Say Anything Blog

Actions speak louder than words, right?  So when Democrats tell us that they intend for us to be able to keep our existing insurance and then turn around and vote against an amendment that would have guaranteed that we’d keep our existing coverage what does that tell us about said Democrats?

From the NRSC (via email):

WASHINGTON – In a vote that should send chills up the spine of those satisfied with their current health insurance, Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee today rejected a Republican amendment that would allow Americans to keep their current health care coverage.
Sponsored by U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the amendment stated that the implementation of the final health care bill would not take place unless the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) was able to certify before Congress that the legislation would not cause more than 1,000,000 Americans to lose their current coverage.
The amendment was rejected 10-13, with all Republican Senators voting in favor and all Democrats voting against.

Just to be clear on this for North Dakotans, Senator Kent Conrad who promised while he was here at home in North Dakota not to support any bill that would force us away from our existing coverage voted against this.

The reason the Democrats didn’t want to pass this amendment is because there’s no way they could ever certify that the new regulations they want wouldn’t herd people onto the government-created health care co-ops they also want (“co-ops” being what they’re now calling the “public option”).  Their goal is to create a health insurance market where the government regulations are so stringent the only real choice most Americans will have is whatever plan the government sets up.

Just like the government-backed entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the financial world.  At the time of the financial industry collapse Fannie and Freddie owned or secured 51% of the $12 trillion mortgage market.  That kind of dominating market share doesn’t happen by accident.  It happens with government assistance.

And the same would happen with the government created, government managed, government subsidized health-care co-ops.  Most of us would end up on them.  Not because we’d want to but because we’d be herded there with regulations.