After months of backroom deals, political payoffs, and strong-arm tactics, President Obama and the Democrats have forced the health care bill through Congress. The bill passed the House of Representatives Last night by a vote of 219 to 212.
House Democrats also passed a separate "reconciliation" bill that includes minor changes, but its fate in the Senate will not stop the President from signing the health care takeover later this week.
Some key Provisions in the bill:
Individual Mandate– A new tax penalty against those individuals or families who are required to obtain health insurance but do not do so. It phases-in a flat penalty tax on households of $695 per household member.
Funding for Medicaid Expansions- The Senate-passed health care overhaul bill (HR 3590) expands Medicaid eligibility to all individuals with incomes of $14,404 for an individual or $29,327 for a family of four
Physician owned Hospitals – The bill puts innew rules restricting the growth of physician-owned hospitals, so competition is restricted even more. If we want lower prices and better service, completion is the key.
Tax on High-Cost Plans– The billimposes an excise tax on high-cost health plans, unless you are a union member, then you get a break on the tax.
Medical Device Tax– The reconciliation package creates a 2.9 percent tax on the sale of certain medical devices so seniors living on fixed incomes will pay more for the medical devices they use.
The “special deals”in the Senate bill that President Obama and House Democrat leaders said they wanted to eliminate? With the exception of two of the most notorious – extra Medicaid money for Nebraska and a carve-out for Florida seniors faced with losing certain extra Medicare benefits – they are all still there.
New Taxes in the Healthcare Bill
$1.2 trillion: The total cost of the bill between 2010 and 2020 (though the real costs do not start until 2014), including $940 billion in coverage subsidies, $144.2 billion in additional mandatory spending, $70 billion in discretionary spending in the Senate bill, and $41.6 billion in unrelated education spending.
$208 billion: The cost of a ten year patch for the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) to prevent reduction in Medicare physician payments. This cost is hidden because it was included in the earlier Democrat bill, but was dropped to provide a better cost estimate. It is expected to move separately and would bring the true cost of the takeover to $1.4 trillion.
$569.2 billion: Tax increases in the legislation, including $48.9 billion in new tax increases in the reconciliation bill alone.
$52 billion: The amount of new taxes on employers who cannot afford to pay their employees health care, imposed at a time when unemployment is 9.7 percent.
12: The number of new tax increases in the bill that violate President Obama’s pledge that, “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.”
46 percent: The percentage of families making less than $66,150 who will be forced to pay the individual mandate tax.
16,500: The estimated number of IRS auditors, agents and other employees that may be needed to collect the hundreds of billions in new taxes levied on the American people.
$20 billion: The estimated amount of money that the IRS and HHS will need for the cost of additional regulations, bureaucracy, and red tape over the next ten years. This spending is not included in CBO’s cost estimate of H.R. 4872.
$53 billion: The amount of revenue this bill raids from Social Security to appear as if it actually reduces the deficit.
$202.3 billion: The amount of money cut from the Medicare Advantage program for seniors to help offset the costs of a new entitlement.
$436 billion: The amount of federal subsidies in the bill that will go directly to insurance companies to provide health care in the exchange.
1 out of 22: The number of times the Senate has not somehow amended a reconciliation bill passed by the House, and thus required further House action.
63 percent: The percentage of physicians surveyed who feel that health reform is needed, but are opposed to this sweeping overhaul legislation.
$9 billion: The amount that the Ways and Means Committee estimated Medicare would spend annually after 25 years when it was passed in 1965. In reality, Medicare spent $67 billion in 1990, or seven times the initial cost estimate.
$1.55 trillion: The projected FY 2010 deficit—11 times the ten year “savings” Democrats claim the bill will produce by spending more than $1 trillion for this government takeover of health care.
One of the keys to passage was the collapse by Bart Stupak, D-MI and his Democrat colleagues on the life issue. The bill passed by the House which now goes to the President for signature allows publicly funded abortions. This is the first time in our nation’s history this is permitted.
Stupak, a professed pro-life Democrat, had made a big deal out of the issue until it became obvious the bill could not pass without his support. A deal was cooked up with some sort of Presidential Executive Order but such an order will not preclude legislation passed by the Congress and signed into law. Stupak had to have cover to vote for the bill so he was given a thin veil to wrap himself in. It was as close to dignity as he could get since he could not politically avoid voting for the bill….
Maybe Elected officials should just do the right thing.
