Fix Health Care Policy

How about a National Obamacare Waiver?

If you knew a dangerous virus was about to hit America and that you could beg the government for a vaccine, you’d probably do it, wouldn’t you? That’s just what states and businesses alike are doing right now in preparation for Obamacare. But rather than seeking a vaccine, they’re asking for waivers from the law’s onerous requirements.

To date, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has approved 1,372 Obamacare waivers, covering 3.1 million Americans. Yesterday, The Daily Caller reported that among HHS’s most recent round of 204 Obamacare waivers, “38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.” That’s right: Nearly 20 percent of exemptions from Pelosi’s crowning health care achievement were doled out in her backyard.

If that’s not enough irony for you, try this waiver on for size: On Monday, the Las Vegas Sun reported that Nevada—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home state—received a partial statewide Obamacare waiver, too. If you’re keeping score, Reid was Pelosi’s counterpart in the Senate fighting to get Obamacare passed into law. Now his state will be one of three to get a waiver from the law’s requirements, while the rest of America suffers. (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: Department Health and Human Services, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare, waiver

Obamacare in the Senate: The Debate Starts Now

The Senate commenced debate yesterday on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) version of Obamacare and nobody knows if the bill will pass. Politico reports that there are four key Senators to this debate: Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT). The real debate will be in the Democrat Cloakroom where Leader Reid will attempt to garner the support of these four key Senators.

Reports indicate that there will be an amendment process that alternates between Republicans and Democrats. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) offered the first amendment to the ReidCare bill that “guarantees women access to life saving preventative services and screening.” Republicans will be offering an amendment later this evening. This process is expected to continue until Christmas time with a long and drawn out amendment and debate process. (more…)

Tags: Amendment, CBO Report, Harry Reid, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln, Mikulski, Nelson, Obama Health Care Plan, ObamaCare, ReidCare, Rising Premiums

Foundry Quiz: What Medical Innovations Does The Senate Health Bill Tax?

It is a well known economic policy rule that if you want less of something you tax it, and if you want more of something you subsidize it. Policymakers frequently follow this rule to influence behavior. This is why there are “sin taxes” on things like alcohol and cigarettes, and also why “cap and trade” taxes carbon. This is why there are subsidies for education and for “green” technologies. If taxes and subsidies make any sense at all, they make sense when used to tax “bad” things and subsidize “good” things.

Given this basic rule, can you guess which of these are being subsidized and which taxed in the Reid Health Bill currently in the Senate?

1. Innovative Medical Companies
2. Medical Devices, such as prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs and pacemakers
3. Over-the-counter medicines
4. Privately funded medical care – including private health insurance plans, private medical expenses paid out-of-pocket, and employer-provided care

(answers below the fold) (more…)

Tags: Harry Reid, insurance premiums, medical innovation, Nancy Pelosi, Obama Health Care Plan, senate health care bill

Senate Votes Obamacare One Step Closer to the Finish Line

The Senate voted this evening by a 60-39 majority to commence debate on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill that would radically expand government control over private health care decisions. The bill is over 2000 pages long, costs an estimated $2.5 trillion over the first ten years of implementation and carries a half trillion dollars in new taxes. Many Americans have to be thinking right now — they have heard from their dissenting constituents at Town Hall meetings and have seen the poll numbers for Obama’s health care bill dropping like a rock so why would they keep moving this bill forward?

This debate will center around many issues including huge taxes increases, economy-killing employer mandates and:

1. Abortion: Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) offered an amendment to the House bill to ban all federal funds flowing into the health care system from funding abortion. Senator Reid put language in the bill that allows some funds to go to abortion services by using an accounting gimmick. This issue could take the bill down, because the House approach is far different from the Senate approach. If this bill becomes a referendum on abortion policy, it may fail. (more…)

Tags: abortion, cost, Harry Reid, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln, mandate, Nelson, Obama Health Care Plan, ObamaCare, public plan, Senate, Snowe, Stupak, taxes

NFIB: Senate Health Care Bill Is “A Disaster” for Small Businesses

After “many months of discussion” in which the National Federation of Independent Business was engaged in efforts to ensure that the high cost of health care was adequately addressed in reform legislation, the organization yesterday came out in full force against the Senate health care bill, declaring it a “disaster for small business:”

Small business can’t support a proposal that does not address their No. 1 problem: the unsustainable cost of healthcare. With unemployment at a 26-year high and small business owners struggling to simply keep their doors open, this kind of reform is not what we need to encourage small businesses to thrive.

We oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act due to the amount of new taxes, the creation of new mandates, and the establishment of new entitlement programs. There is no doubt all these burdens will be paid for on the backs of small business. It’s clear to us that, at the end of the day, the costs to small business more than outweigh the benefits they may have realized.

(more…)

Tags: business, Harry Reid, health care, NFIB, ObamaCare, small business, taxes, unemployment

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

The Senate Health Bill: True Cost is $4.9 Trillion

As we mentioned this morning, nobody believes that Congress will follow through on the health care spending cuts used to help pay for the Reid Health Bill. At NRO, Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow James Capretta combs through the CBO report and delivers a true price tag for the Reid Bill:

So, here’s the bottom line. On paper, the Reid plan plus the “doc fix” would increase total federal spending by about $4.9 trillion over 20 years. Senate Democrats would resort to bracket creep and other tax hikes to raise $2.2 trillion over the same period. The balance would be made up with spending reductions, mainly in Medicare, that no one believes can be sustained, and in any event do not constitute “health reform.” In other words, it’s a tax-and-spend bill of the highest order. And only the spending is certain to happen.

Tags: doc fix, Harry Reid, Medicare, Obama Health Care Plan, trillion dollar deficits

Obamacare: Reid’s Secret Bill to be Unveiled Soon

The health care reform debate in the Senate may start this week – at least procedurally. Today or tomorrow, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is expected to move to proceed to either the House passed Pelosicare bill or another tax bill (either an AIG Bonus tax bill or the Uniform Services Tax Bill) in order to start the procedure for a full Senate debate on Obamacare. Although the procedural process will start this week, the full debate on Reid’s bill will not commence until after the Senate’s Thanksgiving Day recess.

Today or tomorrow, it is expected that Reid release both the text of his legislation and a score from the Congressional Budget Office finally to other Senators and the American public. Dan Perrin of the HSA Coalition has written about the Reid bill as a hidden “Vapor Bill” and calls it “all hat, no cattle.” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said over the weekend on Fox News Sunday that “we know it’s been in Harry Reid’s office for six weeks and the other 99 senators have not seen it.” The bottom line is that Senators will be voting to proceed to a bill on Friday that they have yet to see and will have little time to read before the first critical vote. Sadly, the secretive procedure used to roll out this legislation has severely restricted the rights of Americans to participate in this process.

Tags: Harry Reid, Obama Health Care Plan

Reid Says No to Transparency

It has been one week since the Senate Majority Leader announced that he had sent his health care bill to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the American people still have not seen Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) version of Obamacare. Last week 40 Senators signed a letter asking Reid to make all materials he sent to the CBO public. Yesterday, Senator Reid finally responded, but not with transparency. Instead he wrote a Dear Colleague letter to all Senator in response:

We are now working to take these publicly available-provisions and meld them together into a single bill. Apart from my decision to include a public option from which states may opt out, no final decisions have been made – and none can be made until we get more information about how CBO would score different combinations. In other words, there is no bill to release publicly – it does not exist.

(more…)

Tags: Harry Reid, Obama Health Care Plan, transparency