The current http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161# - - House health care bill would make individual private medical insurance illegal and obliterate the market for individual coverage, opponents warn.

Investor's Business Daily reviewed http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf - H.R. 3200, a 1,018-page bill, and sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee when it stumbled upon the following segment listed under "Protecting the Choice to Keep Current Coverage," in the "Limitation on Enrollment" section on Page 16:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

"So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised – with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers," http://www.ibdeditorials.com/ - Investor's Business Daily reported.

Section 102(a)1(A)

Opponents of the http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161# - - health - care - plan have argued that government-subsidized coverage will mean the death of the private insurance market.

IBD warns that http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161# - - employers may stop providing private plans and instead opt for Washington's coverage when tempted by a public option that is 30 percent to 40 percent cheaper than existing premiums.

According to the report, http://www.lewin.com/ - The Lewin Group has estimated that 120 million or more may lose group coverage at their places of employment and be forced to accept the government option – leaving private insurance companies with less than 50 million customers.

"What wasn't known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law," IBD states. "The legislation is also likely to finish off health savings accounts, a goal that Democrats have had for years. They want to crush that alternative because nothing gives individuals more control over their medical care, and the government less, than HSAs."

With health savings accounts out of the picture, the daily warns that welfare state expansion is imminent.

"The public option won't be an option for many, but rather a mandate for buying government care," IBD states. "A free people should be outraged at this advance of soft tyranny."

The report blasts Washington, saying it "does not have constitutional or moral authority to outlaw private markets in which parties voluntarily participate. It shouldn't be killing http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161#">business opportunities

, or limiting choices, or legislating major changes in Americans' lives."

 

Likewise, the http://www.ncpa.org/ - National Center for Policy Analysis , a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization, called the http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161# - - health - care "reform" bill a "nightmare."

"Americans who desperately need health care relief won't get it in this bill," said NCPA President John Goodman in a statement. "This legislation is going to create a financial and medical nightmare for Americans. Of course, members of Congress will be able to hold on to their Cadillac health care plans because this reform won't apply to them."

Goodman warned that employers will be forced to pay the government for health "reform" – either by buying government-approved insurance for workers or by paying a tax and sending http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161# - - employees over to the Medicare-like plan.

"This bill has all the bad ideas from previous versions, plus a cost of one trillion dollars, and no long-term solutions that will http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161# - - control - costs or improve quality," added Goodman. "This bill contains 1,018 pages of new http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161# - - regulations that will require you to buy as much health insurance as the government mandates, even before you buy groceries, gas, or pay your rent. If you don't buy government-approved insurance, you will be taxed."

Sen. Edward Kennedy

The NCPA is supporting a national petition called " http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/ - Free Our Health Care Now " that will be delivered to Congress. It currently has 400,000 signatures.

The Senate health committee approved a similar health proposal, dubbed " http://help.senate.gov/Maj_press/2009_07_15_b.pdf - The Affordable Health Choices Act ," Wednesday.

"I could not be prouder of our Committee, "Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., declared. "We have done the hard work that the American people sent us here to do. … [W]e must continue to search for solutions that unite us, so that the promise of quality affordable health care for all can be fulfilled."

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., also touted the act, saying, "We began this process with a blank sheet of http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161# - - paper and a mandate from the American people. … This time, we have produced the legislation Americans wanted. This time, we have delivered on the promise of real change."

http://www.humanevents.com/ - Human Events writer Ross Kaminsky dubbed the Senate bill "an equal disaster" to the House version. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32726 - Kaminsky outlined the following details of the House bill , referring to it as "the largest tax hike in American history":

• Imposes the following income surtaxes: An additional 1 percent for Americans making more than $280,000 or families earning more than $350,000; 1.5 percent for family incomes over $500,000 (individuals over $400,000); and 5.4 percent for family incomes over $1,000,000 (individuals earning over $800,000). According to the Tax Foundation, the plan "pushes top tax rates over 50 percent in 39 states."

• If (when) the government does not find that "Federal health reform savings" have saved at least $150 billion per year by the end of 2012, the first two surtaxes increase to 2 percent for families making over $350,000 and 3 percent for families making over $500,000.

• Creates a " http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104161# - - tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage" of 2.5 percent of income in excess of the filer's exemptions (essentially $3,300 for a spouse and for each dependent).

• Penalizes employers "8 percent of the average wages paid by the employer" during the relevant time period if the employer does not offer acceptable coverage, with an exemption for companies with annual payroll under $250,000, going up by 2 percent increments every $50,000 of payroll to reaching 8 percent at $400,000. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has concluded that this provision alone will kill 5 million American jobs.

• Subsidizes families with income up to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, i.e. up to $88,000 of income for a family of four.

• Offers these subsidies to many or most non-citizen legal immigrants.

• Create an advisory committee of people who have expertise in health care, whether as providers, market analysts, administrators, educators, etc., but which must include at least one representative of a union.

• Is reported as being expected to cost $1 trillion over 10 years, but that cost substantially understates the cost of the bill because spending doesn't ramp up until 2012. According to the CBO's initial analysis (text here), the cost in 2019 is expected to be over $200 billion net of penalties assessed against employers, with an average subsidy of $6,000 per subsidized enrollee. And the CBO admits that its estimate does not "fully capture" parts of the plan.

According to the http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/healthcare/july_2009/78_say_health_care_reform_likely_to_mean_higher_taxes_for_the_middle_class - results of a Rasmussen Poll released today , 78 percent of voters say it is at least somewhat likely that taxes will be raised on the middle class to cover the cost of government health care while 56 percent say it is very likely.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07162009/news/regionalnews/dem_health_rx_a_poion_pill_in_ny_179525.htm - The New York Post published this chart showing what government health care means to New Yorkers:

Republican staff members of the Joint Economic Committee created the following chart to illustrate the bureaucratic red tape between patients and their doctors under the House Democrats' health plan ( http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/images/DemocratHealthCarePlan,.jpg - click to see enlarged version on Dr. Orly Taitz' website ):

With the public’s trust in his handling of health care tanking ( http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-20-obama-poll-economy_N.htm - 50%-44% of Americans disapprove ), the White House has launched a new phase of its strategy designed to pass Obamacare: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071901465.html?nav=rss_email/components - all Obama, all the time. As part of that effort, Obama hosted http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/20/obama-calls-on-bloggers-t_n_241570.html - a conference call with leftist bloggers urging them to pressure Congress to pass his health plan as soon as possible.

During the call, a blogger from Maine said he kept running into an http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=332548165656854 - Investors Business Daily article that claimed Section 102 of the House health legislation would outlaw private insurance. He asked: “Is this true? Will people be able to keep their insurance and will insurers be able to write new policies even though H.R. 3200 is passed?” President Obama replied: “You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/20/obama-calls-on-bloggers-t_n_241570.html - (quote begins at 17:10)

This is a truly disturbing admission by the President, especially considering that later in the call, Obama promises yet again: “If you have health insurance, and you like it, and you have a doctor that you like, then you can keep it. Period.” How can Obama keep making this promise if he is not familiar with the health legislation that is being written in Congress? Details matter.

We are familiar with the passage IBD sites, and http://blog.heritage.org/2009/07/16/does-the-house-plan-outlaw-private-insurance/ - as we wrote last week , the House bill does not outright outlaw private individual health insurance, but it does effectively regulate it out of existence. The House bill does allow private insurance to be sold, but only “Exchange-participating health benefits plans.” In order to qualify as an ?Exchange-participating health benefits plan,? all health insurance plans must conform to a slew of new regulations, including community rating and guaranteed issue. These will all send the cost of private individual health insurance skyrocketing. Furthermore, all these new regulations would not apply just to individual insurance plans, but to all insurance plans. So the House bill will also drive up the cost of your existing employer coverage as well. Until, of course, it becomes so expensive that your company makes the perfectly economical decision to dump you into the government plan.

President Obama may not care to study how many people will lose their current health insurance if his plan becomes law, but like most Americans, we do. That is why we partnered with the Lewin Group to study how many Americans would be forced into the government “option” under the House health plan. Here is what we found:

• Approximately 103 million people would be covered under the new public plan and, as a consequence, about 83.4 million people would lose their private insurance. This would represent a 48.4 percent reduction in the number of people with private coverage.
• About 88.1 million workers would see their current private, employer-sponsored health plan go away and would be shifted to the public plan.
• Yearly premiums for the typical American with private coverage could go up by as much as $460 per privately-insured person, as a result of increased cost-shifting stemming from a public plan modeled on Medicare.

It is truly frightening that http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071901465.html?nav=rss_email/components - the President of the United States is pressuring Congress in an all-out media blitz to pass legislation that http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/20/obama-calls-on-bloggers-t_n_241570.html - he flatly admits he has not read and is not familiar with. President Obama owes it to the American people to stop making promises about what his health plan will or will not do until he has read it, and can properly defend it in public, to his own supporters.

Quick Hits:

• Thanks to a steep drop from conservative and moderate Democrats, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-20-obama-poll-economy_N.htm - a plurality of Americans (49%-47%) now disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the economy.
• The http://healthpolicyblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/07/16/mayo-clinic%E2%80%99s-reaction-to-house-tri-committee-bill/ - Mayo Clinic on the House health bill: “Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill … the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite. … The real losers will be the citizens of the United States.”
• According to Wall Street Bailout watchdog Neil Barofsky, http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tarp21-2009jul21,0,4611786.story - the Obama Treasury Department has refused to give, or seek, answers about the use of bailout funds , while http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25164.html - the total bailout commitment of the federal government has risen to $23 trillion.
• Thanks to Obama’s “ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25194.html - sweeping agenda ,” the http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-good-for-k-street-2009-07-20.html - lobbyists on K Street are “ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25194.html - awash in cash .”
• The Senate health bill gives the Health and Human Services secretary the authority to develop http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=51241 - ?standards of measuring gender? — as opposed to using the traditional “male” and “female” categories — in a database of all who apply or participate in government-run or government-supported health care plans.

     If the following information in this email is true we are headed for a new country and government that I don't like. What do you think?

      Paul Nagy

 

Following the http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/07/obama-healthcare-step-one-killing-off.html - mad recommendations of Peter Singer made in NYT's Sunday magazine, it pays to take a look at what is actually in the healthcare bill.

It's worse than you can possibly imagine. Somehow, it manages to be Singer on steroids. Who wrote this bill. It has Singer's footprints all over it.

Peter Fleckstein (aka Fleckman) is reading it and has been posting on Twitter http://twitter.com/fleckman - his findings . This is from his postings (Note: All comments are Fleckman's)

Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill - THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benes u get

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill - YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!!

Pg 42 of HC Bill - The Health Choices Commissioner will choose UR HC Benefits 4 you. U have no choice!

PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill - HC will be provided 2 ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise

Pg 58HC Bill - Govt will have real-time access 2 individs finances & a National ID Healthcard will b issued!

Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Govt will have direct access 2 ur banks accts 4 elect. funds transfer

PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan 4 retirees and their families in Unions & community orgs (ACORN).

Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Govt is creating an HC Exchange 2 bring priv HC plans under Govt control.

PG 84 Sec 203 HC bill - Govt mandates ALL benefit pkgs 4 priv. HC plans in the Exchange

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Govt will ration ur Healthcare!

PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill - Govt mandates linguistic approp svcs. Example - Translation 4 illegal aliens

Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps 2 sign up indiv. for Govt HC plan

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members - U Health care WILL b rationed

-PG 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill - Medicaid Eligible Indiv. will b automat.enrolled in Medicaid. No choice

pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No "judicial review" against Govt Monop

pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The Govt will tell YOU what u can make.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into pub opt plan. NO CHOICE

Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay 4 HC 4 part time employees AND their families.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Emplyr w payroll 400k & above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll

pg 150 Lines 9-13 Biz w payroll btw 251k & 400k who doesnt prov. pub. opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll

Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesnt have acceptable HC accrdng 2 Govt will be taxed 2.5% of inc

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from indiv. taxes. (Americans will pay)

Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access 2 ALL Americans finan/pers recs

PG 203 Line 14-15 HC - "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax" Yes, it says that

Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Govt will reduce physician svcs 4 Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected

Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill - Doctors, doesnt matter what specialty u have, you'll all be paid the same

PG 253 Line 10-18 Govt sets value of Dr's time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans.

PG 265 Sec 1131Govt mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries

PG 268 Sec 1141 Fed Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs

PG 272 SEC. 1145. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS - Cancer patients - welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151 The Govt will penalize hospitals 4 what Govt deems preventable readmissions.

Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Drs, treat a patient during initial admiss that results in a readmiss-Govt will penalize u.

Pg 317 L 13-20 OMG!! PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells Drs. what/how much they can own.

Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Govt is mandating hospitals cannot expand

pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have oppt to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can u say ACORN?!!

Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 - Govt mandates estab. of outcome based measures. HC the way they want. Rationing

Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Govt has authority 2 disqual Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs, etc. Forcing peeps in2 Govt plan

Pg 354 Sec 1177 - Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs ppl! WTF. My sis has down syndrome!!

Pg 379 Sec 1191 Govt creates more bureaucracy - Telehealth Advisory Cmtte. Can u say HC by phone?

PG 425 Lines 4-12 Govt mandates Advance Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Govt will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of atty. Mandatory!

PG 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Govt provides apprvd list of end of life resources, guiding u in death

PG 427 Lines 15-24 Govt mandates program 4 orders 4 end of life. The Govt has a say in how ur life ends

Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An "adv. care planning consult" will b used frequently as patients health deteriorates

PG 429 Lines 10-12 "adv. care consultation" may incl an ORDER 4 end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOV

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 - The govt will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.

PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Govt will decide what level of treatment u will have at end of life

Pg 469 - Community Based Home Medical Services=Non profit orgs. Hello, ACORN Medical Svcs here!!?

Page 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment 2 a community-based org. Like ACORN?

PG 489 Sec 1308 The Govt will cover Marriage & Family therapy. Which means they will insert Govt in2 ur marriage

Pg 494-498 Govt will cover Mental Health Svcs including defining, creating, rationing those svcs

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h3200ih.pdf - Here's the full Health Care bill that sits in the House.

Larry