Pelosi's Reform Bill Establishes Waiting List - The Philadelphia Bulletin

Pelosi's Reform Bill Establishes Waiting List - The Philadelphia Bulletin: "H.R. 3962, the Democrats’ health insurance reform bill, to be voted on this week by Congress, contains a provision to establish waiting lists as a mechanism to control costs.

Such waiting lists have long been a characteristic – and a bane – of socialized medicine.



Indeed, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled them illegal in June 2005.

'Access to a waiting list is not access to health care,' wrote Canada’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin at the time.

Yet, this is exactly what the Democrats’ plan has in mind for Americans if their proposed bill becomes law.

Called the “Affordable Health Care for America Act,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D., Ca., unveiled it with great fanfare last week. The bill is sponsored by Rep. John Dingel, D., Mich., and is co-sponsored by Democratic representatives Charles Rangel, of New York, Henry Waxman, Fortney “Pete” Stark, Ca., and George Miller of California as well as representatives Frank Pallone and Robert Andrews of New Jersey. It is more than 1,900 pages long. But one need only turn to page 26 to find the provision for waiting lists. There, listed in Title I 'Immediate Reforms,' Sec. 101 'National High Risk Pool Program,' paragraph (3)(g) 'Covered Benefits Cost Sharing Premiums and Consumer Protection' is paragraph (7) (h)(2) with the heading 'Insufficient Funds.' This states, “If the Secretary estimates for any fiscal year that the aggregate amounts available for payment of expenses of the high-risk pool will be less than the amount of the expenses, the Secretary shall make such adjustments as are necessary to eliminate such deficit, including reducing benefits, increasing premiums, or establishing waiting lists.'

The High Risk Pool Program is designed exactly for those uninsured individuals who health insurance reform proponents say are the neediest. Estimates are such people comprise one to two percent of the population. Jane Orient, M.D., Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), believes that if the government is willing to deny benefits to those who they purportedly consider the most deserving, then eventually waiting lists will be applied to everyone enrolled in the government’s plan. The Democrats’ promise to increase the amount insured, decrease costs and increase benefits is a chimera according to her."