Health reform far from done

Waterbury Republican-American ^ | October 29, 2010 | Editorial

[Graybeard58]

In a speech to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., spoke of the cause of his life: providing decent, quality health care to "every American — north, south, east, west, young, old." In June 2009, Mr. Kennedy reiterated this point in a television commercial for Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who was then preparing to run for re-election.

When Sen. Kennedy died of cancer two months later, many Democrats touted President Obama's health-care reform efforts as the final step toward making Mr. Kennedy's dream a reality.

Indeed, when the president signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March, Sen. Kennedy's son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., placed a note on his father's grave in Arlington National Cemetery that read, "The 'unfinished business (of American society)' is done."

Or is it?

Recently, The Associated Press reported the new health-care law may pose a threat to employer plans that now provide coverage to approximately 150 million Americans.

One provision of this new law will be "a hefty tax on high-cost health insurance" that will take effect in 2018. Concerns about this tax recently led the Boeing Co. to raise insurance deductibles by 50 percent, the AP said.

Obamacare will establish new insurance markets in each state called exchanges.

According to the AP, consumers eventually will be able "to shop for coverage among a range of plans in the exchange, with a guarantee they can't be turned down because of an existing medical problem."

Tax credits will be provided to help ease premium costs for households making up to four times the federal poverty level, the AP reported.

In an Oct. 21 Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., voiced support for allowing employers to stop providing health-care coverage and enabling the employees to purchase insurance through exchanges.

The governor predicted such an action will cost employers less in the long run, even though they'll have to pay a $2,000 fee for each employee dropped from coverage.

There is a problem with this approach, however.

As the AP reported, taking away the health benefits of one's employees will probably lead to employers having to pay them more to compensate for the benefits cut. What's more, the employers will be paying more on the company's income and payroll taxes. "It is clearly cheaper for employers to continue providing coverage," Senate Finance Committee spokeswoman Erin Shields said.

It appears Obamacare is putting employers in a lose-lose situation. On one hand, concerns about a tax levied by Obamacare increase the attractiveness of letting employees fend for themselves. If employers do this, however, they are facing the possibility of more tax increases.

Does this sound like a plan that will prove helpful to American society, even if the intentions behind it were good? Not exactly.

[Graybeard58]

Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.

If you want on or off this ping list, let me know.

[Dilbert San Diego]

And we had to pass the bill to see what’s in it, per Nancy Pelosi.

It seems as if new revelations keep coming out about Obamacare. We keep hearing how companies are revising or dropping certain coverages, and how premiums are rising as the open enrollment periods for many health plans are going on now.

And Obamacare is being phased in over the next few years. I’m sure they wanted to delay the worst of it until after the 2012 election.

Some small business people I know are furious about the requirement to provide 1099 forms for every business which they themselves do business with. This has nothing to do with healthcare, but, will be very costly and time consuming for small businesses to comply with.

I wonder how many other surprises are in the law. I wonder if Nancy P. has read the whole 2000 pages.

[beethovenfan]

Why should she read it? The bit#h and her family will be exempt.

[rockinqsranch]

“.....even if the intentions behind it were good?”

There ya go. Typical DemoRAT handiwork. Paving the road to Hell with their damnable good intentions.

DemoRATS are from the land of unintended consequences, and can’t seem to leave their Old World behind them.

Thanks for the ping Graybeard.

[dcwusmc]

Ahh... if only their intentions WERE good; then at least they would be open to good sense if it could be shown that their approach was hurting the very folks they wanted to help. As it IS, they are open to NOTHING but passage of these abominations, DAMN the people they SAY they want to help. It’s all about power and control, baby, power and control. That’s why they gots to GO, them and their RINO enablers!

[Liz]

Ohaha told Jon Stewart O/Care is a "structure" to do other things--- it will all change to fit Obama's agenda. We ain't seen nuttin' yet. Ohaha’s got BIG plans, much much BIGGER PLANS. He keeps saying: "I'm not tired. I'm just getting started."

PASTE THIS ON YOUR BATHROOM MIRROR AND MEMORIZE IT Vladimir Lenin: "Medicine is the keystone of the arch of the socialist state."

Your new healthcare system.

This Will Infuriate Taxpayers. ........diligent personnel could not fit all of O'Care's new law’s boards, commissions, mandates, and other elements on this chart. So they created “bundles of bureaucracy.” Seven collective symbols respectively represent clusters of four loan repayment and forgiveness programs, four other new regulatory programs, 17 insurance mandates, 19 special-interest provisions, 22 other new bureaucracies, 26 other new demonstration and pilot programs, and 59 other new grant programs.....

These 151 additional items within Obamacare do not appear individually on this diagram. As Representative Brady explains, “If we included all of these units, this chart (above) would be three times larger.”

========================================================

O/CARE will transfer to the Obama Admin, authority in a number of ways over the lives of Americans, and their businesses. Once govt gets control of medical care, all the defining, controlling features of socialist govt can be introduced, one by one. E-v-e-r-y-thing Americans do is related to health.

O/CARE Page 58 and 59: The government will have real-time access to an individual’s bank account and will have the authority to make electronic fund transfers from those accounts.

Socialized health care is impossible without seizing private medical records----BUT the 4th Amendment prohibits seizure without warrants. He'll do it anyway.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” snatch & run” used to be a crime.

[Liz]

Hmmmmm.....we better contact Holder (/snix).

[Condor51]

O/CARE Page 58 and 59: The government will have real-time access to an individual’s bank account and will have the authority to make electronic fund transfers from those accounts.

The day that first dollar is seized by the FedThugs, will be the day that Civil War V2.0 starts.

And come next Jan the new rulers of the House (& maybe the Senate) better repeal this unconstitutional monstrosity pdq. 'Defunding' it ain't the answer, it has to be wiped clean from the books or all hell will break loose

[Liz]

.....come next Jan the new rulers of the House (& maybe the Senate) better repeal this unconstitutional monstrosity pdq. 'Defunding' it ain't the answer, it has to be wiped clean from the books or all hell will break loose....

Amen.

Then watch Ohaha bleat about evil Repubs taking away h/care from needy Americans.

[Condor51]

*** Then watch Ohaha bleat about evil Repubs taking away h/care from needy Americans. ***

The Kenyan interloper can bleat all he wants during his Impeachment Proceedings. One year of 'President Biden' we can live through.

But with one more year of Ohaha as POTUS and the USA will be like Burkina Faso (Upper Volta):
Unemployment rate: 77% (2004).₍₁₎

(1) Source - CIA World Fact Book.