Health care bill is smoke and mirrors

Health care bill is smoke and mirrors

The Senate health care bill is a fraud in two ways: The cost projections are dishonest and the bill does not address real reform.

The announced cost is $849 billion but the actual cost is on the order of $2.5 trillion. To get the cost projection down, they have: planned to cut $350-plus billion in Medicare; they don't count the “doctor fix,” which is estimated at $200 billion; they start collecting taxes in 2011 but medical care doesn't change until 2014 or 2015.

This is smoke-and-mirrors corruption. The Congressional Budget Office warned that the insurance premiums for the public option will likely not be less than private insurance and most people's insurance costs will rise.

The bill doesn't reflect President Obama's promises. It doesn't reduce medical costs; it increases the national cost of medical care dramatically, about $250 billion a year. The bill does nothing to address state laws that restrict competition between private insurers. The bill doesn't address medical tort reform, a major factor in the rising cost of medical care.

The bill cuts Medicare. It doesn't count all medical costs and the cost projection doesn't honestly compare changes in revenue projections with service costs. It includes increases that will raise taxes on parts of our economy that create jobs.

Further, the bill provides funding for abortion. Killing babies is not health care.

Gary Ellis

Cedar Rapids