Free Republic

Unions pressure Democrats on health insurance taxBy Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 10, 6:15 pm ET WASHINGTON – Union leaders, among the most passionate backers of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, pressed Democratic senators Thursday to drop a tax on high-value insurance plans to pay for remaking the nation's system. Members of several labor unions denounced the proposed tax on so-called "Cadillac plans," arguing it wouldn't just hit CEOs but also middle-class Americans who did without salary increases to negotiate better health benefits. "I support health care reform but I can't afford this tax," Valerie Castle Stanley,...

As a small-business owner, I’ve been selecting group health-insurance plans for a quarter century and living, day to day, with the actual impact such choices have had on my company and employees. In observing this process, I’ve come to the conclusion that two simple changes would both significantly increase access to health insurance and make it more affordable: Require insurance companies to offer their group plans to all companies, and require health-care providers to charge all patients the same rates.

Searching for an ac ceptable alternative to the controversial "public option," Senate Democrats on Tuesday night adopted three bad ideas instead. Having tried and discarded the "robust" public option, the opt-in and opt-out approaches, co-ops and the "trigger," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed a program similar to the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program, which covers government workers, including Congress members. Reid's plan would also expand Medicare and Medicaid. The FEHBP offers a variety of private insurance plans under a program managed by the US Office of Personnel Management. Each year, OPM uses the federal procurement process to solicit bids...

As U.S. health care costs continue to escalate, Consumer Directed Health Care (CDH) can be a positive force for change that allows patients to gain greater control over their healthcare decisions, allow employers to reduce their healthcare benefit expenditure, enable insurers to increase membership by making more affordable insurance available and provide opportunities for financial institutions to expand their presence in the healthcare industry

US Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana stated in response to initiatives to move the healthcare reform package onto the debate floor “My vote should in no way be construed by the supporters of this current framework as an indication of how I might vote on the final Bill.” A statement she clarified after securing the receipt of a $300 million dollar bribe for her home state of Louisiana while contributing toward the baby steps in the passage of healthcare reform. Ms. Landrieu, as a twenty year veteran healthcare patient advocate, let me introduce you to one of my patient fall...

WASHINGTON — Americans can't take weekends off from worrying about health care and the Senate shouldn't either, Majority Leader Harry Reid said today as he opened a rare weekend session to debate President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. With Democrats preparing to vote on an amendment targeting tax breaks for insurance executives' pay, Reid lashed out at "greedy health insurance companies" that he said make profits by neglecting consumers' health needs. Reid, D-Nev., called the weekend session as he races the clock to complete action on the 2,000-page remake of the nation's health care system by Christmas. With both sides...

Faced with an “obesity epidemic“, that has dramatic consequences for medical costs, pundits have proposed different solutions, ranging from excluding obesity from health insurance, government-run prevention campaigns, higher taxes on junk food, or higher premiums for fat people. The possibility of greater government involvement in medicine with the passing of ObamaCare puts this debate in a new light. If the government decides who gets money for medical treatment, the question of whether fat people deserve medical treatment will become a political issue. The question of who "deserves" treatment is only conceivable in a welfare state. In a free, capitalist society,...

AARP members wake up! Your being sold out by your own organization and their lying to you about the future of Medicare within the structure of the government run health plan. In the past, every time the word "cut" was mentioned with Medicare in Congress, AARP was one of the first groups to weigh in against proposed cuts or changes to the Medicare program. All of that has drastically changed for you. If the Democrats in Congress as well as AARP get their way, you will suffer massive cuts in Medicare and Medicare programs you now enjoy. They will be...

Did you know that most of our government programs are managed by an accounting method referred to as the cash method? What it means is that revenue or cash is not recognized until it is received. This presents a huge risk in misrepresenting the picture of an organizations operation and distorts real income. The more appropriate accounting method to realize a true picture of an organizations health is the accrual-based accounting method. This method recognizes income when goods are provided/sold or when a service is rendered. Under the cash method, an expense is recognized when it's paid. Under the accrual...

This link takes you to multiple articles and videos providing in depth analysis of the current healthcare debate. Videos include Sen. Ron Paul discussing healthcare, Sen. Tom Coburn, experts from the CATO Institute, experts from the Heritage Foundation, and much more. In addition there are a multitude of articles from various papers, columnists, and institutes.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats face deep divisions within their ranks as they begin debate Monday on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, with the recent all-hands-on-deck coalition frayed over abortion and the option of government-run insurance. While majority Democrats will need 60 votes to finish, some in the party say they’ll jump ship from the bill without tighter restrictions on abortion coverage. Others say they’ll go unless a government plan to compete with private insurance companies gets tossed. Such concessions would enrage liberals, the party’s heart and soul.

Individual insurance premiums would increase by an average of 10 percent or more, according to an analysis of the Senate healthcare bill. The long-awaited report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) also concluded that subsidies provided by the legislation would make coverage cheaper for those who qualify. The report, issued in the form of a letter to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), will provide both Democrats and Republicans with ammunition as the Senate begins amending the healthcare bill on Monday. "CBO and JCT estimate that the average premium per person covered (including dependents) for...

...Mr. Krauthammer makes one small but very important statement with which I disagree. He begins the end of his column with this statement: “Insuring the uninsured is a moral imperative.” Is it? Why?

Since I will be spending the Thanksgiving holiday with a group of relatives, I thought I would take the time to develop a Fact Sheet covering the things they will be dealing with by next Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, most of them are liberals and one I think is a closet DU reader. Hopefully, at least a little education can be accomplished …and… some might even change their minds and call their Congresscritter or Senator. Clearly there may be a big chunk out of their wallet and some really painful health care insurance issues to deal with next year. If nothing else,...

As a president of Krause Co., I have two primary responsibilities - a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders for best return on their capital, and the health and safety of our employees and families (approximately 600 in total). I have control over our financial performance and should be held accountable, and fortunately we are doing well. In regard to the safety of our direct employees, we too have control and accountability. Krause spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on safety training, equipment, process and procedures. I am proud of our people who take their safety and their peers'...

Is there any good source for information on how much the various health care bills will cost in total? We've heard the estimates of $850 Billion to $1.2 Trillion, but that's just the government cost. Has anyone looked at the total cost to the economy, including things like increased insurance premiums, increased cost to individuals for medical expenses (non-covered items plus having to deal with service providers that are now outside the system)?

FACEBOOK can be a double-edged sword, a Canadian woman learned when an insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in bikini at the beach. Nathalie Blanchard, 29, took long-term sick leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, more than a year ago for severe depression. She was receiving monthly benefits from her insurance company, Manulife. When Ms Blanchard called Manulife to ask why the payments dried up, the insurance company said that "I'm available to work, because of Facebook," she told CBC television. She said that Manulife cited several...

Forced health insurance on shaky legal groundPosted on Fri, Nov. 20, 2009 10:15 PM PHOENIX | In 2006, long before there was an Obama administration determined to impose a command-and-control federal health care system, a young orthopedic surgeon walked into the Goldwater Institute with an idea. The institute, America’s most potent advocate of limited government, embraced Eric Novack’s idea for protecting Arizonans from health care coercion. In 2008, Arizonans voted on Novack’s proposed amendment to the state’s Constitution: “No law shall be passed that restricts a person’s freedom of choice of private health care systems or private plans of any...

Reform: Only a Bernie Madoff could believe the Senate's health care bill will extend coverage to 31 million Americans while cutting deficits by $127 billion over 10 years. It would be the first profitable entitlement. But that's what Majority Leader Harry Reid, citing Congressional Budget Office estimates, tells us the 2,074-page bill — said to cost only $849 billion over a decade — would do. Like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he seems to be following Vice President Joe Biden's admonition at an AARP town hall meeting that "we've got to spend money to keep from going bankrupt." We suspect Reid's...

After weeks of waiting as a handful of Senate Democrats crafted legislation behind closed doors, the Democrats' health care plan has at last been unveiled. The bill was drafted in secret over seven weeks and then sent for scoring to the Congressional Budget Office, a process which went on for three and a half weeks and only produced a brief - but costly - estimate (which may be a testament to the size and convoluted nature of the final legislation). Now the question is, how long will the American people have to review the bill before it is voted on...

A friend emailed this to me. It is one of the most eloquently put descriptions of what small business is about that I have ever read. It describes the reality of the world in which we live and work today. It also describes the future we may have to deal with as it relates to taxes, healthcare, etc.

www. resistnwo.com FLASHBACK Obama Stating Hes Against Forced Insurance

Senator Jon Tester was in Butte Thursday with a whole lot on his agenda. Tester arrived at his office on Granite Street at 8 a.m. Thursday for a meeting with local representatives from eight unions across Montana. The hot topic was health care. The hot topic within that topic was to support or not support a public option. That was the question and this was part of the senator's answer.

BOZEMAN — Rural Montana, with a population that’s both short on physicians and graying faster than the rest of the country, needs health care reform, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus said Thursday. Speaking to farmers and economists at a rural health care conference, Baucus said few groups would benefit more from healthcare reform than the uninsured and the underserved, two groups rural Montana has in abundance.

State Farm might not pull out of Florida's homeowners insurance market after all, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said Thursday. McCarty said he's "cautiously optimistic" that State Farm will keep at least some of its homeowners policies in Florida.

Another member of the far left, "Obama approved" media member has jumped off the Obamacare Titanic. John Cassidy, a staff writer for The New Yorker, is a fervent supporter of socialized health care, and whose essay on Karl Marx was nominated for a National Magazine Award, gives a blunt, logical, and revealing breakdown of H.R. 3962.

This really takes the cake: “What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don't, you're subject to some penalty, that in this situation, if you have the ability to buy insurance, it's affordable and you choose not to do so, forcing you and me and everybody else to subsidize you, you know, there's a thousand dollar hidden tax that families all across America are -- are burdened by because of the fact that people don't have health insurance, you know, there's nothing wrong with a penalty.” -...

But underwriters are breaking down H1N1 applicants into three categories: those who currently have the flu, those who had a mild case and recovered, and those who were hospitalized. Those who have it now won't be considered for coverage until they get better, he says, while those who have recovered from a mild case have to wait two to three months. Those unlucky enough to be hospitalized may not qualify for life insurance for a full year.Marr's assessment is based on feedback from insurance industry underwriters. But when contacted by MoneySense, several insurance companies denied having such rules. One spokesperson...

An excellent, straightforward, and easy to understand explanation of what we can expect our lives to be like under the new Health Care Reform plan H.R.3962.

Bureaucrats in Congress can spin all they want about a public option "creating competition" but people who live and work in the real world know they're full of it. Seventy-two percent (72%) of voters nationwide say passage of the proposed health care plan could lead companies to drop private health insurance coverage for their employees. Forty-eight percent (48%) say it's very likely. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that only 16% say it’s unlikely that employers would seek to save money by shifting their workers to a government health insurance "public" option. But only three percent (3%) say...

Immorality Drives Medical Costs By Roger Fredinburg Watching the “Great Debate” over medical insurance, rising medical costs and ever broadening government control, I am reminded of some interesting facts, the details of which are not evident in the public or political discussion. I thought we ought to at least review them before the “rulers” of “Amerika” completely destroy the republic. Have you asked questions like; What is the cost of substance abuse on the medical system? What are the medical costs of sexual deviance and promiscuity? What’s the price of gluttony? How about laziness, slothfulness, sedentary lifestyles etc. what is...

IOWA CITY — Wendell Potter refers to the health insurance industry as “masters of deceit.” It’s not a slam from an outsider. Potter, 58, of Philadelphia, was once one of them. After a 20-year career in public relations that ended as chief corporate spokesman of CIGNA Corp., one of the nation’s largest health insurers, Potter left last year. “I told them I just didn’t want to do it anymore,” he said in a phone interview with The Gazette. At the time, he didn’t plan on speaking out against the industry where he had honed a successful career. But after seeing...

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled her 1,990-page health insurance industry reform plan on Thursday, with its public option provisions, it’s a shame the public was banned from the announcement of the public option. Keep out. Keep out. Surely a new day of transparency and bipartisanship was on display at the steps of the Capitol Building. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) told reporters that the bill was crafted in “the most deliberative, transparent and open process” he had seen in his 29-year career on Capitol Hill. Well, since Hoyer says there is transparency, there must be transparency, right? Since...

SMALL businesses have the highest hopes for health reform, but they'd be big losers under the bills Con gress is debating. For more than 20 years, small-business owners have listed health costs as their No. 1 concern. But leading "reform" bills would make things worse -- ballooning expenses for firms that now offer insurance and slamming companies that can't afford the benefit. The 1,990-page bill the House leadership unveiled Thursday would impose a dizzying barrage of new regulations on employers, and force them to either provide government-specified health insurance or pay a penalty of up to 8 percent of their...

"Let’s Play Monopoly"Jim Longworth October 30th / November 1st, 2009 If you want proof that Congress is collegially corrupted and gratuitously gridlocked, look no further than Sen. Harry Reid’s recent power play in which he used the McCarran-Ferguson Act as his weapon of mass distraction. McCarran-Ferguson (which I will affectionately refer to as “MF”) was passed in 1945, ostensibly to protect the “business of insurance”. In effect, the Act established that Federal anti trust laws would not necessarily apply to companies like our modern day Blue Cross Blue Shield. But MF included a loophole. It also empowered Congress to pass...

The announcement that starting Sunday, San Francisco would no longer impound the cars of drivers who do not have a driver's license - many of whom are undocumented immigrants - set off a roar of outrage in the city and beyond. It's been called a "get out of jail free pass" and "sanctuary on wheels." ... The reality is that undocumented immigrants are in double jeopardy. They are not allowed to get a driver's license - although they could in California until 1994 - but if they are stopped their car is taken away ... because they don't have a...

I recently received an email from my Congressman asking my opinion concerning an issue that has arisen from the debate over ObamaCare. That question was “Should Congress cut Medicare funding by $400 billion to fund the Democrats’ health care bill?” Those are the exact words and check boxes are provided for an answer of yes, no or don’t know. No matter how I answer the question, it can be interpreted that I support one big government program over another. The question begs another question, that being is there a right amount of funding to strip from Medicare and push to...

A) Single-payer Euro-style healthcare system but comes with a Constitutional amendment protecting human life at all stages of fetal development. -or- B) Limitless, widely-available abortion on demand - any stage, any reason. George Tillers as common as gas stations. Getting an abortion is as hassle-free as picking up a gallon of milk. But, the healthcare system remains what we have now and will never change. (We all know the holy grail of liberals is single-payer with government funded abortions - not an option here.)

Healthcare reform will come about in some shape or form at some point in time. After all, we have seen major healthcare reform initiatives since 1920 including Truman’s attempt at universal healthcare in the 1950s. Today’s healthcare reform discussions have two major flaws: 1) The word “money” is not voiced enough, and, 2) The discussion is plagued and derailed by misinformation. The operative word missing from today’s healthcare reform discussion is money. Modifying insurance and reforming our tort system is not enough to solve this quagmire. As with many problems, the key issue is simply money. Who gets what? When...

Young adults are the nation’s largest group of uninsured — there were 13.2 million of them nationally in 2007, or 29%, according to the latest figures from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group in New York. They borrow leftover prescription drugs from friends, attempt to self-diagnose ailments online, stretch their diabetes and asthma medicines for as long as possible and set their own broken bones. When emergencies strike, they rarely can afford the bills that follow.

My inbox just received this from Jonestown Washington: After months of campaigning, cajoling and lying about health care reform, Team Lightbringer is trotting out the big guns: stoners with video editing software. Stephen -- We just finished going through the submissions to OFA's Health Reform Video Challenge, and they're great. There are personal stories that grab your heart, brilliant summaries of what reform would really mean, and plenty of biting satire that calls out the insurance lobbyists. Kind of makes you wistful for the days when all they did was bitch about pharmaceutical companies being the big boogeymen (boogeypersons?) in...

WASHINGTON – House health care legislation expected within days is likely to include a new long-term care insurance program to help seniors and disabled people stay out of nursing homes, senior Democrats say. The voluntary program would begin to close a gap in the social safety net overlooked in the broader health care debate, but it must overcome objections from insurance companies that sell long-term care coverage and from fiscal conservatives.

The Associated Press posted an interesting piece revealing that the health insurance industry is far from the image that Democrats and other leftists want to present. Insurance companies are so often presented as rapacious, fat-cats ripping off all their customers and growing fat on profits. But the AP finds that reality does not quite fit the left-wing image. In fact, the insurance industry makes far less profits than other industries. As the AP notes, the Hershey chocolate company even has a higher profit margin than health insurers. Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6...

Ex-A.I.G. Chief Is Back, Luring Talent From Rescued Firm By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH Maurice R. Greenberg, who built the American International Group into an insurance behemoth with an impenetrable maze of on- and offshore companies, is at it again. Even as he has been lambasting the government for its handling of A.I.G. after its near collapse, Mr. Greenberg has been quietly building up a family of insurance companies that could compete with A.I.G. To fill the ranks of his venture, C.V. Starr & Company, he has been hiring some people he once employed. Now, Mr. Greenberg may have received some...

If recent reports are accurate, legislation being prepared in the U.S. Senate would cause nearly every healthy American under the age of 65 to become uninsured. Under current proposals, large employers would face a fine of up to $750 per employee if they didn’t offer health insurance. Since that is much less than employers currently spend on employee health insurance premiums, most businesses would choose to pay the fine and drop their group health insurance. Individuals who did not buy health insurance would face an initial fine of between $0 and $100. Since the biggest fine is much lower than...

The public option is back. Its Lazarus act is hailed as a sign of how rosy the health- care debate looks for Democrats. August is but a sepia-tinged memory. Passage of a sweeping bill is now considered a lock by the wisest Beltway pundits. And legislation may even include the most shining prize of all, the public option that liberals -- no matter what the talking points for public consumption -- consider a way station to the Valhalla of a government-controlled system. The flush on ObamaCare's cheeks, though, is not necessarily a sign of health. The return of the public...

While Democrats in Congress have spent months demonizing insurers as greedy villainous monsters, from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi to Alan Grayson, the American media stood mute rather than report on the extent of this supposed greed. Why? It’s not as if these companies don’t have annual reports, or that business media haven’t tracked their performance. The publicly-traded companies have their bottom lines exposed for all to see, and yet the media has steadfastly whistled and looked askance rather than inform people about the extent of their demonic, villainous, greedy, filthy lucre. The AP finally got around to it today...

When you get the AP doing fact checking, you have to know something's amiss in Obama fantasyland. In the POTUS's desperate attempt to simplify his demand for remaking America's health care system, he reverts to the proven Alinsky techniques of finding a demon, targeting that demon and isolating it to stir up public discontent. His latest mantras have been focused on portraying those evil health insurers in the same light as Wall Street CEO's. Trouble is, facts get in the way of the rhetoric. Per AP's Calvin Woodward today, health insurers' profits have barely exceeded 2% in the latest annual...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They're all more profitable than the health insurance industry. In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up." Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Coastal insurance bills proposed by lawmakers from Mobile and Baldwin counties don't go far enough, according to a grassroots group of local homeowners. "Right now, our legislators are listening to big money, and they need to listen to us," said A.C. Leggett, a member of the Homeowners' Hurricane Insurance Initiative, in an e-mail. "Our legislators want to do a little bit at a time. We cannot afford to do that." Insurers have vigorously, and successfully, opposed some of the same bills that the homeowners group considers too weak.