Fix Health Care Policy

Sen. Baucus Admits No Senator Can Understand Health Bill

Today on the Senate floor, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) admitted that no Senator can understand the health care bill or should be expected to. To watch the video, click here.

Tags: health care, Sen. Max Baucus, Senate Health Bill

Video: Sen. Hatch Says Congress Is Boldly Going Where It Has Never Gone Before

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) addressed The Heritage Foundation yesterday on the unconstitutionality of congressional action that forces Americans to buy health insurance under Obamacare.

In Sen. Hatch’s opinion, that mandate would not pass muster under the Constitution, and it would be an entirely unprecedented action that is beyond the scope of Congress’ powers:

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Tags: health care, health insurance, Individual Mandate, ObamaCare, Sen. Orrin Hatch, unconstitutional

CBO Report Shows ObamaCare Raises Premiums

Media coverage of the CBO scoring of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care bill left out some of the fine print and heroic assumptions that were in the report. The Heritage Foundation believes they merit your consideration.

Premiums Rise

The media quotes the CBO as saying that ObamaCare would not make premiums rise for people who get their insurance through their job or other groups. This is mostly because millions of people would no longer receive coverage from their employer, and instead would buy insurance in the so-called “non-group” market that sells individual health plans. These would likely be older and sicker Americans.

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Tags: CBO Report, health care, ObamaCare, Rising Premiums, senate health care bill

Morning Bell: The Obamacare Rationing Threat To Your Mammograms

Last week, the United States Preventive Services Task Force issued new guidelines recommending that women in their 40s no longer have annual mammograms and that women ages 50 to 74 have them only every other year, instead of annually. The recommendations were highly controversial, and by week’s end most health insurers and the federal Medicare program said they would ignore the panel’s recommendation and continue covering annual mammograms. This is at it should be: the federal government collects information and makes recommendations, and Americans are then free to consult their health care providers and ignore the government if they so choose. The problem is that Obamacare would forever change this relationship.

Both the House and Senate versions of Obamacare create detailed new federal regulations that micromanage all health insurance decisions. Specifically, Section 2713 of the Senate Health Bill would give the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force the force of law by requiring all health insurance plans to provide coverage (with no patient co-pays) for “items or services that have in effect a rating of “A” or “B” [recommended] in the current recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force.” (more…)

Tags: health care, health insurance, mammograms, ObamaCare, rationing

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.

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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

Higher Medicare Tax Latest Proposal to Fund Health Care Takeover

The latest proposal to pay for a government takeover of the health care system is to increase the Medicare tax for those that earn more than $250,000 a year. This latest proposed tax hike shows Congress is desperate to find more revenue to pay for its excessively expensive health care plan.

The current Medicare tax is 2.9 percent. Workers and employers pay 1.45 percent each. It is unclear at this point whether both workers and employers would pay a higher rate, or just workers. Unlike the Social Security tax, the Medicare tax is not capped, so every dollar of wages earned by workers is subject to the tax.

Taxpayers pay the Medicare tax during their working years and receive coverage for hospitalization during their retirement. It already takes in less revenue than necessary to pay for the hospitalization coverage of current retirees. Raising the tax and using the revenue to fund a new entitlement does nothing to fix this shortcoming.
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Tags: health care, Medicare, taxes

The House Cloakroom: Nov. 2 – 6

Analysis –

After unveiling her 1,990 page health care bill late this week, Speaker Pelosi hopes to have the bill on the House floor by Thursday with work possibly going into Saturday or even into the following week to finish consideration of the legislation. A manager’s amendment is expected to be introduced on Monday with additional details. However, no one is exactly sure how this will play out or if the Speaker has the necessary votes to pass the legislation. You can bet this will dominant the discussion in Washington.

Major Floor Action –

• As early as Thursday the H.R. 3962, the new 1,990 page health care bill could be on the House floor. Heritage Analyst Nina Owcharenko outlines five major faults with the different health care bills be discussed by Congress here.
• Bills expected earlier in the week including H.R. 2868, Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act and H.R. 3639, Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act. (more…)

Tags: cloakroom, health care, house cloakroom, Nancy Pelosi