insurance premiums

ObamaCare Vastly Expands IRS Red Tape and Power, Raises Medical and Insurance Costs, Taxes, and Deficits, and Harms Very Sick People

by Hans Bader on April 27, 2010 · 1 comment

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Economy, Employment, Health and Illness, Healthcare, Insurance, Legal, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony, Zeitgeist

“Billions of more documents” will be have to be filled out by small businesses for the IRS so that a “spendthrift Congress can shake a few extra bucks out of” them to pay for ObamaCare. They will have to spend countless hours to “gather information,” such as about the person they buy a used car from, and the mom-and-pop landlords who lease space to them, even if the small business has to spend more money gathering the information than the IRS will collect in taxes as a result.  (The new health care law will raise far more revenue by taking away medical tax-deductions from “15 million very sick people” with “major medical expenses” starting in 2013.)

The health care bill vastly expands the power of the IRS.  The Washington Examiner says that “16,500 more IRS agents” will be “needed to enforce Obamacare.”  That’s “the biggest expansion of the IRS since World War II.”

ObamaCare is also costing major employers who provide health coverage for retirees billions of dollars.  “When companies started reporting the write-downs they’d take as a result of the passage of ObamaCare,” congressional Democrats “reacted with outrage at the announcements, and scheduled hearings to demand answers . . . from AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere, and Verizon.”  But now, the massive costs of ObamaCare are so obvious and undeniable that even congressional Democrats have “admitted that CEOs who reported billions in losses due to ObamaCare were required to state those losses after all,” and that their “companies acted properly and in accordance with” federal “accounting standards.”

“Economic experts from President Obama’s own Health and Human Services Department have released a devastating report noting that Obamacare ‘will increase national health care spending by $311 billion from 2010-2019,’ according to the Associated Press. Even worse, ‘Medicare cuts may be unrealistic and unsustainable, driving about 15 percent of hospitals into the red and ‘possibly jeopardizing access’ to care for seniors.’”  This contradicts Obama’s claims that the health care law would “bend the cost curve down” and cut the cost of health insurance.

This report existed before Congress voted on the health care bill, but Obama’s HHS Secretary concealed it until after the bill’s passage.

“The administration’s own actuary reported on Thursday that millions of people could lose their health insurance, that health-care costs will rise faster than they would have if the law hadn’t passed, and that the overhaul will mean that people will have a harder and harder time finding physicians to see them.”

To try to offset and hide the increased cost of health care resulting from their ill-conceived health care law, the Obama administration and congressional leaders are now proposing a new bill to “impose price controls on insurance,” even though similar legislation is already backfiring in Massachusetts, where health care costs spiraled upwards after the state government adopted a prototype of ObamaCare several years ago, resulting in “explosive costs.”

The health care legislation backed by Obama contains many penny-wise, pound-foolish provisions.  It spends money on frills like “cultural competency,” while cutting spending on crucial things like anesthesia.

Fourteen attorneys general are challenging provisions of the new health care law in court.  Their lawsuits argue that forcing people to buy health insurance is not a valid exercise of Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce.

The new law imposes many middle-class tax increases, such as taxes on uninsured individuals, on cosmetic surgery, on medical devices, and on certain health care plans.  It also increases taxes on many investors and imposes marriage penalties.

The new health care law will reduce lifesaving medical innovation, raise taxes, drive up insurance premiums, break many campaign promises, and increase state budget deficits.  It  will jeopardize the quality of medical care, while imposing restrictions that failed when tried at the state level.  It ignores advice from doctors and federal experts, and lessons from countries with universal health care, about how to keep costs down.

While the CBO deceptively scored the health care bill as not increasing the federal deficit, thanks to the many tax increases in the bill, it did so only because it was required to accept many accounting gimmicks that even pro-administration journalists have admitted conceal the bill’s enormous cost and the fact that it will massively increase the deficit.  The New York Times‘ David Brooks, once a staunch supporter of President Obama, recently said that the bill’s drafters were “corrupted by power” and called arguments for the law “unbelievable” and “insane.”  The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle, who also voted for Obama, wrote that the law “is a fiscal disaster waiting to happen.”

Governors Criticize Health Care Bill for Increasing Unemployment and State Budget Deficits; Tax Increases and Medicare Cuts in Bill Rise

by Hans Bader on March 18, 2010

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Economy, Employment, Health and Illness, Healthcare, Insurance, Politics as Usual, Regulation, Sanctimony

Governors are now criticizing the health care bill backed by the Obama administration, saying it will cause health care costs and state deficits to skyrocket, while driving up unemployment.  Arizona Governor Janice Brewer said the bill would end up “exacerbating our state’s fiscal woes by billions of dollars.” Rhode Island’s Donald Carcieri said “this legislation is bad for Rhode Island, its taxpayers, seniors, and economy….This bill is not about health care. It’s about ideology and special interests.” Indiana’s Mitch Daniels said it would lead to insurance “premium increases ranging up to 78 percent,” “huge tax increases” for medical “device manufacturers” that employ many, and “job losses” and “a job killing tax of $2,000 per employee” that “will be levied on many companies.”

Earlier, Tennessee’s governor, Phil Bredesen (D), called the bill the “mother of all unfunded mandates,” saying it will force states to spend so much that they will have to either massively raise taxes, or run large budget deficits that violate state constitutions.

The health care bill has now been changed to add additional tax increases, such as increasing the tax on uninsured individuals by an extra $2 billion and on employers by $25 billion. Also added are new cuts to Medicare Advantage, increased by $13.7 billion (to $131.9 billion), and Medicare Advantage interactions, by $53 billion (to $70.4 billion).  This is according to the Congressional Budget Office.  But the CBO has cautioned that “the agency has not thoroughly examined the reconciliation proposal to verify its consistency with the previous draft,” so there may be additional major changes that remain undisclosed until the House votes on the bill.

While the CBO has scored the health care bill as not increasing the federal deficit, thanks to the many tax increases in the bill, it has done so only by accepting many accounting gimmicks that even pro-Obama journalists have admitted are deceptive and conceal the bill’s enormous cost and the fact that it will massively increase the deficit.

Earlier, health care cost expert James C. Capretta explained how “Obamacare Is A Budgetary Disaster” that will cost at least $1.4 trillion more than promised.

The Congressional Budget Office, which refused to question Obama’s gimmicks to lowball the cost of his health care plan, nevertheless admits that “President Obama’s policies would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.”

There are $3,000,000,000,000 in tax increases in Obama’s budget.  But he’s spending money at such a furious pace that the deficit will skyrocket anyway: “The president’s budget would borrow 42 cents for each dollar spent in 2010,” and “double the national debt over the next decade.”  Obama recently ran up the largest budget deficit in history, by a huge margin.

ObamaCare would reduce medical innovation, raise taxes, drive up insurance premiums, and break campaign promises.  It  would cut the quality of  care, while imposing restrictions that failed when tried at the state level.  It ignores advice from experts about how to cut costs.

Even Associated Press Says “Beware” of Obama’s Health Care Overhaul; Retired Judge Calls Health Care Tactic Unconstitutional

by Hans Bader on March 17, 2010

in Health and Illness, Healthcare, Insurance, Legal, Politics as Usual, Regulation, Sanctimony

Even the Associated Press admits that President Obama is not telling the truth about his health care plan and how it would affect health insurance premiums, in a news story entitled, “FACT CHECK:  Premiums Would Rise Under Obama Plan.”  (The Associated Press is so pro-Obama that it depicted criticism of Obama’s links to the unrepentant former terrorist Bill Ayers as somehow being “racist” even though Ayers is white, and so liberal that it claimed that the Democratic Party platform was “centrist”).   The AP writes, “Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print.”  The AP notes that the Congressional Budget Office “concluded that premiums for people buying their own coverage would go up by an average of 10 percent to 13 percent, compared with the levels they’d reach without the legislation.”

Earlier, the AP admitted that Obama’s health care plan “would drive up the deficit by billions of dollars,” and that Obama was not telling the truth about the extent to which abortions are covered under his plan.

The procedural gimmick that congressional leaders plan to use to enact Obamacare is unconstitutional, writes law professor Michael McConnell, who recently retired as a judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals (clearing the way for Obama to appoint a replacement), in the Wall Street Journal.  The so-called “Slaughter solution” violates Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution, and the Supreme Court’s rulings in Clinton v. New York (1998) and INS v. Chadha (1983).

A CBS News commentary notes that ObamaCare would create perverse incentives for employers to create a divisive two-tier labor market, and for some employees to keep their income from rising lest they lose more in government health care subsidies than they would gain in take-home pay due to provisions in ObamaCare that condition health-care subsidies on not increasing your income beyond a specified level, and thus constitute a “massive penalty if their income rises.”

A pro-Obama New York Times columnist admits that ObamaCare’s enormous cost is hidden by dishonest gimmicks.  Earlier, health care cost expert James C. Capretta explained how “Obamacare Is A Budgetary Disaster” that will cost at least $1.4 trillion more than promised.

A governor explains how Obamacare would cause massive harm to his state, such as “job losses,” and says it would add “more than a trillion dollars to the national debt.”

There are $3,000,000,000,000 in tax increases in Obama’s budget.  But he’s spending money at such a furious pace that the deficit will skyrocket anyway: “The president’s budget would borrow 42 cents for each dollar spent in 2010,” and “double the national debt over the next decade.”

Obama’s health care plan will further increase deficits, as even Democrats have admitted.   Obamacare would reduce medical innovation, raise taxes, drive up insurance premiums, break campaign promises, and increase state deficits.  It  would cut the quality of  care, while imposing restrictions that failed when tried at the state level.  It ignores advice from experts about how to cut costs.

The Hidden Costs of Health Care Reform: “Obamacare Is A Budgetary Disaster”

by Hans Bader on March 8, 2010 · 2 comments

in Health and Illness, Healthcare, Insurance, International, Legal, Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation, Sanctimony

The health care bills backed by President Obama will cost $2.3 trillion, not the $900 billion Obama claims, and will be a “budgetary disaster” that drives up the national debt, explains health care expert James C. Capretta.  The Obama administration managed to hide $1.4 trillion in costs generated by the health care reform bill though a series of budgetary “gimmicks” that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is required to treat as valid in scoring the bill’s enormous cost.

Although the CBO is low-balling the costs of ObamaCare, even it concedes that as a whole, “President Obama’s policies would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.”

ObamaCare spends money on frills like “cultural competency,” while cutting spending on crucial things like anesthesia.

Most Americans oppose the health care legislation backed by the president. It would reduce lifesaving medical innovation, raise taxes, drive up insurance premiums, break many campaign promises, and increase state budget deficits.  It  would jeopardize the quality of medical care, while imposing restrictions that failed when tried at the state level.  It ignores advice from doctors and federal experts, and lessons from countries with universal health care, about how to keep costs down.

Fact-checkers say Obama is lying about health care. Obama often contradicts himself. In the very same speech, Obama claimed that Medicare is “unsustainable” and “running out of money,” then contradicted himself by claiming that “Medicare is a government program that works really well,” making it a model for national health care.  The bill does nothing to curb massive waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, even though it proposes to make massive cuts in Medicare (cuts so painful that most of them will never happen: year after year, Congress waives “the annual cut in fees paid by Medicare to physicians” mandated by an earlier law).

A CNN commentary noted that Obama’s plan would take away “5 freedoms,” contradicting Obama’s claim that the bill will leave you free to choose your doctor and keep your health care plan without government interference.

ObamaCare has also attracted criticism from groups like the Civil Rights Commission for containing both racial preferences and lower standards for treatment in predominantly-minority institutions, potentially harming both white applicants and minority patients.  This racial discrimination appears to violate court rulings like the Supreme Court’s Adarand decision, and the Rothe ruling by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.