To the Editor:

I had not planned to comment on August Umlaufss excellent letter in which he provided factual information on just who are these 45 million people in this country who do not have health insurance. However, since the Democrats in the U.S. House have just eeked out (barely) their version of Obamacare, I thought I would comment on how this unfortunate bill is going to strike (wallop) those persons who need effective health benefits.

Before I do so, however, I would first like to state that I believe health care reform, especially laws governing private insurance, is required in order to prevent miscarriages of justice such as those which have fallen upon Mr. Reginald Lee, a resident of Landrum.

Getting back to Mr Umlaufs letter, based on the Sept. 2009 report of the U.S. Census Bureau, we are told that, of 45.6 million uninsured persons:

* 17.9 million earn at or above the 2008 mean income amount of $50,303. They could afford to buy health insurance, but do not choose to do so. But now, they must do so; or pay a large fine; or maybe go to jail.

* 12 million are eligible for Medicaid, but they simply have not registered. They could register for Medicaid right now, or they can await the possibility of Obamacare. However, If this plan ever goes into effect, then they must register; but how will this happen if they dont even know now that they are eligible, and how long must they wait without free health care for the government bureaucracy to put the plan into being. Seems to me they would be better off to just stroll over to the Welfare office now.

* 5.8 million are recently unemployed or in between jobs. This is not a static group; they move in and out of insured status depending on if and when they are re-employed. Again, how does the government keep track of these people?

The above three groups of 35.6 million are American citizens. The remaining 10 million are immigrants; of which 5.6 million are illegal and 4.4 million are legal, but not yet citizens.

The legal citizens-to-be will eventually become part of the above group of citizens; but what of the illegals? Health care is just one of the problems of illegal immigration. I suspect the crazy, new Pelosi Amnesty Bill will take care of that. Apparently, all these illegals need to do is register at the Welfare office. Without even a background check, they will suddenly become legal and eligible for benefits. I guess they will somehow learn of this through word-of-mouth.

Thus, in order for Obamacare to happen, first the government must go through an immense registration effort. How efficient will this be? I think it will likely be just as inefficient as it is now… and how much will this effort cost?

Of course, the registration cost will be miniscule when compared to the enormous expense of providing free or low cost health insurance to everyone. But, who is going to pay for all this?

Madame Pelosi sez the rich are going to pay. This will include a tax penalty for employers who do not provide health insurance for their employees. The problem with this easy solution is that, even if the government makes all our millionaires paupers, there still wont be enough to pay the trillion dollar cost of Obamacare. Every U.S. taxpayer will pay for this mandatory adventure in socialized medicine through increased taxes… and I fear that all Americans will also pay through decreased health care.

This brings us to the final question: after the government has finished soaking the rich and the middle class, who is going to have enough money left to provide jobs and pay living wages to the working man and woman?

Chuck Ross