Reading the Fine Print in the Health Care Bill

[scottm]

This is a very good summary of what we can expect. Scary stuff.

Phyllis Schlafly: Reading the Fine Print in the Health Care Bill
http://townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisS ... ill?page=2

The House Democrats' health-care bill is titled "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009." No clue is given as to how long we will have a choice, but it will probably be only until the "public option" chases private insurance out of business.

The bill's subtitle states its purpose as health care for everyone, reducing "the growth in health care spending ... and for other purposes." Note that the goal is not to reduce spending but only the "growth" in spending, and we need to worry about the "other purposes" that will be added by the bureaucrats' regulations.

The bill states that health-care benefits require "shared responsibility among workers, employers, and the government." That means the government will force all taxpayers to pay for health care for millions of people who don't now buy insurance because they don't need it, or because insurance doesn't cover what they do need. (Page 5)

The bill states that the government will investigate "self-insured employers not being able to pay obligations." Government agents will audit and then harass small-business owners to force them to pay for insurance they cannot afford. (Page 22)

The bill provides for optional "nurse home visitation services" without specifying who has power to exercise the option. Among the various purposes listed are "increasing birth intervals between pregnancies" (this reminds us of China's policies to reduce childbirth by married couples), reducing "child abuse, neglect, and injury" (giving more authority to the already too powerful Child Protective Services) and promoting school readiness (will homeschooling be scorned?). (Page 768)

The bill covers family planning. Those are well-known code words for taxpayer-funded contraception and abortion, and will impose mandatory coverage of abortion on demand in all health plans. (Page 772)

The bill provides for "culturally and linguistically appropriate communication and health services" and "shall give priority to applicants that have developed partnerships with community organizations or with agencies with experience in language access." This opens up plenty of funding for health and translation services for illegal aliens. (Pages 405 and 407)

Title II of the bill creates a "Health Insurance Exchange," pretending to be a marketplace for health insurance plans. Of course, so long as the "public option" is subsidized by the taxpayers, it can always undersell private plans. (Page 72)

The government will specify the health benefits that must be included in any plan participating in the Health Insurance Exchange. If all private plans must include all government-specified benefits (which will surely include benefits unwanted by many people and will inevitably drive up costs), whatever happened to choice? (Page 84)

Anyone who does not enroll in an Exchange-participating plan will be "automatically enrolled under Medicaid." The government will thus use force to achieve its goal of universal coverage. (Page 102)

Employers will be subjected to a play-or-pay mandate. Those who do not provide health insurance to their employees must give the government a "contribution" equal to 8 percent of average wages paid. (Page 149)

Seniors must submit to "advance care planning consultation" (aka end-of-life discussions) every five years, or more often if there is "a significant change in the health condition of the individual, including diagnosis of a chronic, progressive, life-limiting disease, a life-threatening or terminal diagnosis or life-threatening injury." Will these consultants advise seniors to hurry up and die because they are costing too much money? (Pages 425 and 429)

Government bureaucrats will conduct "Comparative Effectiveness Research" to decide the effectiveness of treatments and drugs. That is the exotic label for rationing and, as House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., admitted, drugs and treatments that are "found to be less effective and more expensive will no longer be prescribed." (Pages 502 and 520)

Government bureaucrats (not the medical profession) shall determine national priorities for research. (Page 505)

Preference in awarding grants or contracts will be given to entities that have trained "the greatest percentage" of public-health workers in the government and that have trained large percentages of "under-represented minority groups." Think ACORN! (Pages 909 and 910)

The Senate bill's official summary also authorizes "home visits" to "improve immunization coverage." Will Americans tolerate a knock on the door from a government agent demanding that we and our children receive all government-ordered vaccines?

The fine print of the Democrats' health-care bill (which imposes incredible debt on our children) gives enormous power to the Obama bureaucrats to impose uniform, government-defined-benefits insurance, to decide how much we must pay or be hit with fines and penalties, and to determine what treatments and drugs are "effective" and will be permitted. This isn't America -- this is Marxist socialism.

[scottm]

• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for pr ice-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
• Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t' have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
• Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it really says that.
• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected.
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
• Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
• Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
• Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on "community" input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.
• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
• Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
• Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

Don't like the sound of any of this? WRITE YOUR REPS IN WASHINGTON!

[scottm]

As if it's not a secret the proposed health care bill is garbage, more analysis...

Some of the Democrat’s Healthcare Lies Discussed
http://www.stoptheaclu.com/2009/07/31/s ... discussed/

Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis (R, Wyoming) has written an important piece illuminating five of the most important points about the House Democrat’s healthcare bill. In her piece headlined Five Things You Need to Know About the House Democrats’ Health Care Bill, Lummis gives us some actual facts about some of the more insidious Democrat tax hikes, rationing plans, and regulations in the bill.

This is must reading for anyone interested in knowing what Democrats have in store for all of us.

1. New Government Run Plan to “Compete” with Private Companies

* Doctor Payments Based on the Medicare Model. Plan would reimburse providers at Medicare payment rates for at least the first three years, with a 5% bonus payment. After that, reimbursement could be no more than Medicare rates. The Secretary of Health and Human Services could coerce doctors to participate in the program by tying participation to other government run health programs.

* Lawsuits. Bill exposes employers operating group health plans to state law remedies and private causes of action, but the government run plan can only be sued in federal court.

* Rationing. A new Health Care Commissioner would have unprecedented authority to determine what is “acceptable” health care coverage and set all the rules for what an health care coverage must include in addition to what treatments patients could receive and at what cost.

* The “Invisible” Government Run Plan. Requires private insurers to comply with new coverage and underwriting rules in order to offer insurance products both inside and outside of the new national and state insurance exchanges.

2. Costs Go Up for the Government and Everyone Else

* CBO Director Elmendorff said on July 16th that, “…the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs… The way I would put it is that the [cost] curve is being raised…”

* Bigger Deficits. CBO estimates that the bill will increase the deficit by $239 billion in the first ten years. Even this is misleading though, since the tax increases in the bill start immediately, but the new spending is delayed. Once the spending fully starts, the bill adds over $60 billion a year to the deficit.

* New Tax on Individuals of 2.5% if they don’t purchase “acceptable coverage.”

* Many Currently Insured Individuals Will Face More Expensive Insurance Premiums based on new rules for “acceptable” insurance coverage.

* Expands Medicaid eligibility to all individuals up to 133% of poverty and “low income” subsidies” can go to a family of four making more than $88,000.

3. Pay or “Play” Employer Mandate

* An 8 percent Payroll Tax on: Employers who can’t afford to offer health insurance to their employees; employers who do the right thing and offer health coverage to their employees but it’s deemed “insufficient” by the government; and employers who aren’t paying at least 72.5% of an employee’s premium (65% for family coverage).

* Fines of up to $500,000 on employers who make an honest mistake, thinking they had provided what the government deemed “sufficient” coverage.

4. If You Like What You Have, You Can’t Keep It

* 2 out of 3 Workers will Lose Coverage. Independent analysis by the Lewin Group shows that 2 out of every 3 people would lose their current coverage, including over 114 million people who receive health benefits through their employer or other current coverage.

* 11 million Seniors will Lose Medicare Advantage Plans

* More than 8 million Health Savings Accounts not deemed “acceptable coverage.”

* It will be Illegal to Renew your Current Health Insurance and you will be left only with plans approved by a new federal regulator—plans that can’t compete with a new government run plan.

5. Raises Taxes on Small Businesses through Surtax Increase

* Filers making $280,000 ($350,000 joint) will be hit with a 1% surtax, filers making $400,000 ($500,000) will be hit with a 1.5% surtax and filers making $800,000 ($1,000,000) will be hit with a 5.4% surtax. The Democrats imbedded an automatic tax increase in their bill by doubling the 1% and 1.5% small business tax in 2013 continuing their revenue grab from small businesses.

* Of taxpayers who file in the top brackets more than half of them are small business. The Democrat plan, according to a study by the Tax Foundation, would raise the top tax rate in 39 states to more than 50%.

* According the National Association of Manufactures, an industry hit hard by the economy, 68% of manufactures file as S-corporations with an average income of $570,000, well above the $350,000 base the Democrats have set for the surtax.

I agree that to "cover" everyone we're going to need to pay the piper. There's no
way around that. I prefer, however, that we spend the increased tax revenues on
an open market system that subsidizes plans run by for-profit companies. The last
thing I want is another bureaucratic money pit that answers to no one and will only
increases costs and decrease quality of care.