In his speech last night, Obama attempted to assure Americans that under his plan, if a person already has insurance through their job, Medicare, Medicaid or the VA, that they could keep their present doctor. He went on to state that those who lose their job, change jobs, or own a business, would be able to get coverage. And what kind of coverage would that be? He promised that "a new insurance exchange" was being developed." A "market place where people can shop for health insurance at affordable prices as one big group. Sounds pretty much like a co-op. He also stated that he had no interest in putting insurance companies out of business. He just wanted to hold them accountable. Why wasn’t that done when that administration bailed them out with our tax payer money? A bailout that the majority of us didn’t even want!

But what if you’re unemployed or you lose your job or you can’t afford the "new insurance exchange?" Well, he had an answer for that too. There would be a "government option." And that option would only be available to those who don’t already have insurance. The thing about the "government option" is that it’s kind of like the "Hotel California" in that you can check in (nearly) anytime you like. You just can’t ever leave. In addition, he also stated that there will be some companies who will still choose not to participate in the "new insurance exchange." They’ll end up paying a fine and their employees will be given the sole "choice" of taking this new "government option."

Now if you were reading all of that carefully, you have figured out that the "government option" is simply an extension of the broke Medicaid and Medicare systems. And that "choice" does not mean what it says. Inner city clinics take Medicaid. It’s the kind of insurance that people on welfare get, and it’s not only broke, but it’s ineffective. People "fall through the cracks" all the time and the care is awful. So that’s why the Obama administration is trying to fix it, right? And how are they going to pay for fixing it?

He said last night that it wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. That it would be funded by "the premiums that it collects." So where do you suppose the premiums are coming from if that particular system is being forced on the unemployed? From those who aren’t unemployed who have been forced into the system because their company didn’t want to provide them with the "insurance exchange option," right? How else could it be getting paid for if it’s not being funded by taxpayers? Wait! If premiums are being collected, then taxpayers ARE funding it! What an excellent illustration of devil-tongued double-speak! Just brilliant. So, we are indeed marching forward toward socialism, which, by the way, is unconstitutional in America according to Article 1 section 9 of the constitution. This president needs to be impeached and forced to leave the White House along with his administration! And even given the sole choice of prison!

But that opinion aside for a moment, I suppose that there might be some who think that socialized healthcare is good thing. I’ll ignore the fact that big government can’t even effectively run the smaller version of the "socialized systems" of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. I’m just going to move on to pointing to a country or two who are already doing this on a grand scale and they can’t make it work.

The UK will be my first illustration. Back on September 2^nd, the UK Telegraph reported that people were being, "Sentenced to death on the NHS." The article stated that, "patients with terminal illness are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors warn." The article went on to state that, "a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death." How’s that for a government run option? One very recent example of that was reported in the Christian Telegraph. British doctors refused to treat a 21 week old premature baby because, "he was two days under the limit set by the British government’s National Health Service (NHS) rationing guidelines" (emphasis added). This is the Obama administration’s model for "ideal healthcare!" Now one has to ask the question, who decided the British government’s rationing guidelines? Might this be comparable to Obama’s "independent commission of doctors and medical experts charged with identifying more waste in the years ahead"? That sounds an awful lot like death panels to me! And don’t forget that Cass Sunstein, Obama’s "Regulation Czar" has "embraced a controversial ‘senior death discount.’" Will this man be in any way involved in regulating or rationing healthcare? But there’s more!

Since the UK has socialized medicine, you know, that "government option," there is now a push for "assisted suicide." And another Christian Telegraph article states that, "An editorial appearing in the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) has blamed disabled people 'who want to live' for the difficulties surrounding the debate in the UK on assisted suicide." Senior citizens and disabled Americans, with all due respect, beware!

England’s government run healthcare option (the NHS) is presently an overwhelmed system because of swine flu. As a result, "unnecessary surgeries" are being canceled. In addition, according to a Financial Times article, "Daniel Hannan, a Conservative member of the European parliament, has spoken out about the NHS, but was slapped down by his own party after saying he ‘wouldn’t wish it on anybody’ because of its far from perfect waiting lists and survival rates." Hannan went on to state that, " to copy the system would lead the US towards bankruptcy and that the UK was ‘just a couple of years behind Zimbabwe." This is where a government run option is going to take American citizens!

But enough about the UK. We can look even closer to home to see just how beneficial a government option will be. Our northern neighbor Canada has it’s own horror stories revolving around it’s government option. Back in August, the Canadian Press reported that "The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country’s health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it." The article went on to state that Dr. Anne Doig said that, "we all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize."

In Vancouver, Canada, the Vancouver Sun reported that, "A Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million." Government options don’t work! Unless the idea is to kill people off and reduce the population! That's something that would also help alleviate
the shortfall. And it would help fix the Social Security problem, too.

Obama promised last night that, "not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for the (government option) plan." He promised that, "I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficits now or in the future. And to prove that I’m serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promise don’t materialize." Will that include cutting "unnecessary" surgeries? Or maybe it will include cutting necessary ones because one life is more valued than another — which would be a violation of The Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Nevertheless, Obama also stated that, "the plan I’m proposing will cost around 900 billion over 10 years." But it won’t be taxpayer funded and will be sustained off of the premiums it collects? Is it going to be cheaper to just remain unemployed? I supposed that remains to be seen. Then again, much like this government run option is a "choice" for those who don’t have any other insurance that they can afford, perhaps he’s got some plan up his sleeve for offering everyone the ‘choice’ to work, too.