My thoughts on the new healthcare bill...

#1 -- forces people to buy health insurance even if they can't afford it, don't want it, or are wealthy enough to pay their own medical expenses

#2 -- taxes small companies (like the one I work for) up to 40% on top of what they already pay to provide health insurance to their employees

#3 -- raises premiums for anyone who currently has insurance in order to help pay for everyone that can't afford it

#4 -- pays for abortion, which I believe is unconstitutional to force upon states

#5 -- will destroy innovation, because it restricts the payout to hospitals and clinics for all procedures. (this means no new, better procedures will come forward because they won't get paid what it costs to introduce and train people to perform the procedure)

#6 -- pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies will make little to no profit from their new products so they're less likely to release new products (don't get me wrong, I'm not for companies jacking up their prices a ton, but without competition, that means no generic medicines or alternate products so steeper prices on everything)

#7 -- there are already way too many people in the Medicaid system today, with not enough doctors or nurses to perform services. So by adding millions of people to that system, you are creating a worse problem. (Ever tried to make an appt to see a specialist with Medicaid or Medicare insurance? No One takes it. Cause they don't get paid.) So get ready for longer waits, longer lines and poor quality of care. Think of the DMV office, the Post Office or the Social Security Office

#8 -- a majority of healthcare costs are avoidable if people live healthier lives - the current system tries to motivate people to be healthy, making it hard to get coverage - so if you make it free/cheap for anyone, regardless of how poorly they take care of their health, you just opened the flood gates for more obesity, diabetes, hypertension, etc.

#9 -- based on age, weight, gender and risk factors, the government gets to decide if we're "worth" the procedures we need, the basic physical exams, prescriptions, etc. That's why so many elderly people are against the bill

#10 -- other entitlement programs (social security, medicare, medicaid) are under funded by $100 trillion dollars... So even if this was a good bill (which it isn't) There's no way we can afford it. It will literally bankrupt our country.

#11 -- and last but certainly not least, the people in charge of this bill have put in a clause that states they are exempt from being part of this! What?!

I agree that people with pre-existing conditions should qualify for insurance no matter what. But this bill has MAJOR flaws.

This says it best:

"Let me get this straight. We're trying to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also is exempt from it and hasn't read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke." "What could possibly go wrong?"

--Tom Trinnaman, Pleasant Grove