Health plan would place U.S. in fiscal jeopardy

Although universal health care may be a laudable goal, as a state and a country we cannot afford this health care legislation.

The state's Mid-Year Financial Plan Update 2009-10 through 2012-13 showed a projected budget gap of $6.8 billion for 2010-11; $14.8 billion gap for 2011-12 and a $19.5 billion budget gap for 2012-13. We now know that the 2010 deficit for the state is greater than was projected; it is about $8.2 billion and unless we change course, other projections will also increase. According to Gov. Paterson, this legislation would mean an additional $1 billion annually in new state Medicaid costs to New York.

Nationally, the United States is either borrowing or printing money to pay its expenses. We are too dependent on China and Japan to buy our debt. At what point does our debt to foreign countries dictate our foreign policy to those countries?

Our current national debt, as of March 16, is $12.6 trillion.

The national debt has increased an average of $3.98 billion per day since Sept. 28, 2007. The estimated population of the United States is 308,017,760 so each citizen's share of this debt is $40,874.

Unemployment is at 9.7 percent nationally. St. Lawrence County's unemployment rate jumped to 11.5 percent in January 2010. Franklin County registered a 10.1 percent unemployment rate and Jefferson County had a 10.8 percent unemployment rate.

I am a retired teacher. Although I did not teach math, I know that you cannot add millions to the health care system and claim that it will save money. Removing the "doctor fix" from the true cost of the health care bill or "double-counting" (describing the full amount of HI trust fund savings as both improving the government's ability to pay future Medicare benefits and financing new spending outside of Medicare) overstates the improvement in the government's fiscal position.

Moody's has been warning the U.S. government that we are at risk of losing our triple-A credit rating unless we take radical action to curb spending. Loss of the rating would drive up interest rates, increase borrowing costs and decrease our standing in the world economy.

Risking the financial stability of our country in order to provide health care for 7 percent of the population does not make fiscal sense.

Tacking on the cost of a student loan overhaul program onto this health care legislation is unconscionable.

We cannot afford this legislation.

Nancy W. Foster

Massena