RALC hosted Steve Tucker, Health Insurance Industry Expert, on Thursday, June 10

The Republican Assembly of Lake County, Raymond True, Chairman, met on Thursday, June 10, at the Comfort Inn in Mundelein.

Following opening remarks, the introduction of guests, new member acknowledgments, and one minute speeches on any topic by RALC members, guest speaker, Steve Tucker, was introduced by Chairman Raymond True.  Steve Tucker is a Health Insurance Industry Expert.

Steve Tucker and Dr. Arie Friedman, a 10th Congressional District candidate, have spoken at many venues, without pay, to alert the public about the pit falls of Obamacare.  Contrast this with the national campaign by the Obama administration that will be headed by Tom Daschel and Victoria Kennedy.  $125 million of taxpayer’s money has been allotted for Daschel and Kennedy to educate the public about Obamacare through TV, radio and the print media.

The question first asked of RALC members was how we got to Obamacare?  Steve Tucker’s answer was short and to the point — “Obama turned lying into an art form.”

One lie repeated time and again is that coverage can’t be gotten if there is a pre-existing condition.  This is untrue.  The only time insurance can be canceled is if insurance fraud has been committed on the application.

Another lie is that your insurance will be lost if moving from one employer to another.  According to  Hippo, a law passed and signed 14 years ago by President Clinton, if changing employers, it’s possible to get new health insurance, even with an preexisting condition, within 63 days of leaving the former employer.  This covers 90% of policy holders.  Under Hippo privacy concerns were guarded.  Hippo privacy laws will be dead under Obamacare.

Of great concern to insurance companies is that by 2014 every policy written must follow strict guidelines set down by Obamacare, except those companies selling discount and schedule plans.  Companies selling these policies were described as “predatory” companies by Mr. Tucker.  They offer cheaper prices, but their benefits reflect very poor coverage as to what the policy holder needs.

Steve Tucker explained the margin on which insurance companies operate.  It is a 65 – 35 per cent margin.  Meaning that for every dollar taken in insurance companies are required to pay out sixty five cents in benefits.  Once the margin goes up to 85 – 15 under Obamacare, company survival will be impossible.

Come January 1, 2011 the American people are in for a big shock when millions of letters will be going out informing policy holders that premiums are going up.  Some health insurance companies will opt out of health insurance in favor of other types of insurance.  Other will be forced to close.  Individuals looking at paying higher premiums will undoubtedly be hoodwinked into buying from predatory companies where premiums are lower but coverage is slim and might not even cover most health needs.

After Obamacare passed in March people were asking where their health cards were; many Americans will be surprised to find out that enrollment in Obamacare isn’t even possible until 2013

In the minds of many of the RALC audience was why insurance companies didn’t fight the Obamacare bill before it was passed?  Originally it was said that the punishment would be prison time and a “sizable” fine if health insurance wasn’t purchased.  Obamacare does set the beginning fine at $95, and it goes up every year that insurance isn’t purchased.  The catch!  There is no teeth in the enforcement of the fine.  Strongly worded letters will go out, and the letters will keep coming, but no action will follow. Even so, 159 agencies are to be set up to manage Obamacare and 16,500 new IRS agents hired at a cost of $10 billion.

Romneycare in Massachusetts was criticized by Steven Tucker as a big failure.  Yet Obamacare was based on Romneycare in Massachusetts. President Obama has taken Obamacare and spread it across the nation. People are buying and dumping their policies in Massachusetts.  When sick they buy, when well they dump.

When first initiated in Massachusetts, Romneycare was slated to cost $88 million.  Now the cost has mushroomed to $4.2 billion even when fines, although small, are being collected for not buying health insurance.

As a preview of what Obamacare will bring, Mr. Tucker read off a list of eighty three companies who have already stepped up with estimates of what their 1st quarter losses will be starting in 2013.

Some of the companies on Tucker’s list included:   Walgreens ($44 million); R.R. Donnelly ($3.3 million); Bristol Meyer ($3 million); ITT ($10 million); Grainger ($11 million); Catepiller ($90 million); ATT ($1 billion); and IL Tool Works ($22 million). The result:  People will have to be laid off.

New to me is that under federal law, within 500 feet of an Emergency Room facility, people must be treated.  It will be the same under Obamacare.

“Kids Care” received blame from Steve Tucker for some of the $13 billion deficit facing Illinois.  According to Tucker, 75% of the kids enrolled in “Kids Care” are children of illegal immigrants.

A much quoted figure is that there are forty four millions Americans without health insurance (figure comes from the U.S. census bureau).  There are many reasons people don’t have health insurance, such as they are between jobs or they are young and don’t wish to use their money to purchase insurance.  But when push comes to shove, there are only fourteen million who are chronically in need of help.  If subtracting the illegals from this fourteen million figure, that leaves eight million people who really need government help.

Why is a new health care system needed that will bankrupt this nation?  Surely fourteen million individuals could be treated within this nation’s present system and at a mere fraction of the cost!

Legislators who voted for Obamacare — like 8th District Melissa Bean — are sending letters to senior citizens telling them that Medicare payments will not be reduced, neither will there be co-payment.   Most likely Bean and others believe that senior citizens can be appeased through a $250 check scheduled to be sent out by the federal government to Medicare “D” clients.

Here are several facts which expose his fantasy to senior citizens:

• There will be a 21% reduction in Medicare payments to physicians.
• Cuts will be made in Medicare to hospitals.
• There will no longer be home health care.
• Income above $85,000 a year is considered wealthy, resulting in higher premiums.
• There will be a 3.8% federal tax on real estate transfers for Obamacare.

Rationing is a given.  How could this not happen when 33 million people are being added to the health insurance rolls?  Even so, under Obamacare there will still be 23 million uncovered individuals.  What a deal Obamacare is!

Check out Steve Tucker’s blog for some interesting insights:  www.Truthaboutobamacare.com Mr. Tucker also writes for the Illinois Conservative Magazine.

Nancy J. Thorner   331 E. Blodgett Ave., Lake Bluff, IL   60044  (847) 295-1035