House Democrat Draft Health Reform" Legislation:
On June 19 2009 the Chairmen of the three House Committees with jurisdiction over health care legislationEducation and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-CA) Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY)introduced a joint discussion draft" of health reform legislation. The Chairmen announced their intent to commence hearings in their respective Committees beginning June 23; mark-ups and floor action are likely for the week of July 4th.
After the Fridays release of the House Democrat leaderships health reform discussion draft the
Republican Conference has compiled a list of important numbers relevant to the legislation:
852Pages in the bill
120 millionNumber of individuals who could lose their current coverage as a result of the government-run plan reimbursing at Medicare rates created in the bill according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group
4.7 millionNumber of jobs that could be lost as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health insurance coverage according to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer
$88200Definition of low-income" family of four for purposes of health insurance subsidies
TrillionsNew federal spending which likely could exceed the $1.6 trillion reported price tag of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus legislation
32Entitlement programs the bill creates expands or extends
48Additional offices bureaus commissions programs and bureaucracies the bill creates over and above the entitlement programs listed above
1367Uses of the word shall" representing new duties to be carried out by federal bureaucrats and mandates on individuals businesses and States
$10 billionMinimum loss sustained by taxpayers every year due to Medicare fraud; the government-run health plan utilizes the same ineffective anti-fraud statutes and procedures that have kept Medicare on the Government Accountability Offices list of high-risk programs for two decades
$1.75 billionMandatory spending on home visitation services that would educate parents on skills to interact with their child"
ZeroProhibitions on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid from using cost-effectiveness research to impose delays to or denials for access to life-saving treatments
2017Year Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausteda date unchanged by the legislation which re-directs savings from Medicare to finance new entitlements for younger Americans
A Government Takeover of Health Care: Executive Summary
At 852 pages the released discussion draft sets the tone for a Washington takeover of the health care systemone defined by federal regulation mandates myriad new programs and higher federal spending. The bill would ensure the heavy hand of federal bureaucrats over the United States health care system levying costly new taxes on individuals and businesses who do not comply. Many Members may question how additional federal mandates and bureaucratic diktats raising costs appreciably for all Americans would make health care more affordable." Members may also note that while the bills provisions could cost as much as $2 trillion few provisions in the draft would finance this bureaucrat-run program.
Highlights of major provisions likely to cause Member concern include:
- Creation of a government-run health plan that experts say could lead to as many as 120 million Americans losing their current coveragea clear violation of any pledge to allow individuals to keep their current health plan;
- Insurance regulations that would raise costs for nearly all Americans particularly young Americans and confine choice of plans to those approved by a board of bureaucrats;
- New price controls on health insurance companies that provide perverse incentives to keep individuals sick rather than managing chronic disease while impeding patient access to important services just because those services do not provide a direct clinical benefit;
- Additional federal mandates that would significantly erode the flexibility currently provided to employersand could result in firms dropping coverage;
- Massive expansion of Medicaidfully paid for by the federal governmentto all individuals with incomes below 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level ($29326 for a family of four) replacing the existing private health coverage of millions of Americans with taxpayer-funded health care;
- Language opening employers operating group health plans to State law remedies and private causes of actionsubjecting employers to review by 50 different State court rulings thereby raising costs and encouraging more employers to drop their current health plans;
- Establishment of bureaucrat-run health Exchange that would de facto eliminate the private health insurance market outside the Exchangeand could evolve into a single-payer approach due to the Exchanges ability to cannibalize existing employer plans;
- Creation of a new government board the Health Benefits Advisory Council" that would empower federal bureaucrats to impose new mandatesincluding a mandate to obtain and provide abortion coverageon individuals and insurance carriers;
- Taxation of individuals who do not purchase a level of health coverage that meets the diktats of a board of bureaucratsincluding those who cannot afford the coverage options provided;
- New job-killing taxes on employers who cannot afford to provide their workers health insurance which could result in as many as 4.7 million employees losing their jobs;
- Penalties as high as $500000 on employers who make honest mistakes when filing paperwork with the government health boardwhich would likely dissuade businesses from continuing to provide coverage increasing the amount of health care provided through the bureaucrat-run Exchange;
- Low-income" health insurance subsidies to a family of four making up to $88200;
- Arbitrary and harmful cuts to popular Medicare Advantage plans that CBO estimates will result in more than 2 million seniors losing their current health coverage;
- New taxes on companies who exercise their First Amendment rights to advertise products; and Expanded price controls on pharmaceutical products that would discourage companies from producing life-saving breakthrough treatments.
COST
A formal
CBO score is not yet available. However one of the bills central provisionslow-income" subsidies for families making more than $88000 per yearechoes the initial proposal prepared by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus which press coverage widely reported was estimated by CBO to cost $1.6 trillion over ten years.
Coupled with a more generous Medicaid expansion and physician reimbursement provisionswhich the Democrat majority reportedly does not intend to pay forand the cost of the bill should easily exceed the $1 trillion estimate publicly cited by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rangeland likely could double that number.
House Democrat Draft Health Reform" Legislation:
On June 19 2009 the Chairmen of the three House Committees with jurisdiction over health care legislationEducation and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-CA) Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY)introduced a joint discussion draft" of health reform legislation. The Chairmen announced their intent to commence hearings in their respective Committees beginning June 23; mark-ups and floor action are likely for the week of July 4th.
After the Fridays release of the House Democrat leaderships health reform discussion draft the Republican Conference has compiled a list of important numbers relevant to the legislation:
852Pages in the bill
120 millionNumber of individuals who could lose their current coverage as a result of the government-run plan reimbursing at Medicare rates created in the bill according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group
4.7 millionNumber of jobs that could be lost as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health insurance coverage according to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer
$88200Definition of low-income" family of four for purposes of health insurance subsidies
TrillionsNew federal spending which likely could exceed the $1.6 trillion reported price tag of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Baucus legislation
32Entitlement programs the bill creates expands or extends
48Additional offices bureaus commissions programs and bureaucracies the bill creates over and above the entitlement programs listed above
1367Uses of the word shall" representing new duties to be carried out by federal bureaucrats and mandates on individuals businesses and States
$10 billionMinimum loss sustained by taxpayers every year due to Medicare fraud; the government-run health plan utilizes the same ineffective anti-fraud statutes and procedures that have kept Medicare on the Government Accountability Offices list of high-risk programs for two decades
$1.75 billionMandatory spending on home visitation services that would educate parents on skills to interact with their child"
ZeroProhibitions on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid from using cost-effectiveness research to impose delays to or denials for access to life-saving treatments
2017Year Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausteda date unchanged by the legislation which re-directs savings from Medicare to finance new entitlements for younger Americans
A Government Takeover of Health Care: Executive Summary
At 852 pages the released discussion draft sets the tone for a Washington takeover of the health care systemone defined by federal regulation mandates myriad new programs and higher federal spending. The bill would ensure the heavy hand of federal bureaucrats over the United States health care system levying costly new taxes on individuals and businesses who do not comply. Many Members may question how additional federal mandates and bureaucratic diktats raising costs appreciably for all Americans would make health care more affordable." Members may also note that while the bills provisions could cost as much as $2 trillion few provisions in the draft would finance this bureaucrat-run program.
Highlights of major provisions likely to cause Member concern include:
