Thursday, November 12, 2009

Surprised there'll be no reductions? No koolaid..

...for you. And you should have been paying more attention to these people and their broken promises, failed goals, misleading blather and flatout lies for the last year and a half. Conservatives did and have never, for one minute, believed any, ANY of the pie-in-the-sky from Obama and his hacks. From Politico:

"Health savings? No one knows"

"Barack Obama ran for president on a promise of saving the typical family $2,500 a year in lower health care premiums.

"But that was then.

"No one in the White House is making such a pledge now.

"It’s one of the most basic, kitchen-table questions of the entire reform debate: Would the sweeping $900 billion overhaul actually lower spiraling insurance premiums for everyone?

"No one really knows.

"And in fact, for all the ink spilled on the effects of health care reform, no independent group has taken a comprehensive look at how the legislation would impact premiums for the 170 million Americans who receive insurance through their employers – a population that would receive little direct financial assistance under the various congressional proposals...

"Obama was the one who raised expectations of lower premiums. From one city to the next, and during the presidential debates, Obama made the pledge almost as often as he vowed to remove troops from Iraq: “We estimate we can cut the average family’s premium by about $2,500 per year.”

"He has barely uttered it since taking office. The last recorded mention by Obama was in May, when he announced that six health industry groups agreed to lower the growth rate in health care spending by $2 trillion over 10 years, resulting in a savings of $2,500 per family “in the coming years.”

"“Far and away, what happens to premiums is dependent on whether you can bend the cost curve,” Cutler said.

"And there are questions as to whether the bills even meet that goal.

"Gruber, the favorite economist of the White House, said the bill “really doesn’t bend the cost curve.”

“But I think this bill starts us down the road to the point where we can do that,” Gruber said. “The alternative is doing nothing. Relative to doing nothing, I think we are a lot closer to bending the curve.”

"Reminded that Obama demanded a bill that lowers health care spending, Gruber said: “That is what he would like to do. But he’s not doing it.”

"In the health reform debate, Democrats face a public-relations challenge similar to the $787 billion economic stimulus package. In the face of rising unemployment, Obama has defended the stimulus as preventing even worse job losses than the country is now experiencing.

"Similarly, progressive health policy experts say it will be so hard to reduce the cost of health insurance, they’d be thrilled if they could simply slow down the rapid rise in premiums.

"If premiums are the benchmark by which reform is judged, “we are setting ourselves up to fail,” Gruber said. “Premiums will still go up, but they will go up less than they would” without the overhaul...."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29421_Page2.html

DP: And if you belive any of this will cost less and give more choices--have another cup of koolaid.

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