Just call it "government controlled healthcare"

I spent several hours yesterday listening to the new health care proposal.

Senator Erpenbach, Senator Wirch and Senator Lehman presented their universal health care plan to Kenosha to mixed results.

Kenosha was the first area that the Senate Democrats visited in order to finally explain the Healthy Wisconsin plan.

The afternoon started with Senator Erpenbach giving a little story on the Healthy Wisconsin proposal. It was all general information and did not go any real detail.

The floor was then opened up to questions. One right after the other, the union folks, and a couple of doctors, stood up and poured praise down onto the wonderful Democrats. Clearly, it was a complete setup.

The crowd tolerated this for a while. Although- things did start to get very dicey after the details of the plan started coming out.

Let me first start by telling you, Senator Erpenbach and the rest of the Democrats refuse to let anyone call this “government run health care”. If they said it once, they said it 50 times. Senator Wirch was getting downright hostile if anyone spoke against his plan. “It’s not government run healthcare!” Senator Wirch was slamming Republicans right and left. Stating all they cared about was the status quo, etc…

Senator Erpenbach was patient, intelligent and he most certainly has his heart in the right. There is no doubt about it. However, he was leading the charge on “It’s not government run healthcare”.

After telling us that this is not “government run health-care”, the senators began to give details on exactly how their government would run the healthcare.

First, the state government would MANDATE that every single Wisconsinite have the state’s insurance plan. Senator Erpenbach told us that they HAVE to make it mandatory or the plan will not work. More details later.

Then, a new board will be created in order to administer this new plan. How would this board be created? According to Senator Erpenbach, 16 people will be hand picked by the governor. With senate approval, the governor would then appoint these members to the Healthy Wisconsin Board. If I understand this right, certain groups, like the labor unions and WMC will be presenting names to the governor, and the governor is to pick from the list.

This board, appointed by the governor, would then make all of the important decisions. This board would start by defining “gainfully employed”. Until the words “gainfully employed” are defined, there is no way possible to tell who will be paying out of their own pockets for this plan. Full time? Part time? Senator Erpenbach cannot answer this question. (I wonder how in the world these legislators can possible claim that this plan will save all of Wisconsin money, when they have absolutely no clue who will actually be paying into this plan.)

The Board will then make a decision for about three or four different levels of health care plans to be offered to the people of Wisconsin. Some would be more expensive than others but provide better coverage.

Hang onto your hats, conservatives; this next statement is going to get you riled up.

WEA Trust (WEAC Insurance) will be one of the insurance companies allowed to bid.(In fact, Erpenbach made it sound as if it was a done deal) If this board, appointed by the governor, chooses the WEAC insurance, every Wisconsin resident could actually be forced to pay for WEAC insurance.

Senator Erpenbach stated this on more than one occasion. One person even went back and asked the question again to make sure this was right. The senator spoke of the QEO and how it is only fair, etc…

Bless his heart, one gentleman who owned a small business, stood up and looked the senators in the face and stated- “If you do this, it will cost me $47,000 a year. If you do this, I am out of business.” Apparently, he and his wife have worked for 10 years to build up his business and he will have to close the doors, if this plan goes thru.

Senator Erpenbach sympathized with this gentleman and promised to think long and hard about this. He also said that they were looking into ways of helping this gentleman and thousands like him.

That’s not all folks. Here’s more-

Yes, the Senator recognizes illegal immigrants will be covered

Yes, the Senator recognizes that Wisconsin may be flooded with folks from out of state (he believes that there will be a huge influx at the beginning and level off in the future)

Yes, the Senator recognizes that this will drive some business out of Wisconsin (he doesn’t think too many)

Yes, the Senator recognizes that this will drive some business out of business (he doesn’t think too many)

And on and on…

I finally got a question in- I asked how does this control the rising cost of health care.

The answer: It does not!

Senator Wirch and Senator Erpenbach both admitted that this does not control the rising cost of health care. The senators are hoping that this will slow down the rising cost.

There is just so much more that I could tell you.

However, the most important point that the Senators were attempting to make is that this is not “government run healthcare”.

Then they proceeded to tell us that the government is mandating healthcare and mandating that every single Wisconsin resident pay for this healthcare coverage. Then they proceed to have political appointees run this healthcare program.

To top the whole thing off, the government will take money out of each and every paycheck and force you to pay for health insurance, whether you want it or not.

It has got to be a hard argument for the Democrats to claim that this is NOT “government run healthcare”, even as they are swiping money out of your paycheck to pay for it.

Since we are not allowed to call this “government run healthcare”, we should call it something different.

Perhaps, we can call it “government mandated healthcare”?

Even better, we can call it “GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED HEALTHCARE”.
Sound better, Democrats?