A healthcare reform expert says even though some liberals are wavering in their support for the current Senate healthcare bill, the modified measure is still extremely dangerous.
Senate Democrats are bent on passing a healthcare bill before Christmas, but they still lack the 60 votes necessary to get the job done. They have scrapped the "public option" and their alternative to that, a Medicare "buy-in" for people 55 and older, leading many liberals to complain that the bill was gutted to appease insurance companies.
Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, says she believed all along that Democrats' promotion of the public option was merely a smokescreen to divert attention away from other disturbing aspects of the bill.
"This bill still has huge, huge problems," says Turner. "It still is going to increase healthcare costs for not only the federal government, but for the average American family." She explains that "it's going to put huge new requirements on businesses to go through an amazing number of hoops and hurdles, regulatory requirements, new fines and penalties on business."
And as far as individuals are concerned, the healthcare expert says "they're not only going to be required to buy this expensive new government health insurance, but they're going to be fined on their taxes if they don't -- and in the House bill, they can be thrown in jail."
Turner notes that in addition to taxpayer funding of abortion, the bill also includes half-a-trillion dollars in new taxes on businesses and individuals, and half-a-trillion in cuts to the Medicare program.
Contact: Jim Brown
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: December 17, 2009
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