This page was last updated on March 29, 2012.
Healthcare plan offers many benefits; Daniel Bosh; Beaver County Times; March 29, 2012.
I’m working on the assumption letters from “Dan,” “Daniel,” and “Daniel A.” Bosh of Baden were written by the same author.
If you’ve read Mr. Bosh’s minimum of 21 letters since 2004, you recognize him as a died-in-the-wool leftist. In the 2004 presidential campaign, Mr. Bosh was a Democrat national delegate committed to Dennis Kucinich. Mr. Bosh is a representative of the Steelworkers Pension Trust. There’s nothing wrong with Mr. Bosh representing the USW but it means Mr. Bosh isn’t an impartial observer when it comes to labor union issues. The primary business of today’s labor unions is advocacy for leftist politicians and lobbying for leftist policies/programs. According to their Department of Labor LM-2 forms, USW management spent over $6 million in 2010 on “Political Activities and Lobbying” and AFL-CIO management spent over $29.6 million in 2010 on “Political Activities and Lobbying.” Representing employees is simply a fund-raising chore labor union management must endure to provide funds for its lobbying and political activities. Heck, AFL-CIO CEO Richard Trumka conceded as much when he said, “I got into the labor movement not because I wanted to negotiate wages. I got into the labor movement because I saw it as a vehicle to do massive social change to improve the lots of people.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Contrary to Republicans’ fictitious allegations, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a very conservative approach to the health insurance mess.
“If anything, it’s too conservative, but it provides a number of positive benefits for working class families and small businesses.”
[RWC] Turning the healthcare industry into a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly is “too conservative?” Wow!
As you read Mr. Bosh’s letter, you’ll find he never mentions the cost of the alleged “positive benefits for working class families and small businesses.” You’ll also note Mr. Bosh doesn’t address what in the Constitution permits such a law. Remember, the Constitution enumerates the specific powers it grants the federal government. Any other powers the federal government attempts to exercise are unconstitutional. To make sure the authors’ intent was not misunderstood, the 10th Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for the States respectively, or to the people.” Absent a very creative interpretation ignoring both the actual words and clear intent of the Constitution, a federal-government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly is unconstitutional.
Please read my paper entitled “Healthcare.”
“The act provides seniors additional preventive care coverage and gradually closes the gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage (the ‘donut hole’) by 2020. Young adults not offered insurance at work can stay on their parents’ plan until they turn 26. Children under age 19 cannot be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions.”
[RWC] Mr. Bosh failed to note Obamacare takes about $500 billion from Medicare over 10 years.
As for 26-year-olds on their parents’ plan, that drives up the premiums for everyone.
Forcing medical insurance companies to cover “pre-existing conditions” is the same as forcing a company to issue a fire insurance policy on a house that’s burning down. That’s not coverage; it’s a handout and forces up the rates of everyone else. Shouldn’t I have the freedom to buy a policy that doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions?
“The act prohibits insurance company abuses, like the practice of searching for errors on a customer’s application as an excuse to deny payment for services when he or she gets sick. It prohibits lifetime dollar limits on essential benefits, like hospital stays. It also provides consumers with a way to appeal coverage denials and establishes an external review process.”
[RWC] All businesses – including insurance companies – deliver goods and service according to a contract, written or not. When a person submits a fraudulent application, intentionally or not, why should the insurance company be forced to honor the contract? Forcing insurance companies to honor fraudulent contracts simply raises the premiums for everyone else.
Prohibiting “lifetime dollar limits on essential benefits, like hospital stays,” drives up premiums.
Consumers already have “a way to appeal coverage denials and … an external review process.” Once the government has its monopoly, to whom would consumers appeal?
“The act will also provide tax credits to up to 4 million small businesses to help provide insurance benefits to their workers.”
[RWC] Why should any business – large or small – be responsible for providing healthcare insurance for its employees? And who pays for the “tax credits,” men from Mars?
“The Affordable Care Act provides many other benefits and patient protections, but is it excessive, liberal, oppressive or socialist? Not even close.”
[RWC] That Mr. Bosh claims to believe a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare monopoly isn’t “excessive, liberal, oppressive or socialist” tells us far more about Mr. Bosh and the USW than it does about Obamacare.
© 2004-2012 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.