-By Warner Todd Huston
Kevin Mooney of the Washington Examiner has a piece from Sept. 2 that warns that H.R. 3200, the House healthcare bill, gives special consideration to union bosses for positions on various healthcare management boards.
This means that Barack Obama is handing official government power to union bosses!
Sections 123 and 2251 of H.R. 3200, the version of Obamacare being pushed by House Democratic leaders, are of particular concern, according to NRTWC, because they could put union-backed appointees on new government committees that recommend mandatory health insurance benefits provided by private insurers, and personnel policies the bill describes as necessary “to ensure quality and adequacy” of the nation’s health care workers.
This is nothing but raw political payback. It has nothing whatever to do with “insurance,” or “healthcare,” or any legitimate attempt to save money and cut costs. In fact, with union bosses heading things up it is likely that costs will soar as they pad the plan with goodies to their friends.
Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary (currently Kathleen Sebelius) will have a free hand to stack all sorts of committees with union bosses with few committeemembers assured to be non-union personnel.
For example, section 2261 of H.R. 3200 states that the Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment is to have 15 members, which must include no fewer than one representative each of health professionals within the health work force, health care patients and consumers, employers, labor unions, and third-party health payers.
“That’s 15 members, all appointed by Obama’s [Health and Human Services] Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, and the only one guaranteed not to be a union plant is the guaranteed employer representative,” Mourad said.
This is just one more case of the political games being played by Democrats with this execrable bill. It is also more proof that paying back friends and supporters with federal largesse and extending the tendrils of bog government into every corner of our lives is really the main goals with Obamacare. What about actual healthcare? Phhht. Who cares about that when government can end up controlling all it surveys?
(Cross posted at HealthcareHorseRace.com.)
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as NewsBusters.org, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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