News Release from the Watseka/Iroquois County Tea Party March 13, 2011:
The Watseka/Iroquois County Tea Party was pleased to hold a forum concerning the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (known as Obamacare) at the Masonic Lodge in Watseka the evening of March 10th. Our principal speakers were Dr. Arie Friedman, a pediatrician from Highland Park, Il and Mr. Bruno Behrend, a researcher for the Heartland Institute in Chicago.
Dr. Friedman and Mr. Behrend acknowledge that our health care system needed reform, but they contend that Obamacare is a push to expand the scope of government rather than provide better medical services at a reduced price. Both men, armed with studies produced by the Heartland Institute and the Heritage Foundation, predict that Obamacare will increase spending and taxes, cause higher deficits, and lead to rationing.
President Obama has pointed again and again to a Congressional Budget Office analysis that states that Obamacare will reduce government spending in the coming decade. That analysis, however is based on the administration cutting $500 billion in Medicare spending in the coming decade. Dr. Friedman and Mr. Behrend consider it highly unlikely that the president or Congress will ever execute these cuts and brave the wrath of senior voters. They expect Obamacare to increase our deficit by $2 trillion dollars by 2024. In Illinois, alone, 800,000 more citizens will be placed on Medicaid's rolls. Basic logic informs us that you can't increase Medicaid clients by such a magnitude and save money.
Our speakers noted that Obamacare is based on Mitt Romney's health care "reform" in Massachusetts. That plan, in turn, is based on a European model that has contributed to western Europe's fiscal implosion. Frequently praised and rarely analyzed, European-style health care has led to a spiral of higher spending, higher taxes, and increased rationing of medical services in order to get some control over costs.
In addition to his fiscal concerns, Dr. Friedman believes that Obamacare will give government, rather than the doctors and patients, the final say over treatment. He spoke of doctors asking permission to use a certain procedure and being denied - and not by a panel of doctors but by a computer program that crunches a patients age and medical condition, the cost of the procedure, and the available funds. Any savings achieved by European-style health care are accomplished through rationing. Canadians have such a system, and Dr. Friedman noted that Canadians can wait many months longer than Americans for procedures we consider almost routine, such as knee replacements and heart bypasses. He also noted that rationing will mean an end to the innovation and advancement in treatments that have made American health care the best in the world.
It's regrettable that we've chosen to go down a path Europeans are admitting is no longer sustainable. We didn't need to socialize our health care to cover the 15% of us who don't have medical coverage. We could issue vouchers to these people or enroll them in HMO's. But,instead, we're throwing the entire population into what will soon be a a single-payer system. Mr. Behrend observed that "Obamacare is not about medical care. It's about expanding the role of governnment in our lives." He also observed that in his discussions with liberals about health care, they invariably note that most Americans "are not capable of making major decisions about their health care."
About fifty people attended this event, and refreshments and lively discussion were enjoyed after our speakers' remarks. In the face of "elite" opinion, we continued to believe the government is not capable of making decisions about our health care.
bill milan: teaparty p.r. 815-429-3772
The Watseka/Iroquois County Tea Party was pleased to hold a forum concerning the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (known as Obamacare) at the Masonic Lodge in Watseka the evening of March 10th. Our principal speakers were Dr. Arie Friedman, a pediatrician from Highland Park, Il and Mr. Bruno Behrend, a researcher for the Heartland Institute in Chicago.
Dr. Friedman and Mr. Behrend acknowledge that our health care system needed reform, but they contend that Obamacare is a push to expand the scope of government rather than provide better medical services at a reduced price. Both men, armed with studies produced by the Heartland Institute and the Heritage Foundation, predict that Obamacare will increase spending and taxes, cause higher deficits, and lead to rationing.
President Obama has pointed again and again to a Congressional Budget Office analysis that states that Obamacare will reduce government spending in the coming decade. That analysis, however is based on the administration cutting $500 billion in Medicare spending in the coming decade. Dr. Friedman and Mr. Behrend consider it highly unlikely that the president or Congress will ever execute these cuts and brave the wrath of senior voters. They expect Obamacare to increase our deficit by $2 trillion dollars by 2024. In Illinois, alone, 800,000 more citizens will be placed on Medicaid's rolls. Basic logic informs us that you can't increase Medicaid clients by such a magnitude and save money.
Our speakers noted that Obamacare is based on Mitt Romney's health care "reform" in Massachusetts. That plan, in turn, is based on a European model that has contributed to western Europe's fiscal implosion. Frequently praised and rarely analyzed, European-style health care has led to a spiral of higher spending, higher taxes, and increased rationing of medical services in order to get some control over costs.
In addition to his fiscal concerns, Dr. Friedman believes that Obamacare will give government, rather than the doctors and patients, the final say over treatment. He spoke of doctors asking permission to use a certain procedure and being denied - and not by a panel of doctors but by a computer program that crunches a patients age and medical condition, the cost of the procedure, and the available funds. Any savings achieved by European-style health care are accomplished through rationing. Canadians have such a system, and Dr. Friedman noted that Canadians can wait many months longer than Americans for procedures we consider almost routine, such as knee replacements and heart bypasses. He also noted that rationing will mean an end to the innovation and advancement in treatments that have made American health care the best in the world.
It's regrettable that we've chosen to go down a path Europeans are admitting is no longer sustainable. We didn't need to socialize our health care to cover the 15% of us who don't have medical coverage. We could issue vouchers to these people or enroll them in HMO's. But,instead, we're throwing the entire population into what will soon be a a single-payer system. Mr. Behrend observed that "Obamacare is not about medical care. It's about expanding the role of governnment in our lives." He also observed that in his discussions with liberals about health care, they invariably note that most Americans "are not capable of making major decisions about their health care."
About fifty people attended this event, and refreshments and lively discussion were enjoyed after our speakers' remarks. In the face of "elite" opinion, we continued to believe the government is not capable of making decisions about our health care.
bill milan: teaparty p.r. 815-429-3772
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