OBAMA tells how he will eliminate employer health coverage

Yes, it is a takeover. I agree with you and matersfish on that.

People are naturally anxious about a government takeover, and they should be. Health care is too important to leave in the hands of bureaucrats, and I don't want them in charge of mine. The government cannot possibly do anything more efficiently or as cost-effective as the private sector, history is witness to this over and over. It's interesting to note that Ford, the only major car company to not accept bailout money has posted an impressive increase in earnings while GM is seeing sales fall off even more, by 15% worldwide. GM is doing well in China, though. They want to get the money we borrowed back some day, I guess.

Yes, they can combine their invented Swine Flu epidemic with their selection process. Very good point, no wonder Obama was in such a rush to get the health care bill passed. People are already starting to notice that fewer people die from Swine Flu than they do the common flu and the panic factor is lessening. You can fool all of the people only for a little while.

Well according to the World Health Organization (aka WHO) were currently in Phase 6 of their "Global Influenza Preparedness Plan" which means the "Pandemic phase" and "Designation of this phase will indicate that a global pandemic is under way". My theory was that I think the government will reach most of the population with their new public healthcare plan they are pushing so hard by the fall, will fall in line with H1n1 flu vaccinations. With the pandemic level, there will be 5 target groups who will get "priority" which includes pregnant women, children 6-24 (if you call a 24 yr old a child), Healthcare and emergency medical workers, adults with existing medical conditions and SUPRISINGLY, this does not include elderly adults and they are to be considered another category altogether. Dr. Anne Schuchat did stress over and over that elderly adults get their regular seasonal influenza vaccines (which many do rather religiously already) but I'm still not certain why this is. What I do know, is that by Winter time those who do not get the H1n1 vaccine will be considered "low-level terrorist" To explain, Barbara Loe Fisher, of the Nat. Vaccine Info Ctr. says: "As Department of Homeland Security officials are declaring that any disease outbreak is a matter of homeland security [26,27]; as Department of Defense officials are defining public demonstrations as “low level terrorism;”[28] as CDC officials make plans to re-route airplanes to designated airports with quarantine centers to screen all passengers for signs of swine flu[29]; and as fast tracked experimental pandemic flu vaccines are being created to be given to American children first, it is time for all of us – whether we are public health officials addressing what we believe is a true public health emergency or whether we are ordinary citizens simply trying to protect our health and the health of our children - to act in rational and responsible ways." [26]http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1240773850207.shtm [27]Presentation by Dr. Asha George, Senior Professional Staff, Committee on Homeland Security (Democratic Majority), U.S. House of Representatives on Preventing Pandemic Outbreaks at the Promoting Healthy Lifestyles Conference sponsored by the Black and Hispanic Caucuses of State Legislators. June 13, 2009, San Juan, Puerto Rico. [28]http://www.contracostatimes.com/politics/ci_12589887 "protest L.L.Terrorism" [29]http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1089929.html In the event of a pandemic, flights would be rerouted to Miami International Airport and 18 other major U.S. airports, according to plans by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ----------------------------------------------------------- At a CDC Press Conference (July 29, 2009 3:30p), Stephen Smith of the Boston Globe asks: Good afternoon. I was hoping, first of all, to confirm that your -- that target group recommendations would cover 160 million people. And then secondly, I'm wondering what has been decided in terms of the dissemination of an H1N1 vaccine. In other words, will it piggy back on the existing system in place for seasonal flu vaccine or given that there is likely to be a truncated time line, is there going to be some system where it might be distributed through the strategic national stockpile network? And also in terms of payment, is it anticipated that there will be a mix similar to the seasonal vaccine that some of it will be covered by life insurance, some of it will be covered by governmental agencies, both state and federal, where is the thinking on those issues? Dr. Schuchat responds: "The estimate is 159 million, but there's a lot of overlap in some of the groups but it there is probably a lower number than that. What we try to stress we are not expecting -- first of all, there is overlap and secondly, with coverage expected to be 20 to 50% for seasonal flu, the size of that population may not be so relevant in terms of what the actual demand would be.....The federal government has procured the vaccine and we are expecting the cost of the vaccine to be borne by the federal government. The administration for vaccination -- for vaccine that we think would be more of a mix, when vaccine is in public settings, school clinics, immunization efforts or community center that is vaccine administration costs would be -- would come out of the public resources that the health departments are receiving but that when it is given in the private settings in doctor's offices or retail settings, for instance that insurance would be billed for that whether it is public insurance like Medicaid or private insurance. And there is a set of activities going forward to make sure we can make this smooth. As you say this is different from seasonal influenza because we may be trying to vaccinate a lot of people relatively quickly, particularly if the disease increases earlier this year, kid goes back to school and so forth. So, we want to remove the barriers we don't want people not to be able to access vaccine because they are not insured and we don't want community clinics or school clinics to go very slowly or inefficiently for needing to screen for insurance, for instance. So there is a lot of planning right now. So it is intended that formula or prorata distribution of vaccines for the state and local program areas will go forward and that they will be directing vaccines to public and private settings. We want the public private sector to help with this and we know that won't be enough and need the public sector quickly " The process is already underway and that I believe this is why they are pushing so hard for Congress to pass this new Healthcare RE-FORM bill which is basically a blank check (yea, you can pretend we have that kind of money) and will make sure all security and corresponding health agencies (the list is TOO LONG!!) can get to work as soon as fall (think Sept 1st) comes.

Your theory has me confused. Do you believe that private doctors won't have this vaccine and that folks will be forced to go to a clinic of some kind if they want it where they'll be forced to sign up for the government health plan even if they already have private insurance?

There is language in the House version of the bill giving special benefits to unions, including giving them a seat on the decision committee.

yea, i saw a clip from one of the town hall meetings, a person stood up shouting, something along the lines of 'is Congress going to be required to get the same plan your asking us to sign up to!'

revellanotvanella, as far as I know members of Congress and their families are covered by a private insurer under a group rate just as any other federal employee is. My father worked for the Dept. of Defense until he retired and he had Blue Cross and Blue Shield but there were several plans available to choose from. While members of the House and Senate do have the option of being treated by military doctors while in D.C., their families don't and they don't receive that care while in their home states. ParaTed2k, what kind of special consideration can unions have if the private insurers they now use are out of business? And, in your response you refer to the unions as if they are one entity...they're not so "a" seat on any decision making committee would not be representative of all the unions in this country. Your responses lead to yet another question. If members of Congress and the unions would receive special benefits, ie. private coverage, then how could the insurance giants be run out of business? They will still have the union members along with both large and small businesses as clients.