The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
(snip)"If the Obama White House decides that reorganizing the 17.1% of the economy that the U.S. is likely to spend on health care in 2010 is a first-year priority, then Mr. Baucus's bill will be the place they start. Americans need to learn what they'd be paying for.
First, Democrats want the government to create a national insurance exchange, or marketplace, in which all comers could buy into a range of heavily regulated private policies at group rates. These private plans would then "compete" with a new public insurance option, i.e., a program managed by the government and modeled after Medicare. Lower-income earners would get subsidies to make coverage "affordable." Businesses that didn't cover their employees would pay a tax on some portion of their payroll.
The last cog is the "individual mandate." This requirement that everyone buy coverage has grabbed most media scrutiny of the Baucus plan, because Mr. Obama opposed it during the campaign. But the many moving parts don't work together unless the young and healthy foot the bill for care of the older and sicker -- one reason Hillary Clinton kept nagging Mr. Obama about the individual mandate during the primaries.
The irony is that the public option -- not the mandate -- is far and away the most radical part of the plan. Green eyeshade objections are obviously out of favor in modern Washington, but the reality is that the Baucus-Obama plan would be extraordinarily expensive as it slowly but relentlessly grew the government's share of health spending. The draft doesn't include an exact cost, though casually notes the ballpark "investment" could run as high as $150 billion a year.
Even those huge outlays are likely conservative, considering that subsidies would go to families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level. According to the Census Bureau, that would apply to 61.5% of the American population, or about 184 million people -- less those already on Medicare and Medicaid.
Some financing will come from the "pay or play" tax on businesses, but because Mr. Baucus is no more omniscient than anyone else, the tax rate is left undefined. If it is too low, companies will have every incentive to "cash out" their employee liabilities and pay the tax instead. Then workers will flood the public option.
The Baucus plan expects to make up more of the money with nips like better health technology and tucks such as "a national focus on wellness." But those don't come close to adding up to $150 billion -- or the health system would have made them already. As for the claim that centralizing health spending will lead to more "efficiency" . . . well, that is the triumph of hope over evidence.
(snip)"Now the Democrats want to double down with the public option, apparently on the theory that the bureaucracies fail only when they're too small. Even without the new program, Medicare and Medicaid costs are rising substantially both as a share of the economy and the federal budget. The nearby chart tracks the historical behavior of government health spending and the Congressional Budget Office's post-2007 fiscal scenario in the absence of reform. Today, health entitlements account for 4% of GDP but will rise to 7% in 2025 and about 15% in 2062.
Not that the current level of benefits will ever be paid. According to the Medicare trustees, the program's excess costs over the next 75 years -- that is, the difference between expected outlays and revenues -- is more than $36 trillion, which even they acknowledge is several trillion too low given current trends. Even if Congress doubled all individual and corporate tax rates, it still wouldn't raise enough revenue to pay for Medicare and Medicaid.
The Obama-Baucus solution to this slow-motion catastrophe is to add tens of millions more people to the federal balance sheet. Because the public option will enjoy taxpayer sponsorship, it will offer generous packages to consumers that no private company could ever afford or justify. And because federal officials will run not only the new plan but also the "market" in which it "competes" with private programs -- like playing both umpire and one of the teams on the field -- they will crowd out private alternatives and gradually assume a health-care monopoly.
Many proponents of plans similar to Mr. Baucus's openly cite this as one of their goals. Eventually, the public option will import Medicare's price controls into the private sector as it tries to manage the inevitable cost overruns. When that doesn't work, Congress will deal with the problem by capping overall spending and rationing care through politics (instead of prices) -- like Canada does today.
Either Senator Baucus and President-elect Obama are making promises that can't possibly be kept. Or they're not being honest about their plans for U.S. health care."(snip)
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
Baucus is a tool of the insurance companies.
HR 676 is the way to go.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Melonie
Even those huge outlays are likely conservative,
When the government says it will only cost x, it will not, it will cost 2,3,4 (x).
When the government tells you it will raise x in taxes, the Luxury Tax cost more to administer then it collected. lol
Liars, the whole lot of them.
BTW- did you read where the insurers were before congress seeking a change in the system? Who do you think is going to benefit? The people? As if.
I sense Healthcare Premiums are going up for the anyone with a healthcare plan. Thank you govt.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
Actually, national health care is the 'secret weapon' that the Obama administration can use to subsidize unionized industries in both the public and private sector. In effect, the institution of national health care will transfer trillions of dollars in liabilities off of auto industry and state / local government balance sheets, and place those liabilities instead on the shoulders of EVERY US business and taxpayer !
The 'secret weapon' will take the form of all businesses being given the de-facto option of abandoning their own health care benefits in favor of simply paying a new tax ( a 6% figure was tossed around) but being able to dump all future health benefit liabilities onto the US government. There isn't a sane corporate executive in the country who wouldn't take that deal in a second. Of course, when it is discovered that a 6% tax rate is totally inadequate to fund national health coverage, the shortfall will have to be made up via additional tax increases on both US businesses and US taxpayers.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
It's not a 'secret weapon'. If our country was run into the ground like the Euros during WW2, we would also have had a national health system. It didn't start with Obama, let alone Hillary. It's just another way to **cough*cough** socialize our economy, and this one is a 2+trillion dollar market.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
^^^ agreed ... FDR tried for it, and failed. LBJ tried for it, and got medicaid / medicare covering part of the population.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
Mel, if I could believe 6% of payroll I'd be inclined to jump on it. The yearly back and forth with Anthem is frustrating, stressful and frankly a job I would just as soon discard. Our increase for 2009 is "only" 8% but other years it has been double digits. But as you stated, it's unlikely that 6% would be anywhere near enough, especially considering that libs want to cover anyone "residing" in this country (as called out in the HR 676 bill). There is no caveat that the "resident" has to be a legal American citizen in that bill that I could find!
FBR
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
Quote:
Originally Posted by
FBR
Mel, if I could believe 6% of payroll I'd be inclined to jump on it. The yearly back and forth with Anthem is frustrating, stressful and frankly a job I would just as soon discard. Our increase for 2009 is "only" 8% but other years it has been double digits. But as you stated, it's unlikely that 6% would be anywhere near enough, especially considering that libs want to cover anyone "residing" in this country (as called out in the HR 676 bill). There is no caveat that the "resident" has to be a legal American citizen in that bill that I could find!
FBR
That is, simply put, sickening. When did the government, and a large percentage of our population, forget exactly what 'illegal' means? Sheesh.
Why not just give them the right to vote? FFS, I'm disgusted.
Don't misunderstand me: I am not against immigration, I'm just against illegal immigration. If we stop rewarding the 'illegals' for being here (shout out to Cali - Yo!), stop paying them income tax refunds, start heavily punishing companies that hire them ... then maybe we might be able to avoid the majority of this problem, as well as get our government to address and fix our screwed immigration laws.
Sorry for the tangent: bad mood today.
I'll sum up what I've read so far: Healthcare is being socialized. Radicals rejoice!
Narcissus
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
Quote:
Why not just give them the right to vote?
well, between the 'motor voter' law, ACORN voter registrations, the lack of a serious Voter ID requirement in most US state elections etc., combined with the fact that electoral votes are assigned based on US census data that doesn't backcheck the citizenship status of the 'heads' being counted, arguably a large number already have the 'right' to vote !
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
^^^^^^^^^^^lol In 2000, the Dem Party of Cali sent letters to illegals and persons who did not have the right to vote, telling them they could vote anyways.
In this last election, there were some districts that had more votes that living adults.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
Quote:
Originally Posted by
glambman
In this last election, there were some districts that had more votes that living adults.
Which districts? What is your source for this information?
Sounds like bullshit to me.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
Just because the left wing media didn't report it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Look up Michelle Malkin, ACORN, Fow News even reported on it, as well as intimidation.
Fox even reported where a man had his son vote (he was 15 or 16), and where he recruited neighbors to also vote (all under 18_).There was even the drug raid where they found an illegal with hundreds of absentee ballots.
My brother is still on my local roll. He only stayed with me a short time, and moved out of state in '92.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
This system we have pretty much stinks. This is the next area I'm going to be studying. I've already delved into medical mistakes and the drug industry.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
glambman, you claimed "In this last election, there were some districts that had more votes that living adults."
Can you name even one?
Of course you can't, because it's total bullshit, even if you happen to believe it.
Re: The Obama Health Care Plan Emerges
pulllllease !
(snip)", Miss. (AP) - More than a third of Mississippi counties have more registered voters than residents old enough to cast a ballot, according to an Associated Press analysis.
In addition to providing ammunition for people who say the voting system is vulnerable to fraud, the flabby voting rolls may make it difficult to accurately determine turnout for the Nov. 4 presidential election.
"There is no reason in the world why some of these counties should have more registered voters than they have living, breathing people," Mississippi Senate Elections Committee Chairman Terry Burton said.
Despite the inflated voter rolls, "it's important not to leap to the conclusion that this means there have been many illegitimate voters," said Adam Skaggs, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.
He said the bigger problem _ in Mississippi and across the U.S. _ is that people have not registered at all or don't know they have been purged from the rolls.
In Mississippi, AP's county-by-county analysis compared voter registration figures released Thursday by the Secretary of State's office with Census figures from 2000, which provide the latest and most detailed information for the entire state.
Twenty-nine of Mississippi's 82 counties had more registered voters than people of voting age. Alabama has a similar problem _ The Birmingham News found that six of 67 counties there have more registered voters than people of voting age.
Mississippi and Alabama are heavily Republican states expected to choose John McCain over Democrat Barack Obama, though they have U.S. House and Senate races that could be close.
"The opportunity for fraud exists certainly if people are on the rolls that shouldn't be there," Burton said. "If there's one case of fraud, there's one too many."(snip)