If you think it's tough now dealing with insurance companies and hospitals, wait until the federal government takes over the health care system.

The detailed flow chart above shows the complex health care reform proposal by Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats.

The chart identifies at least 31 new federal programs, agencies, commissions and mandates that accompany the unprecedented government takeover of health care in America.

"Why should any patient be forced to give control of their health care over to this Faustian pit of Washington bureaucracy?" asked Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX), the lead House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee.

"This government takeover has only one guaranteed result: to tell Americans what doctors you can see, what treatments you deserve and what medicines you can have."

These new levels of government bureaucracy, agencies, organization and programs will all be put directly between the patient and their health care.

This is why Obama and Nancy Pelosi are trying to rush the 1,018-page bill through Congress before anyone has a chance to read it or property debate it. Don't let them railroad your family's health care. Stop Obamcare now.

They rushed through a TARP bailout for banks that is full of fraud, waste and mismanagement.

They rushed through a $787 billion "stimulus" bill that is full of pork spending and has failed to create any jobs.

They rushed through an energy bill that is really a huge energy tax in disguise.

Now Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats want to rush through a $1.5 trillion government-run health care overhaul.

Haven't we learned anything from the mistakes of the past six months?

Paul Howard, director of the Center for Medical Progress at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and Tarren Bragdon, chief executive officer of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, want to know why the rush to turn health care over to the government.

From their column in Investor's Business Daily:

Rather than fix the system's underlying problems (the tax treatment of health insurance and perverse payment systems in the Medicare and Medicaid programs), Democrats stand poised to heap more taxes, fees and regulations on private businesses and insurers. The only hope for fiscal sanity is the public's growing unease with Congress' profligate spending.

The Congressional Budget Office scored the original Kennedy-Dodd bill (from the Senate health committee) costing $1.5 trillion over 10 years, with similar tallies for other bills in the House and Senate.

The oddity is that White House experts suggest that as much as 30% of all health care spending — about $700 billion annually — in the U.S. is wasted every year, more than enough to pay for health coverage expansions and still have plenty left to pay down the deficit.

So where's the savings in Democrats' legislation?

Read the full column, "How To Stop This Rush To Failure And Fix What Really Needs Fixing," at the newspaper's Web site.

The Institute for Health Freedom wants Americans to know what's included in the Obamacare bill making its way through Congress:

* Eliminates Existing Private Insurance Coverage (i.e., Eliminates Your Choice of Insurance that Is Not "Acceptable" to the Federal Government, But Is Just Fine With You and Your Family)

* Includes the AMA-Backed/Insurance Industry-Backed Mandate for Individuals to Purchase Health Insurance

* Denies Coverage for Unlicensed Alternative Providers

* Paves the Way for Use of Machine-Readable Health-Plan ID Cards for Everyone

* Establishes a "Real Time" Data System (to Determine Financial Responsibility and Eligibility for Health Care)

* Promotes Child Home Visits

* Moves 83.4 million people from private to public insurance

* Includes a Single-Payer Health-Care Amendment

* Requires Everyone to Buy a Health Plan Essentially Written by the Federal HHS Secretary

Read more at the link below:

Mandate for Health Insurance: Inconvenient Truths About How It Will Affect You and Your Family

Government-paid abortions is a major part of the health care reform Barack Obama is pushing. Explain to me again how that will help reduce the cost of health care for the average American?

Has anyone in Congress read the 1,018-page Obamacare bill?

Obama Puts Politics Before Principle in Abortion Coverage, Says Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice President

The national commander of the nation's largest veterans service organization says military and veterans health care should not be part of any national health care bill.

Reacting Barack Obama's urgent call for immediate Congressional approval of a government-run health care system, American Legion National Commander David K. Rehbein issued the following statement:

"While The American Legion appreciates the complexity of the health care reform challenge facing the President and Congress, on behalf of our nation's 26 million veterans and the nearly 2 million personnel now on active duty in more than 130 countries, we urge Congress to ensure that veterans' and military health care not be part of any national health care bill. They should be exempt in the legislation."

Rehbein added, "Our nation must maintain its long standing tradition that veterans' and military health care systems will remain independent and focused on our most deserving citizens.

"The American Legion has a proud tradition of securing and preserving the earned benefits of America's veterans," continued Rehbein. "Ensuring timely access to quality health care for today's military and veterans is of paramount concern. These are the citizens who have borne our battles in previous wars as they still are in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have earned our care the hard way. We, as a nation, have an obligation to ensure that their health care is not compromised," he concluded.
With a current membership of 2.6 million wartime veterans, The American Legion was founded in 1919 on the four pillars of a strong national security, veterans affairs, Americanism, and the mentoring of youth. Legionnaires work for the betterment of their communities through more than 14,000 posts across the nation.

For more information about the American Legion visit its Web site, www.legion.org

Why the rush?

America's third largest party urges Congress to take its time deliberating the proposed government takeover of the nation's health care system amid pressure from the Obama White House to quickly adopt the troubled proposal with minimal debate and most members of Congress not having read the bill.

From a release issued by the Libertarian Party:

Libertarians oppose the plan, which deepens the federal budget deficit and leads to the rationing of basic health care.

"As confidence in President Obama's plans for a federal government takeover of medicine plunges, the White House is pressuring legislators to rush to judgment while the plan can still be salvaged," said William Redpath, Libertarian National Committee Chairman. "We urge Congress to deliberate this massive government takeover carefully, take their time to allow Americans to read the full bill and then vote down this legislative disaster."

A poll conducted independently by the Gallup organization, not for any party or group, and released today shows disapproval of the Obama plan tops approval among adults by a 50 percent to 44 percent margin. Among political independents, the gap grows. Fifty-five percent of independents disapprove of Obama’s plan. Only 40 percent approve.

"The more we find out about the Democrat plan, whether it's the language on page 16 outlawing private insurance or Section 440 empowering government to visit your home and monitor your parenting, the more obvious it becomes why President Obama wants as little transparency as possible. As we saw during the rush to the Iraq war, nothing good can happen when the president demands Congress give him what he wants immediately and without debate," said Redpath.

The Libertarian Party is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party by visiting http://www.LP.org.

Barack Obama will use a prime-time televised news conference tonight to salvage his government-run health care plan. Good luck with that.

From Rasmussen Reports:

The health care reform legislation working its way through Congress has lost support over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% of U.S. voters are at least somewhat in favor of the reform effort while 53% are at least somewhat opposed.

Today's 44% level of support is down from 46% two weeks ago, and 50% in late June.

Opposition has grown from 45% in late June to 49% two weeks ago and 53% today. As in earlier surveys, those with strong opinions are more likely to oppose the plan rather than support it. The current numbers: 24% strongly favor and 37% strongly oppose.

The tide has turned. The more Americans learn about Obamacare, the less they like it. That's why Obama and Pelosi are trying to ram the bill through Congress before the August break. Like the stimulus bill and the cap-and-trade energy tax, the fewer membes of Congress who read the bill, the better chance it has of passing.

Read more numbers from the Rasmussen poll at Rasmussen Reports.

Let Freedom Ring, a free-market advocacy group headed by former Chester County Commissioner Colin Hanna, has set up a Web site where members of Congress can sign a pledge to read health care reform legislation before voting on it.

This is a big deal considering nobody in Congress who voted for the failed "stimulus" bill bothered to read it before voting to support it.

So far, just 72 members of Congress have signed the Responsible Healthcare Reform Pledge, but more are being added daily.

From Pennsylvania, four Republicans -- Reps. Charlie Dent, Jim Gerlach, Joe Pitts and Todd Platts -- have signed.

Are you surprised that not a single Democrat from Pennsylvania has signed the pledge? Why should they? They rubber-stamped everything Barack Obama sends down the pike. Talk about the blind leading the blind.

For more information, check out www.pledgetoread.com

ATR: Obama's VAT Trial Balloon Dusts Off Bill Clinton's 1993 Playbook

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has released a new report, "Grading the States," assessing the nation's public mental health care system for adults.

The national average grade is a D.

Pennsylvania earned a "C" grade in the report, an improvement over the "D" the state earned in 2006.

Fourteen states improved their grades since NAMI's last report card three years ago. Twelve states fell backwards. Oklahoma showed the biggest improvement, rising from a D to a B. South Carolina fell the farthest, from a B to a D, according to NAMI.

The Alliance warns that state budget cuts are threatening mental health care overall.

"Mental health care in America is in crisis," said NAMI executive director Michael J. Fitzpatrick. "Even states that have worked hard to build life-saving, recovery-oriented systems of care stand to see their progress wiped out."

"Ironically, state budget cuts occur during a time of economic crisis when mental heath services are needed even more urgently than before. It is a vicious cycle that can lead to ruin. States need to move forward, not retreat."

Check out how your state did on the report card at this link.

New Web Site Will Help Consumers Find Lowest Local Prices for Prescription Drugs

Republicans have an alternative to Obama's socialized medicine proposal:

From the weekly GOP radio address by Rep. Roy Blunt:

"Americans are worried about their access to quality, affordable health care and they are looking for responsible solutions. Republicans agree, and we are committed to developing new and innovative solutions to fix what's broken, while making sure that we keep what works.

"Republicans are committed to access, affordability, competition and a quality system that puts patients and doctors in the driver seat.

"Just imagine a health care system that looks like a government run operation most of us are all too familiar with -- the local DMV. Lines, paper work, taking a number. Or how about another government agency -- the IRS.

"I don't want our health care to resemble that system and you probably don't either. That's why real competition is the key -- it encourages innovation so that the health care treatments and services available to you are the ones that you need and you want. Republicans are committed to common-sense solutions that promote competition and innovation.

"Not surprisingly the government never gets the price right: overpaying for some services, underpaying for others. It's also a system that leads to unfair rationing of care.

"Part of that comes from the backward way the government looks at problems. Washington is the only place that tells you how much they care about something based on how much it costs, instead of how well it works.

"America has the best doctors, health care providers and hospitals in the world. Republicans will lead the effort to make health care work for Americans. We'll also lead the fight against any proposals that undermine your ability to get the treatment the doctor you choose recommends."