Alternatives to Obamacare, The Affordable Care Act

“If there is ever a fascist takeover in America, it will come not in the form of storm troopers kicking down doors but with lawyers and social workers saying, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”   Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power…. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.”  Franklin D. Roosevelt

Background:

I write about economics, politics and geo-politics which is the investment environment in a free market economy. In my opinion, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare” is the worst piece of legislation that has ever been passed by our Congress. It was 2,200 pages in its initial released draft.

I am one of the few individuals that actually have read them. These pages contain 381,517 words according to a CNS News article written by Penny Star, October 14, 2013. The original 2,200 pages contain about 173 words per page. To explain this monstrosity, the regulations written “so far” contain 11,588,500 words or roughly 66,986 pages.

Thus, it takes 30 times as many words to “explain” this law than is in the law. This in itself is ludicrous. Why? Simply because these new regulations are an extension of the law or “new law” without Congressional review or approval. The executive branch with its bureaucracy is dictating to us how we will live from birth to death with medical care. The Bureaucrats have become legislators. Can you name a single bureaucrat making this law?

Neither can I, and that is another problem. I used the term “so far” judiciously because the regulations are being added to each day. I consider this law a cancer on our free medical care system. This cancer will destroy the best medical care system in the world if it is allowed to proceed.

How bad is the law?

The Wall Street Journal on November 23-24 in its editorial, “Manias, Panics and ObamaCare Crashes”, describes 9 areas where it is currently not working. Among these are:

  • The Website technology does not work;
  • Possible 10’s of millions will lose their health plans;
  • Small businesses under 50 employees will be next to lose their plans after the individuals lose theirs;
  • Exchanges are dysfunctional. Exchanges enrollment is low and skews toward high cost members;
  • Rate shock comes at 3-5% increases and more planned for next year; New Mexico is scheduled for a 50% rise in 2015
  • You will not be able to keep your ObamaCare plan. Insurers are leaving the states because of the government forcing fees to be low. New Hampshire only has one insurer left for the entire state;
  • The very popular Advantage Plans are disappearing. Seniors are seeing higher premiums, fewer benefits and reduced choices; The Advantage Care $170 million fund was moved to cover alien illegals.
  • Patients are losing their doctors as they are forced to use tight Medicaid type of services;
  • Physicians are dissatisfied. The rates are low and going lower. The WSJ says, “The Affordable Care Act treats health professionals like robots on a factory line who can be programmed to execute federal work orders”.

An Alternative

Is there an alternative? I believe there is and it is a free market solution. We do not have that now. I will describe the alternative in this paper. This article is based upon a recent article written by Dr. Jack Wheeler, “Health Freedom As the Alternative To Obamacare Fascism”, published in his periodical, “To the Point”, dated November 21, 2013. This is a paid subscription publication and not generally available. However, the ideas expressed there need a larger audience.

Definitions

As usual, there are many distortions in the press that reach the wrong conclusions. First, definitions of terms need to be defined and to be made explicit. For instance, socialism is a term referring to government ownership of private property and control of that property. Fascism refers to the condition where government controls the private property but does not own it.Fascism allows individuals and corporations to retain a façade of ownership and thus, individuals and corporations make the profits from that ownership.

A coalition of private corporations and government where the government makes the rules and regulations that benefit the private owners’ profits and they in turn “donate” to the reelection of the representatives is a fascist government. An example of a fascist government is our U.S. government today. It was originally conceived of by Benito Mussolini and copied by Adolf Hitler.

Today, the Democrats and Obama claim two things that are wrong.
First, America has a medical care crisis;
Second, the only solution is a massive government regulatory intervention.
Both of these assumptions are fundamentally wrong. First, America has a great medical system. People come from all over the world to get treated in our medical system. For instance, Americans don’t go to Canada or the UK for treatment.

Canadians come to America for treatment. A crisis does not exist. If Obamacare did not exist, most Americans would be very happy. Second, if there is anything wrong with the American Medical Care System, it is that there are too many regulations. We don’t need any more. Regulations aggravate the problem.

A 2009 Democratic Party Christmas Present

So what happened? It is simple. It took a middle of the night passage of Obama care without a single Republican vote on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2009, to pass this law. It was a Christmas present from the Democratic Party to the American people. There was no public clamor for this law. It was a pure fascist act to aid insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and our political elite who want more power concentrated in Washington DC.

Health Care – and Fascism

The health care crisis promulgated by the press has nothing to do with healthcare. Jack Wheeler points out very nicely that the health care issue is the excuse for the crisis. The real purpose like that of its predecessors – poverty, drugs, energy and environment are that they provide a convenient excuse and rationale for the expansion of government power and more control by the political elite and large corporations in the United States.

Obamacare represents health “fascism”. Any alternative must represent health “freedom”. Freedom and self-responsibility are one and the same or opposite sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. Note that all of the fascist solutions have one type of solution – massive government programs at taxpayers’ expense. Thus, Obamacare has more regulations on medical care than exists today. Yet, the regulations are the causal factor of the purported problems that exist. The solution is not to add more regulations but remove them.

Healthcare – and Freedom

Jack Wheeler feels and states that it is up to the Republican Party to provide a new alternative which is free. I personally believe that it is time for free Americans to step up to this problem and declare the nature of government that we been living under for the last 50 years needs to be made free again. By free again, I mean free from the overt, blatant control of large corporations. They need to be stopped or hobbled.

It is time for Americans to step up and go on the offense against this coalition of our political leaders and large private corporations. It is time that we had free market medicine. This is different than our current medical system where government colludes with big medicine corporations and big pharmaceutical companies to add more regulations that smaller companies cannot afford and thus, limit competition. This current government approach to solving problems is anti-capitalist, anti-freedom and fascist.

Free Market Assumptions:  The basic capitalist assumptions or propositions for real Health Freedom are:

  • 1. Healthcare is expensive because of government intervention into the medical marketplace;
  • 2. Health care costs can only be reduced by the reduction of government regulations on the medical marketplace;
  • 3. The availability and quality of healthcare is directly proportional to the reduction of government intervention.

Legislative Changes Required

Jack Wheeler proposes 10 specific legislative means to achieve improvements in our health freedom. I will repeat them with a brief discussion on each one because of what I feel is their importance. To get the full scope, one should read his article. The 10 points for proposed legislative action are as follows:
1. Open enrollment in medical schools Today, the American Medical Association (AMA) collude with the state medical boards throughout all 50 states to limit the number of medical schools and nursing schools, class size, number of teachers, and the number of admitted students. How bad is this? Very bad. Most people don’t realize that the number of medical schools in the United States has not changed since 1910 when they were 80 million people in the United States. Today there are 320 million people in America today.

a. New legislation: Legislation is required that would eliminate the AMA’s monopoly over the medical profession. This would allow open enrollment at current medical schools and construction of as many new medical schools is the market will bear.

2. Reduce hospital administrative costs – 50 to 75% of the total charges for hospital stay now are due to administrative costs. The reason for this are due to the regulations required by the Commission On accreditation of Health Care Organizations referred to as the “Joint Commission” (JCHAO). Today all locations need to stay in high-tech hospitals that have MRI, CT scanners and a capability for coronary bypass. This is silly. Tertiary hospitals, as in the past, need to be allowed for patients to spend a few days with IV antibiotics, rehydration and observation. These services can be provided by low-tech, low-cost hospitals for overnight clinics.

a. New legislation: Legislation is required that would eliminate “one size fits all” JC AHO hospital compliance standards, allowing operation of “low tech” small hospitals with minimal overhead.

3. Eliminate State Mandates and Regulatory Barriers on Health Insurance There are over 1000 regulations placed on hospitals by state regulators. As a result, insurers are legally prohibited from supplying low-cost basic health insurance.

a. New Legislation: Legislation is required that would allow insurers to offer low-cost, basic health insurance policies with no statement of mandated
benefits whatsoever. Pools: In addition, legislation should eliminate all regulatory barriers such as business commonality and geographic proximity requirements to small businesses from freely combining into it common insurance risk. It would also allow non-business organizations such as churches, unions, or any group of people formed to create similar pools for their members.

4. Give Health Care Providers a Tax Credit for Charity Work Today there are tens of millions of uninsured Americans who cannot afford medical care. They are considered by the medical industry can be “Bypass” as “nonpayers” to be sent to the county hospitals and receive minimal treatment.

a. New Legislation: legislation is required that would allow health care providers such as physicians, nurses, medical technicians, pharmacies, and hospitals to deduct on their personal or corporate income taxes an appropriate and appreciable amount of the income they would have derived if their charity patients paid the normal fees.

5. Restore the hundred percent deduction on health care expenses – Over the last 50 years, Congress eliminated tax deduction on most medical expenses. As a result, it made medical care and health insurance premiums prohibitively expensive for individuals to pay on their own.

a. New Legislation: Legislation is required that would grant 100% tax  deductibility to individual taxpayers for all healthcare expenses. This would include health insurance, medical, pharmaceutical, and alternative preventive medicine expenses. This will encourage insurers to include alternative preventive therapy in their coverage.

6. Reduce Malpractice Insurance Cost Malpractice insurance costs have been skyrocketing in recent years due to multimillion dollar awards made for “pain and suffering” which are orders of magnitude greater than the medical expense.

a. New Legislation: legislation is required that would eliminate pain and suffering malpractice settlements; limit malpractice settlements to all costs of the patient’s malpractice related medical bills; and limit payment to patients attorneys to normal fees, prohibiting attorney commissions of a substantial percentage of the total settlement.

7. Repeal The Kefauver Amendment – Before 1962, a pharmaceutical company had to prove that the drug was safe before the FDA approved the new drug. The Kefauver amendment changed that. In the wake of the Thalidomide scare, it required that the new drug had to be proven not only to be safe but effective in curing the specific disease. To prove the drugs affectivity is the primary goal of the current drug approval process. It now costs over $800 million, takes up to 12 years and requires an average of 40,000 pages of documentation to get one drug approved by the FDA.

a. New Legislation: Legislation is required that would repeal the Kefauver amendment
Note: Large pharmaceutical companies would complain loudly about this because this is one of the primary forms of competitive constraint that they used to protect their business. It limit competition. It is right for them but wrong for the American people.

8. Allow Truthful Health Claims for Nutritional Supplements – The FDA has a bias against nutritional supplements. It uses threats to nutrient manufacturers who supply information about the health value of his products and with prosecution if he does so without the FDA’s “express approval”. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment’s protection of free speech that the Ninth Circuit Federal court in Pearson v. Shalala determined was wrong. The court held that the FDA regulations regarding unapproved health claims for certain nutrients was a violation of the First Amendment.

a. New Legislation: Legislation is required to make the FDA abide by Pearson v. Shalala and prohibit the FDA from threatening any nutritional medicinal manufacturer or supplier of making an unapproved health claim if that claim is truthful and not misleading.

9. Remove Government Restrictions Regarding the Importation of Foreign Drugs – It is currently legal for an individual to import a three month supply of medication for personal use. However, it remains illegal to promote or profit from such an importation. Consequently, there is no room for a company to import foreign drugs. Even though it is legal to import medication for personal use, individuals are frequently harassed by the Postal Service, DEA, FDA and customs. Again, this is fascist large corporation protection by our government.

a. New Legislation: Legislation is required that would allow the promotion and profit from the importation of foreign pharmaceuticals. It is important to note that most medications sold in the United States are sold overseas for pennies on the dollars over the US price. These medications are manufactured by foreign divisions of the same companies that make them in the United States.

10. Allow the Purchase of Non-Controlled Medications Without Prescription – In Europe, Americans find that the medicines that they used cost a fraction of their United States cost and that you can buy them over-the-counter without a prescription. As a matter of fact, a prescription from a doctor is the exception not the rule in most countries of the world. Only in the United States does one need to go and pay a $50-$75 office visit to get a prescription. In the rest of the world this is not required.

a. New Legislation: Legislation is required that would allow non-controlled, non-addictive medications to be purchased over-the-counter without a prescription.

Respond or Be Prepared

Respond – I believe that what I wrote above is but one step in what is necessary for this nation to do in order to turn back the fascist policies of this government. However, will these changes be made and occur? Knowing what to do and doing it are two different things. Has this country become so dependent upon our “sugar daddy” government and so indifferent or ignorant of our constitutional rights that we no longer care to change? If so the individual will have to figure out how to be prepared to “fend for themselves”. Let’s look at these questions for a moment.

First, the 2013 elections give some insight as to where the nation stands. Today, a philosophical battle rages between the conservatives and the progressives / fascists that are in office. The election results are unsettling. First, we have Texas where the citizens passed a series of Constitutional amendments including the 6th Amendment on water. The Conservatives lost. Apparently, the Conservatives are not organized enough or funded enough to offset the liberal / progressive / fascist media and their money.

The Conservatives also lost the Virginia race where the Democrats put money and manpower in the form of Bill Clinton on the line to win for their “business as usual” candidate. Also, the Tea Party candidate in the Congressional election in Alabama lost. Finally, in Washington State, the GMO labeling was rejected by the voters. Note that in Japan, China, Russia and the European Union, GMO foods now have to be labeled as such. It appears as if our large transnational corporations are not as strong in those countries as they are here.

The above is not good news for those of us that are independent minded and conservative. We appear to have a system where big money instead of morals and ethics rule. Constitutionalists are not properly educated, organized or funded. If we had a Constitutional convention today, we would not have a Constitution that looks anything like the one that we now have. Even tradition is being shaken to its core. The Senate just voted the principal emergency stop against a majority tyranny to the dust bin. The Democrats changed the filibuster rule vote from 60% to 51%.

This violates 225 years of tradition maintaining a voice for the minority in the “greatest deliberative body in the world”. I still recall the movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, where the minority spoke and won. And, the press did not explain much less object to the Democrats thug tactics used in the Senate. They used the same tactics to get the Obamacare bill passed. It is typical of a fascist rather than a free republic state. I predict that this action will come back to haunt the Democrats after the 2014 election but even that does not make for better government.

Our Congress has become pervaded with individuals that have been in office too long and have learned how to “milk” the system for their personal benefit rather than the citizens. FDR famously said, “They have learned how to feather their nests rather than the peoples.”  One of the worst examples is that of Diane Feinstein and her husband. She has arranged for the sale of all U.S. Post Offices and their lease back. This supposedly saves the government money.  However, she also made certain that her husband had the “Exclusive” right for the sale that and she and her husband net a clean $1.1 billion in commissions.  This is vaguely reminiscent of the Roman Senate and was one of the principal reasons that Rome fell – collusion and corruption in the Senate. In short, corruption abounds. The Republicans are just as bad.  John McCain spent $30 million for his primary election campaign against an opponent that put up about $500 K and he barely won. Where did he get that money?

Meanwhile we have an executive branch that seems to be determined to destroy what is left of the Constitution. Today, there are five scandals that are larger than “Watergate” that in the past would have brought down this administration. Yet, we have a press that is silent even though one of the scandals directly attacks the freedom of the press. The five scandals that I have identified are the (1) IRS, (2) Sebelius, (3)Fast and Furious (gun running), (4) Brenghazi (gun running) and the (5) Associated Press. If you want to learn more about these, see my Blog where I have written articles on all of these – www.jpfinancialeducation.com . The summation result is that if we as citizens don’t respond and get active in educating the public and our Congressmen, more scandals will follow. The individual in the White House is Arab not black, went to school in Indonesia where they use the Koran as a school text and has lied from the beginning on virtually everything but still the press does not question him. Why? Is it because we have a fascist government and they have been given orders not to do so? It certainly appears that way. Frankly, I don’t see the citizens responding strongly enough or fast enough to correct these problems, so one must be “prepared”

Be Prepared

What do I mean by being “prepared’? Given that the current state of our government is leaning toward and is today – fascist, what does one do to protect themselves? First, one should assess that big government helps big corporations and vice versa. If you are working there today, you will be somewhat protected until retirement.   If you are retired or coming upon retirement, then you will soon find out that those things that you worked for to be available for you in your retirement may not be there.

Specifically, companies such as Motorola and IBM have recently told a couple of 100 thousand retirees to use the “Health Exchanges” for their health retirement and to forget 40 years of contribution and promises. The health exchanges don’t work but you still lost your “Advantage Health Insurance”. Expect more of the same to come. In addition, prices are rising slowly now but shortly will start accelerating rapidly because of the FED,s “Quantitative Easing” that has been used to make the large banks’ balance sheets appear more rational. It was not used to “stimulate the economy” as promised. Rather, it was used to help out the large banks who are the principal shareholders of the FED.  Next will be Bail Ins when the the Banks come to get your 401Ks, pensions and savings.

This is collusive White Collar Crime but no one is saying it. This is another example of fascism in our government. The fall out of this “help for our buddies” is that the money supply has skyrocketed. As a result, hyperinflation is in all our futures. Are you prepared?

Hyperinflation requires two independent variables to be present – money supply and panic. The super inflated money supply now exists but the panic has not yet arrived. That will come when “Bail Ins” start. And yes, they will happen. Again, to understand “Bail In’s” see my Blog. Two articles exist there on this topic and are labeled “The Sting”, Parts I and II – – www.joehawranek.com

Each of you have different backgrounds and as such will have to make decisions that suit you to prepare yourself for what is coming. I can only relate what I have done. Maybe my experience will help you.

Hyperinflation: Knowing the above, I prepared myself for hyperinflation by buying gold and gold mining stocks and real assets. I suggest the same be considered by yourselves. Jim Sinclair, Mr. “Gold”, says, “GOTS”, which means “Get Out of The System Now” – before Bail Ins start. I have prepared myself for hyperinflation but I got hit by the 2008 stock market down turn and decided that I needed to “replenish the larder”. To do so would mean to go back to work in some way.

Current Income: I have a good and an intense engineering background and could have found work in the technical arena of communications doing everything from wireless to optical fiber networks. However, that would have meant travel. I was reluctant go back on the road again. Thus, I looked into my lifetime of accumulated knowledge and asked myself, “What else can you bring to the party”? I decided that I understood investment, finance, economics and business. My background can be seen on my website – www.joehawranek.com . I suggest that each of you has something to “bring to the party” that you have mastered over the years. Consider that your unused asset.

I then decided that…

  • I wanted to work from home.
  • I wanted to have my own business.
  • I wanted to do something in an area that I wanted to learn something – I chose on line marketing.
  • I wanted to do something where I could make a contribution by teaching and coaching others – give something back – I chose the Champion Movement

I ended up finding  the Champion Movement www.championmovement.com/?ap id=joeraven   Why did I choose them? It answered all of the above needs and in addition, it provided me the opportunity to focus on nurturing my retirement nest egg back to health.  They use an impressive set of software, DVDs, webinars and hands on meetings.

To participate in all this, one must join an organization that is designed to get you to find your WHY.  What is is that makes you get out of bed each day?  It helps you create a blog, find your passion, write about your passion and provides good income as you bring others into the fold. I have found it interesting, informative and rewarding. You might consider this as an alternative also.  Everything is getting more expensive – including healthcare – this is one way to defray some of those expense.

Conclusions

Jack Wheeler’s 10 legislative required changes proposal to enable a capitalistic medical care system is refreshing. We have all watched our rights disappear over the last 50 years. They have disappeared into a regulatory morass made by our government. This makes larger corporations very secure because they are the only ones that can afford to maneuver the jungle of regulations. Small companies cannot afford the staffs to do so. Thus, there is less competition. This is not freedom. This is fascism.

This article asserts that more government programs and regulations are not the solution but the cause of the problems in the first place. Only a capitalist system based upon a free market competitive environment provides for reduced regulations, reduced costs and more service. Freedom of choice requires responsibility. Americans that pay taxes are used to that and want it.

A change in the laws is required to gain a capitalist free market medical system in a supposedly capitalist society. A required change in the law indicates how badly our country has deteriorated into the arms of fascism. It is about time for Americans to stand up and say “no” to the large corporations that are affecting all of our lives. This paper provides firm recommendations that would go a long way to achieving that goal. However, it is up to us. Do we want freedom of choice in our medical care? If so we must responsibly contact our representatives to change the laws and allow our freedoms to soar. A good first action would be to circulate this article to others to promote discussion. If you do not want freedom of choice, then you must accept Obamacare with its costs, reduced services, death panels and control over every aspect of your lives.

Finally, we all could use additional income.  We explored the Champion Movement that I have joined.  It helps your find your WHY, set up a blog, find your passion, write about your passion and make some money while doing so.  Medical insurances is going up.  This is a way to defray some of the expense.

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