Fix Health Care Policy

With Reid Bill, Obama Would Again Break “No Tax” Pledge

With the event horizon of the vote on the Reid Health Care Bill approaching, it appears that passage of the legislation would, yet again, amount to President Barack Obama breaking his “no new middle class tax” pledge.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Harry Reid, health care, no tax pledge, ObamaCare, pelosi, taxes

Morning Bell: The Pelosi Blueprint for Government Run Health Care

The new House health care bill (H.R. 3962) unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) yesterday clocks in at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words. As written, the bill purports to cost only $1.05 trillion over the first ten years and is paid for by over $700 billion in tax increases and cuts to Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug payments. But as troubling as those numbers are, the scariest thing about the bill is the solid foundation it lays for a complete government take over of the health care sector of our economy.

The Washington Post describes the bill as “creating an expensive new entitlement program (subsidies to purchase health insurance) and dramatically expanding an existing one (Medicaid).” This is true by itself, but the Post later dismissively adds: “If you’ve noticed that we haven’t talked about the public option in the House bill, that’s not an oversight. For all the fury over the issue, it doesn’t matter that much; the CBO estimates that the government-run plan would actually have slightly higher premiums.” This is a breathtakingly naive statement by the Post and demonstrates that they have not yet fully grasped how all the different elements of the bill are designed to interact to produce President Barack Obama’s desired outcome. (more…)

Tags: 3962, Barack Obama, CBO, debt, deficit, entitlement, government takeover, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Nancy Pelosi, Obama Health Care Plan, tax increases

In the Green Room: Dr. Norm Thurston, Utah’s Free Market Health Reform Architect

Dr. Norm Thurston is doing something extraordinary: he’s implementing consumer-driven health care fixes in Utah. When many employers recently started dropping health benefits the state reacted with reforms that make costs predictable for both employers and consumers. Predictability depends on accurate information for all sides. The Utah Health Exchange makes this possible. Here’s how it works:

Companies choose a fixed amount to contribute toward employee health benefits. Employees contribute pretax money from their own paychecks, and they can make contributions from a spouse’s job or a second employer as well. (more…)

Tags: Barack Obama, consumer centered health care, consumer choice, free market health care reform, health care reform, health insurance, health insurance exchange, in the Green Room, norm thurston, Obama Health Care Plan, senate health care bill, utah health exchange

The House Health Bill: The House Ways and Means Amendments

Editor’s note: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recently indicated she plans to use the House Ways and Means Committee version of health care reform as the base of the bill moving forward in the House. We’re reposting an analysis of what that bill looked like on the way out of committee and which amendments didn’t make it through.

Just before the August recess, the House health bill (HR 3200) cleared all three panels. The next step is House floor consideration, presumably in September. (more…)

Tags: Barack Obama, education and labor committee, government-run health care, health care amendments, House Ways and Means, HR 3200, Nancy Pelosi, Obama Health Care Plan

Congress Dismisses Public’s Transparency Demands

This past summer, hundreds of thousands of Americans attended townhall meetings and demanded their representatives be more upfront about the health reform legislation being crafted to overhaul one-sixth of the U.S. economy. But Congress continues to operate in a shroud of ambiguity. Members of the Senate Finance Committee even recently defeated an amendment that would have required Congress to post the actual committee bill (the committee currently is working on conceptual framework of a bill) online for at least 72 hours before voting on it.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) went as far to say the actual bills use arcane language that ordinary Americans wouldn’t understand. Regardless, the public has a right to have time (at least five days) to read the bills before they’re voted on. That’s what President Barack Obama campaigned on and he should hold Congress to keep that promise.

For more videos, visit our Dose of Reality: Fact Checking the White House page.

Tags: Barack Obama, health care, John Kerry, Senate Finance Committee

Congress’ Secret Plan to Pass Obamacare

Leaders in the House and Senate have a plan to pass President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care plan by Thanksgiving without any significant participation by the American public.

A new report from CNSNews.com quoting a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) confirms “it is ‘likely’ that Reid will use H.R. 1586 — a bill passed by the House in March to impose a 90-percent tax on bonuses paid to employees of certain bailed-out financial institutions — as a ‘shell’ for enacting the final version of the Senate’s health care bill.”

This story confirms the four-part scenario that would railroad the bill through the Senate using a very unusual closed-door procedure to craft the bill with no input from the American people.

The Heritage Foundation last month exposed the following four-step plan to pass Obamacare. Now it has been publicly confirmed and is ready to be implemented. (more…)

Tags: Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Max Baucus, Senate HELP, Steny Hoyer