>>>>>>>>http://www.afcm.org/
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>An interesting site - I just gave them a donation. :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Do you want to send me some money too.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>"Our Fascist Health Care System" ridiculous
>>>>>>
>>>>>>It's amazing what an extremely well bankrolled PR campaign can make people believe. In this case an awful lot of people seem to think the proposal is to nationalize health care and remove choice. That isn't the proposal at all. But if you hear it often enough you start to believe it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I am getting a sinking feeling already about health care reform. The industry is going to fight it off yet again and continue getting rich at our expense. (Including the hidden costs -- one thing that is often overlooked is the impact on companies of skyrocketing health insurance costs).
>>>>>
>>>>>Really Mike. The fact that 'choice' is taken away at one point has been posted here for you to read. I posted it myself. One good thing though, a reporter asked that very question of Obama (I heard it on the radio this weekend) and Obama responded that he was not aware of that section in the bill and if it was indeed there, that he would not sign it. So the reporter gave him the section of the bill that held that information. It appears that quite possibly Obama does not know what all is in his healthcare bill because congress is slipping (or the advisors or team or whomever) stuff in. It may get cleaned up and become a better bill now.
>>>>
>>>>Can you post that link again? I am pretty sure that choice will not be removed in one crucial sense, since no one will be forced to join the government plan. The option of remaining with private insurers will still exist, right?
>>>
>>>As long as you already had private insurance at midnight on the day it becomes effective. After that, the option of private insurance goes away. I'll try to find it again later, it shouldn't be too difficult. I heard it on the radio and then looked it up when I got back to verify. I had a link a couple of weeks ago on it too but Obama didn't address it until this weekend or it was rebroadcast this weekend.
>>
>>I did not know that. That's a deal killer. It seems to me that would have to go away for any kind of bill to pass.
>
>Obama never addressed it and he always specified 'choice' in his talks. I'm pretty sure it will go away now that the reporter brought it up. It will postpone the bill though for sure - so much for the August deadline. I'm giving Obama the benefit of the doubt (he didn't know about that section in the bill) because we know how congress and special teams work and the deals they make and the stuff they sneak in. I would even venture to say that it no longer exists already! That way they can tell the President 'what section, there is no section like that!' :o) There was though - it was all over the news this weekend and it was a Democrat who got it posted on the web for all to see because the Repubs hadn't even been allowed to see it in full yet (another example of keeping the Repubs out except for a select couple until it is too late to do anything but vote)

As I have said before, I think it is stupid (popular word these days <g>) for the Democrats to freeze the Republicans out. This is too important. It's also short sighted given that they probably have the biggest majority they will ever have again. The Repubs will remember this when they are not so minority. Also, arrogance was one of the big ways Hillary's reform plan got in trouble early in the Clinton administration. She and her team created a detailed 1000 page plan in secrecy and then dropped it on Congress's doorstep for ratification. That's not how they like to make law. At least the Obama administration learned the lesson from that debacle, but the Democratic leaders in Congress seem not to have learned it.