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Health-care bill passed 60-39 could mirror Canadian style rationing system
Posted by | Posted in Health | Posted on 16-04-2009
The health-care bill, which is President Obama’s top domestic priority, would extend insurance to about 30 million people who now lack it, expand the reach of Medicaid for the poor, and impose new rules on health insurance companies. It would cost about $871 billion over 10 years, but raise more than that in new taxes and fees and cuts in Medicare. Democrats win the vote 60-39 over Republican objections.
With the economy struggling to break the chains of a job-destroying recession. Under Obama-care, Americans will be forced to buy government-approved health insurance and anyone earning a middle class wage will have to pay for it out of their own pocket. Federal subsidies will only be provided for people who are not offered coverage by their employer and earn below the 400 percent poverty level. Families whose employers drop their plan will be forced to buy it on their own – at a cost of over $15,000 dollars a year. “The Senate health care bill gives employers two powerful incentives to stop offering health insurance coverage to their workers,” writes Terry Jeffrey
“First, if an employer does offer coverage, its lower-wage workers will lose the federal insurance subsidy they would otherwise get.
Secondly, if an employer does not offer coverage, the $750-per-worker fine it faces will be far less than the premiums it would pay if it did offer coverage.”
Families struggling in this deep recession who earn a combined total greater than $88,200 and don’t have their health care covered by their employer will be hit with a mandatory annual fee of about $15,000 according to the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the final Senate health-care bill.
There is nothing voluntary about Obama’s health-care mandate:
The Senate has dismissed concerns over the individual insurance mandate and the tax penalty imposed on those who don’t meet that requirement. If you refuse to pay the penalty or you refuse to provide any information on your health-care status on your tax return, you will face the prospect of being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. This is supposedly a “voluntary mandate” and the IRS can’t do anything against you if you refuse to pay the penalty. They claim that because page 340 (A) and (B) of the bill waives criminal prosecution of taxpayers and says that no liens or levies can be filed on the taxpayer’s property. That claim is wrong.
Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) itself made clear that the financing of health-care reform is based in substantial part on generating $167 billion in “penalty payments” from individual taxpayers and employers.
The IRS, which is known for its habit of disregarding court decisions that disagree with its interpretations of the law, may use audits and the ability to find problems in a taxpayer’s finances in areas totally unrelated to the health care mandate to force compliance with the mandate and coerce payment of the tax penalty imposed by Reid’s bill. according to The Heritage Foundation, The very idea of using the taxing powers of the state to force compliance with this law is one that should shock the conscience of everyone, even those who support “reforming” our health care system.Obama’s answer to the question posed by George Stephanopoulos
in an interview, “Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money [to buy insurance], fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?’’
“George,’’ chided Obama, “the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary . . . indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now.’’
Merriam-Webster’s definition of “tax’’ – “a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.’’
One place to look to see what the universal coverage would do is the state of Massachusetts, about 200,000 state taxpayers remained uninsured in the beginning year of 2008, it hasn’t made insurance more affordable, Massachusetts has the highest health insurance premiums in the nation. It rose by 7.4 percent in 2007, 8-12 percent in 2008 and will expect to rise 9 percent this year who knows what 2010 will bring, according to Jeff Jacoby who’s article entitled Mandatory insurance: Yes, it’s a tax, addresses the promise Obama’s made not to raise taxes on any American family earning less than $230,000 a year, contradicts that by supporting legislation that would force every American to carry health insurance or pay a hefty penalty to the IRS.
Some of the taxes that will be imposed on the public under the new health-care bill that has people taken back with concern: according to H.R. 3590 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Section 1501 – Requirement to maintain minimum essential coverage – Individuals will be required to maintain health insurance. Those that do not will be assessed an annual tax penalty of $750. The tax penalty is scheduled to escalate in subsequent years. Consequently, Massachusetts residents that do not maintain health insurance will be assessed a tax at both the state and federal level.
Section 9001 – Excise tax on high cost employer-sponsored health coverage – This provision levies an excise tax of 40 percent for any health coverage plan that is costs over $8,500 per year for single coverage and $23,000 per year for family coverage. Since this was protested vigorously by unions and public employees, the Senate caved and granted a massive concession. The tax is not levied on the individual receiving the tax free benefit, but is levied on the insurance company or plan administrators that provide the employee the benefit. How absurd is that?
Section 9008 – Imposition of annual fee on branded prescription pharmaceutical manufacturers and importers – This piece of the legislation imposes a $2.3 billion excise tax on the pharmaceutical industry. The tax is allocated across the industry and is based on market share, not on income. This tax starts immediately and is non-deductible for the corporation being taxed. These companies will still be required to pay their federal income taxes.
Section 9009 – Imposition of annual fee on medical device manufacturers and importers – This section imposes a $2 billion excise tax on the medical device industry. The fee is allocated across the industry based on market share, not on income. This tax starts immediately and is non-deductible for the corporation being taxed.
Section 9010 – Imposition of annual fee on health insurance providers – Another excise tax. This one is assessed on the health insurance industry in the amount of $6.7 billion taxed out and is also based on market share. How can the imposition of $11 billion in excise taxes (section 9008, 9009 and 9010) on the health care industry reduce costs to consumers? Does anyone else suspect these companies will have to pass these costs over to consumers?
Section 9013 – Modification of itemized deduction for medical expenses – For those incurring significant medical costs, your ability to deduct these expenses will be decreased. This legislation increases the adjusted gross income threshold for claiming an itemized deduction from 7.5 percent to 10 percent.
Section 9015 – Additional hospital insurance tax on high-income taxpayers – This increases the Medicare tax on wages by 0.50 percent on individuals making in excess of $200,000 and married couples making over $250,000. This will be effective starting January 1, 2013. (As a side note, individual income taxes are already scheduled to increase in 2011, with the highest rate already increasing by 4.6 percent. This will be in addition to the tax increase as outlined here in Section 9015.)
“Average premiums per policy in the non-group market in 2016 would be roughly $5,800 for single policies and $15,200 for family policies under the proposal,” according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO).
Watch the video related to health care
Linda Pino Admits to Congress that she personally denied Health care to one of their patients ultimately leading to his death. She also admits to many more people who should have been approved care but was denied. She was given a promotion because she saved the Insurance company MILLIONS of dollars. All agents were given bonuses for saving the company by denying care. It is utterly sickening and profound. But thats how they make their money.
Help answer the question about health care
How will health care reform effect wages of health care workers?Im currently in college obtaining a degree in communication disorders, and then will obtain my masters to become a speech language pathologist. I am worried we will convert over to socialized medicine (for lack of a better term) by then and my wages will be next to nothing. Does anyone have any ideas how health care reform will effect wages in the health care industry?
First of all health care is a provincial responsibility so it depends on the rules of her province. In Ontario she has to reside in ON for at least half the year to be covered by the ON health plan. It would be prudent to check this out.
Marriage would not affect her citizenship.
Okay if you won't have any clinical skills or any managerial/administration skills, just what will you do? You'll have a lot of knowledge but nothing to do with it.
@mtb416
Um. I am simply pointing out that rationing is inevitable, whatever system you adopt. You can apply the rationing argument to finding a table at a restaurant – you still have to wait for a waiter to show you to a table. There is always a finite number of waiters.
@ToothbrushMan There most certainly is rationing; it could not exist otherwise. Your argument rests on the tried and true “Americans are wrong” argument? Good one!
I'm from California & I'm not sure about your question, but I'll say some stuff I know. Half of my relatives are in Canada & although I'm poor, several of my Canadian Uncles, Cousins, etc., are doing quite well financially. Every one of them LOVE the health care in Canada & look with disgust at the USA. Health care in America is much more expensive & less available because it is a FOR PROFIT industry. Drugs are extremely overpriced & the insurance companies care about your health as much as they care about the stuff they just expelled into their toilets. They will DENY you coverage on anything. All they need to do is find an excuse to drop you, that is, when you make a claim. They've got the most educated lawyers who do nothing but try to save the Insurance companies money. We are the most backward "First World" country on this planet morally in regards to caring about it's own citizens. Here is a site to look into. & there are many more on the internet. http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php If you're mostly concerned about Canada's situation, keep looking on the web. I'm sure you'll find something. And remember, insurance companies are only concerned with profit!
@fywacia You sound like such an indoctrinated lefty. I hear the top 1% goes out every Christmas with bats and go house to house, smashing the presents for middle-class children.
First off, illegal aliens are not immigrants. Immigrants follow laws. They get free health care by not paying bills when going to emergency rooms, giving false names and addresses etc… It also cost American taxpayers over $6000.00 per birth for each anchor baby born. That is if there are no complications.
In a recent year in Colorado, the state's emergency Medicaid program paid an estimated $30 million in hospital and physician delivery costs for about 6,000 illegal immigrant mothers – average of $5,000 per baby. Those 6,000 births to illegal aliens represent 40% of the births paid for by Medicaid in Colorado. Those 6,000 babies immediately became U.S. citizens and qualified for full Medicaid services, with a cost yet to be tabulated.
The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) mandates that U.S. hospitals with emergency-room services must treat anyone who requires care, including illegal aliens. Medical service for Americans in affected communities is being severely damaged as hospitals absorb more than $200 million in unreimbursed costs. Some emergency rooms have shut down because they cannot afford to stay open. Local tax-paying Americans are either denied medical care or have to wait in long lines for service as the illegals flood the facilities. In California, the losses are calculated to be about $79 million, with $74 million in Texas, $31 million in Arizona, and $6 million in New Mexico.
These costs are staggering. The Cochise County, Arizona Health Department spends as much as 30 percent of its annual $9 million budget on illegal aliens. The Copper Queen Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona, has spent $200,000 in uncompensated services out of a net operating budget of $300,000. The University Medical Center in Tucson may lose as much as $10 million and the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, also in Tucson, has lost $1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2002.
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ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION HEALTHCARE COSTS AFFECT YOU!
Published 06/01/2010 – CST By Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D.
In both Tucson and Dallas where I have practiced medicine, hospitals are struggling under massive costs of uncompensatedmedical services for uninsured people who, by federal law, cannot be turned away for lack of insurance or ability to pay.
How much does this uncompensated care actually cost taxpayers? The incredible answer: no one knows.
We only have “estimates” of the costs to taxpayers to treat illegal immigrants because hospitals and public health clinics do not ask for proof of citizenship before providing care.
What are consequences to taxpaying citizens?
1. Increased cost and reduced access to trauma care. Tucson has lost all but one Level I Trauma Center to serve all of southern Arizona, in large part due to massive, unsustainable losses from uncompensated care. Auto accidents involving overloaded vans of illegal aliens happen regularly in southern Arizona. Injured are flown by air ambulance to University Medical Center’s Trauma Center and treated with state of the art care….all at taxpayer expense.
2. A registered nurse involved with the Pima County health system since the 1970’s who must remain anonymous because of her role, said she has never seen any staff member at either El Rio Clinic or Pima County Health Department ask for proof of citizenship before providing free medical services (immunizations, Well Baby checks, food stamps, WIC services, birth control, and even elective abortions). Costs are paid by taxpayers. When funds are depleted, low income American citizens have fewer services and longer waits as a result.
3. This same RN also said: “I personally know Mexican men who married 16 year old girls, got them pregnant, brought them to Tucson for the baby to become a US citizen. They livein Mexico but come here for their health care. Taxpayers pay for this medical care many ways, at the Public Health Department, and with school nurses who provide care.”
4. Uncompensated medical services for illegal immigrants mean higher premiums for all of us due to cost shifting among all third party payers. To cover the deficits from “free” medical services they provide, the administration at University Physicians Health System Kino campus is analyzing how much to increase employeehealth insurance premiums as of July 1.
5. Obamacare cuts benefits to American citizens: $500 billion in Medicare cuts and slashing the Medicare Advantage program. Medicare Advantage, chosen by one in five seniors, is the most popular plan for low and moderate income seniors, and covers about half of our Hispanic or African-American elderly. My patients on Medicare have worked and paid into the system over their working careers, yet these cuts mean less healthcare available to them now. We certainly cannot afford to cover those here illegally.
6. Hospitals in Tucson and Dallas also provide uncompensated (“free”) maternity services to pregnant women here illegally. Their babies then become US citizens entitled to all of the services available for low income American families – food stamps, WIC, immunizations, office visits, medications, etc. This drives up costs to all of us: higher premiums for private insurance companies, and higher taxes for government insurance like Arizona’s Medicaid (AHCCCS).
7. Professional estimates are that over halfof the pregnant women served at Parkland Hospital in Dallas are in this country illegally. With over 16,000 deliveries a year, Parkland is one of the nation’s busiest maternity services with prenatal clinics for low income women to receive free prenatal care, nutrition, medication, birthing classes, child care classes, and free supplies (formula, diapers, bottles, car seats). Taxpayers pay the bills.
@fywacia i dont fucking care about anyone elses health. lets talk economics here k? stossel is right, you need to pay for it your self. im going to pay through my life, i dont need some nanny govt doing anything for me
They have a 100 percent covered plan for them and their families for life (assuming they serve at least 6 years), along with an excellent pension plan for life.
They will care about the crisis if it is something the voters want! After all, if they are not acting in the interest of the voters, they will lose their seat and their health care plan.
Unfortunately, there is so much disagreement between the "left" and the "right" that it is difficult for congress to do anything. In addition, many people (even those who truly need health care reforms) vote based on moral values, leaving health care to be ignored.
interviewing doctors who will stop making as much money under the new system, and not even mentioning that, can not be considered good journalism
Yes. If you have unlimited resources as an American you have the best health care in the world. If you are an ordinary citizen you simply don't. Even the average health care plan generally does not cover the basics like European systems do. All too often Americans find out just how under insured they are when sickness strikes.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/In-the-Literature/2008/Jun/How-Many-Are-Underinsured–Trends-Among-U-S–Adults–2003-and-2007.aspx
That's important because when those people are lucky enough to stay healthy they will never see a problem whatsoever just as their fellow countrymen were just fine with their coverage before tradgedy happened.
http://www.click2houston.com/investigates/12538706/detail.html
http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/your_story/my-insurance-company-denied-my-doctors-prescription
http://www.rhonawaxman.com/blog/insurance-company-medical-exam-denied-me-surgery.html
This is the same thing as with the standard of living. Americans have a higher income on average than Americans but more detailed data shows it's the top 1 percent income earners that's responsible for the whole difference. Middle clas an poor Americans are much worse of than their European counterparts
That's ultimately what it is about
@panzerfavst Yep he’s right and the whole industrialized world is wrong. I’m going to go even more conservative than you, that’s why I propose “The Trickle Down Healthcare Plan”. You see only people who are in the top 1% income bracket should be legally allowed to get medical attention. That way the other 99% will eventually die out much faster than before which will eventually close the healthcare gap in America. It also gets rid of poverty, so it’s like killing two children with on stone.
What is going to happen is the Government is going to set the rates doctors can charge for services. Doctors cannot afford the rates so they will overbook people to get the most money they can so you will go to the Dr office and wait for several hours and maybe even have to return the next day. Dr groups will get bigger and overbooking will be even more and waiting will be longer. Just think of going to the Dr and there being 100 patients in the waiting room to see a Dr.
Of course John Mackey knows what he is talking about and is rational, he’s a Texan.
@panzerfavst And further more, we should not only ban abortion but we should ban children from getting healthcare unless their parents are in the top 1% income bracket. It’s a waste of rich people’s money to invest in saving those little parasites who feed off of welfare like it’s a host. Now while they must die we can’t abort them because God would smite us for it. So, I propose that we put poor infants in dumpsters and let Jesus do the killing, slowly and methodically of course. Amen.
what is the future of health care?
what diseases do we need to be aware of?
how do i stay healthy?
where do i turn if a loved one is diagnosed with a serious illness?
Depends on the perspective. The "socialized" (please use in quotation marks) perspective is that users of health care are the community as a whole; thus, 'just' is defined as minimizing the losing individuals. "Free market's" views are that the users are individuals or groups of individuals; thus, 'just' is defined as maximizing the number of individuals 'satisfied.'
From both common political and ethical perspective, a child is often unable to contribute to the discussion of 'individuals to be lost' in "socialized health care" or 'user satisfaction' in the "free market." Given the assumptions that pediatric care is satisfactory for most children, "socialized health care" is more just because the intrinsic cost-of-life-saved would then be higher even though some children would fall through the cracks. HOWEVER, given the assumption above and also that the income difference between the richest and poorest people is minimal, the "free market" is more just because parents can decide what is most 'satisfactory' without too much undue financial burden.
hes completely right europe is stupid we have superior care