Posted on 10/08/2009 9:17:01 AM PDT by Ooh-Ah
WASHINGTON--It's October, the month of trick or treat, and Congress is trying to come up with a trick. The Congressional Budget Office's estimate of Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus's health reform bill makes it looks like a treat-it's projected to reduce the federal deficit by $81 billion over the next 10 years-but in reality it's a Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Yesterday CBO came out with its second estimate of the Baucus bill, reflecting the original bill together with amendments that have been hammered out over the past three weeks in committee deliberations. Only in government accounting could an additional 29 million people receive new health coverage with a savings of $81 billion. By this congressional logic, America could insure all 6 billion people in the world at a savings of trillions of dollars.
CBO estimates that the $829 billion bill (over ten years) would be paid for partly with additional taxes-on expensive health insurance plans, on employers who do not provide the right kind of health insurance, and on people who do not sign up for insurance-and partly through savings in Medicare and Medicaid.
The Baucus bill would require everyone to purchase health insurance or face penalties. Americans with incomes up to 300% of the poverty line (currently $66,000 for a family of four) who are not covered by an employer plan would receive tax credits to purchase health insurance plans in an "exchange."
Plans purchased in the exchange would be Cadillac plans, with generous coverage and no lifetime or annual limits on any benefits. Only Americans under 25 would be allowed to purchase "young invincible" plans, catastrophic insurance against major accidents. Most Americans would have to pay a far higher cost for health insurance, since plans would have to accept everyone, regardless of health or pre-existing conditions.
The Baucus bill would be paid for in two major ways-an excise tax on expensive plans and savings from Medicare. CBO underestimates the true cost of both components.
Take the excise tax increase, for instance. The more expensive health care plans would face an excise tax of 40% on premiums above $8,000 for singles and $21,000 for families, bringing in $201 billion from 2013 through 2019. Today health insurance premiums cost on average $4,824 for singles and $13,375 for families.
What CBO doesn't tell Americans is that their health insurance premiums would increase substantially in the decades ahead. The level of health insurance premiums does not have to be incorporated in CBO estimates, because it is not a tax and it is not paid by the federal government. In 2019, in addition to $46 billion in excise taxes, Americans would be paying over $100 billion in higher premiums.
Since CBO forecasts increases in excise tax revenues of 10% to 15% annually after 2019, health insurance premiums must also rise by the same percent annually. This government mandate will amount to a steady drain on Americans' pocketbooks, a tax under another name.
Turning from taxes to savings, nearly 90% of the $404 billion Medicare and Medicaid savings would be from Medicare in the period 2013 to 2019. Thereafter, savings would be expected to continue at the rate of 10% to 15%. Of all demographic groups in America, the elderly would be the biggest losers under the Baucus plan.
CBO estimates that Medicare Advantage plans, popular bundled health maintenance organizations serving 20% of Medicare patients, would be cut by $117 billion.
Under "Ensuring Medicare Sustainability," more than $200 billion would be cut from payments to hospitals, elder care, doctors, and hospices. Payments to Medicare doctors would be cut by 25% in 2011.
Another $55 billion would be saved by "Improving Payment Accuracy," as if one can magically reduce government spending by increasing accuracy. A Medicare Commission would propose further cuts.
The government would persuade doctors to cut Medicare costs by associating more tests with lower reimbursements. Ranked in order of spending per patient, every year the top 10% of physicians would have their reimbursements cut. Since by definition there would always be 10% of physicians in the top 10%, they would have an incentive to avoid the sickest patients or the specialties with the most tests.
America's elderly might soon discover that if they were sick they would be shunned by many doctors, if the bill operated as planned.
But it's more likely that the $360 billion of Medicare savings would not materialize, and that the Baucus bill would add to the deficit rather than reducing it. After all, Congress regularly overrides an existing law requiring Medicare payments to doctors to be cut when the program is in deficit, as it is today. Why should the new law be any different?
As CBO director Douglas Elmendorf so aptly wrote in his letter to Mr. Baucus yesterday, the "mechanism governing Medicare's payments to physicians has frequently been modified (either through legislation or administrative action) to avoid reductions in those payments...The long-term budgetary impact could be quite different if those provisions were ultimately changed and or not fully implemented."
Should some version of the Baucus bill pass, Medicare spending could decline as projected, with catastrophic consequences for seniors' health care. Or, Congress could back away from cuts as it has in the past, with catastrophic consequences for the deficit. Either way, it's no treat for America.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth is a contributing editor of RealClearMarkets, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute and is a senior fellow and director of Hudson Institute's Center for Employment Policy.
Rush just mentioned that 75 amendments were added in the dead of night without a vote.
First of all, even if the Baucus bill costs nothing for let’s say 3 years, what happens afterwards. We know, for a fact, that once it rolls out, it will bust the budget worse than Medicare currently is. Unless you buy into the pie-in-the-sky lie that government will cut costs. If so, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Secondly, this is a steaming load. No one actually believes it. If you do, I have another bridge to sell you, right next door to the other one.
.
ATTENTION FELLOW TEXANS:
Governor Rick Perry may invoke the 10th Amendment over
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2299225/posts?q=1&;page=51
.
.
Get after Perry, Texans. Burn up his switch board and fax!
Let him know we don’t want Obama DeathCare.
Say no to Obama’s DeathCare.
Send a message; DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS healthcare!
No! NO you don’t, you muzzie pos.
You’re not denying our seniors deserved health care while insuring millions of illegal aliens and while Demorats are REJECTING Obamacare for themselves and their families!
.
.
.
Join organizations who fight ObamaCare.
This is a good organization:
The Alliance of Texans Against Government Controlled Healthcare:
http://www.notintexas.org/
office (972) 466-2915
fax (972) 466-2965
toll-free (866) 377-1300
From the website:
We are currently contacting Governor Rick Perry by fax and mail!
We have made it easy for you to help. Click here to display the letter and contact information.
http://www.notintexas.org/Letter_rick_perry.htm
Petition to STOP government controlled healthcare in Texas
Read and sign the petition
http://www.notintexas.org/Letter_to_Reps.htm
.
Print and sign the letter
(feel free to make changes if you wish)
Fax the letter to the fax numbers
Mail a hard copy to the addresses
Call their offices
Dear Governor Perry,
On March 30, 2009 the Texas House of Representatives passed HCR 50 affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment.
You have publicly supported this bill, and stated that attorney generals from all over the union could be getting ready to sue the US Government.
We are asking you to take the lead.
We are asking you to order the Texas Attorney General to publicly begin working on a law suit under Article IV, Ninth, and Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.
We are asking you to protect the citizens of Texas that we will not stand for government controlled healthcare in our state.
Under your leadership we can effectively kill the proposal of this administration and allow Texas to be a state free from socialism and collectivism.
Be the voice of reason in the national debate and allow Texans the ability to solve the problems of our state.
Thank you,
(Signature Date)
.
Lookup your state representatives
FREE FAX SERVICSES:
http://www.gotfreefax.com/
http://faxzero.com/
or google ‘free fax’
Contacting Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-2000
Fax: (512) 463-1849
Washington Office:
122 C St., NW, Ste. 200
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 638-3927
Fax: (202) 628-1943
Contact Budget Planning and Policy
Address:1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701
Phone: (512) 463-1778
Fax: (512) 463-1975
Gregory S. Davidson
Constituent Communication Division Director and
Executive Clerk to the Governor
Phone: (512) 463-1873
Office of the General Counsel
Department Mailing Address
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711
Phone: 512.463.2000
Fax: 512.463.1932
Press Secretary
Allison Castle, Press Secretary
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-1826
Fax: (512) 463-1847
Contact Texas Health Care Policy Council
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-1778
Fax: (512) 463-1975
Sign up. Become a member.
Sign petition against Obamacare!
See member interview with Cavuto!
____________________
From Texans Against Government Controlled Health Care
Facts about the 10th Amendment:
The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution’s principle of Federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people.
HCR 50 HAS PASSED THE HOUSE 99-36!
Affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution, serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates, and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.
Take Action! Before it is too late!
__________________________
REMEMBER THIS,TEXANS:
Feds Have Built Only 32 Miles of 700 Mile Double-Border Fence Originally Mandated by Congress
“One reason DHS has been able to do this is an amendment that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R.-Texas) slipped into an omnibus appropriations bill that Congress passed on December 18, 2007. Hutchison’s amendment put a loophole in the fence law that allowed the secretary of Homeland Security not to build the fence Congress had mandated the year before.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/43422
REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE FOR GOVERNOR
.
Watch them closely folks as I understand it they only have until Oct 15th to pass it with only 51 votes after that they need 60 votes.
It’s not even a ‘bill’ yet. More deception to try and garner support with fake headlines!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.