By Anna Morris, Co-Editor, Freedom Fighters of America
Only Ted Cruz promises to "REPEAL EVERY WORD OF OBAMA CARE!" Those six words overcome thousands of pages of regulations, entitlements and plans that feed Big Government bureaucracy at the expense of the sick Obama Care claims to be helping. Unless EVERY WORD is repealed, Obama Care will leave its diseased cells embedded in our government, health care and our lives, just like an under treated deadly cancer leaves cells that eventually burst out in fatal disease long after basic treatment.
I recently wrote "10 Million Dollar Pig Trough", about how the state of Oregon cheated the sick ~while surreptitiously lifestyle rationing~of $10 million which went to bureaucracy while not healing anyone, poor or otherwise. Obama Care, Oregon style, coming to all of USA soon unless we REPEAL EVERY WORD. (JohnKasich.com/HealthCare shows he firmly believes in keeping people so well they will never get sick, thus it appears he WILL NOT repeal Obama Care.)
Obama Care was never about "giving" "free" care to the poor. It was always about social engineering through the crazy idea that people can be kept so well they never get sick and thus will never deplete the system. Thus "wellness" and "well care" will be provided while "sick care" is an archaic activity that drags U.S. medical care far below that the socialized countries in Europe. Going back to the Oregon "Pig Trough", it appears the millions of dollars saved are needed for bureaucracy, but heck, what is redistribution for if it doesn't line various pockets along the way?
Let us look at a 2013-2015 "Community Health Improvement Plan" from Umatilla County, Oregon so we can see ObamaCare bureaucracy in action. [1] I choose this area because I know it intimately, and because it is a small, rural area in eastern Oregon, far away from the big city problems of Oregon's big cities like Portland or Eugene. In the 2010 census according to Wikipedia, the population of the whole county was 75,889. That seems high to me since the wheat fields there are endless and a large part of the county is a Native American reservation.
Umatilla is the name of a Native tribe in the area. It is pronounced YUMA-tilla, not Uhm-a-tilla!
The county seat of Umatilla County is Pendleton. Until recently Pendleton woolens were at least partially made there, mostly blankets. Nevertheless Pendleton Wool had its start there and the big sheep companies used to range their sheep all through the nearby mountains. Pendleton still has the world famous Pendleton Round-Up early every September. The round-up motto is "Let 'er buck" and the icon is a cowboy on a rearing bronc. The total image is tough, western, independent, the attitude that made America great.
Enter Obama Care which, while eschewing sick care, is mandated to keep communities healthy by promoting wellness and avoiding sick care. Thus a large community bureaucracy, including local officials and other prominent people, decide how to treat the whole community before anyone gets sick. Their efforts lead to multi-page publications such as the Community Health Improvement Plan. As I understand it these findings may be reported to the federal government also. (The Umatilla Co. plan is a lengthy pdf document easily found online, though once this article is published it may disappear. It is worth your time to read every word of it to fully understand Obama Care: www.co.umatilla.or.us/health/main/Health_Improvement_Plan.pdf)
Somewhere in the middle of the bureaucratic blather about groups, assessments, strategies and the like, is a concise box titled "Strategies". No surprise here, "Priority Health Issues for Umatilla County," are, "1) Decrease obesity rates; 2) Decrease tobacco use; 3) Decrease chronic disease rates: diabetes and asthma."
Under, "Areas of Health Priority: To decrease obesity rates, ...the county will focus on the following impact areas: 1) Decrease the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, 2) Decrease the total hours of screen time each day, 3) Implement walking school buses, 4) Utilize Employer Wellness Tool Kits, 5) Utilize message boards for wellness education, 6) Implement a Community Wellness Calendar, 7) Collaborate with the Independent Physician Association to provide wellness education to their parents."
Whew! Look at that creeping bureaucracy! Don't we especially love number 7 wherein the community collective tells doctors what Obama Care demands in the way of community health!
I usually track the rabid anti-tobacco crusade ~from the same government that now says marijuana is fine~because anti-tobacco activities are easier to follow and explain. (Not to mention that about 20 years ago Oregon doctors let tobacco users know they were undeserving of care under the new regime that would fully arrive with Obama Care.) Nevertheless the nearly equally rabid anti-obesity terror campaign takes us into some interesting territory that further explains why EVERY WORD OF OBAMA CARE must be repealed.
There are more charts. In 2008 Umatilla County had about 31% obesity, compared to about 29% in Oregon as a whole. A list of factors, again comparing youth in Umatilla Co. to youth statewide, follows. "Drank 100% fruit juice 1-6 times during the past 7 days," is an example. Separate titles cover, "Did not eat any fruit during the past 7 days...green salad...vegetables (excluding carrots)." Did the local youth eat breakfast every day? Drink soda pop 1-3 times in 7 days? Not get at least 60 minutes of physical activity any day of the last week? Did they get PE 5 days a week in school? Watch TV 3 or more hours per day on a school day? Play video or computer games more than 2 hours on a school day?
Thus the collective wisdom of Obama Care prepares to socially engineer a county of 75,000 people, The Community, liberals are so fond of mentioning. It is all akin to Hillary's, "It takes a village to raise a child," comment. It takes a bureaucracy of nannies and policy makers to enforce wellness to a level where nobody ever gets sick again. Let us move on to solutions and more charts.
The next big chart seems to cover community involvement. It covers health fairs, breast feeding and getting families signed up for Obama Care. It also includes "personal trainers" at a couple named athletic clubs, providing' "fresh veggies/fruits locally grown", and space for community gardens.
Another solutions box follows with solutions ranging from public education to, "Free summer meal sites", the food bank and senior meals. The cure for obesity is more feeding, perhaps? The final listing is, "Bicycle events."
Following all this are plans to teach people how to cook, exercise, raise children, and how to think properly about "health and wellness", as I read it. By all means, Obama Care should teach people how to think themselves well! When the system runs out of other peoples' money, when all the money has been redistributed, it will collapse and nobody will get the dreaded "sick care". (Possibly, just possibly, registering to vote Democrat could also be a wellness activity, you think?)
We are getting near the good stuff. It is another article or two, or ten, about who pays for what. Desperate needs identified are community programs for, "free or low cost exercise" for the poor. Forget "care" for the poor! They need free exercise!
The poor need to get health insurance, it continues. They need awareness of the local farmer's market for fruits and veggies. There must be PE in schools as well as nutritional education!
Finally there is: SIDEWALK IMPROVEMENTS! The explanation of how follows, "Present sidewalk needs to city council / Work with critics to find grants to improve sidewalks." Yes, Obama Care funds sidewalks while squeezing out the undeserving sick!
You see, safe, smooth, pleasant sidewalks encourage people to walk more and this reduces obesity and diabetes. Without nice sidewalks, so the argument goes, people are too terrified of traffic or tripping and falling, to get out and walk. The biggest town in Umatilla County is Pendleton, with a 2010 population of 16,612 according to Wikipedia. A brisk walk in any direction can take a walker across town and into the countryside in a matter of minutes. There is also a beautiful improved trail along the Umatilla River. Any other community in Umatilla County is much smaller, with agricultural or forest lands right against town limits.
But why not enforce equality by paying for the poor to have personal trainers in an athletic club? Obama Care, and Oregon, in ignoring the undeserving sick, have plenty of money to blow in the elusive quest for wellness. While the sick are undeserving, bureaucracies are always deserving!
I know other medium sized Oregon towns who are forever getting federal sidewalk improvement grants. At first glance one might think these things at least provide jobs for locals, but all too frequently it appears the construction crews are straight from Mexico. It is rare to see a local person hired by the sidewalk contractors, some of whom seem to come from bigger areas.
We can go on and on with this blather but you have the picture, so let's cut to the Obama Care SUGAR TAX! On page 38 of our community health improvement document we see bureaucracy demanding a sugar tax in little Umatilla County! Sugar tax IS an Obama Care plan. Hey! Governments always need more money and they will find something to do with it, says the UN/WHO while encouraging higher tobacco taxes.
Under, "Strategy #3: Decrease Diabetes Best Practices," point 2 defines the sugar tax. "Tax on sugar sweetened beverages," Continuing, " Sugar-sweetened beverages are a major contributor to the US obesity and diabetes epidemics," it intones. A "nationwide" sugar tax of, "penny-per-ounce exise tax," would reduce consumption by 15%, "among adults 25-64." "It is estimated," according to this pitch for the sugar tax, that such a tax over the years 2010-20 would, "prevent 2.4 million diabetes person-years, 95,000 coronary heart events, 8,000 strokes, and 26,000 premature deaths, while avoiding more than $17 billion in medical costs." It is also apparently estimated that such a tax could generate, "$13 billion in annual tax revenue," presumably nationwide. There follows an Obama Care link for more information: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22232111 .
A nationwide sugar tax could generate $13 BILLION annually? That's about what the federal audit caught the state of Oregon wasting on bureaucracy that never healed anyone. It's a drop in the bucket...or the pig trough, as you will. (See my recent FFOA article "10 Million Dollar Pig Trough".)
I have been researching the Umatilla County health improvement plans for quite awhile. Some local government officials have been contacted about implementing the sugar tax as recommended by Obama Care in the link provided above. To the best of my knowledge the sugar tax has never been seriously debated in Umatilla County. (Also to the best of my knowledge, the Native American owned reservation casino, has rejected demands of the health police to go "smoke-free".)
Yeah, we want to get rid of Obama Care. Repeal and replace, say the GOP candidates. If we do not REPEAL EVERY WORD OF OBAMA CARE, forget about the replacement, whatever it may be. If even a tiny protion of Obama Care survives, it is likely to morph into a chain of athletic clubs for the poor, enriching a fitness bureaucracy and some crony capitalist who runs the thing. While our bridges and highways crumble, that "infrastructure" they all promise to fix, Obama Care is building sidewalks in tiny eastern Oregon towns, for people who are apparently too lazy to walk out of city limits to enjoy the natural world at the edge of city limits!
ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING can now be funded as "health care", for "wellness" and "community health". It may need to be "evidence based", which I translate to mean somebody's best guess. If a bureaucrat or crony capitalist can be convinced it is a "best practice", any crackpot idea can become a fully funded government program, heck, maybe even an entitlement! Obama Care, while diminishing and ignoring the sick, enables unlimited wealth redistribution through the pig trough of wellness.
We must REPEAL EVERY WORD, or have it forever.
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SOURCE:
[1] www.co.umatilla.or.us/health/main/Health_Improvement_Plan.pdf ; Umatilla County Community Health Improvement Plan 2013-2015 .
PLEASE READ THIS. IT IS A PLAN FROM A SMALL COMMUNITY IN THE WEST, SHOWING OBAMA CARE IN ACTION. THIS IS HOW THE HEALTH BUREAUCRACY IS DOING IT TO US AND WHY WE MUST 'REPEAL EVERY WORD OF OBAMA CARE'! THANK YOU!
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