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Dear Friends,

Trick or Treatment? ObamaCare is getting closer to becoming a reality, and it is just as scary now as when we first unmasked this massive takeover of our health care system.

Today, the Senate Finance Committee passed its "conceptual" version of health care reform 14-9 with Senator Olympia Snowe (Maine), the only Republican supporter.

Included in Senator Max Baucus' (D-Montana) bill:

• There is language in the Baucus bill to "guard" against comparative effectiveness, but it will not protect the sick, disabled or elderly. ("Comparative effectiveness" is a scheme to set up a bureaucracy to decide what treatments will be covered, and who can get treated.) The bill still has provisions that provide financial incentives to ration treatment. Health care should not be reformed on the backs of the most vulnerable among us.

• In a dramatic departure from current law, which prohibits federal funds from being used for abortions except for rape, incest or the life of the mother, the Baucus bill will ensure that federal funds will be used to cover abortion. It creates an accounting scheme that permits taxpayer subsidies to go to private health plans that include abortion by designating private dollars as those spent on abortions and public dollars as non-abortion dollars.

• The Baucus bill requires individuals to purchase "government-approved" insurance or face harsh penalties or even jail time. As we have seen in Massachusetts, which already has individual mandates, insurance plans are often more expensive than many Americans can afford. Lower and middle-class Americans with adequate insurance will be fined if government agents decide their health plans don't satisfy government mandates. It also means that we could be forced to buy "government approved" insurance plans that fund objectionable medical procedures.

• It will increase taxes on the middle class. While the Congressional Budget Office has indicated that the bill would reduce the deficit by $81 billion over its first ten years, this is not absolute because they did not have full legislative language to determine the bill's impact. Non-partisan experts from the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office have admitted that the Baucus bill would raise taxes on those with incomes of under $250,000, while cutting seniors' Medicare Advantage benefits in half.

According to the Heritage Foundation, "Leaders in the House and Senate have a plan to pass President Barack Obama's sweeping health care plan by Thanksgiving without any significant participation by the American public."

Senators Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Max Baucus, Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) and White House officials are now mashing the monster Health Education Labor and Pensions and Finance bills together. Then Senator Reid will move to proceed to H.R. 1586, regarding AIG bonuses, or some other completely different House tax measure and substitute in a health care bill that Americans will not even get to review. This bill may then pass the Senate. If it passes the Senate, the House could pass it without any changes to ensure the bill goes directly to President Obama.

Senator Reid, House Speaker Pelosi and President Obama have orchestrated the whole process to exclude us. We need your help now! Please call your Senators at 202-224-3121 today and tell them to oppose any health care legislation that excludes the voices of millions of Americans. This smoke and mirrors façade is good for a haunted house but not for our health!

Sincerely,

Wendy Wright
President
Concerned Women for America