====== FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ======

America First Party
1630 A 30th Street #111
Boulder, Colorado 80301
http://www.AmericaFirstParty.org

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Federal Seizure of U.S. Healthcare System Planned

Boulder, CO - While many Americans are onerously burdened with healthcare expenditures, they should be wary of any "Prescription for America" being proposed by the federal government. Besides being absolutely unconstitutional and reminiscent of Stalinist central planning, the details of the Senate's Affordable Health Choices Act (AHCA) amount to an attack on liberty and a virtual federal seizure of the U.S. health care system.

This seizure would be accomplished through stringent controls placed on insurance providers; the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) would have sole authority to limit profit margins of insurance companies, the federal government would determine which plans are "qualified," and a government insurance plan would compete with private providers, giving Big Brother at least three weapons of mass destruction to destroy the private insurance industry.

Under the plan, a patient's care would be "coordinated" by primary care doctors, thereby limiting access to specialists, and emphasis on "evidence-based" medicine would limit use of medical practices not deemed supported by government approved studies. Primary care doctors would be reimbursed based on a "capitation," a fixed amount per patient per month to be determined by the Secretary of HHS; under capitation, doctors would maximize profits by minimizing tests and other forms of patient care.

Liberty would be diminished because individuals who prefer to self-insure would be penalized with a "Shared Responsibility Payment" intended to "enhance participation" in the national system; the amount would be determined solely by the Secretary of HHS. It is also doubtful that low-cost high-deductable insurance will remain an option.

The CBO's estimate for the plan ($1 trillion over 10 years), does not include the cost of expanding Medicaid to the majority of uninsured. With this proposed Medicaid expansion, the estimated cost mushrooms to $4 trillion over 10 years, according to HSI Network LLC, based on cost simulation methods previously used by the Department of HHS.

"AHCA fails to respect individual responsibility," stated National Chairman Jonathan Hill, "and fails to address the real reasons for increasing healthcare costs: the third party payment system and an erosion of values among health care administrators."

Contacts:
Jonathan Hill, National Chairman, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 4
Michael Lynch, Press Secretary, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 2

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