conservative concept simply isn’t true. Most of the ideas put forth in the old Heritage plan reinforced individual choice and free market concepts, which are totally missing in Obamacare.
Here is the last concluding paragraph from the 1989 document:
A CONSUMER-BASED SYSTEM
All of these measures, from the basic tax treatment of health care to the encouragement of long-term care insurance, would introduce a far greater degree of consumer activism into the health care market. This strategy, combined with a requirement for basic health coverage and the focusing of government assistance to those who need it most, would change the foundations of health care in America. Rather than the current system with its built-in inflation and enormous gaps in coverage, the result would be a system providing not only coverage to all but also a powerful set of incentives for the health care industry to be as efficient and consumer sensitive as possible.
Heritage filed an Amicus Brief opposing the individual mandate as envisioned by Obamacare. Here is a quote from the Friend of the Court Brief:
“Heritage policy experts never supported an unqualified mandate like that in the PPACA [ObamaCare]. Their prior support for a qualified mandate was limited to catastrophic coverage (true insurance that is precisely what the PPACA forbids), coupled with tax relief for all families and other reforms that are conspicuously absent from the PPACA. Since then, a growing body of research has provided a strong basis to conclude that any government insurance mandate is not only unnecessary, but is a bad policy option. Moreover, Heritage’s legal scholars have been consistent in explaining that the type of mandate in the PPACA is unconstitutional.”
Majority Leader Reid pushed through the Nuclear Option
today ending the Filibuster Rule (extended debate) in the Senate which has been in place for Senatorial “advise and consent” since the first session of the Senate convened in 1787. The only exception is to be Supreme Court nominees, but that is also up for grabs now. Obama claimed that Republicans were stopping or obstructing “progress”, even though Democrats have put up huge roadblocks for Bush nominees, Obama has had a grand total of two nominees blocked during his term, while roughly 250 have been approved. Hardly the definition of obstruction. I suspect that he withheld several nominations knowing that they would not be approved, he has submitted 30 or more nominations after Reid’s outrageous move today. Remember too, this is the guy who unilaterally deemed that the Senate was in recess and added three members to the National Labor Relations Board unconstitutionally, which the Court found, and McConnell even agreed to confirm two of them after the Court decision.
So that’s the breaking news. I’ll follow up in the next edition, here is the latest edition of
Obamacare navigators potentially far more dangerous than just exercising Motor Voter while signing up folks for more free stuff. The main meat of this conversation is in the first 15 minutes, two hours of raw footage follows. Hey, “whatever it f*cking takes”
65% Disapprove of his Handling of Economy: His overall job rating stands at 41%, down 14 points since last December. A majority (53%) now disapproves of the way he is handling his job as president.
The global warming hoax has always been about politicizing science and redistributing wealth, the last Rio UN conference came right out and admitted as much. Now when it comes down to brass tacks, the wannabe takers storm out, led by China, who very well may be the largest polluter on the planet.
“Climate change alarmists have turned to recruiting sports leagues to promote eco-hysteria. Democrats in Congress are calling on the major sports leagues to promote climate change regulation and to answer what they are doing to limit greenhouse gases.”
If you like your health plan, you can keep it? Seriously, Mr President?
Most, if not all of us who were and are opposed to Obamacare knew at the time that that statement was a lie. You won’t be able to keep your doctor or hospital either.
Which leads me to the Question of the Day:
<Why should the GOP lift a hand to help dig the Mighty O out of the hole he’s dug for himself?>
The real answer is, they can’t.
Obama and the Dems have succeeded in destroying the finest health system the world has ever known, and none of us know the full extent of the damage yet. They have brazenly fashioned a noose as a neck-tie, and they will likely hang themselves with it.
While Obama pushed back the employer mandate, he did not suspend the law for those employers who already provide insurance. We will see those effects Jan 1.
His lame presser today means nothing. The law is the law, and any insurance company issuing private health insurance that does not comply with the law needs to fire their lawyers. He can’t say that we will show discretion via EO and provide immunity to the insurance companies for any potential litigation, and he has already shown that his word means nothing anyway.
The insurance companies will also not go along for a very practical reason, if they agree to revive the former policies, it will greatly reduce participation in the market exchanges, bringing on an insurance “death spiral”, which is coming anyway due to the ridiculously high rates being shown, if you are lucky enough to see them.
Boehner actually said something today that I agree with, there is no fixing Obamacare, other than a full repeal.
is just getting worse and worse as millions of Americans are beginning to realize that they will no longer have much say in their own health-care, and are seeing their insurance costs rising, if they are fortunate enough to still have health insurance. This will not only affect individual health insurance plans, it will affect everyone’s insurance. It will affect YOU! Obamacare was never designed to let you keep your insurance, or your doctor, if you like them, period. It was designed to take away your options, along with your health-care provider’s options. While you may have had dozens or hundreds of options in the past, we are now faced with a grand total of four choices, which are all basically the same thing, depending on premium and deductibility levels. This whole socialist wet-dream that is Obamacare merely sets the stage to demand that we all will need to ask permission from Uncle Sam to see a doctor, visit a hospital, and he (they) will direct you in all of their wise benevolence as to what sort of care you deserve. Doctors and other primary care providers will be forced into government approved hospital systems, since their government “exchange” payments will not pay the light-bills in private practice. Those that resist will retire, find something else to do, or… I won’t go there, as much as I’d like. Government approved health insurance, besides being ridiculously more costly for a number of reasons, does not provide better health care, the result will be the exact opposite. Worse health care, lessened privacy, and your health records will be stored and accessed by the government, with the IRS forcing compliance that you must participate in one of their four officially approved plans.
“We knew Barry as, just common knowledge, that girls were never anything that he was ever interested in, and as a young teenager… as a young girl… it was clear to me that Barry was strictly into men”
HHS issued regulations within the first three months of ACA passage, mostly nullifying the plain language for grandfathered health insurance plans in the bill. The insurance companies are simply complying with the regulations.
thanks to the Democrat-Lite wing of the Republican Party, it’s time to review Obama’s Hissy Fit which he exhibited during the partial government shutdown.After the disastrous launch of Obamacare at healthcare <dot> gov, he should have taken the Republicans up on their offer to delay the individual mandate for another year.
