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Hot Current IssuesPlease fill out the form below if you plan to lobby at your local US Senate office. That way we can make sure you have all the latest information. Also see the prepared talking points.
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HealthCare Questions to Ask or bring up as a concern at local US Senate offices
1. Sen. Harry Reid’s bill, in its current form, does nothing to prevent illegal aliens from accessing taxpayer funded health care benefits. Not only does the bill lack verification requirements based on citizenship or immigration status, but it contains serious loopholes to allow enrollment of illegal aliens into the Medicaid program.Will you oppose the final passage on a health care bill that allows illegal immigrants access to benefits either through the Exchange or the public option?
Source: H.R. 3590, p. 269. “Sec. 1411: Procedures for determining eligibility for exchange participation, premium tax-credits and reduced cost-sharing and individual responsibility exemptions.”
2. The Senate bill exempts illegal immigrants from the mandate that everyone must have health insurance or else face a financial penalty. Why is the Senate giving a break to illegal aliens while placing expensive mandates on law-abiding U.S. citizens? Do you oppose this exemption for illegals? If not, why?
Source: H.R. 3590, pp. 320-340. “Subtitle F, Part I: Individual Responsibility. Sec. 1501. Requirement to Maintain Minimum Essential Coverage.”
3. Are you aware that Sen. Reid’s $847 billion figure as the total cost of his bill is not true? Did you know that the true cost of this bill for the first ten years when the bill actually goes into effect is twice as expensive as Nancy Pelosi’s H.R. 3962, clocking in at a whopping $2.5 trillion? What do you believe is the total cost of the bill? Is this an efficient use of taxpayer dollars?
Source: Congressional Budget Office cost analysis, released November 18, 2009, www.cbo.gov.
4. The Reid bill calls for $400 billion in cuts to the Medicare program, which will no doubt lead to lost benefits and rationing of treatments for senior citizens. What will you do to address this?
Source: CBO Director Doug Elmendorf, Letter to Sen. Harry Reid, 11/18/09, pp. 1, 17, 28.
5. The word “secretary,” referring to the politically-partisan Secretary of Health and Human Services (currently, pro-abortion Kathleen Sebelius), is mentioned 2,500 times in the Senate health care bill. The HHS Secretary would determine what medical care should be covered by insurers as well as the terms and conditions of coverage and who should receive it. Do you oppose such unprecedented new powers being granted to an unelected, unaccountable, politically motivated bureaucrat?
Source: The Washington Examiner, “HHS would become federal giant under Senate plan,” November 26, 2009.
6. There has been some talk that Senator Coburn (R-OK) will try to offer an amendment to require that all Members of Congress must enroll in the public option. This is based on the notion that if the public option is good enough for Americans, it should be good enough for Members of Congress. Will you vote in favor of this amendment in the event it receives a vote on the Senate floor?
7. The Senate bill allows for federal funds to pay for abortions and it does not provide conscience protections for health care providers. With the passage of the Mikulski amendment, it even allows for abortion to potentially be considered as a “preventive treatment” for women and mandated to be covered under all private health plans. Will you oppose a bill that contains these pro-abortion provisions?
Source: H.R. 3590, pp. 116-118. “Sec. 1303: Special Rules” Authorizes the Secretary of HHS to require coverage of any and all abortions throughout the public option program. Also, the Nelson-Hatch pro-life amendment failed in the Senate on 12/8/09 by a vote of 45 to 54 (on the motion to table).
8. During his run for President, Barack Obama vowed to do away with secretive, closed-door negotiations and that all legislative discussions and compromises would be openly debated in public and broadcast on C-Span. Both the President and his Congress may have broken this promise as Sen. Harry Reid is currently in secret talks with a number of moderate Democrats who have expressed opposition to the health care bill’s robust public option. Will you oppose any secretly negotiated Manager’s Amendment to the health care bill whose terms are not fully disclosed and available to the public 72-hours ahead of the cloture vote?
Source: Campaign promise made by President Barack Obama during a debate on CNN in January 2008; also during a 2008 San Francisco Chronicle television interview.
10.Please Note: These questions are geared toward the Senate health care bill, but it is becoming increasingly likely that in the event the Senate musters together the required 60 votes to pass it, Representatives in the House may have to vote on the Senate health care bill in order to bypass the conference committee process. Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are aiming to get this done by Christmas, so allowing a conference committee to proceed would interfere with that deadline. Forcing the House to consider and vote on the Senate bill would more easily facilitate the health care bill reaching the President’s desk by the end of the year. Please be sure to make your elected officials aware of this and that you, their constituents, know what they are scheming.