Posted on 09/16/2009 7:22:56 AM PDT by La Lydia
WASHINGTON -- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus formally unveiled a 10-year $856 billion bill that would extend health insurance to tens of millions of Americans not now covered, moving an important step forward on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The sweeping measure is designed to steer a more moderate course on health policy than other major bills moving through Capitol Hill, and doesn't propose to create a new government insurance plan to compete with private insurers, as proposed in rival House legislation and favored by many liberals. Instead, the Montana Democrat is proposing to expand coverage by creating a network of nonprofit health insurance cooperatives.
More than a year in the making, the bill would overhaul the nation's health-care system and has sparked a sharp battle between Republican leaders and the White House over the size and role of government in the nation's economy. The measure would create a new national insurance exchange, where individuals and small businesses can purchase insurance. Individuals would be required to purchase insurance, but those at the lower end of the income ladder would receive federal tax subsidies to defray the cost.
Moreover, insurers would be barred from using a range of practices -- such as denying health coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions -- that critics say have created economic turmoil and emotional hardship for millions of families....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/leg/LEG%202009/091609%20Americas_Healthy_Future_Act.pdf
[...those at the lower end of the income ladder would receive federal tax subsidies to defray the cost.]
Lying dog liberals still trying to push the public government run option to get their filthy foot in the door.
Yes. This is socialized medicine, as envisioned by the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee rather than the marxists in the House.
And Acorn would just the right group to run those nonprofit cooperatives!
I hear they have some extra staff available from the census and housing groups that could run the cooperatives. It is a perfect fit!
Healthy Future act = Health care reform = Fed takeover of health care.
Public Option = Co-opts = Fed takeover of health care.
Performing artist = Prostitute = Bipartisan human trafficking organizer.
See how it works?
There are already HUNDREDS of nonprofit health insurance cooperatives.
If it isn't a government insurance program, why do they need government funds?
It looks like as a pre-existing condition tobacco use will make it so expen$ive to get covered it is not worth it.
This needs to be beaten down.
And they want me to beleive there won't be any fraud, waste or corruption in this POS? I wasn't born yesterday, and unlike dims, I don't think history started yesterday either.
Any government program is riddled with fraud, waste and corruption less than 24 hours after it goes into effect. Bar none.
The Baucus Bill is a lot more truthful bill than we have seen so far and it even tries to address the things that would be necessary to reduce healthcare costs. It even has some real conservative ideas in it. But it is far from a perfect bill because it still has coops in it among other things. The fact of the matter is there are things that conservatives as well as liberals will find to hate in this bill. Frankly, I feel any bill that has a public or government option or even coops in it is doomed to fail. The American public doesn’t want it and a clear majority feel that way. The elderly are especially up in arms and they are letting their representatives know in no uncertain terms their complete displeasure with these concepts and they are also venting their wrath against the AARP (it’s about time).
“...unveiled a 10-year $856 billion bill ...”
Holy crap. These people are delusional. HOW THE HELL IS THIS REFORM??????
Compare this monster of a bill to the one submitted in May of this year:
Senators Coburn, Burr and Representatives Ryan, Nunes Offer A Better Path Forward on Health Care Reform
Bicameral Coalition of Reformers Unveil “The Patients’ Choice Act of 2009”
WASHINGTON – Earlier today, U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC) and U.S. Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) introduced health care reform legislation that delivers on the shared principles of promoting universal access to quality, affordable health care, and does so without adding billions of dollars in new debt or taxes.
“The Patients’ Choice Act of 2009,” transforms health care in America by strengthening the relationship between the patient and the doctor; using choice and competition rather than rationing and restrictions to contain costs; and ensuring universal, affordable health care for all Americans. “The Patients’ Choice Act” promotes innovative, State-based solutions, along with fundamental reforms in the tax code, to give every American, regardless of employment status, age, or health condition, the ability and the resources to purchase health insurance. The comprehensive legislation includes concrete prevention and transparency initiatives, long overdue reforms to Medicare and Medicaid, investments in wellness programs and health IT, and more.
Click below to read the details about the bill that the Democrats have kept from being heard. Why? Because it is not Government takeover of healthcare and certainly not a socialist bill.
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=HealthCareReform.Home
Let me get this right. They cut $507 billion, expand Medicare/Medicaid roles but don't cut services for the elderly? Give me a break!
The Dems say NO WAY it will be DOA unless it has government run option in it...
The Pubs say no way DOA if it HAS government control (or any option like it) in it...
As I type this it is DOA...
They need to add amendments to it.
It is DOA.
The democrats have total control of the House and Senate and are having trouble getting their representatives to support this monstrosity (which also says a lot), much less trying to pass the responsibilty for it off to a few defecting RINOs.
God grant that we can return honest, patriotic statesmen and women to office soon...like in 2010.
INDEPENDENT AMERICAN MOVEMENT FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION
Health Choice for children only provides for very low incomes...
The middle class do not qualify and are left in the cold.
Google Health Choice.
Not even Olympia Snowe will support this monstrosity. Now, the left is defecting too - Jay Rockefeller says he won’t support it. It doesn’t seem Baucus has made any progress at all and this bill is just as bad and divisive as HR 3200 and the Senate HELP bill.
I quickly read through large parts of the bill. It seems to methey are going to squeeze money out of everyone involved, from consumers to providers. The only entity that gets juiced is government with boatloads of new bureaucracy. the thing that stood out to me was the lack of any numbers attached to either the cost or savings of individual items. They are trying to lessen the consumer and employer value of consumer driven halth plans and HSA, FSA, and HRA accounts. No more reimbursement from FSA or HSA for OTC medications unless your doctor orders them. Insurance companies, drug companies, and device makers will all face new taxes. I don’t like it one bit. It seems very anti-business, anti-innovation.
DU was cussing up a storm over Baucus over his ties to the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
LMAO!
Public Option = Coops = Fed takeover = Socialized medicine
I saw a post over there from an insurance insider. I wanted to post it but it is from ThinkProgressive which is not allowed.
It is worth a read if you want to go over to DU.
Still no tort reform.
Jimmy Carter suspects racism is what is driving this.
It offers a “Sense of the Senate” resolution on tort reform, which has all the legal weight of a posting on Twitter! They think we are so stupid.
Cracks in the armor.
There is much less “O” love over there. They say they have been sold down the river, new boss same as the old boss. Posters disgusted with the lies, disgusted with the corruption of this administration.
I’ve wondered why no one has pointed that out.
Take a huge government program riddled with waste and abuse and quadruple the size of the program yet somehow believe that you can pay for it by eliminating the waste fraud and abuse? Why won’t it get far LARGER, just as a natural consequence of the program’s getting larger?
FNC reported that NO POLITICIAN WOULD STAND with Bacus at the press conference.
He was all alone.
Even the conservative and moderate democrats realize all these bills are disasters and don’t pass the smell test in amu way shape or form. When the liberals own democrats feel this way, you know there’s trouble right here in River City and that starts with T and that rhymes with P and that stands for putrid.
How about we simply “tear down the wall” blocking cross state insurance purchases.
FREE THE FREE MARKET!!
I work for a medical equipment manufacturer. This bill would levy a new $4 billion per year excise tax on all medical devices. Needless to say, employees from my company will be contacting their Congressional representatives.
Also includes this nugget:
"The Secretary would ensure that in each state exchange, at least one plan provides coverage of abortions beyond those for which Federal funds appropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services are permitted.
In other words, the fed gov't is going to require every state - regardless of its laws - to provide insurance that covers abortion-on-demand.
FAIL.
The Secretary would also ensure that in each state exchange, at least one plan does not provide coverage of abortions beyond those for which Federal funds appropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services are permitted."
The gov't will require an option that limits coverage to the above-mentioned conditions (which are non-starters anyway).
So, anyway you cut it, this bill, by requiring states to offer abortion-on-demand insurance, is indirectly mandating abortion coverage with your taxes. States can still prohibit abortion if they so choose, but since all 50 states allow it, it's guaranteed that your taxes will finance an innocent child's death.
“Moreover, insurers would be barred from using a range of practices — such as denying health coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions”
This is the clause that will change health care as we know it in America. Say there are 20 million people that instantly gain health care coverage that previously couldn’t afford it or have pre-existing conditions.
Suddenly millions of people with everything from heart disease to arthritis to hang nails start seeking care. The burden on the current system will be huge. Doctors will be overwhelmed, but required by law to give care. Quality of care for those paying for insurance and will be diluted by those who now have free access, not to mention the costs involved. Waiting times become ridiculous. A disaster.
It's an excuse for the Federal government to step in and take over or manipulate their operations on a whim.
I learned in negotiating over the years that if both sides hate an agreement it is probably pretty good, or then again it could be a complete pos!
Yep. That is what it does. And it does that deceptively, rather than straightforwardly, which makes me really, really leery of the rest of it.
Yep, that’s in the bill. This is not going to help the economy. Companies will have to come up with that 4 billion dollars somewhere. We could see a doubling of unemployment and/or skyrocketing costs for health care. Such nonsense.
Bacus is singing “soooo lonely, I’m sooooo lonely....”
Private insurance will be squashed. They will be forced to raise premiums, thereby driving out participants and shrinking the pool, which will further increase rates.
The only thing that makes private insurance even a remotely feasible enterprise is the spread of risk. If the gov’t taxes 8% on payrolls that don’t use Obama-care, they will certainly drop private coverage, leading to the above scenario.
Then we’re really eff’d. Instead of some people getting little or no healthcare, we’ll ALL be getting little or no healthcare.
Nice catch!!
As soon as the government accepted the responsibility of providing this, it would be this much per year within 2 years.
Exactly.
A five page bill could include tort reform and freeing up insurance provider competition by dropping any one state mandates, and giving tax incentives to insurers to expand coverage for pre existing conditions and to mandate necessary identification requirements so illegal aliens will not benefit and cutting out any federal funding for abortions.
Simple and effective.
Nicked LOL! As in “stolen”?
No tort refrom in his proposal?? Is that correct?
I am embarassed to be from Montana right now. Actually, the way this state is going, I am embarassed quite frequently.
NO Republican support! Good....
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