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Why Does NHGOP Want To Eliminate Medicare?

by: Kathy Sullivan 2

Mon Jan 23, 2012 at 08:52:40 AM EST
(Another big gummint power grab from the O'Brien junta. Thanks, Kathy.   - promoted by susanthe)

Another bill making its way through the legislature this session is HB1560, which has the innoucous title, "The Interstate Health Care Compact". This bill would have state law supersede federal law regarding health care within the state. This may sound like "just" another effort to do away with health care reform, but it goes deeper than that. This bill would require the federal government to block grant all federal dollars for health care to the states, excluding military, VA and Native American health care.  Medicare and all other federal health care programs would be eliminated, turned over to the states.

In addition, it would establish a new bureaucracy run by the states: an "Interstate Advisory Health Care Commission", with two members from each state, with the authority to "study" issues of health care regulation, and make recommendations to the states. So, each state will have to establish a new bureacracy to handle the health care programs, and then we also will have to pay for a new non-federal, but multi-state bureaucracy.
But wait - there's more!  
Kathy Sullivan 2 :: Why Does NHGOP Want To Eliminate Medicare?
If adopted, each state will have the authority to suspend the operation of any federal laws or regulations conflicting with the laws of the state.  

I don't know about you, but after watching this legislature in action, I don't want Bill O'Brien and his cabal making decisions about health care or for anyone.  And ending Medicare? Are you kidding me? Replacing one federal bureacuracy with 50 state bureacuracies and a non-federal but still multi-state bureaucracy? You can't make the case with a straight face that Medicare and other health care programs will be run more efficiently with 51 new bureacracies.

But this bill is not being sponsored by Dan Itse or Jerry Bergevin or some of the other way out there fringe. It is sponsored by House Majority Leader DJ Bettencourt and Senator Chuck Morse, so it needs to be take seriously. This bill is part of a nationwide effort; the plan is to get this bill enacted in a number of states, and then have congress pass it. It is a serious effort to end Medicare and have the states take over all health care spending.

It is up for a hearing before the O'Brien created "House Constitutional Review and Statutory Recommendation Committee" tomorrw at 10:00 a.m.  
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Why Does NHGOP Want To Eliminate Medicare? | 11 comments
Because the Republican party has been overrun by people (0.00 / 0)
who don't want to recognize or carry out their social obligations.  It's possible that the reason is they're incompetent and don't want to admit it.
If that doesn't sound plausible, then one should ask oneself if Jeb Bradley can be counted to change a bed pan.
I'm confused. (4.00 / 3)
How can the NH legislature make laws that require other states to participate in the law?  Is that in the Magna Carta?
Where to start? (4.00 / 1)
Medicare is the most efficiently run health insurance plan in the country. Turning it over to each individual state is an invitation to waste, fraud and corruption.

I wouldn't trust these jokers with a penny of my health money. Are they going to be able to raid this money to balance the budget, create holidays in memory of Terry Schiavo, the Magna Carta, etc? Look what they did with money from the tobacco settlement - which was supposed to help smoking cessation.

It is an invitation to lunacy. I can only fathom the absurd bills mandating and denying coverage for all sorts of absurd things.

Where is the NH State Medical Society on this proposal? Have they been lobbying against it? I'm a member and I haven't heard a thing about this.

Sliding under radar (4.00 / 2)
There are so many crappy crappy bills it's impossible to track them all. I don't know what if anything the society is doing. But this is serious, with Bettencourt and Morse sponsoring, it's not an Itse special.



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
is it time to remind DJ and Chuck that the public's reaction just might be: (4.00 / 1)


President Obama at a town hall meeting described a letter he received from a Medicare recipient:

"I got a letter the other day from a woman. She said, 'I don't want government-run health care. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my Medicare.'"
At a town hall meeting held by Rep. Robert Inglis (R-SC):

Someone reportedly told Inglis, "Keep your government hands off my Medicare."
"I had to politely explain that, 'Actually, sir, your health care is being provided by the government,'" Inglis told the Post.

Even the UL calls this bill "frivolous" (0.00 / 0)
Although not for the reasons I have mentioned:

http://www.unionleader.com/art...

You know it is a bad bill (4.00 / 3)
When Drew Cline, Putney Swope and I all agree that it is a bad bill, no matter what the reasons.




"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
DJ Bettencourt complaining at UL on line (4.00 / 2)
DJ is complaining at the UL on line; his first post is that "some" like to point fingers and sit on the side lines, which I guess is a slap at the UL for criticizing the bill. The next is a complaint that people are saying this bill is an ALEC bill, it is not an ALEC bill, Democrats just like to demonize bills they disagree with as being written by out of staters rather than discuss the substance.

DJ, you are right - this isn't from ALEC, it is from another out of state group that refuses to disclose its donors, run by members of the extreme right, called "The Health Care Compact Alliance", with its HQ in Alexandria, Virgina, where all good Republican astroturf and 501c4's are headquarterd.

But you are wrong about Democrats demonizing the bill as being written by an out of state group. We are criticizing the bill on the merits because it is a bad idea. It would end Medicare, and establish new bureacracies.

DJ and O'Brien have really gotten into pushing this notion that if you disagree with them on the issues, there is demonizing going on. What's with that?  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

They are possessed (4.00 / 1)
by demons, so everything looks like a demon to them?
[ Parent ]
ALEC model legislation (4.00 / 1)
DJ may be technically correct when he says ALEC didn't "write" the bill, but ALEC adopted the Health Care Compact as model legislation and distributed it to 2,000 state legislators.


"Politics ain't beanbag" - Finley Peter Dunne
[ Parent ]
AHA! (4.00 / 2)
DJ can't escape the sharp eyes of Blue Hampshire!



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
Why Does NHGOP Want To Eliminate Medicare? | 11 comments

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