See, I Told You So: Obamacare Will Eliminate the Option of Employer-Provided Health Insurance

RUSH: We have a budget deficit that's $3.5 trillion higher than anybody thought. We have health care twice as expensive. And now, "As many as 20 million Americans could lose their employer-provided coverage because of Obama's health care reform law." You're not going to be able to keep your doctor, despite Obama saying you could. You're not going to be able to keep your plan, despite Obama saying you could. And now 20 million Americans are going to lose their employer-provided coverage. If I may say so, folks, this is not news to me. If I wanted, I'd have Koko (who is our webmaster) go back to the archives of this program starting three years ago, where over and over I said that the first casualty of health care in America is going to be your employer-provided health plan.

The Obama regime -- the entire Democrat Party, the American left -- dream of national health care, single-payer health care, which by definition shifts it all to government. The specifics in the Obamacare law are going to make it impossible for the private sector health insurance companies to stay viable. By design. We've got Obama on tape from 2007, maybe earlier than that, admitting that the health care of this country being transferred to the government can't happen overnight. It's going to take five, ten years for the people to accept it. And the way it's going to happen is they're going to make it impossible for your employer to afford it as a benefit. They're going to make it impossible for private health insurance companies to stay in business.

The last option will be the government. That's where you're going to have to go.

RUSH: I want to go back. I've got the transcript of me on this program, March 5th of 2010. This is before Obamacare passed. Now, remember the story that we're bouncing off of here. "Congressional Budget Office report says health care law could cause as many as 20 million people to lose coverage." It's going to be more than that. It's gonna be everybody, eventually. That's the plan, and I told everybody that. I hate being an I-told-you-so, but I remember talking about it is the point. And I'm digging up from our archives right now Obama himself talking to his union buddies at the SEIU in March of 2007 explaining to them the strategery of moving health care in totality to the government.

We'll have that here in just a second, but this is what I said on March 5th of 2010: "Once Obama signs the bill, Obamacare is law. There are several things which happen immediately that will force businesses large and small to off-load their employee benefit health care plans. If, for example, a small, medium, large business -- any business -- has health care costs as 14%, 10%, whatever, it's the cost of doing business. If it's around that or higher, in this bill, in the Senate bill is an option for employers: You can keep paying your own employee benefits for a while, or you can drop your employee benefits, just pay the government 8%.

"Pay the government 8% instead of whatever your health care expenses, just pay it to the government, and thereby all those -- it could be that within two years 50 to a hundred million Americans could lose their employer-provided health insurance because there is a big come-on in this bill. An employer can pay the government 8% per year off the top instead of whatever it's costing the employer to provide health care for all the employees, and where do the employees go to get insurance?" If you happen to be enrolled in a health care plan at your company when this bill gets implemented, your company is gonna have the option of off-loading all employee health care benefits.

And paying the government 8% off the top of their business rather than spending whatever it costs to provide you health care insurance. Now, what are they going to do? They're going to pay the 8%, eventually. It's the same as this. When health care is originally implemented... And it isn't yet, but when it is -- when it's fully implemented -- there is a fine for people who do not buy health insurance. Because, you see, health insurance is mandated in Obamacare. You must go have it. You must buy it. You must get it somehow. You either have to get it from your employer, or if you're self-employed you have to provide it to yourself and your employees or you have to find a pool to join.

You have to have it. It's the law. And this is what the constitutionality of the bill is all about before the Supreme Court: Can the government mandate that citizens buy anything? That's the argument. If the bill is found to be constitutional, then the government can force you to buy anything at any time it wants, including charge you a fine if you don't buy health insurance. Now, the first couple of years, guess what? The fine is 400 bucks. Well, you know that the cost of a health insurance policy is a lot more than 400 bucks. So if you're new to the workforce -- if you're 25, 35, whatever -- you're not worried about become deathly ill.

Your only concern is a catastrophic accident, but you don't have the same health concerns as somebody's 65 or 70. You have immortality. You're not gonna get sick. Why spend all that money when you're young, vibrant, healthy, and all that? You're looking for women at Georgetown law school, why would you go spend money on health care? Especially when all you have to do is pay a fine of 400 bucks. But what happens after a couple years is the fine becomes more expensive than the cost of a health insurance policy. This is all in the bill. So eventually you're going to have to have it, and you're going to be paying through the nose.

And if the Supreme Court doesn't do anything about this, then, "Katie, bar the door," it's all over. And this is the plan. So by the same token, if a business is faced with those two spending options -- the 14 to 45% that it costs them to provide health insurance for their employees or 8% as a penalty payment to the government for not provide -- what are they gonna do? They're gonna call you in and they're gonna say, "You know what? It's just gotten too expensive. We can't afford it. We know you don't want to pay for it yourself. So we're ending the program, and here are some options for you where you can go to get health insurance," and it's gonna be your state exchange or your federal exchange.

It's gonna be government provided somehow, somewhere. That's the plan. To it isn't 20 million, folks. It's 50 million, and eventually everybody -- if the Obama gets his way -- will lose employer-provided health insurance. Let's go back. This is March of 2007, Barack Obama speaking at a Service Employees International Union health care forum. He's a candidate for president, and here he explains how his health care plan will lead to the elimination of private insurance. He ought to be asked about this at every appearance, because here he is -- and we've aired this multiple times before. Here is President Obama explaining how he wants to end private health insurance.

OBAMA 2007: My commitment is to make sure that we've got universal health care for all Americans by the end of my first term as president. I would hope that we can set up a system that allows those who can go through their employer to access a federal system or a state pool of some sort. But I don't think we're gonna be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out.

RUSH: "I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately."

Is he not suggesting that that would be preferable? He wants to end employer coverage, but he knows he can't do it immediately. There's gonna be "a transition" of a decade or 15 years, because he knows that you wouldn't accept this if it happened overnight. But if it's parceled out -- if it happened so gradually that you're not even aware of it because it doesn't happen to you -- when it eventually does happen to you, most everybody else will have already been gone and there's nobody to help you. There will be nothing left but for you then to join the government's health insurance program. And once that happens, they get to determine whether or not you get covered and whether you get treated.

All those things come into play, and the government's gonna be the only place you can go and the only people making those decisions as to who gets treated and how thoroughly. It's where we're headed. He just said that's what he wants, and that's what his bill does.

RUSH: By the way, a lot of people think that if they pay the fine for not having health insurance, that they get health care. No. You do not get health care if you pay the fine. Paying the fine is the penalty for not having health insurance, and you get covered if you go to the emergency room but you have to pay for it. You'll get a bill (somebody will) if you don't have insurance. By the way, these fines and the 8% option offered to government, notice that none of that is oriented toward expanding health care coverage. All that is is revenue generation for the government. The businesses that off-load their health insurance programs in exchange for paying the government 8% off the top. That's 8% off the business top. That's just money to the government for nothing, and ditto the fine. The fine goes to the government.

Nobody gets anything for it. You're not covered, you don't have insurance when you pay the fine.

RUSH: Obama or the intern who tweets for him just tweeted the following: I hear patients in the hospital say, "Thank goodness health care reform passed," all the time.

Now, does anybody really believe that? The president just tweets that he hears patients in the hospital say, "Thank goodness health care reform passed," all the time. Can anybody name one way in which somebody in the hospital is benefiting from Obamacare at this moment? There is only one way, and it's not good, by the way. There's only one way. If somebody in the hospital's an idiot and somehow they're not paying for it, they might believe that Obamacare has been implemented. No, no, I guarantee you there are a number of people who think Obamacare equals free for them. Unless they are children under the age of 26 still on their parents' insurance plan, does anybody really believe, anybody in the hospital, "Thank God for Obamacare." It's all part of the reelection campaign. It's right out of the Hugo Chavez handbook, by the way. O great father, O great protector, Obama has made it possible for me to be in the hospital. Thank God for Obamacare. It's all part of the mix.

2 posted on 03/16/2012 2:28:27 PM PDT by Graewoulf (( obama"care" violates the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Law, AND is illegal by the U.S. Constitution.))

If a majority of the American people already oppose Obamacare. How will the country now react to these new revelations that Omabacre will mandate we all pay for abortion, even church groups will be forced to pay for contraception and abortion despite their moral opposition to both, the cost is more than double and that you will NOT be able to keep your current insurance and likely your doctor. I would think members of Congress who supported Obamacare better go into hiding and Lord Obama himself out to be thrown out of office. Of course I hear only crickets as the GOP ladership court eunuchs will say nothing least some moderates might be offended. These new revelations should be blasted on the airwaves.

3 posted on 03/16/2012 2:33:17 PM PDT by The Great RJ ("The problem with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people's money" M. Thatcher)

How are they going to react to it if no one is telling them any of this? Have you heard the GOP talking about this at all lately, or the GOP candidates? I haven't, at least not as much as they should be. This theme, getting rid of Obamacare and why we should do it, should be pounded daily by the GOP. But apparently this work is just too hard for losers like Boehner and his moderate ilk.

This theme, getting rid of Obamacare and why we should do it, should be pounded daily by the GOP.

But that might reflect badly on Mittens, who provided the model for Obamacare.

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