Also see:
- National Health Care: The Democrats' Final Option
- National Health Care: The Baucus Raucous
- National Health Care: Who Will Pay the Bill?
- National Health Care: Liberals Left in the Waiting...
- National Health Care: City Slicker vs. Country Bum...
- National Health Care: Governors' Gripes
WASHINGTON - Democrats agonized yesterday over how to soothe worried seniors, but decided one idea was too risky because it could antagonize the powerful drug industry, whose support is critical for President Obama’s broader overhaul.
Now you know for whom and why we are getting healthcare "reform."
Because of Medicare, virtually all seniors have reliable insurance coverage - and most are happy with it. But with Democrats planning to finance an overhaul by cutting $500 billion from Medicare and Medicaid, many seniors are worried their benefits will be devalued. Republicans have seized on the issue, forcing Democrats to scramble....
And DemocraPs are supposed to be for the little guy?
Many Democrats deny that their legislation would cut benefits for seniors, but Congress’s top nonpartisan budget official said this week that proposed cuts to the private insurers’ Medicare Advantage program could result in such reductions. The Globe reported yesterday that more than 10 million seniors - including 175,000 in Massachusetts - could see their Medicare Advantage plans shrink or be replaced with traditional coverage.
Translation: DemocraPs lie.
As the Senate Finance Committee slogged through the third day of slow-moving deliberations on a draft representing about $900 billion in cost, it rebuffed an attempt to shield seniors by squeezing more money from the drug industry.
That's because the politicians are WORKING FOR the CORPORATIONS, not you, 'murkn!
The panel voted 13-to-10 to reject an amendment that would have required the industry to rebate $106 billion over 10 years to the government for medications used by low-income Medicare beneficiaries.
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Yeah, this WHOLE THING is to MAKE THEM MONEY!
"Medical gear makers howl at push for tax; Say plan to fund health bill could cost jobs in Mass." by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | September 25, 2009
A plan to tax makers of medical devices to help pay for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system is raising alarms in Massachusetts, where device companies say the estimated $400 million they would have to pay could force them to cut jobs and reduce research....
Yeah, the ONLY ONE who is going to have to pay a TAX will be YOU, American citizen!
State industry leaders, including heavyweights such as Boston Scientific Corp., of Natick, and Covidien, of Mansfield, have been lobbying to get the tax deleted from the bill introduced by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, who chairs the finance panel. Manufacturers argue it could cripple innovation in a sector that includes 225 companies with a total of 20,000 employees in Massachusetts.
Related: Scientific Swindles
Oh, they OVERCHARGED MEDICARE, huh?
We usually call that PRICE GOUGING!!
Paul Donovan, senior vice president at Boston Scientific, which makes stents, defibrillators, and other devices and has 2,000 Massachusetts employees, said the impact of a tax would be dramatic. “On a scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11 for us,’’ Donovan said.
He said policy makers in Washington have been trying to encourage more high-paying research jobs in the United States, but such a tax would have the opposite effect. “It doesn’t make sense to ram through a proposal that’s going to harm the very jobs they’re trying to protect,’’ Donovan said....
First of all, I AM TIRED of hearing LOOTING CORPORATIONS cry POVERTY, 'kay?!!!!
And secondly, I AGREE on the TAX PART; however, that is ALL THIS GOVERNMENT KNOWS!!!!
Some backers of national health care legislation said parties that stand to benefit from expanded medical coverage have a responsibility to help fund it, including device makers, whose markets could expand as newly insured residents gain access to medical care and undergo more medical procedures. Raising money from device makers, drug firms, and insurers may be the only viable way to finance the overhaul in a political climate where taxing citizens is considered untenable, they said.
Yeah, right!! They are DOING IT ALL the TIME!!!!
“There’s always going to be a constituency out there that will oppose any revenue-raising tool if it’s going to come out of their pocket,’’ said Linda J. Blumberg, senior fellow for health policy at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research group in Washington. “That doesn’t mean it’s a bad tool. If you’re trying to make health care more affordable for everyone, you can’t do that without raising money.’’
And you know who is at the end of the line, right, taxpayers?
The excise tax proposal - whose annual flat fee of $4 billion on medical equipment manufacturers would start next year - applies to companies with more than $5 million in annual US sales. The equipment covered ranges from imaging machines to pacemakers, and the tax would vary, based on revenues. Some companies, which pay taxes on their profits, say an added excise tax on revenues would roughly double their tax bills.
Smaller companies that are still working to become profitable worry a device tax could impose an additional burden. “For us, this would represent about 10 percent of our US employees’ salaries,’’ said Michael R. Minogue, chief executive of Abiomed Inc., a Danvers maker of heart pumps. It has about 400 employees, including 200 in Massachusetts. “It’s equivalent to 15 percent of our research and development budget. And it could potentially be more than we spend to provide health care to all our employees.’’
Of course, when it comes to burdening the American taxpayer, no problem!
When the tax measure surfaced in the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month, the Massachusetts Medical Device Council wrote to Senator John F. Kerry protesting the provision. The letter, cosigned by 49 medical gear companies based in the state, said the tax “would have a significant and unfair impact’’ on device companies, which account for about 10 percent of all goods exported from Massachusetts.
Kerry, an advocate of health care overhaul, sits on the finance committee and supported another provision in the bill that would tax some health insurance plans. But he expressed qualms in a committee meeting this week about the proposed tax on medical device makers.
Well, you SEE WHO KERRY WORKS for, right, Bay-Stater?
“Different industries are different, period, and a broad brush can be counterproductive,’’ Kerry said in a statement. “In this case, the medical device companies pave the way on new technology that saves life and money, so anything that could stifle research and development concerns us.’’
He would not say how he planned to vote on an expected amendment to strike the devices excise tax from the health bill.
Thomas J. Sommer, president of the state’s device maker council, MassMEDIC, said medical equipment producers have been working with Kerry and other senators to highlight an irony: A health care bill aimed at controlling costs contains a provision that could drive up expenses. “Hospitals, doctors, and clinics are going to be looking at higher costs for medical devices, and they’re going to pass these costs on to the end users,’’ Sommer said.
So REFORM will be doing NOTHING FOR YOU, America!
By raising companies’ expenses, the tax could prompt them to reduce research and development staffs, which would have a disproportionate impact on a research-intensive state such as Massachusetts, some device makers warned.
Taxpayers mostly pay for that anyway.
“If it comes out of research and development, that’s not a good thing,’’ said Eric Kraus, senior vice president of Covidien, an Irish maker of laparoscopic equipment that has its US headquarters in Mansfield. “It could result in the loss of a significant number of jobs.’’
Where you guys been for the last 30 years?
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Of course, we aren't getting what we want (or need).
See: The Massachusetts Model: Doctors' Diet
"Senate panel rejects public insurer option; Action puts focus on co-op proposals" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | September 30, 2009
WASHINGTON - A key Senate committee yesterday turned back attempts to include a public insurance option in its sweeping health care proposal, as a handful of moderate Democrats joined Republicans in arguing that a government plan would represent too much of an intrusion into the private sector.
But INTRUDING into the BANKING or AUTO SECTOR is JUST FINE!!!
The votes by the Senate Finance Committee were a setback for advocates of creating a public plan to compete with private insurance companies under the new health care system that President Obama and Democrats have envisioned.
And SINGLE-PAYER may well not even exist.
But proponents vowed to continue the fight....
Pffft!
***********
Jacob Hacker, a political scientist at Yale University who is credited with coming up with the concept of the public option, said offering a last-resort government insurance plan could make the overall health care bill more attractive to those who fear the bill could benefit insurers at the expense of consumers struggling to pay their bills.
Oh, it UNDOUBTEDLY WILL!
“The debate is moving toward this question of what do you have to do to make the individual mandate both politically and morally acceptable,’’ he said. “The public plan is the linchpin for two reasons: one, it provides an alternative to existing private plans, especially the for-profits, and two, it’s a way of providing a low-cost option so it reduces the affordability concerns.’’
And we ain't getting one.
Senator Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, said that the health care bill, by requiring all Americans to obtain insurance or face a tax penalty, and by setting aside nearly $500 billion in subsidies over 10 years to help low-income people afford to buy that insurance, would be a vast boon for those insurers.
How come the ONLY ONE PAYING TAXES is YOU, 'murkn!
“If we’re not doing this, then what we’re doing is saying, ‘Go ahead, insurance companies, make more profits,’ ’’ he said. “People come second, and profits come first, if we’re against this, in my judgment.’’
Something we ALL KNOW! It is SO DAMN OBVIOUS!
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"Senate Finance panel rejects govt insurance option" by David Espo, AP Special Correspondent | September 29, 2009
WASHINGTON --Liberal Democrats failed Tuesday to inject a government-run insurance option into sweeping health care legislation taking shape in the Senate Finance Committee, despite widespread accusations that private insurers routinely deny coverage in pursuit of higher profits....
--more--"I've never seen a more powerless and impotent group in my life.
And what's the next few days bring?
"Senate leaders facing crunch on health plans; Must merge two versions of legislation" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | October 2, 2009
WASHINGTON - The coming days will feature intense closed-door wrangling among Senate Democrats....
Related: A Healthy Democracy
Liberal groups intensified pressure on Democrats yesterday to include a public option.
Pfffft!
Little late, ain't it?
Where is my SINGLE-PAYER PLAN, liberals?
And I can see why the Globe reporter cut this next statement:
Liberals do not like any of those compromises....
Who cares what liberals think?
Their own leaders don't, so why should I?
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