Chicago, Chicago. That Toddlin' Town

As I wrote in the last post, there really isn’t an Obama healthcare bill. It’s simply not there. It doesn’t exist which means that Obama’s latest speech is nothing more than window dressing.

Let’s take a closer look shall we?

There is a bill that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve and that is the proposed legislation which Obama latched onto.

Now if the House would buy off on that verbiage we’d have “Obamacare” already because the “Great Leader” would even give up his cigarettes and his booze for the few minutes it would take to stumble downstairs and sign it.

So clearly Pelosi does not have the votes and what stands in her way are people like Bart Stupak who proclaimed that he and several others will not approve any bill which does not preclude abortion funding. Now you may agree or disagree with his/their stance but so far, at least, this is still a democracy where personal ethics count.

Of course, what could happen is that a desperate Obama tries to buy off Stupak et al by exempting Michigan from the abortion funding issue just like he did with Ben Nelson of Nebraska or with the Louisiana Purchase. But if that’s tried, the Senate bill could not pass the House alone but would have to go back to the Senate for then it would be different.

And so it would if some of Obama’s proposals from yesterday were to be included in anything. That is why those words were meaningless. How he must hate our Constitution and the parliamentary procedures of the United States Congress?

That’s not the way things are done in Chicago although he’s doing his darndest ....

And, remember how Obama and his disciples and the bobbly talking heads on MSNBC et al “poopooed” the concept of rationing medical care?

Well try this on for size.

As I previously wrote, March 1 saw a cut of almost 22% of Medicare reimbursement to physicians and there was more to it than that but let’s go with that for now. Yesterday saw my annual exam by my eye doctor and we talked about this and he was very close to saying no to any more Medicare patients. So after that appointment, I decided to do some more digging. And here’s what I found.

It is likely, that if physicians start to refuse Medicare patients, they will be denied their state licenses to practice, In effect, each doctor will be required to keep some number of Medicare patients on their books. And, if they want to practice, they will accede.

Now the Feds and the State licensing boards can enforce that but they cannot force those doctors to provide more than minimal care.

Sounds like rationing to me.