Fix Health Care Policy

A Guide to the Senate Vote-o-Rama: Part One

The Senate’s health care bill became law earlier this week, but that does not mean the fight against a government overhaul of our nation’s health system is over. This week, the Senate will consider amendments to the reconciliation bill passed by the House alongside the Senate health bill, H.R. 3590. This process will provide a chance to ameliorate the numerous shortcomings of the passed legislation, and will provide Americans with a glimpse at the true intentions of their elected officials as they are forced to take a stance on difficult questions regarding changes to the bill. Here, we outline some of the amendments put forth and the Senate’s verdict:

Protecting Medicare Savings. Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) offered an amendment to protect new savings from Medicare from being used to fund new entitlements. The passed legislation and the reconciliation package would create a combined $529 billion in cuts to Medicare spending over ten years. Lawmakers claim these cuts will be applied to increase the program’s solvency, which will otherwise cause $38 trillion in unfunded liabilities to the taxpayers. (more…)

Tags: Cornhusker Kickback, government overhaul, Louisiana Purchase, Medicare savings, repeal, Senate Health Bill, special deals, taxes on the middle class, unfunded liabilities

Not So Fast, Kid

That was what Speaker Pelosi said on March 10, 2010.

One day after the Senate’s mammoth, 2,700-page health bill became law, the Associated Press has discovered the legislation doesn’t deliver on a key promise.

Despite repeated assurances that the measure would provide immediate health coverage for children with pre-existing medical conditions, it doesn’t.

Just two days before the crucial House vote, at his nationally televised pep rally for the bill, President Obama promised: “Starting this year, insurance companies will be banned forever from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.” (more…)

Tags: children, pre-existing medical conditions, President Barack Obama, Senate Health Bill

Reconciliation Bill Adds Even More Taxes

A jubilant President Obama put his signature on health care legislation yesterday, but the work isn’t done quite yet. The U.S. Senate must pass the Reconciliation Act of 2010, making a number of tax changes to current law.

By signing the legislation, Obama already broke his campaign promise not to raise “any form” of taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year. The reconciliation bill adds even more taxes for Americans — an estimated $52.3 billion over 10 years, according to a new analysis from Americans for Tax Reform.

ATR’s Ryan Ellis spoke at The Bloggers Briefing yesterday about the reconciliation measure: “We lost a major fight on Sunday. That fight is lost; President Obama has signed it into law. Rather than wallowing … and waiting until the election, we have a fight this week on the floor in the Senate. Do we want to have an additional tax increase on top of the tax increase that has just been signed into law?”

(more…)

Tags: Americans for Tax Reform, Cadillac tax, campaign promise, low-income families, more taxes, ObamaCare, Senate Health Bill

White House Health Care Rhetoric About to Meet Reality

At the signing of the Senate health bill today, President Barack Obama said: “In a few moments, when I sign this bill, all of the overheated rhetoric over reform will finally confront the reality of reform.” Let’s review some of the “overheated rhetoric” that is about to get tested by reality.

Over the past months, the President and Congress have promised: that premiums would drop by $2500 per family; that if you like what you’ve got, you can keep it; that it would bend the cost curve down; that it would decrease the federal deficit. The fact of the matter is, none of these things will become reality once the bill is implemented—these claims are nothing but the rhetoric attached to an unpopular piece of legislation in the hopes of creating support that has yet to materialize.

The truth about the bill is already becoming evident as effected parties become vocal with their concerns. Some highlights just from today’s headlines include: (more…)

Tags: bend the cost curve, higher health premiums, Medicaid Expansion, ObamaCare, ObamaCare promises, rising federal deficits, Senate Health Bill, Sunday vote

Stupak Admits He Allowed Obama to Fund Abortions With Taxpayer Money

In the final hours before the passage of Obamacare, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and his like-minded Democratic colleagues announced that they would vote for the legislation after President Barack Obama agreed to sign an executive order purporting to prevent the federal government from funding abortions. But one of the problem’s with this approach is that the President isn’t bound to preserve the executive order for any length of time. The President could wake up the day after signing this executive order and rescind it. Stupak himself acknowledged this in an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly: (more…)

Tags: executive order, ObamaCare, Rep. Bart Stupak, Senate Health Bill, taxpayer-funded

Morning Bell: Congress vs. The American People

Another day, two new polls showing the American people are strongly against the health care plan President Barack Obama will sign into law today. According to CNN, 59% of Americans oppose President Obama’s plan. And according to CBS News, 48% of Americans oppose the plan (with 33% in strong opposition) compared to only 37% who support it (with only 13% in strong support). Digging deeper into the CBS poll, we find that 76% of Americans disapprove of how Congress is handling its job on health care, 46% think Congress has spent too much time on health care, and 49% believe the rules and procedures used in Congress to get the current health care bill passed have been mostly unfair.

But the leftist majorities in Congress just do not care what the American people think. Today, the Senate will press forward with work on the proposed “fix-it” bill through the reconciliation process. You may have thought it was impossible to make the policy and process of Obamacare even worse, but that is exactly what this reconciliation bill does: (more…)

Tags: abuse of process, higher deficits, higher taxes, ObamaCare, public opposition, reconciliation bill, Senate Health Bill

The Heritage Foundation Responds to Health Care Vote: Repeal

Fellow Americans,

Late last night, in a narrow and partisan vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the most significant piece of social legislation in over seven decades. It did so in the face of overwhelming and principled opposition from the American people. Large majorities of Americans oppose this legislation because it offends the historic American dedication to the principle of self-government. They understand that this new law will accelerate Washington’s intrusion into our most personal and private decisions.

This is why opposition to this bill will only grow. Supporters of this bill argue that popular hostility will recede upon its passage. But, rather than cementing our descent into a European-style welfare state, last night’s passage of Obamacare is best seen as a historic turning point, a true catalyst for real change.

I write to reassure our supporters, the conservative movement, and the American people at large that The Heritage Foundation will do all within its power to keep this issue alive in the public square and make the intellectual case for the repeal of this act. We will bring all our resources to bear on behalf of those who believe America is and will always remain the Land of the Free.

This, rest assured, can be done. The American people are never permanently thwarted. President Obama’s health care legislation can and will be repealed. (more…)

Tags: Intolerable Act, Public Opinion, repeal, Senate Health Bill, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington takeover

The Heritage Foundation Responds to the Health Care Vote

Tags: Edwin Feulner, House health care vote, repeal, Senate Health Bill

It Will Not Stand

Members of the House of Representatives tonight approved President Obama’s health care agenda, the biggest expansion of government power since the Great Society. The Obama health care legislation is universal in scope and will profoundly impact the personal lives of more than 300 million Americans. It will restrict our personal freedom while undercutting the independence and authority of the several states.

This unprecedented congressional action will give Washington control over the content of health benefits packages; the kind of health insurance available to Americans and the organization and regulation of health insurance markets. This has been accompanied by one of the most shocking Congressional exhibition of arrogance and special interest deal-making in memory.

In 1774, in response to the first Tea Party, the British Parliament issued a series of acts designed to control the colonists, stop their protests and restrict their liberty. The Americans called these “The Intolerable Acts.”

Obamacare is today’s Intolerable Act. In poll after poll, in town hall meetings, in popular protests and in special elections, ordinary Americans have declared their firm opposition to this scheme, only to be derisively dismissed.

This imposition of legislation is intolerable for two reasons:

– Process: The outrageous way in which this massive restructuring of one six of the economy has been pushed through.

– Substance: Huge obligation shifted to future generations, a huge lurch toward European-style welfare states.

The Heritage Foundation will have a full answer to Congress’ action tomorrow and in the days and weeks and months to come. We will do all within our power to recommend, and make the intellectual case for, the repeal of these acts. We will help marshal the full resources of the conservative movement for this cause. You can join the fight to keep America the Land of the Free today

Fortunately, there are no permanent victories or defeats in Washington. For millions of Americans and for Heritage, Round One of this fight is over. Tomorrow morning, we are answering the bell.

Tags: government takeover, House of Representatives, Intolerable Act, ObamaCare, Senate Health Bill, unfunded entitlements

Reconciliation Bill Tosses New York a Fiscal Hand Grenade

The pending health care legislation would cover the uninsured mainly by dumping most of them into the federal/state Medicaid program. Not surprisingly, many states have objected to the additional costs that such a Medicaid expansion would impose on their taxpayers. Indeed, that was the motivation behind the infamous “Cornhusker Kickback” in the Senate bill, under which the Federal government would pick up all of Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion costs in perpetuity.

In response to complaints from governors and state lawmakers, coupled with public outrage over the “Cornhusker Kickback,” section 1201 of Speaker Pelosi’s reconciliation bill amends the Senate bill to have the federal government cover all of the extra Medicaid benefit costs for all states in the first three years (2014-2016) with the federal share then declining so that from 2020 onward the Federal government would pay 90 percent of the costs with state taxpayers covering the remaining 10 percent. (more…)

Tags: Cornhusker Kickback, House reconciliation bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Medicaid, Senate Health Bill