In our 4th installment of the Health Care Reform series, I interviewed holistic health practitioner, political activist and author/teacher Rayna Gangi. In her podcasts, Gangi has gone over the Health Care Act line by line to inform her listeners just what is in there, and quotes page numbers and sections. I was quite surprised listening to the details, so I wanted to share them with you as a resource. As you'll find in the interview below, Ms. Gangi is quite passionate about this issue. It's important we listen to all perspectives and sort out the facts for ourselves. I encourage you to keep listening/reading and to share your input. If you think there is a perspective missing from this conversation, please let me know.
Click the graphic above to read what the White House has to say about health care reform.
Here is a list of the other posts in this series:
Tick Tick Tick - Health Care Reform is Coming
Health Care Reform - Medical Perspective
Beginning to Understand Health Care Reform
And now, Ms. Rayna Gangi:
kim: Welcome Rayna. Can you fill us in on your background?
Rayna: My background is diverse, but as far as healthcare is concerned, I’ve been a holistic health consultant and therapist for more than 35 years. I stayed involved with alternative/complementary health because approaching the body and health holistically is like “an apple a day.” It keeps the doctor away.
kim: Is it true you’ve combed through every page/line of the Health Care Reform Act? What prompted you to do so?
Rayna: As soon as the health care bill became available, I went through it line-by-line a dozen times. We had already been hit with TARP and a stimulus bill that was obviously the wrong step to take to mend the economy. Many of us had said “no” to those programs and seeing the inherent costs and the amount of government control written into the bill basically enraged me, and many others. Many of us(over a million) went to D.C., believing that Americans marching in dissent of such a travesty would make a difference. It didn’t. Then, Nancy Pelosi’s statement that we have to “pass the bill to see what’s in it,” got me even more involved. I studied the history of those “czars” responsible for this bill. By the way, amazing so many thousands of pages could be written so quickly, right? Well, I compared Hillary Clinton’s failed health care reform bill to this one and found many pages just copied. Then Sebellius and others inserted many phrases that basically gave them carte blanche control over every aspect of our bodies and health.
kim: What is the biggest impact that Americans will see from this bill?
Rayna: Hard Question because this impacts many sectors and groups. In general, health care premiums will rise, and this is on purpose. The government would like to put the individual insurance companies out of business while also causing economic pain on individuals and families so they can eventually announce Single Payer health which puts healthcare in the government’s hands permanently.
Young people under 25 of voting age wanted this bill because they can stay on their parent’s health plan until age 26. This is also on purpose to secure the Democratic vote through the end of Obamas second term.
$65 billion dollars was taken from Medicare to help pay for the initial implementation, so those on Medicare already see in increase in their premiums, that money coming from Social Security payments. Because the baby boom generation will be hitting retirement age for the next 15 to 20 years, the government wants those premiums, not to pay for Medicare and Senior healthcare, but to pay for the so-called 47 million people who don’t have healthcare. Most of those are illegal aliens, and if amnesty goes through, the cost for the hundreds of thousands granted amnesty with their families will be $6.9 Trillion over the next 10 years. Seniors will be paying for some of this at the risk of their own health and lives.
The so-called “death panel,” touted as a rumor and joke, is no joke. The administration has not yet put the civilian panel in place to make decisions on whether our ailments are worthy because they need more money to pay them.
Those people working both in small businesses and corporations will either see more taken from their paychecks, their jobs eliminated, or their full-time status reduced to part-time so the employer can afford to keep them.
There are many more impacts, but the overall impact is exactly what Democrats are now calling it. A train wreck. Doctors will stop seeing patients and/or leave their professions, hospitals will charge more for care, Seniors may have to wait to be see, and when all those young people reach age 27 and up, they’ll have a rude awakening as healthcare costs, single payer or not, will be too high for most to afford.
This is the reason Congress, Unions and special interests who lobbied for the bill want to be exempted from compliance, and more than 3000 groups have gotten that exemption.
kim: Can you give us a short list of the highlights? What changes are coming down the pipeline?
Rayna:
- Those with individual health insurance will see an average premium increase of 32-40%
- Obamacare imposes $165 billion in new taxes and fees on health plans, drug manufacturers, and device makers
- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that these taxes will be passed on to consumers through higher premiums.
- Obamacare includes 21 new or higher taxes that will cost taxpayers roughly $1.1 trillion over the next decade
- 20-65 million Americans could lose their employer-sponsored health insurance.
- 70% of small businesses have cited Obamacare as an obstacle to job creation
- The CBO estimates that Obamacare will decrease the labor force by 800,000 over the next decade.
- These changes are already in the pipeline, and there are more than 20,000 new regulations added recently with more to come.
kim: What segments of the population will be most affected?
Rayna: Every segment, even the unborn, will be affected. The labor force will continue to decrease as small businesses close and taxes will continue to go up. Add it all together and only those with exemptions will survive.
kim: Other than political activism, what would you recommend we do to prepare for these changes?
Rayna: I’ve told many to look at this like a divorce. Though many things have already begun, the real taxes and costs kick in big time in 2014. Get your teeth checked and fixed, your physical taken care of and do the same for the rest of your family.
-Get a water system in your house to help keep you alkaline and to remove many of the 700 chemicals flowing into our drinking and bathing water. Just doing this will help avoid many illnesses because disease can’t live in an alkaline environment.
-Make an informed decision about whether you need a health plan. That sounds risky to some, but if you look at the costs over time versus any penalty or costs that may happen, we often find we’re paying for something we never use.
kim: Will preventative care, alternative therapies, diet and exercise help us in the face of these changes?
Rayna: Quick answer is yes. There are 7 keys to basic health, the balance we need. When we go out of balance, alternative therapists such as Chiropractors, Massage Therapists, Reflexologists and therapeutic essential oils help to get us back in balance without the need of a physician.
kim: What is your take on the insurance marketplaces that will be set up in each state (that’s correct, right?) such as http://www.connectforhealthco.com/ ?
Rayna: Not every state is doing this and the basic problem will still exist. Costs will be forced higher by the government, and intrastate insurance isn’t in place, in other words, you’re not usually covered if you travel to a different state. Each state will be different and as Medicaid costs skyrocket, especially with amnesty, some states, maybe many, will go bankrupt.
kim: Anything else we should be aware of about Health Care Reform?
Rayna: Be aware that they have the power to add any all regulations they deem fit(it’s actually written that way), and as the costs and demand change, those regulations will continue until we’re forced into single payer, and even then, imagine the government who can’t now handle Social Security without raiding the trust and can’t provide proper healthcare for veterans, handling millions of more people demanding and needing care. Bottom line is, it never should have passed and all we can do is keep electing those who may be strong enough to defund or repeal it. Other than that, take charge of your own health first and then find those alternatives and therapists who can help you stay as healthy as possible.
kim: Thank you so much Rayna!
If you'd like to listen to Rayna as she walks through line items of the bill prior to it's passing, listen to the podcast here.
You can find her website at http://www.earthwalk-usa.com/aboutus.html
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