Posted on 12/15/2021 6:03:53 AM PST by Red Badger
Rep. Jim Banks says it's unnecessary for Democrats to spend almost $40 billion to expand Medicare to cover more services when the program is currently headed toward insolvency
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Turning the tables on Democrats who argue Republican opposition to Obamacare has denied Americans health care coverage, a key GOP lawmaker is warning that President Biden's Build Back Better Act would lead to roughly 2 million people losing their employer-based medical insurance.
"Democrats have always sought to make as many people dependent on the federal government for health care as possible, while eliminating every other option that could drive down prices in the competitive marketplace," Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Banks wrote in a memo released Tuesday.
"By wrestling control away from doctors and patients, the Democrats' dystopic healthcare vision puts the onus on corporate and government bureaucrats who care more about the bottom line than they do about the health of our constituents," said the Indiana congressman.
According to the Republican Study Committee, Biden's multitrillion dollar, 2,500-page budget reconciliation bill would "massively expand Obamacare subsidies, giving wealthy Americans access to them, while undermining the ability for Americans to get coverage at their job."
A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the reconciliation bill found that its passage would result in 1.6 million people losing their current employer-based coverage.
Banks said this would force them to obtain "worse care that costs more" compared to their existing private plans.
"Democrats' expanded Obamacare payments would result in nearly 2 million people losing the health insurance they receive from their job, forcing them on to get worse care that costs more," he wrote.
Under Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, Democrats "already sent Obamacare subsidies intended for low-income Americans to individuals making as much as $500,000 for the next two years," and this bill would "make that handout permanent," Banks wrote in the memo to the Republican Study Committee.
The bill, which Democrats are seeking to pass with budget reconciliation to avoid the filibuster, would force states to expand Medicaid if they have not done so on their own yet.
Banks said the Medicaid provisions of the legislation would "punish states that haven't expanded Medicaid by withholding funding from hospitals that serve their poorest citizens."
He called the move "potentially" unconstitutional.
"The bill would punish states that have sought better options than Medicaid for their poorest residents and shift coverage for many Americans from private insurance plans to lower-quality Medicaid coverage," he wrote.
The budget bill also would expand Medicare to cover dental and vision for the first time. Banks pointed out in the memorandum that the Medicare trustees found that the program in its current form is headed toward insolvency by 2026.
"The bill would unnecessarily spend nearly $40 billion to expand traditional Medicare to cover hearing benefits even though 93% of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans already cover them," Banks wrote. "Even then, many in traditional Medicare still have access to hearing coverage through private coverage or through Medicaid.
"The Medicare expansion comes at a time when the underlying Medicare program is approaching a fiscal crisis. Medicare's trust fund is facing insolvency in 2026."
The legislation passed in the Democratic-led House and is being considered in the 50-50 Senate.
We can thank John McCain for this.
Effing traitor.
It’s really sad that we have one party rule without a opposition party doing anything. With McCarthy not publicly giving Cheney a tongue lashing for attacking the party leader we know he’s impotent and useless as a leader.
“competitive marketplace”
Wake up, you’re dreaming!
“We can thank John McCain for this.”
As I remember, the Republican bill made no allowance for higher health insurance premiums in Arizona and Alaska.
We can thank John McCain for this.
Effing traitor.
Not really. Mitch McConnell campaigned for many years to
“repeal obamacare root and branch”. I haven’t heard him utter a word about doing that since he failed to repeal it the first time.
The GOP loves socialized medicine because their big donors all want employee health care off corporate books and it has huge pots of money for the swamp to skim off of.
As for hearing aids, perhaps a standard testing format could be created.
You might pay a doctor $150 to perform such testing.
You could then order tailored hearing aids online for maybe $100 each.
For Australia:
applicable technical terms described:
https://hearingservices.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/hso/a0c23d37-12ec-48cc-a15c-adcaf6bcf2a4/Fully+subsidised+devices+0818.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CONVERT_TO=url&CACHEID=a0c23d37-12ec-48cc-a15c-adcaf6bcf2a4
list of fully subsidized devices:
https://hearingservices.gov.au/hsoViewWEB/file/fully-subsidised-schedule.pdf
additional features of partially subsidized devices:
https://hearingservices.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/hso/b97c3f2c-07ca-43bc-b2dc-8e69f0901088/Partially+subsidised+devices+0817.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
list of partially subsidized devices:
https://hearingservices.gov.au/hsoViewWEB/file/partially-subsidised-schedule.pdf
H.R.5376 — 117th Congress (2021-2022)
There is one summary for H.R.5376. Bill summaries are authored by CRS.
Introduced in House (09/27/2021)
This bill provides funding, establishes programs, and otherwise modifies provisions relating to a broad array of areas, including education, labor, child care, health care, taxes, immigration, and the environment. (The bill is commonly referred to as the Build Back Better Act.)
For example, the bill provides funding for
management of the National Forest System;
job placement and career services;
safe drinking water, energy-efficiency, and weatherization projects;
electric vehicles and zero-emission, heavy-duty vehicles;
public health infrastructure and supply chain resiliency;
housing, rental, and homeowner assistance programs;
cybersecurity programs;
tribal infrastructure, housing, environmental, and health programs;
wildfire prevention, drought relief, conservation efforts, and climate change research;
small business assistance and development;
transit services and clean energy projects in low-income communities; and
infrastructure and administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Additionally, the bill establishes programs to provide
up to six semesters of free community college,
free child care for children under the age of six,
free universal preschool services, and
health benefits for eligible individuals who reside in states that have not expanded Medicaid.
The bill also includes provisions that
establish a methane fee for certain petroleum and natural gas facilities;
expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision care;
provide certain aliens with a path to permanent resident status (e.g., those who entered the United States as minors);
provide up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave;
restructure and increase the tax rates for certain corporations and high-income individuals (e.g., individuals with income over $400,000); and
require the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate maximum prices for certain brand-name drugs under Medicare.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5376
It’s all part of Cloward-Piven. The Democrats are overwhelming all aspects of American society which is designed to collapse systems. The supply chain issue is a very big part of collapsing the economy. If you look at law and order, BLM and Antifa is the protagonists to collapse that aspect. And on and on.....
Problem is no one will stand up and state the obvious.
I would believe Baghdad Bob before anything this bumbling idiot says....................
Already have the new $170 charge is for a questionable, not fully tested Alzheimer’s drug, Most will never take as the Jabs will kill them off. It started at $35K per yr, now $75K. COPAYS went up on meds on what ever Part B you have, ours is Tricare Life, already been notified, what we don’t know is WHAT meds, procedures were cut.
My new Fluid pill is a POSION to my body, didn’t get the Cardio’s OK, just subbed it in in place of the Mylan 1, Pfizer bought out Mylan and eliminated the only successful Fluid pill I can take.
Build Back Bolshevik
Massively expand Obamacare aka socialized medical care.
If your not worth keeping alive you go the more taxes you pay the longer you live.
They want to kill off all Baby Boomers as fast as possible.............................
John McCain was the tip of a very large establishment Republican iceberg. He was most visible, but had a lot of silent support behind him.
EXACTLY. Cloward-Piven is the first thing I thought of when I read the headline. You nailed it.
After Pelosi became House Speaker you expected the chances of its passage to increase?
He was the “grand finale” behind it, but Murkowski also was part of that. Collins as well, but she’s from Maine. No excuse for Arizona and Alaska.
A SUMMARY OF THE 2021 ANNUAL REPORTS Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees
The Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, or Medicare Part A, which helps pay for services such as inpatient hospital care, will be able to pay scheduled benefits until 2026, the same year as reported last year. At that time, the fund's reserves will become depleted and continuing total program income will be sufficient to pay 91 percent of total scheduled benefits.
The Supplemental Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund has two accounts: Part B, which helps pay for services such as physician and outpatient hospital care, and Part D, which covers prescription drug benefits. SMI is adequately financed into the indefinite future because current law provides financing from general revenues and beneficiary premiums each year to meet the next year's expected costs. Due to these funding provisions and the rapid growth of its costs, SMI will place steadily increasing demands on both taxpayers and beneficiaries. Note: By law, the General Fund picks up 75% of the SMI.
The Trustees are including in the report for the fifth consecutive year a determination of projected excess general revenue Medicare funding, as is required by law whenever annual tax and premium revenues of the combined Medicare funds will be below 55 percent of projected combined annual outlays within the next seven fiscal years. Under the law, two consecutive such determinations, as is the case again this year, constitute a "Medicare funding warning." Under current law and the Trustees' projections, such determinations and warnings will recur every year through the long-range projection period.
Medicare will be the next major crisis. The sh*t hits the fan in less than 5 years and there are no easy solutions. 10,000 baby boomers retire every day and will continue to do so until 2030. The SMI costs are eating up the General Fund as more people join the system and the costs of medical services increase faster than inflation.
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