ANH–USA strongly opposed the recently enacted healthcare bill for a variety of reasons. We stand for the freedom of consumers to choose the type of healthcare they want, and the freedom of practitioners to practice without harassment. The healthcare reform act seriously impinges on both. So after a thorough review of our legal options, which took some time, we have decided to join a lawsuit that has been initiated by a distinguished group of physicians to have the act repealed.
One of our biggest concerns about the version of the healthcare “reform” act that was passed is that it forces citizens to buy health insurance (and only government-defined and approved health insurance) even if they prefer alternative medical care which would not be covered by that insurance. In other words, we’ll have to pay twice—once for our alternative healthcare, and again for government-approved insurance that we won’t use.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) allows the federal government to define what health is and what health insurance is. This, coupled with the mandated purchase of government-approved insurance—lest one be slapped with fines and even jail—means the government is unwittingly opening the way for special interests such as drug companies, medical device manufacturers, and the AMA to complete their takeover of medicine. Meanwhile, alternative forms of medical care will become much more expensive, if they are available at all.
We’re joining the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, a distinguished group of doctors, in the lawsuit they filed in Washington, DC, district court in March 2010. Their suit seeks declaratory relief from the PPACA, stating that it contains a number of unconstitutional measures:
- Under the Tenth Amendment, the federal government lacks authority to compel individuals to purchase health insurance or pay an offsetting penalty.
- Forcing patients to participate in Medicare Part A, at the risk of losing their Social Security benefits, is also unconstitutional. It harms physicians who operate surgery centers outside of Medicare, and the provision is beyond the powers of HHS to enact in the first place.
- Nowhere in the Constitution is there authorization for the federal government to require businesses or private employers (without direct connection to the government) to purchase health insurance for employees or to set the acceptable terms of health insurance for such individuals.
- Requiring the private purchase—by individuals or businesses—of insurance with greater coverage than the purchaser desires constitutes a “regulatory taking,” that is, a prohibited capitation or direct tax.
We are also concerned that healthcare “reform” as passed will subject physicians to greater insurance company oversight and control; deter innovation by physicians because insurance companies won’t allow it; enrich insurance companies at the expense of patient and physician choice; eliminate the growing market of self-paying patients; and cause many physicians to stop practicing, leading to shortages and long waiting lines.
We will, of course, keep you posted as the lawsuit progresses.
I have no desire to take part in a government sponsored health program that does not allow for my ability to choose alternative medicine as my course of protocol.
I’m thinking amendment to address these concerns, not repeal, might be a better approach. Let’s say,
requiring insurance companies to cover alternative care. I don’t like the mandatory insurance because I know people who cannot afford five dollars a month for health insurance, but I also don’t like the way people with medical emergencies normally treated with allopathic medicine can be turned down for insurance, have their coverage pulled, or refused care for lack of insurance. I think the original situation is far worse than the measures taken to try and deal with the problems.
I do not stand with you in your lawsuit to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). I appreciate your informing your membership
that you have decided to do this. It is not perfect as no bill is. I suggest you put your money and energy alongside those organizations that are working to
get corporate corruption out of Washington and therefore the FDA and the USDA etc. Check this one out. http://www.standfordemocracy.com/ratify/
I am sure there are others.
Work to improve and amend the act. Do not throw the baby out with the bath water.
MI has had mandatory auto ins for decades. Nobody had been able to prove it unconstitutional or over turn it. We all pay.
Short of having health care paid for through our taxes ( Oh no!! Socialized Medicine! not so.) which I think we should do, I am actually for a single payor system,
The PPACA is a stepping stone toward getting health coverage first paid for, then stop the abuses. We need to show that not covering natural health modalities is abuse.
Now we work toward making sure we have our constitutional right to seek out the type of care we choose for our bodies and make certain the practitioners we choose are
allowed to practice hassle free and have coverage equal to standard modality coverage. To not cover equally would then be a violation of our constitutional rights.
People who have insurance policies they like can remain in them. Those who cannot afford ins will be subsidized.
Since insurance doesn’t typically pay for alternative care now, We need to work to get those kinds of things added as part of our choices in health care.
I use chiropractic/applied kinesiology. My insurance co pays for that. Years ago they would not pay even for chiropractic unless I was incapacitated
from working the entire day of my treatment. While they do not pay for the AK part of it, and I pay a copay, they pay for more than half of all of my visits.
I see a MD whose practice is all about bio-identical hormone balance. I got her into my network and I pay a $20 co pay with each visit. My script is considered “special”
and ins will only pay for charges over $65. The script is not then covered. This is where we could work to insure compounding natural prescriptions are covered the same as chemical HRT would be covered. They did not come from a drug company. That is where we need to get ins companies and the FDA out from under Pharm. companies influence.
The above mentioned MD has an acupuncturist working in her office. My ins co. will pay for acupuncture after my annual deductible is met. Then they pay as an out of network provider which is 70% of the area norm. That then would be deducted form my $2,500 annual coverage for therapy which chiropractic is also under. So basically, they do not pay for it. The acupuncturist could join the network. I would still have to meet the deductible. These are insurance company abuses that I am sure are influenced by the AMA and the Pharm companies. That is what we need to work on.
Educate doctors and influence medical schools to allow physicians to either specialize in nitration and alternative therapies to the caliber that NDs and/or work to incorporate NDs and MDs to work alongside one another for complete comprehensive health care. They do that in the UK. There are MDs out there that are trained in Homeopathy and those that work with other modalities like bio-identicals and acupuncture. While keeping an eye on legislation we could also be working to educate and bring about cooperation between the “camps” so to speak. Now, while they are putting together this reform, is when we could be proactive in having our concerns heard and our needs more fully met. If we are suing congress to overturn the entire act will we have credibility to this end? We need to be seen in the light of s sensible, scientifically backed organization or all is for naught. This is the time of opportunity to move further toward meeting the goals of patient choice and practitioners right to practice. Work toward rather than fight against. What we resist persists. Find the opportunity here.
I cannot stand behind you in this choice. Even people, like me, who prefer and utilize alternative health care still run the risk of being in a catastrophic accident whereby we are required to seek immediate health care attention in emergency situations.
If an alternative health proponent gets into a major car accident with a punctured lung, several broken bones and a crushed pelvis, they are not going to be seeking immediate care for this situation from their acupuncturist. No, they will be rushed to the hospital just like everyone else.
I am a strong alternative health care proponent, but I also see the value and need to mandate catastrophic health care coverage. I do not see this mandate as “paying twice” for coverage. By selecting a catastrophic health care plan, the alternative health care proponent ensures that they are doing their civic duty to ensure that if and when they are in need of this emergency care they are not putting undue pressure on our financial system because they are not able to cover the thousands of $$$ of medical bills that would result from that major car accident.
Nowhere in the health care reform bill did it state that people would be forced to purchase more than this level of insurance.
This is not “paying twice” this is “living smart”.
people like you should go live in a communist country- o wait thats what we are becomming and i bet your so so happy!!!! I choose not to have insurance, i’ve done the math and ya know what i challenge anyone to do so as well and just see how much money you spend in say a 10 year period. most people could put that money toward the cost of staying healthy plus putting it in a heealth savings account for such “a catastrophic scenario”; out repuplic, constitution, and bill of rights has been circumvented again “commerce clause” What a joke, it takes a moral and strong people to remain free!!! With all the crap in our water, food the sky etc, and the assaults from the media tv, news, movies etc., its amazing we’ve made it this far. Agenda 21 is unfolding right now and it is global anyone wanting to really know whats taking place ought to do their research. I am sick of being nice and playing by the rules when the powers that be laugh at us and have their way w/ us subjugating us and riping us off blind!!!!!! If and when this gets implemented my family and i god willing intend to leave AMERIKA, sad but they have won!!!
Suss, you choose not to have healthcare… that’s smart by your way of thinking. Because if YOU get hit by a car, WE end up paying YOUR med bills (that YOU will NEVER be able to pay) by way of OUR INCREASED PREMIUMS, and OUR increased hospital costs which get averaged out among the people who DO have insurance and DO pay. Thanks. YOU would thus become a FINANCIAL BURDEN to OUR society… Thanks. Can’t work? Well, I’m dang CERTAIN that YOU are not going to REJECT your “COMMUNIST” social security benefits or disability… or WELFARE. OR, SHOULD WE JUST TOSS YOU OUT ON THE STREET as soon as your heart is beating regularly? You know darn well that you would T.A.K.E E.V.E.R.Y benefit available to you…. And you CAN’T STAND the thought that OTHERS might get helped that same way.
And another thing… learn the difference in definition between COMMUNIST and Socialist and Liberal. Because I hate to tell you, but the “great” USA is (WAS) only “great” because of its “socialist” undercurrent… You’re probably just too unappreciative and self-serving to have taken a moment to look around and NOTICE all the “COMMUNIST” benefits you have by living here. So how about YOU GO live in one of those countries where it’s a FREE FOR ALL… Let’s say, Iraq…Mexico…any of the central american countries should do…. Sianara!!
Yes I agree with this. Everyone should have a catastrophic health care plan. Yet we also need to defeat the control of AMA and big drug companies as they are controlling our government by buying many of our representatives.
I support your position. Good luck with your suit.
See if there are good legal tactics here:
The advocates of mandatory medical insurance say it is fair to compel people to buy medical insurance lest they become free loaders when they need medical help. The advocates are wrong on two counts. First there are at least some people in this country who are healthy enough to sensibly oppose the choice of buying medical insurance, let alone the very wealthy who can certainly pay their own medical bills….and there are NO exemptions for these people. The healthy will not need medical attention but will instead see their premiums diverted to subsidize the unhealthy and poor. And that is the real motive of the advocates. This is discrimination and a violation of the principle of Equality Before the Law. The States will be mandated to administer parts of the law and will thus be in conflict with the fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Since this law forces them into conflict it must be judged unconstitutional. The advocates are also wrong on a second count because they premise their charge of freeloading on an unjust and unconstitutional action they & Congress have already imposed on the medical care system. Freeloading would be impossible if the government didn’t force the medical care system to provide free emergency medical care to the indigent(42 U.S.C. § 1395dd, EMTALA). This mandate is very much a theft of service. If government feels compelled to provide such medical care, it should pay for it itself, instead of imposing the burden solely on physicians and hospitals.
I and many others like me would rather spend my money on a healthful diet rather than for medical insurance. We don’t want or need the quack medical services provided by most doctors and the drug industry. Certainly not on medical insurance whose terms were dictated by a federal government bent on stealing money from the healthy. What’s at stake here is the freedom
to choose, individually, how best to protect one’s health. While this freedom is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution it should fall under the protection of the ninth and tenth amendments. Few liberties are more basic than this. How can the Court in good conscience fail to recognize this liberty. Court denial of this liberty will usher in a future where government can dictate anything that might affect health and therefore medical expenses and interstate commerce. These might include our food choices or punitive taxation for those it wishes us to avoid; or even compel the injection of drugs which government experts consider necessary…indeed this tyranny already exists or is imminent. The court must draw a line in the sand and declare that some liberties are sacrosanct and will not fall prey to an exaggerated interpretation of the interstate commerce clause (Article 1, Section 8). As always, some insist that the wisest course is to lay down our liberties and trust in the experts. First, one of the values of liberty is that the free choice outcome is often superior to the rule of experts. And the guidance of the medical profession is notorious for it reversals:
rejection of Dr. Semmelweiss and his hand-washing recommendation
Promotion of cigarettes
HRT: The menopause “cure”
H. pylori, the true cause of ulcers
The Vioxx disaster that killed 60,000
just to name a few, from:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/09/23/history-proves-many-doctors-recommendations-are-disasters.aspx.
Second, the guidance of experts is also subject to the temptations of corruption as in the FDA & FTC (see Revolving doors for FDA and Monsanto officials in http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Labeling_Issues,_Revolving_Doors,_rBGH,_Bribery_and_Monsanto). Corruption of government officials is impossible if they do not have power.
Third, the denial of liberty inevitably leads to civil unrest and disrespect for the law.
Some advocates invoke the public or national interest to justify governmental interference. It can be inferred from the Third Amendment..”No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner” that the Constitution confers a higher priority on liberty than on the public interest.
I notice that HR3590 contains an exemption from compulsory medical insurance for those members of certain narrowly defined religious sects who object to it. Why is there no exemption for the nonreligious who hold a moral objection to it. We all know that government is suppose to be impartial with respect to religion or absence of religion….First Amendment…no establishment of religion. So HR3590 is discriminatory on another count and again must be judged unconstitutional.
I strongly disagree with your lawsuit to repeal the health insurance law. It will offer health care to millions of ppl who currently have no access in addition it will stop ins.co.s from denying care to millions who have paid their dues in good faith.
I strongly urge you to work to change the provision’s within the bill that address your concerns instead of tearing down a much needed health care achievement this country needs.
Dear Senators,
It seems to me requiring anyone to buy anything is a form of bullying and very undemocratic.
It also seems ridiculous to force people to buy something that they can not afford… or else would they not already have it? Controlling cost is the first step to success.
Sincerely
Stephanie Perdew
Luckily not everyone feels the same way you do about health care. After living 20 + years in Switzerland and 1.2 years in Canada I have seen the difference in what you call health care here which is only for the rich, some employed and over 65. In ALL other democratic countries the health care is for everyone regardless to age, employment status or income.
I am thrilled that something was passed even though I will be in the small group left out by the new reforms. Everyone should be made to have quality health insurance but at a reasonable rate. Also freedom to choose where to go to get that care. Unfortunately these conditions are compromised in the reforms but some is better than none. I think that any foreigner should be able to buy into health insurance which would lower our costs and prevent over usage of the emergency room and reduce unnecessary illnesses.
Just as education, police protection, fire protection, car insurance, are provided for us from our taxes so should health insurance be covered. This would not eliminate free choice but make more available.
You may be right in other issues but on this one you are dead wrong. Have you ever asked yourself this question. “Are all the other countries in the world wrong in making health care a mandatory right of the people and the US the only one that is right in denying it to everyone.” This is a good test to do. It’s time to take a serious look at ourselves and see if the whole world is misguided and only the US has the right idea.
More and more times the other countries are proving to make better choices than the US. The US has the highest insurance rates and lowest benefits, more infant deaths, more pregnancy complications, more overweight population, lower academic test scores, more, more, more the list can go on. Its time to look how other countries are doing things and take a lesson. The US is not always right.
Excellent KS20! I’d like to add that Our medical system here is incredibly over-priced, much due to people like SUSS who refuse to fork out the bucks for THEIR insurance, and so OUR costs get jacked up. We have SUPER expensive (and often non-effective and even HARMFUL) medications forced on us by way of the FDA taking AWAY some of our other options (gotta make the drug companies RICH ya know), and paying doctors to prescribe. Our current system is HORRIBLE… It’s the epitome of UN-REGULATED free enterprise, which for all intents and purposes might as well be “incorporated-fascism”…with the Bush administration being the WORST to fully entrench this into our government.
What we need is amendment… not repeal.
I would like to have medical coverage to go to a Naturopathic Dr. I think that they should be licensed in every state.I cannot be healthy going to a medical Dr. who just prescribes medicines and does NOT understand how to make a body healthy. Therefore, I have to pay out of pocket to get the information that I need. That is paying twice.
naturopathic Doctors are good. i agree with you. Theydon’t just prescribe
I do not want government interference in my healthcare plan.
I respsectfully disagree with your decision to have the health care act repealed. While I agree with the points that you make, in my opinion the act does far more good than harm. Just the inability of insurance companies to refuse or retract health insurance from sick individuals is crucial in reducing a huge emotional and financial stress that hangs over most Americans.
My suggestion is that you allow the act to stand, and work towards modifications in future that will include such things as alternative health care.
I am writing this letter to all Americans. Please wake up and see what is truly happening in our country. Take a good look at the laws that have been passed and the ones waiting to go up for vote and see that none of them that I have seen really is concerned with our safety and well being. They are all about control. Controlling our lives more and more every day. This healthcare bill that was pushed through is one of the most dangerous bills that was ever passed. I don’t know how many of you have tried to read it, but what I read of it had nothing to do with healthcare. All I saw was more and more of what the government wanted. Nothing to do with what the people wanted. I’m sure we need some type of healthcare reform, but this is not it. You will have no rights what-so-ever. Many of us will be forced to pay high premiums for something that we do not want, and there will be no negotiating. It is all in the governments pocket. They will call all the shots. Is this the America that we really want. I don’t think so. We must not let this healthcare bill go into affect. We must look for true Conservative candidates who are running in November if we are going to have any chance to kill this bill. Do not think Democrat or Republican on this election, because there are Progressives in both Parties. Make sure you know the candidates backround before you back them up. Don’ t just listen to them with their campagne promises. Look at their voting records. This is where the story is being told. It is very well known by know that Obama and his gang have a very difficult time in telling the truth about anything. So why do you think that may be telling us the truth now. We can take our country back. But we all have to stick together and vote as many of the bad guys out of office that we can. Not only on this election, but on all the elections. If we don’t, we all lose.
While I generally support your efforts to limit government regulation in citizen health issues, the stance ANH-USA has taken in this situation is specious and counter productive. It would be more helpful for you to be lobbying for improvements to the current legislation (which, however flawed is still better than the current health care/insurance system), rather than waste time and resources supporting a pointless lawsuit on very shaky grounds. I am not in favor of supporting physicians and surgeons who are part of the major problems with health care delivery in this country. And to suggest that the new law may prevent us from getting insurance that covers alternative care is ludicrous. Where does any one get that kind of insurance now? Let’s take positive steps and not be drawn into focusing on the limitations in the legislation. Work toward improving it!
I agree with Eileen. I have health ins that will cover several alternative modalities such as acupuncture. However, I have to first meet my annual deductible an then, unless the practitioner wishes to “join” the network, they would only pay 70% of what is a normal range for my area. So, basically, they do not cover it. My one and only compounded prescription has ingredients that are considered “special”. They will cover above $40. The script cost less than that so, they do not cover it. But to start over??? I cannot support the decision of ANA on this one and would like that my donation not go there. Work at educating, amending and making certain we continually work toward improvements rather than against a bill we worked so hard to pass. Like ks20 says, we need to look at what other countries are doing and work at getting corporate influence out of our government and health care system if we can even call it that. Better to put your $ and energies alongside organizations that are striving for exactly that. It could serve to educate some of those activists on these concerns on the health front, thereby serving a double purpose.
I live in MI where auto ins is mandatory for owing and operating a car. Has been that way for years. Nobody has yet been able to prove it unconstitutional. the cost is then spread out among all of us. It also protects all of us. I see health care for everyone that way. We are a democracy with many, many socialistic programs i.e. public funded schools, libraries, police, firefighters, military, infrastructure, Why not health care. They should be calling it health ins reform. Mr Lallone, look where no regulation has gotten us in the banking industry and with the deep water drilling in the Gulf. We could endeavor to define what health care and prevention is. The current system does not promote health. Its definition of prevention is actually toxic inoculations and early detection which is not prevention or health at all. But we all know that. So look to educate, improve, and amend but not overturn. Most of us have, I’m sure heard “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”. In my opinion, that is what winning your law suite would do.
In concern for the current “health care” reform, our senators and representatives should know that there is an increasing number of citizens who will balk at being forced to pay for insurance provisions which we will not consider using. I prefer to pay as needed and will use alternative procedures where appropriate, studying the best methods and supplements available. I do not need the government to tell me what I need for my health. I will not relinquish my health to the control of anyone else. The government and its agencies should not restrict our access to information.
As a Doctor of Oriental Medicine who has been involved in the fight for universal health coverage for years and understands the issues, I believe you are being short-sighted, and wasting resources that could be better used, in suing to repeal the health insurance “reform” bill. I understand where you’re coming from, but the bill contains provisions to expand coverage of acupuncture, chiropractic, etc., and we could be (and members of our profession are) working to educate legislators and the public about real health rather than fighting the closest thing to improvement in our system that’s come along in decades.
The mandates are distasteful at best, and the giveaways to the insurance companies are a mess for everyone but them, but anyone who has looked at the math understands that only a system that includes everyone can possibly control costs and reduce the level of human suffering our present system causes. We have a better plan for universal coverage in New Mexico, which the federal plan will not allow us to put into place for years. We’re still working on that.
The bottom line is that after so many years of NO progress in health care in this country, now we have a little. Too little, too late, but I don’t think that simply joining the Republicans and Tea Partiers in pure obstruction can help at all. What, do you want things to stay the way they are now, with Americans going bankrupt to pay for “care” or dying for lack of it? Of course we need something better than this present “reform,” which does nothing to change the way Americans think about health, but the situation we’ve had is completely insupportable and we can’t stay with that. For one thing, the country will go broke this way.
The more the government medles in health care the more expensive it gets and the less accessible to all. THis is a wakeup call. The only people that will benefit are the politicans who are suppose to represent us. We are paying them to award themselves all manner of benefits not available to the average citizen.They have used and abused our trust.
We need to join together to repeal the recent “Health Care” Bill as Under the Tenth Amendment, the federal government lacks authority to compel individuals to purchase health insurance or pay an offsetting penalty. Additionally nowhere in the Constitution is there authorization for the federal government to require businesses or private employers (without direct connection to the government) to purchase health insurance for employees or to set the acceptable terms of health insurance for such individuals.
If the Federal Government is so desperate to have over site on any one area that truly needs regulation then please go to work on regulating your out of control spending, and don’t spend one cent beyond what you currently take in through the current level of taxation; which is also out of control.
This so-called “reform” was nothing less than the takeover of an already dyfunctional and twisted system that MURDERS 45,000 people a year in the name of PROFITS by murdering, raping, sodomizing profit-driven korporate SCUM.
What we SHOULD have had was access to the single-payer system ALREADY in place – which is Medicare – and FORCE thise filthy blood-sucking pieces of korporate s**t at WellPoint, Blue Cross et. al. to compete with a low-cost, public system such as the rest of the industrialized world enjoys as a right.
Since the U.S. form of government is now FASCIST, completely controlled and beholden to for-profit global korporate scum (as it was in Mussolini’s Italy), this is not going to happen – at least not in our lifetimes, and probably not until global korporate krapitalism has destroyed us all like the CANCER it is.
By then of course, it will be too late.
I appreciate the work of your organization to identify the freedoms that were lost. I was so excited to see the insurance companies reigned in, pre-existing conditions eliminated, and more people insured that I lost sight of how complete the drug/surgery mandate was becoming.
As a Medicare client, I understand the straight jacket of having only allopathic medicine available to me. Even accupuncture and chiropractic are not covered (except for accute pain/injury).
My question is, how will the benefits that were enacted because of the health care reform bill be saved or instated? Will we be throwing out the baby with the bath water? Is it possible to remove the objectionable aspects of this reform and keep the desirable ones?
Because of greedy businesses, greedy drug companies and long list of other greedy and dishonest people too many people in our country are priced out of health insurance. When I was young I could get a crappy warehouse job and still get health insurance that started the first day for free. You practically have to get a job with a large corporation to get insurance these days and you would be lucky if your benefits started in 3 months and still have to pay a huge copayment. This country needs something and the republicans won’t do anything. Don’t defend the greedy wealthy.
I don’t believe the constitution says anything about having car insurance either.
I am very much opposed to this power grab and the extreme controls involved it it.
Big government has to be stopped. More emphasis must be put on legitimate education concerning health without corporate influence. Governments role should be to protecrt americans from compromised food and health care sponsered by corporations, whose only goal is to increase profits. The real goal should be to shrink the number of diseased or ailing people rather than masking symptoms.
Thank you for doing this! My primary sources of healthcare are alternative, and are not covered by any type of insurance. I cannot afford to pay for both.
I support what you are doing.
This nation was founded on freedom….the freedom to choose. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For the federal government to “regulate” our health care would be the same as saying they control our matter of “choice” over our own health. Their, the government’s, option to choose who gets care and who is allowed to die simply based on their age is wrong. Even employers aren’t allowed to discriminate against people based on their age. How is it the government can penalize an employer for this but they themselves can not be penalized for the same thing? This type of discrimination is plain wrong. What happened to our position as a supposed christian nation? Honor thy father and mother until they are too old for President Obama’s health plan. Then just chuck them out with the garbage. What?!!
Regulations of the insurance industry to charge affordable rates and the medical community to charge rates not so outrageous and inflated would be better than penalizing people just because they can’t afford a descent health care plan. Reduced care or less than what is really needed just to be affordable is no more affective than having no health insurance or care at all. Why should we inflate our deficit to trillions of dollars for nothing…poor care….poor coverage? Sounds just like the policy my employer has for us. The premiums are going up all the time and the policy covers less and less leaving us with medical expenses well out of our reach to ever be able to pay. Unfortunately he is a small business and this is the best he can do for his employees. To punish him for not being able to afford a better coverage policy would also be wrong. Many employers try to provide for their employees health care but the premiums are just getting too expensive for these small companies. They are forced to take a substandard plan or to drop coverage all together which in so doing could cost them fines in this new reform bill.
The culprit here seems to me to be the insurance companies being outrageous in their rates and the health care industry has to inflate their costs just cover the cost of care. Even with good insurance, there is often still an overly inflated amount left for the consumer to pay. These amounts many times aren’t paid because people can’t afford to pay them either. All related to the cost of living I am told but I feel it is just plain old greed. What is wrong with health care credits? Such as a credit to the employer for days the insurance doesn’t have to be used for an illness or injury. What about preventive medicine? We here in this country laughed at other nations because they use more common sense to use preventive medicine. The old adage goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure ” is more true today than ever. Preventive medicine is cheaper than treating a problem after it develops yet insurance companies don’t want to help pay for such care. Wellness check-ups to catch something early would be much cheaper than the thousands upon thousands of dollars to treat something once it gets a good foothold on a person and is out of control. A no brainer there. Common sense makes more sense with this.
The other thing about the President, congress and senate not being subject to the same level of health care as the rest of us is a separating of the classes don’t you think? They are somehow better than we are? They are employed by us! They are servants of the people, a job they chose to run for office for. Perhaps they should have a policy like many of the small businesses have or better yet the same as the one they propose for the nation. Do you think this is right? I don’t. New legislation is coming and they should be wary that this legislation just doesn’t legislate their coverage out of existence….too expensive to continue now that we have all this debt for substandard care for the rest of us.
Glad to help your activism ! I did want to say that I am very thankful for my free VA healthcare at the Durham VA Medical Center across the stret from Duke Hospital !!
I do hope others can achieve what I have so generlly I amin favor of the President’s efforts ! Best, berry lee
I am so glad that you are taking a stand against the healthcare bill. I use alternative health remedies for my family’s health and I am strongly against prescription and nonprescription drugs. We have cured my husband’s high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and prediabetes, removed a large mole from my face and am in the process of curing my eczema, all by natural remedies. I was very disturbed by the fact that I would have to pay for mandatory insurance which I wouldn’t use anyway, plus any alternative healthcare that I would use. Thank you for getting involved.
I’m disappointed in your taking this position. I firmly believe in and use alternative health care 99.9% of the time, and do not take prescription or over-the-counter drugs, but if I were injured in a car accident with a fractured hip, facial lacerations, internal bleeding, etc. I’d really want to be treated in a hospital with Western medicine. Or if I had a stroke, heart attack, appendicitis, or some other acute condition requiring emergency or surgical treatment.
I have been totally disabled since my early 40’s and am covered under Medicare Part A and Part B. I have and pay for MediGap coverage as well, which picks up what Medicare doesn’t pay. Yes, Part A is mandated (very low premium), but if I’m in that accident, I’m not going to be costing other people the increased medical costs that would be passed on them because I didn’t pay for my treatment. Those without insurance will not be able to say the same, unless they are very rich and can afford to pay thousands and thousands of dollars out of pocket for medical care.
If you only use alternative health care, will you wear a tag around your neck saying that in case of serious accident/injury or acute health emergency you refuse to be treated by Western medicine? If you don’t have health insurance, that is probably what you should do if you can’t afford to pay for the costs, or if in principal, you’d rather die than use western medicine. Or do you feel you have the right to emergency treatment if you need it, even if you can’t pay for it either with your own money or through insurance, knowing that others will pick up the tab for you through higher costs?
I would have preferred we had gotten Universal Health Care, or at least the Public Option. This reform still gives the insurance companies far too much power and profit, but it’s a start. Now people who have been dropped from their insurance because they actually used it for an illness/injury can become insured again. Babies born with birth defects cannot be excluded from coverage; currently, being born with a defect is considered a preexisting condition. Women won’t be excluded from coverage for having a second pregnancy and second C-section; currently pregnancy is considered a preexisting condition. Childhood asthma and allergies are often considered preexisting conditions too. This will all be eliminated, and people can be covered again.
I choose to use alternative health care, but I realize there are many who do not. I don’t necessarily agree with their choice, but the reality is that these people need help in covering their medical expenses through insurance. With 44,000 people dying every year from lack of care because of no health insurance, our society needs to do something to help these people.
I think our task is to get alternative health care included in insurance coverage. Medicare Part B does cover chiropractic care. More modalities and types of practitioners need to be included in all insurance, and I think our efforts should be directed toward that, rather undoing the current health care reform that will benefit millions of people, and thus our society as a whole. A healthier society is a more productive society, which helps us all.
Also, don’t believe that this reform will make alternative care more expensive than it already is. While I understand the AMA would like to eliminate the competition, they are also aware that many people are now pursuing alternative care and paying out-of pocket. There’s money to made in that and they would like to get a piece of that. For instance, a lot of doctors are now incorporating selling supplements into their practices.
WELCOME TO THE JOURNEY.
I certainly support freedom of choice in health care, really i wish that insurance companies had to allow people on to get care from alternative medical facilities.
I can certainly understand why poor and middle class citizens would not want to be forced to pay for insurance that they can’t afford at the risk of beings fine. If that is what the bill really says. But we are the worst country in terms of health care for the population. Those who can not afford health care get much less care which leads to terminal conditions were hospitals end up absorbing the costs later any way. the emergency room can not be the only solution for those that can not pay for treatment, we all need access to a general or family practitioner. And the new patient bill of rights is absolutely need to put corrupt insurance companies either out of business or scared straight. you can’t tell me that we can’t afford to provide health care for every one after this country spent over a trillion dollars on two absolutely fruitless wars that were based on lies and political spin. After our country came to the aid not of it’s citizens but to the rich bankers, creating an even worse economy crisis. People who never have to worry about not having food to eat or a place to stay. Frankly, it’s all rank Classism to me. If we had used that money to help our citizens over 100,000 people would still have homes, good jobs and a better chance to pursue happiness. We the people need the main part of this bill, but i can see that it will never happen because the truth is simply that America is free only as long as people choose to stand for it. And most of us have been asleep at the wheel for ten years now.
Thank you for your straightforward, clear thinking and unwavering concern and mission to help everyone maintain the right to self-care. You provide invaluable information!
Hello,
Well…the “case-law” used by State govs. is called “compelling State interest”…
and this long standing “police power” of the States’ govs. unfortunately is here
to stay…until the U.S. Supreme Court will accept a “conflicting jurisdiction” case
in which the “compelling State interest” topic will be addressed and perhaps…
maybe fine tunned or given more zing by the 9 justices! Until then, Congress is
the avenue to address these federal issues, and perhaps even the Federal
Courts…they can muster quite a fearsome power when they “detect” too much
“stealth” and “fed policy bust” by the “arms” of the States! Interesting food for
thought, isn’t? The “liberty interests” with respect to vocations is clearly usurped
by the States. Hoards of lawyers are being “disbarred” (and U.S. Supreme Court)
denying review…many pages of names of lawyers every 2-3 months)…but, for
the MDs the situation is almost identical! So you can immagine the plight of those
misfortuned fox… crying “oppressive power of the States” and “we are again
during colonial times”…what can I further say in light of the foregoing? Any ways
to make a “dent” or “more dents” on the situation? You bet there are! And plenty
of them, but lawyers and doctors will not put their minds together to fight back at
the “menacing power of the States”…they are still dreaming in their “comfort zone”
making lots of stupid bucks while thousands of their fellows MDs and JDs are being
trashed by the menacing and opressive power of the States!
My belief is that the Health Care Bill has flaws created by mostly Republicans who did not want it anyway. As flawed as it is it is a step in freeing us from the greed of Health Insurance Companies. My wife and I had our priemums go from $450/mo to $2550/mont in a 5 yr period.
Because we were a One Person Group for our small business. Stilll it had high deductables and they did not pay for lots of things. Now paying out that kind of money I cant afford any freedom to choose. Especially choose a holistic practioner.
So you are going to choose to join in over turning a bill that stops a great deal of Insurance abuse IS hyper counter productive.
Instead why don’t you join in getting congress to provide a legitimet Public Option so the insurance companies have true competition. Or does your congressman get too much money from Health Ins. Companies to make that possible. ANd get the AMA out of the decision making so Holistic Practioners can be included.
For Profit Health Insurance and Health services is the worst idea ever!f Nixon make it possible. It created quite a few billionaires and millions of people with poor health care.
I support the Health Care Reform and Hope to see it made better.
Richard Medlock
As President of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, I welcome Alliance for Natural Health joining our lawsuit. Yes, we DO need REFORM, especially of the insurance model and government. Take HIPAA–where is the portability that was promised in Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act? Take PPACA–where is the patient protection FROM GOVERNMENT, and where is the AFFORDABILITY? With all their mandates you will have one of two things–high prices or rationing. Actually, you will get both–high prices now, soon to be followed by rationing. Why? Medicare is ALREADY INSOLVENT (BROKE)!
Many people above worried about car accidents. Don’t you have medical coverage with your auto insurance? For those who want insurance to cover alternative medicine, that is the surest way to drive up the cost. Don’t you see how that has happened with allopathic care? Everything goes UP, except cash services (such as Lasik), which go down with competition in the FREE MARKET. I am one of thousands of doctors who have opted out of Medicare and cancelled all insurance contracts. I am FREE to charge FAIR prices (lower than insurance rates) and with one patient last week, took a new fishing pole in trade for her medical care that day. THAT is FREEDOM that you and your doctor should have–NOT the government mandates of this PPACA abomination. If I don’t give my patients VALUE, they should not and will not come back. That is the way it should be for every doctor. My patients pay me at the time of service, so I MUST give them value for their hard earned dollars. I tell my doctor friends, “I get all the good patients!” I say that, because the patients coming to me have TAKEN OWNERSHIP for their own health. They are truly the BEST PATIENTS to have.
INSURANCE should ONLY be used for catastrophic illnesses. YOU should own your own policy, which you could buy at a young age at a decent price ACROSS state lines, so it is well priced.
You should pay for routine medical expenses, just like you pay for your car. You should have tax advantages with owning your own policy. You should have the FREEDOM to choose the medical care YOU desire, because you are paying with YOUR money. We all need to get over the greedy thought of having insurance so we can get MORE than we pay in premiums.
George R Watson, D.O. President, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
I cannot support you in this lawsuit. This health care reform has been needed for a long time. Is it perfect? No. But at least it’s a step in the right direction. I’m sure you’ve researched your cause very carefully but I don’t think you fully understand the benefits this provides to so many Americans. Not being able to get health insurance because of a preexisting condition, having the insurance company cancel your policy the minute you have a catastrophic illness or accident or just not being able to afford insurance at all has been the order of the day for the insurance companies.
Dear Doctors:
I do support your lawsuit.
Even though you may be too late to help ME I pray for you as I speak.
When the Medicaid FORCED me to “choose” a medical insurance agency…for they would have
“assigned” me to one without my consent-THAT WAS COERCION.
Their behavior to me has not improved:
I am still an ostensible “member” of an insurance agency because I am FORCED to be.
You need freedom too.
May you win your lawsuit.
Yours very truly,
Louise Esther Rothstein.
I SUPPORT YOUR EFFORTS! THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HEALTH CARE! THIS IS STRICTLY A SOCIALIST PROGRAM. WE ARE NOT A SOCIALIST COUNTRY! WE ARE A REPUBLIC, IF WE CAN KEEP IT! AS QUOTED BY BEN FRANKLIN.
WE BELIEVE IN FREEDOM AND LIBERTY. I WANT GOVERNMENT TO MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS.
THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT INCLUDE HEALTHCARE/INSURANCE AS THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT. THIS ALL STARTED WITH FDR USURPING MORE GOVERNMENT POWER AND CONTROL OVER THE PEOPLE.
DON’T YOU LOVE HOW WELL THEY RUN THE POST OFFICE, SOCIAL SECUIRTY, MEDICAID, MEDICARE, AMTRAK AND ON AND ON? THEY ARE ALL BROKE!!!
THAT’S WHO YOU WANT TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE? GOVERNMENT WON’T HAVE THIS INSURANCE PLAN. THE CONGRESS WON’T HAVE THIS INSURANCE! THEY HAVE LOTS OF MONEY AND WILL GO AND PAY FOR THEIR CARE AT A BOUTIQUE CLINIC!
OR HOSPITAL! THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE SOCIAL SECURITY! NOW WHY IS THAT? THEY HAVE THEIR OWN PRIVATE PENSION PLAN THAT WE PAY FOR! AND SOCIAL SECURITY IS BROKE BECAUSE THEY STOLE ALL THE MONEY!
NOTHING IN THIS BILL IS FOR YOUR WELFARE. IF IT STAYS, IT WILL TAKE THIS COUNTRY AND IT’S PEOPLE DOWN. IT WILL BANKRUPT US ALL. WE ARE TOTTERING AS IT IS!
I DON’T WANT TO BE LIKE EUROPE OR ANYONE ELSE! WE ARE AMERICANS! WE WANT LIBERTY NOT A NANNY STATE!
I WANT LESS GOVERNMENT. GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE ANSWER, IT’S THE PROBLEM!
WE MUST REPEAL THIS SCAM! THEY DIDN’T EVEN READ WHAT’S IN IT AND THEY DON’T CARE A WHIT! THEY WON’T HAVE IT!
IF THEY CAN MAKE US BUY THIS, THEY CAN MAKE US BUY ANYTHING! NEXT THING THEY’LL TELL YOU THAT YOU MUST BUY A OBAMA MOTORS CAR! THIS IS MARXIST!
THIS IS NUTS! AND SO ARE THEY! REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!
GOD HELP US ALL.
“Less Government” is nothing but code-word for “Stop REGULATING GOVERNMENT and CORPORATIONS.” And You can’t have regulation IF YOU REFUSE TO FUND IT, right?
So look where that mentality has gotten us… because I hate to break it to you… but the country has ALREADY been “taken down” thanks to all of THE PEOPLE who lock/stock & barrel supported George Bush & the GOP… and WHO LET HIM/THEM corrupt our country… So let’s not confuse issues.
Post Office? When was the last time you DIDN’T get your mail?? Post office is “broke”?? If it’s BROKE, it’s only because it’s important for a FREE country to protect FREE & OPEN (mail/internet) COMMUNICATION between its citizens by keeping it AFFORDABLE and RELIABLE. It is in fact the MOST shining example of an excellently run government program to ANYONE who is able to think more than 5 minutes in front of their face. You spout “FREEDOM” but you are apparently ignorant to how freedom of the people is DEPENDENT upon REGULATING the POWER of Government & Big $$ Corporations.
There are some things that DESERVE to be funded by our tax dollars: Ensuring reliable & affordable access to communication among citizens (i.e. POST OFFICE & Internet) is one of them… AND…. NOT dumping our elderly sick into the streets to ROT without medical care (i.e., MEDICARE & National Healthcare) is another! If you have a problem with those programs somehow being EXPLOITED, then the ANSWER IS TO FUND THE POSITIONS THAT CATCH THE FRAUD! THAT is positive REGULATION and THAT equals MORE GOVERNMENT… NOT LESS.
There is NO COUNTRY ON EARTH that has “NO GOVERNMENT”, and “LESS GOVERNMENT” only breeds LESS STABILITY. LOOK AROUND the world for heaven’s sake!! Which countries are the most violent, corrupt and unstable? The ones who don’t have a strongly REGULATED, STRONG CENTRAL GOVERNMENT. If that’s what you like, then GO LIVE THERE! The ONLY question here is merely whether we CHECK POWER, or let it run RAMPANT & CORRUPT. You refusing to have your pennies spent on REGULATION is WHY this country went down the toilet BEFORE OBAMA. So, Where would you rather have your money spent? Because “NO GOVERNMENT” is NOT and NEVER WILL BE a REALITY.
So, Please take an hour of your busy life and do just the tiniest bit of research on (for example) El Salvador… THAT is the kind of country you get following the ideas you posted above. If that’s what you like, then, again… GO LIVE THERE and see what “LESS GOVERNMENT” is REALLY like.
Everybody knows that “Less Government” In truth, really only means that you don’t want to give-up your piddly little $500 bucks a year (MAX) to make sure that people get to see a doctor when they’re sick, or to make sure that POWER doesn’t overrun the country. Where did that mentality get you under BUSH?? It got us flushed down the TOILET… because all that MONEY that you DIDN’T WANT SPENT on the people and on REGULATION, got spent ANYWAY… Except under YOUR plan, it was merely GIVEN AWAY to the corrupt…
Unless I am seriously mistaken in your intentions, I also CAN NOT support you in pursuing this lawsuit. This country is in DIRE need of health care change… The absurd tenents which were included in this legislation were only included because of ridiculous attempts to try and “make everybody happy” — just so we could get SOMETHING passed. Fine. This is where we are… Now, won’t you please put your power to better use by trying to FIX what’s wrong with it, and NOT simply dump the baby with the bathwater?
Our FDA and medical/pharma system has been corruptly raping this country for years… Private donations supposedly meant to “fund research” have simply become a HUGE income streams for these organizations, while their true intentions remain cloaked: that “there’s no money in curing anything”.
The Alliance for Natural Health has a real opportunity here — to MOVE this country in a truly healthful direction. Yet what I believe I am seeing now is JUST ONE MORE organization looking to maximize it’s own profit stream. Use your time, $$ and energy for better purposes… such as introducing LEGISLATION TO F-I-X Healthcare Reform… Not oppose it.
I am E X T R E M E L Y disappointed with your stance on health care and your participation in the lawsuit to repeal. Why not repeal medicare and the VA? Your reasons are misinformed at best and spurious at worst.
* Where we were before the bill was no better in terms of alternative medicine so that is a ridiculous premise. Things take time. And as another responder said, having supplements covered will only drive up the cost.
* The reasons everyone will need to buy health care must be fairly obvious and the exchanges will help keep costs manageable.
* And what you see as over-stepping federal (or amazingly, “constitutional”) boundaries, is really just setting basic standards of care so that consumers are assured of services, rather than finding out after an event that it will not be covered.
* We are the ONLY first-world country on the planet that doesn’t ensure its citizens access to health care. Are they all socialist? Also, probably around 75%-80% of those countries are also more advanced than us in terms of homeopathic medicine.
* As for people not being able to afford health insurance, low-income families will have financial support to pay for their insurance.
Your organization seems woefully out of touch with reality to take such a position. In my view you are merely an arm of the tea party that wants the government to regulation that suits your industry and no other. I have lost A L L respect for your organization.
C Royston
I am totally AGAINST government enforced health care for a number of reasons.
1) Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution does it require an individual to buy/pay for something. That is completely UNAmerican. Americans are supposed to have life = LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness. Ergo, it is my happiness to enjoy my liberty to purchase whatever works for me that is legally sold on the open market, without any govt. agent telling me what I must have.
2) I can’t even take an aspirin without feeling nauseous and the govt. wants to give me prescription drugs with all their side-effects?! NO THANKS.
3) The fact is, enforced govt. health care is nothing more than a huge money-making deal for big pharma to sell us their brand of poison. This is NOT in the interests of The American People – rather it is the sole interest of the pharmaceutical companies that sell synthetic “medicine” (as opposed to natural health care that wiorks. I and millions of other Americans are living proof of this
4) From even a logistic standpoint, it would be impossible to give affordable, decent or even acceptable healthcare to 300 million (or more) people. How in the world would this be done? Are there even enough hospitals, clinics or healthcare facilities (even combined) to deal with this number? I DON”T THINK SO…Instead, there would be massively long-waiting lines to get this “medicine:” not to mention almost the same amount of places in place to help people with attendant side-effects.
It would be a logistic nightmare.
Even in countries that have only a few million people, there are problems. Let’s not kid ourselves.
The answer to whatever healthcare problems people have in this country? Let people buy whatever they want. For those who want the government to hold their hands,. let these people get their drug-prescribed health care and pay for it on THEIR taxes. Those who wish do not to have any part of it, do NOT pay for it on their taxes.
Let those who want a nanny-state govt. to hold their hand, let them also pay for all the freeloaders (illegal aliens; those who’ve never worked in their life here) as well.
For those of us of sound mind and healthy bodies, we want NO PART of government enforced healthcare or any part of forced health insurance. Let’s keep America free, as our founding fathers wanted. Or else, we might as well be a communist state. No thanks.
Thank you.
What about the waiver in the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)? In section 1332 of the bill, Senator Wyden tacked on a waiver which grants states the liberty to bypass some of the federal requirements (such as the individual mandate) by establishing their own system & providing coverage this is at least as good and extensive as the federal government’s version. See the link on the left side of his webpage: (http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/).
By generating money from health conscious industries & activities (including alternative treatments), a state could waive the mandate, & still afford to cover people. It could integrate this source of income with others and offer the best of all worlds.
Given Wyden’s waiver, what’s the point of the lawsuit?
You should use your resources to focus on adding a PUBLIC OPTION to the proposal, as this would solve the biggest problem, which is manadatory purchase of insurance. I can’t renew my support your organization because your opposition to Health Care Reform seems displaced.
All the other complaints you have about this Reform Proposal are baseless. If anyone has lived in socialized medicine (AKA government-funded) countries Like FRANCE, AUSTRALIA, IRELAND or CANADA (other than the Ontario system), and many others, you might appreciate the level of care and more importantly to your association members, the OPENNESS to allowing NATURAL HEALTH practiotioners to practices … because it saves the government money to keep people well!