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Aftrer we take over COngress in 2010, if there is an election, there will still be time for the new Congress to repeal the bill and overide a veto from BO. PRAY that this will happen!!

Let's see. The Great Recession will be over, Iraq will be managing itself quite nicely, Afghanistan will once more be a motley collection of tribes at each other's throat and the Republican Party will collapse to be replaced by the Radical Party led by Sara Palin, whose motto is "only the purest of heart need apply." At last count, only two other people in the world matched elevated Palin's standard.

What happened to those expelled by Palin? Some joined the Green Party and others joined the Gold Party. As for the Democrats, they dominated politics for the remainder of the 21st Century. Later, historians will point to a little known local election in upper New York State as the tipping point for the collapse of the Republican Party. "All they had to do," complained the one admitted Republican still alive, "was decide behind closed doors on who would represent the Party.

"But, no. It was all or nothing for the idiots on the far right. Compromise was worse than treason. It would mean they wouldn't ascend to Heaven at the Rapture, which they knew was happening any day now. For sure, it would happen no later than 2012.

"Actually," the last Republican said staring into his scotch, "2012 was an End of Days. It's when the Republican Party ceased to exist."

In your dreams! "I would rather fail in a cause that I know must some day triumph, than succeed in a cause that I know someday must fail." History has proven socialism to be a failure. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge this fact is blind to reality.

Anyone who thinks socialism failed hasn't gone to Scandinavia. They do quite well, thank you very much. Sweden, the largest of the four, has a population that is less than Chicago's yet it manages to be a leading exporting nation. I've heard that Russ Limbaugh says he would never go to Sweden, but I doubt its because of socialism. The fact is he's too fat and ugly to get to first base with Swedish babes.

As for the U.S., we have a mixed economy. The government maintains the infrastructure, provides protection and serves as the referee while private enterprise goes about making money. If you are unaware of these basic facts, it must be because you slept through your economics classes.

P.S.: I don't consider Fox News to be any more reliable than tabloids such as the National Enquirer.

Socialized medicine in most Western European nations is proving to be unsustainable.

Yes, and even Canada I've heard recently has said that socialized medicines have their flaws and are bad when people are rationed and die.

But until TC1000, it happens here, will Len and others get the picture, especially when they need the care. And if it should happen to me personally, Len and others on here will definitely hear about it for I'll be angered and make sure they hear it loud and clear in more ways then one.

The problem is that once they make people dependent upon the government it is almost impossible to take the "benefit" away. So, we will likely be stuck with government controlled health care.

yes, that is what I fear tc1000 and our children and theirs will have to deal with seeing their parents being told to die or be rationed. A never ending cycle of jealousy, greed and power over another that is what 1/2 of society in the United States is right now.

What a teacher of the past told us would be in the future, I, me, my cycle of life that people never grew out of since the 60's.

They want it now whether it will hurt their children's future - hell with them, they say. It will not make their children's future better it will make their world they live in like Hell on earth.

I thought this article was important enough for it to be posted in full for those who don't follow links. Len, I recommend you carefully read the entire article - it will impact you and it will be bad! Len, this isn't Scandanavia - but if you only want two weeks of Summer you are welcome to live there. Around the holidays, you will be able to live in the dark for most of the day - for Len, that will be no change from the way he lives now.

What the government will require you to do:

• Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a "qualified plan." If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a "grace period" to switch you to a "qualified plan," meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there's no grace period. You'll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.

• Sec. 224 (p. 118) provides that 18 months after the bill becomes law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will decide what a "qualified plan" covers and how much you'll be legally required to pay for it. That's like a banker telling you to sign the loan agreement now, then filling in the interest rate and repayment terms 18 months later.

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Associated Press

Protestors wave signs in front of the Capitol on Thursday.
.On Nov. 2, the Congressional Budget Office estimated what the plans will likely cost. An individual earning $44,000 before taxes who purchases his own insurance will have to pay a $5,300 premium and an estimated $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, for a total of $7,300 a year, which is 17% of his pre-tax income. A family earning $102,100 a year before taxes will have to pay a $15,000 premium plus an estimated $5,300 out-of-pocket, for a $20,300 total, or 20% of its pre-tax income. Individuals and families earning less than these amounts will be eligible for subsidies paid directly to their insurer.

• Sec. 303 (pp. 167-168) makes it clear that, although the "qualified plan" is not yet designed, it will be of the "one size fits all" variety. The bill claims to offer choice—basic, enhanced and premium levels—but the benefits are the same. Only the co-pays and deductibles differ. You will have to enroll in the same plan, whether the government is paying for it or you and your employer are footing the bill.

• Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) says that when you file your taxes, you must include proof that you are in a qualified plan. If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt from this requirement.

• Sec. 412 (p. 272) says that employers must provide a "qualified plan" for their employees and pay 72.5% of the cost, and a smaller share of family coverage, or incur an 8% payroll tax. Small businesses, with payrolls from $500,000 to $750,000, are fined less.

Eviscerating Medicare:

In addition to reducing future Medicare funding by an estimated $500 billion, the bill fundamentally changes how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals, permitting the government to dictate treatment decisions.

• Sec. 1302 (pp. 672-692) moves Medicare from a fee-for-service payment system, in which patients choose which doctors to see and doctors are paid for each service they provide, toward what's called a "medical home."

The medical home is this decade's version of HMO-restrictions on care. A primary-care provider manages access to costly specialists and diagnostic tests for a flat monthly fee. The bill specifies that patients may have to settle for a nurse practitioner rather than a physician as the primary-care provider. Medical homes begin with demonstration projects, but the HHS secretary is authorized to "disseminate this approach rapidly on a national basis."

A December 2008 Congressional Budget Office report noted that "medical homes" were likely to resemble the unpopular gatekeepers of 20 years ago if cost control was a priority.

• Sec. 1114 (pp. 391-393) replaces physicians with physician assistants in overseeing care for hospice patients.

• Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what it costs in the lowest cost regions of the country. This will reduce payments for care (and by implication the standard of care) for hospital patients in higher cost areas such as New York and Florida.

• Sec. 1161 (pp. 520-545) cuts payments to Medicare Advantage plans (used by 20% of seniors). Advantage plans have warned this will result in reductions in optional benefits such as vision and dental care.

• Sec. 1402 (p. 756) says that the results of comparative effectiveness research conducted by the government will be delivered to doctors electronically to guide their use of "medical items and services."

Questionable Priorities:

While the bill will slash Medicare funding, it will also direct billions of dollars to numerous inner-city social work and diversity programs with vague standards of accountability.

• Sec. 399V (p. 1422) provides for grants to community "entities" with no required qualifications except having "documented community activity and experience with community healthcare workers" to "educate, guide, and provide experiential learning opportunities" aimed at drug abuse, poor nutrition, smoking and obesity. "Each community health worker program receiving funds under the grant will provide services in the cultural context most appropriate for the individual served by the program."

These programs will "enhance the capacity of individuals to utilize health services and health related social services under Federal, State and local programs by assisting individuals in establishing eligibility . . . and in receiving services and other benefits" including transportation and translation services.

• Sec. 222 (p. 617) provides reimbursement for culturally and linguistically appropriate services. This program will train health-care workers to inform Medicare beneficiaries of their "right" to have an interpreter at all times and with no co-pays for language services.

• Secs. 2521 and 2533 (pp. 1379 and 1437) establishes racial and ethnic preferences in awarding grants for training nurses and creating secondary-school health science programs. For example, grants for nursing schools should "give preference to programs that provide for improving the diversity of new nurse graduates to reflect changes in the demographics of the patient population." And secondary-school grants should go to schools "graduating students from disadvantaged backgrounds including racial and ethnic minorities."

• Sec. 305 (p. 189) Provides for automatic Medicaid enrollment of newborns who do not otherwise have insurance.

For the text of the bill with page numbers, see www.defendyourhealthcare.us.

Ms. McCaughey is chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former Lt. Governor of New York state.

Lets take it one piece at a time the isue of a standartd or baseline of what insurance coverage for yone is supposed to have makes sence. Why shouldn't all plans include catasrtophic, coverage for checkups hospiotalization? what's the big deal of a co payment most plans have them the issue of th medicare advantage they are neat but cost medicare an addional 14% off the top do the math. that would be a real savings if they rolled some of the additional benefits into the criteria it still would be cheaper then the advantage. if 20% of mdicare pepole are on advantage plans the other 80% are not that to me is a form of rationing.Pople on the plan will complain fie gemselves but in the big picture their elimination could not be a big deal except on savings. ask any who bitches about this if they are on a plan