Senate Becomes Last Hope for American Health Care System

A few quick facts about HR 3962, the so-called "Affordable Health Care for America Act," which the House approved by a slim margin (220-215) late Saturday night:

• Number of pages: 1,990
• Weight: more than 19 pounds
• Height: 9 inches
• Cost per word: approximately $2.24 million

Those aren't the only statistics of interest, however:

• According to a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the House bill draws on 10 years of newly created taxes to pay for just six years of spending. In the second decade of the legislation's existence, deficits grow at an alarming rate.
• The newly created long-term insurance program to be operated by the federal government begins collecting premiums in 2011, but doesn't start paying benefits until 2016. Even then, the program is not self-sustaining. By 2029, it is completely insolvent, unless Congress approves another massive infusion of cash.
• After the vote Saturday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi compared passage of the bill to the establishment of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965. She neglected to mention that the new legislation decimates Medicare by shifting federal burdens to individual states and cutting future funding by $500 billion.
• Perhaps the most egregious provision is the section outlining consequences for not obtaining "acceptable health care coverage." For individuals who don't meet the arbitrary standards imposed by government bureaucrats, the bill would impose a tax penalty equal to the average cost of a health care plan or 2.5 percent of the individual's adjusted gross income -- whichever is greater.
• While taxpayers have to worry about those consequences, illegal immigrants don't. According to Sec. 59(b) illegals will have access to free coverage under the plan, but would be exempt from penalties for not obtaining a health insurance policy. In other words, they would enjoy all of the benefits of free health care without facing any of the financial risks borne by legal immigrants and US citizens. It's just one more reward for breaking America's immigration laws.

The good news for conservatives and other opponents of HR 3962 is that for the bill to be approved in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid will have to have the support of all 58 Democrats and both independents. If he fails to get 60 votes, Republicans block passage with a filibuster and force Democrats to return to the bargaining table. Thankfully, Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat-turned-independent, told FOX News Sunday's Chris Wallace this weekend that he will not, under any circumstances, support a bill with a public option:

There's some good things in the House-passed plan. I think we ought to pass health care reform to deal with the two great problems President Obama and others have talked about. There are unsustainable and continuing increases in the cost of health care. We've got to stop that, and there are millions of Americans who don't have health insurance. But I'm afraid that our colleagues in the House added a lot on to that that subtract from the genuine purposes of health care reform, and one was to create a public option plan. The public option plan is unnecessary. It has been put forward, I'm convinced, by people who really want the government to take over all of health insurance. They've got a right to do that; I think that would be wrong. But worse than that, we have a problem even greater than the health insurance problems, and that is a debt. Twelve trillion dollars today, projected to be $21 trillion in 10 years. If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote, because I believe debt can break America and send us into a recession that is worse than the one we're fighting our way out of today. I don't want to do that to our children and grandchildren.

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