Posted on 02/22/2010 12:27:00 PM PST by brothers4thID
President Obama this morning unveiled his new! improved! shiny! version of health care reform. The rumor that has circulated for the past week is that the President, through Sen. Reid, will try to force the bill through using the budget reconciliation process. I won’t bore you with Senate procedural details; the heart of the matter is that there aren’t enough votes to make the current Senate version agree with the current House version of the bill. So, the President and Senator Reid, as Majority Leader of the Senate, will try a new “strategery”. I hope for the country’s sake they fail. I also hope for the country’s sake they succeed- because there is no surer way to guarantee landslide losses for incumbents come November. This bill is reviled by sane Americans, and rightly so.
Here is the text of the new bill: http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal Courtesy of the on-the-ball folks at Congress.org here are the salient bits:
Cadillac tax change. Under the Obama plan, the tax on expensive health insurance plans won't kick in until 2018 and would affect fewer people. This is still class warfare John Edwards style. They are taking from people who can pay for health insurance to pay for those who cannot. We already do this with Medicare and Medicaid. This is yet another government entitlement program of wealth re-distribution.
Payroll tax expansion. To make up for the lost revenue from the Cadillac tax, the President has proposed increasing the payroll tax employers pay for Medicare. Because with a 90% GDP to debt ratio and a ballooning national debt, during a recession, the thing we really need is to take more money from those folks still able to offer good paying jobs to people. (Excuse me, my sarcasm leaked onto the keyboard)
Expanded coverage. The officials added that 31 million more Americans will be insured under the plan, which expands federal subsidies for low-income Americans. There is nothing wrong with helping those truly in need to receive health care. The problem I have with this plan, and all others like it, is that it is run by the notoriously inefficient and, by definition, out-of-touch federal government. This leads to fraud and waste and, again, adds one more entitlement to the American way of life.
State subsidies. The plan offers full federal support for four years to expand Medicaid in all 50 states, not just Nebraska as proposed in the Senate plan. Left to their own devices, without Federal hands in their pockets and the coffers of their local employers, States could manage Medicaid on their own. If we have a federally guaranteed health plan, then why do we still need Medicaid? If we still have Medicaid regulated by the states, why do we need federal programs to back it up? Am I the only one scratching my head over this?
Denials and mandate. Insurance companies would no longer be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. To balance the cost of this, the President's plan penalizes people without insurance to encourage them to buy a plan. Oh for fraks sake people. I’m all for reasonable restrictions on what health insurance companies can and cannot define as pre-existing conditions, but penalizing people without health insurance? That means that those of us in the work force for years who have found jobs with “Cadillac plans” will be taxed, that those young folks just entering the workforce who haven’t found a job with health insurance will be fined for not having insurance, and employers will be taxed… just to be fair!
Premium hike controls. Federal regulators would have more power to stop insurance companies from increasing health insurance premiums, traditionally the realm of state governments. Did we repeal the 10th amendment while I was asleep? The more responsibilities you remove from the purview of state governments, the more rights you strip from the people.
We are citizens of a Federal Republic. We have elected representatives at the local, state and national level responsible for Constitutionally out-lined areas of responsibility. Your Federal representatives are, with this plan, saying that your local and state governments no longer have the authority, and by extension the knowledge, to protect the health care of their constituents.
Let me put this another way: The President’s health care plan, if it passes as is, negates all your recent votes for local and state officials. He, and the Congress, will have stripped away rights from the states and you, the people. He’s saying your state and city officials cannot be trusted to run things effectively. The federal government will tell you what health insurance means, what kind you can have, and how much you have to pay for it. You are not adult enough to choose your own plan. Your elected representatives are not adult enough to do their jobs- but you don’t get to decide that through impeachment or voting procedures. Federal big-brother has decided what is best for you.
The President of the United States and Senator Harry Reid have just proposed disenfranchising you.
What is the veto proof number of Senators, 67?
Meaning repealing Obamacare without the need for his signature.
Ignore him and he'll go away.
He seems to be practicing Scarlett O’Hara economics: “How much will this cost?” “Oh I don’t know, I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
SET THEIR LOCAL AND DC LINES ON FIRE!
Sen. Scot Brown's number is 202-224-5443
Rename, repackage, rewrite it a tad smaller, and sell another pig in a poke.
Tennessee has joined several other states in trying to pass a Health Care Freedom Act. NO COLAs for granny, retired Military or retired fed employees. BIG NEW fees for Tricare for Life retired over 65 Military's secondary health ins. (DOD bill already passed, delayed but goes into effect 2011)
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w/
New Dem mantra: Woof, woof eat dog food granny....ala let them eat cake.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Obama says slight fix will extend Social Security
http://townhall.com/news/us/2010/02/19/obama_says_slight_fix_will_extend_social_security
TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:
http://economicspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/05/tricare-for-life-is-obama-trying-to.html
This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.)
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-HealthOptions.pdf
http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/hcva09/hcva110609-1.htm
Bill Would Restrict Veterans’ Health Care Options 11/06/09
Buyer and McKeon Offer Amendments to Protect Veterans and TRICARE Beneficiaries
Congress plans to block Tricare fee increases
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w
By Rick Maze - Staff writer, Oct 7, 2009
Tricare fee increases imposed last week by the Defense Department will be repealed by a provision of the compromise 2010 defense authorization bill unveiled Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators.
Snip
The fee increases were announced on Sept. 30 and took effect on Oct. 1, but the defense bill, HR 2647, includes a provision barring any fee increases until the start of fiscal 2011.
Snip
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Bill Matz, president of the National Association for Uniformed Services, said the announcement of fee increases was shocking considering that the Obama administration promised earlier this year to hold off on any new fee Tricare fee increases until fiscal 2011.
“President Obama and DoD assured NAUS and the entire military family earlier this year that there would rightly be no increases in any Tricare fees” in fiscal 2010, Matz said. “We took them at their word, and I can’t believe that a co-pay increase like this was allowed to go forward,” he added.
Bambi doesn't keep his promises...so buyer beware.
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