"All sides go on attack as senator issues health plan" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | September 17, 2009
WASHINGTON - .... Liberal Democrats and unions recoiled at Baucus’s proposal to compromise with moderates on the government-sponsored insurance option by establishing nonprofit insurance co-ops instead.
Related: The Massachusetts Model: Doctors' Diet
National Health Care: Liberals Left in the Waiting Room
And lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle raised concerns about taxes on insurers and medical device makers....
Told you those were going nowhere.
Despite all the negative reviews, the Baucus plan might still represent the best chance of a workable compromise.
Then there is not going to be one.
The Congressional Budget Office said yesterday the measure, which would cost $774 billion over 10 years instead of the $1 trillion associated with other bills, has enough taxes, fees, and cuts to reduce the deficit by almost $50 billion by 2019. That would ease a major concern of some centrist Democrats and perhaps a moderate Republican or two.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the majority recognize that their political fortunes depend on passing sweeping health care legislation, so they still have a strong incentive to work toward a final product.
Look at them hoping, praying, if I write it, it will become true!
And they are probably right, because THIS IS ABOUT GETTING a NEW REVENUE STREAM into the BANKRUPT FEDS! Has nothing to do with health care!
Yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia who is among the most highly respected Democratic senators on health care, carried in his pocket a printed list of his objections to Baucus’s proposal, which he said he could not support in its present form. But he said he would turn his litany of complaints into a stack of amendments, and would probably not stand in the way of a bill.
Check Rockefeller for a spine, will you?
“People could shout and scream and yell, but when it comes right down to it, they’re really voting yes or no on the American people,’’ he said.
Right, do we TAX THEM MORE or LESS!!!?
The much-anticipated unveiling yesterday will start another arduous, detailed process. Next week, the Finance Committee will begin voting on the bill, section by section, amending it along the way in hope of finding enough votes to pass it. Then the Finance Committee’s bill must be melded with the bill produced by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The final bill will be amended on the Senate floor, and if it passes, will be blended with the House version in a conference committee.
The Baucus bill would cover 94 percent of Americans by expanding Medicaid, requiring everyone to obtain insurance or pay a tax penalty; establishing a new, more tightly regulated insurance market for individuals and small businesses that would prohibit insurers from discriminating against the sick; and by providing subsidies to help people of modest incomes afford to buy insurance.
Yup, $3,800 smackers!
It does not contain an employer mandate but would force employers with more than 50 workers who do not offer affordable insurance to reimburse the government if their employees take advantage of the new subsidies....
But it contains a mandated tax?!
Yesterday consumer groups and patient advocacy organizations held a press conference at the Capitol to draw attention to what they see as the bill’s main flaw: It is, they said, unaffordable for millions of Americans. People earning 150 to 200 percent of the poverty level - or between $30,000 and $40,000 for a family of four - would have to pay 5.5 percent of their income under the Baucus proposal, plus out-of-pocket costs, compared with 1 to 3 percent of income under the proposals put forward by other committees....
To help underwrite the cost of expanding coverage, the bill would raise $215 billion by taxing insurers 35 percent on insurance plans that cost more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families; insurers would pay the tax on the difference between the threshold and the cost of the plan.
Translation; the SHELL GAME has STARTED!
Baucus said, and most economists agree, that the tax would help “bend the cost curve’’ of steeply increasing health costs over the long term by discouraging employers from offering generous “Cadillac’’ plans that take advantage of the federal income tax break on health benefits.
Oh, you mean, LIKE WHAT CONGRESS GETS?!!
A three-year phase-in period for high-cost states would cushion the impact somewhat for people in Massachusetts and other state where health care costs are far above average....
Yeah, here is why:
Why the Nation Doesn't Need Massachusetts Health Care
Massachusetts Health Care Takes a Seat on the S***ter
That's to be your model, America?
- The Massachusetts Model: Lessons Learned
- The Massachusetts Model: Working Or Not?
- The Massachusetts Model: Comes At a Premium
- The Massachusetts Model: Screwing Small Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Going Out of Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Crazy Coverage
- The Massachusetts Model: Immigrant Insult
- The Massachusetts Model: Profit and the Paycheck
- The Massachusetts Model: Doctors' Diet
- The Massachusetts Model: By the Numbers
- The Massachusetts Model: Treasurer's Assessment
- The Massachusetts Model: Care-Keeping Costs
- The Massachusetts Model: Mass. Hospitality
"Democrats oppose tax in health bill; Say provision would hit middle class" by Erica Werner and Charles Babington, Associated Press | September 18, 2009
WASHINGTON - Unhappy Senate Democrats found plenty to complain about yesterday in the fine print of the latest health overhaul bill, particularly a tax provision they fear would hit hard at middle-class Americans, from coal miners in West Virginia to firefighters in New York.
I don't want to say I told you so, but I....
The opposition sprang up a day after Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee chairman, unveiled long-delayed legislation that would transform the nation’s health care system, requiring almost everyone to buy insurance....
To pay for the 10-year, $856 billion bill Baucus wants to tax high-value insurance plans, those worth $21,000 for a family and $8,000 for an individual. The Montana Democrat says those are “Cadillac plans’’ enjoyed by a small minority of Americans. Aides said about 10 percent of plans and 8 percent of taxpayers could be affected.
Wow, the COST went UP $82 billion OVER NIGHT?
The tax, which President Obama embraced in his speech to Congress last week, is a major source of revenue for Baucus’s bill.... Baucus and other supporters of the measure say it would help drive down health care costs over the long term by encouraging companies to move toward less expensive health plans and workers to use less care.
Using less care sure sounds like RATIONING to me!!!
But other Democratic senators fear that the tax would reach deep into middle-class pocketbooks, and labor unions are upset....
Ah, who listens to them anymore?
Insurers and business groups also oppose the new tax and other fees in the bill, and the US Chamber of Commerce is wasting no time making its objections known.
Then THIS BILL is GOING NOWHERE!!!
The chamber announced it will begin airing a new TV ad today in more than a dozen states lambasting “Washington politicians’’ who “want new taxes on health care companies - taxes that will get passed on to you.’’
I've had enough of those the last month (see below).
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Liberal lawmakers are concerned about the absence of a new government-run insurance plan. Instead of the so-called public plan, Baucus went with nonprofit cooperatives....
At a campaign-style rally yesterday at the University of Maryland, Obama called reinventing health care a “defining struggle of this generation,’’ though he barely mentioned Baucus’s bill.
You can't turn around these days without bumping into some defining struggle.
Many of the students would be faced with the requirement to buy health insurance under the Baucus plan after graduation.
I'll bet they didn't like that news. Already in debt over the worthless degree.
Obama told about 15,000 college students that Congress must resist scare tactics and false accusations to remake the nation’s health care system.
Apply that to 9/11 and the war lies, 'kay, 'bamer?
Obama aimed many of his remarks directly at young adults, a group that activists would like to see more involved in the push for a health care overhaul.
Yeah, ME, too!!
Get those earphones off and put down the game controller, will ya?
Also yesterday, Obama continued reaching out to Republicans, though they seemed unimpressed, by announcing $25 million in grants for states and health care systems to experiment....
Oh, the NERVE!
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And about those TV ads:
"Drug companies, doctors join in prohealth overhaul ad campaign
Now they are against it?
A powerful, deep-pocketed new coalition launched a $12 million TV ad campaign yesterday in a dozen states in support of a health care overhaul.
Couldn't put that into actual care?
Calling itself Americans for Stable Quality Care, the group includes three vested interests in the debate: PhRMA, the drug companies' lobby; the American Medical Association, the big doctors' group; and the Federation of American Hospitals. It also includes two groups supportive of President Obama, Families USA and the Service Employees International Union.
But THAT is ALL OKAY!! God help you if you organize a town hall.
Notably, the coalition does not include the insurance industry, which has been increasingly cast by Obama and the Democrats as the bad guy in the debate....
Well, in the last two weeks, anyway!
Even as public skepticism over the Democrats' health overhaul plans boils over at town hall meetings nationwide, the ad is the latest example of the odd bedfellows help Obama is getting. For PhRMAM, the ads are a piece of a larger effort whose cost could reach $150 million or above through the fall.
No thought of spending that on actual care, huh? What could you do with $150 million dollars, huh?
Drug-makers and other groups stand to gain if millions more people gain access to insurance."
Now IF that were REALLY TRUE, why have they WAITED SO LONG and WHY WOULD THEY NOT WANT SINGLE-PAYER, huh?
"Health care debate heats up on the airways" by Globe Staff | August 22, 2009
Even with President Obama joining Congress on holiday, the health care battle will continue to be waged on the airwaves. Advocacy groups on both sides unveiled new TV spots that will air next week, with six-figure buys.
Why not USE THAT MONEY for ACTUAL CARE, huh?
Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, a group founded by former health executive Rick Scott that has helped organize protests at congressional town halls....
The group plans to air the spot in the Boston area, including on NESN during games next week between the Red Sox and Obama’s beloved Chicago White Sox, CNN reported.
F*** the sports s***, 'kay?
On the other side, Americans United for Change, a liberal-labor coalition supporting Obama....
Yeah, we know how much respect they are getting.
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