Fix Health Care Policy

Senate Health Care Timeline

Obamacare is not yet law, but the battle over which elements of it should be repealed has already begun with both sides believing they will have the upper hand. Key to this debate will be which elements of Obamacare phase in when. Heritage Foundation scholar Robert Book has poured through the Senate bill and produced the following chart (pdf) detailing how the Senate version of Obamacare is scheduled to be implemented between 2010 and 2017. Highlights from each year include:

2010: Physician Medicare payments decrease 21% effective March 1, 2010

2011: “Annual Fee” tax on health insurance, allocated according to share of total premiums. Begins at $2 billion in 2011, then increases to $4 billion in 2012, $7 billion in 2013, $9 billion in the years 2014, 2015, and 2016, and eventually $10 billion for 2017 and every year thereafter. Two insurers in Nebraska and one in Michigan are exempt from this tax.

2012: Medicare payment penalties for hospitals with the highest readmission rates for selected conditions. (more…)

Tags: senate health care bill, timeline

Beyond the Constitution: The Healthcare Bill Violates the Rule of Law

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) has pointed observers to a problematic section of the health care legislation now before the Senate that proposes (in Section 3403) to create an Independent Medicare Advisory Board. He rightly observes that the bill language makes it virtually impossible to repeal that part of the legislation, thereby attempting to bind future Congresses.

DeMint is right about all this, but—having read through the legislation—by my read it is actually much worse than has been suggested, and much more destructive of the rule of law and democratic governance. (more…)

Tags: IMAC, Obama Health Care Plan

Nothing Voluntary About Obamacare’s Mandate

Some supporters of the health care “reform” bill being shoved through the Senate are dismissing concerns over the individual insurance mandate and the tax penalty imposed on those who don’t meet that requirement. They claim that because § 5000A of the bill waives criminal prosecution of taxpayers and says that no liens or levies can be filed on the taxpayer’s property, this is supposedly a “voluntary mandate” and the IRS can’t do anything against you if you refuse to pay the penalty.

That claim is wrong for a number of reasons. First of all, if you refuse to pay the penalty or you refuse to provide any information on your health care status on your tax return, you will face the prospect of being audited by the Internal Revenue Service, something that rightly scares all taxpayers, including those who are law abiding and have done everything they think they should to comply with the law. IRS tax audits are notoriously intrusive, intimidating, and expensive, and the IRS is known for its consistent inconsistency in applying its complex and Byzantine rules and regulations. (more…)

Tags: Individual Mandate, IRS, senate health care bill

Law Suits Threatened Over Obamacare

The chorus of concern that an individual mandate forcing Americans to purchase health insurance is at a crescendo. The Attorney General of Florida, Bill McCollum, yesterday requested, in a letter, that other state Attorney Generals join him in “a full review of the individual mandate.” McCollum writes “serious doubts have been voiced whether the individual mandate is grounded in one of Congress’ enumerated powers. For example, if the individual mandate is treated as a fine on a person for conducting no activity at all, it may not fall within the scope of the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause. If the individual mandate is treated as a tax, the nature of that tax may limit how the revenue provision is viewed under the U.S. Constitution’s Taxing Power.”

This is an indication that many States are concerned that the Federal Government is overreaching and violating the constitutional rights of citizens. The New York Times reports, “Mr. McCollum’s stance places him in line with the attorneys general of South Carolina and nearly a dozen other states who have also threatened to sue over the mandate.” The bill is yet to be signed into law and many Members of Congress are threatening to introduce legislation to repeal Obamacare and lawyers are lining up to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation. (more…)

Tags: Bill McCollum, Constitution, individual mandates, ObamaCare

The Health Care Fight is Not Over

Although the left has been celebrating the passage of Obamacare in the Senate as further evidence that the President’s health care reform initiative is a done deal the health care reform fight is not over. The truth is that this bill can not yet be transmitted to the President until very different versions of Obamacare are reconciled. The House and Senate must agree on what to send to the President for his signature before this fight is over.

There are key differences between the House and Senate approaches to Obamacare as explained by Nina Owcharenko and Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D. in a paper published by the Heritage Foundation lists 6 key differences between the two bills. Procedurally, the House passed a version of Obamacare with a public option, an income surtax and with strong language forbidding the use of federal monies to fund abortion. The Senate chose not to take up the House bill and passed a version of Obamacare with no public option, taxes on expensive health care plans and with weak language forbidding the use of federal funds for abortion. Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have since blocked the appointment of conferees to reconcile the differing versions of Obamacare. The options liberals have to get the bill to the President’s desk are therefore limited. (more…)

Tags: 6 key differences, House of Representatives, ObamaCare, Senate

Video: The Left’s Righteous War Against the Individual Mandate

As we reported last week, now that the public option is no longer part of Obamacare, President Barack Obama’s leftist base is open revolt over the bill’s requirement that all Americans must buy health insurance or pay a fine. We’ve been calling this a health insurance company bailout for months, and now Obamacare supporters like Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) are being taken to task by MSNBC hosts for the provision. Watch:

Tags: Individual Mandate, ObamaCare, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz

Is Obamacare a Budget Buster, Medicare Disaster, or Both?

This week National Journal Online asked their stable of health experts: Would the leading Democratic health care reform proposals result in a better or worse Medicare?

Heritage Foundation Vice President for Domestic Policy Stuart Butler responded:

“On the face of it, the reform proposals would help ease the $37 trillion unfunded obligations of Medicare, making it a tad more viable for current and future seniors. But the savings on one credit card just become new liabilities on another. Moreover, if the key cuts actually went into place it would be a disaster for seniors. In the Reid bill, physician fees are to be cut more than 20 percent in 2011 and kept there indefinitely. That would cause docs to leave in droves and mean care cutbacks from those who remain. And Medicare’s chief actuary says payment rate cuts will cause up to 20 percent of Medicare hospitals to become unprofitable. Medicare Advantage, it’s true, would not cut to the bone, but there will be a significant erosion of benefits and far fewer plans available.” (more…)

Tags: $37 trillion, AARP, American Medical Association, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicare commission

Video: Cash for Cloture

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) attempted to force a vote this Wednesday on an amendment that if adopted will ban the practice of trading earmarks for votes in the Senate. As even President Obama-friendly MSNBC has documented, Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) Cornhusker Kickback was not the only backroom deal that enabled the Senate’s passage of Obamacare. Watch:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Other details documented by MSNBC’s Lisa Myers: (more…)

Tags: Cornhusker Kickback, ObamaCare, Sen. Ben Nelson, Sen. Jim DeMint

What Obamacare and the NHS Have in Common

As US legislators continue to advance the largest expansion of government control over health care in the US, many Americans may need some comic relief. Although such massive consolidation of federal control over health care is by no means a laughing matter, the following 2-minute clip from a popular BBC Documentary Series “Yes, Minister” illustrates the ridiculousness of the efforts.

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Tags: British NHS, health insurance, ObamaCare

Morning Bell: Coal for Christmas from the Senate

This morning just after 7 AM EST, the United States Senate passed, again on a straight party-line vote, President Barack Obama’s health insurance bill. Originally scheduled for a 9 PM vote tonight, the bill’s Senate passage is a welcome Christmas gift for a beleaguered White House. However, as the First Family jets off for Hawaii, the American people, liberals, moderates, and conservatives are all saying this bill is closer to a lump of coal in their stocking than real health care reform.

The American Public Does Not Want This Bill: When the American people first turned their attention to President Obama’s health care plan, bare majorities of the American public told pollsters they supported his health care reform plan. But as the debate wore on, and the American people looked past the rhetoric and examined the details of Obama’s proposal, support for the legislation steadily declined. By mid July, more Americans opposed than supported the plan. Now that the House and Senate have both approved separate versions of the bill, strong majorities of Americans now oppose Obama’s plan. (more…)

Tags: Christmas Eve vote, Congressional Budget Office, party-line vote, senate health care bill