FixHealthCarePolicy

Home Court Advantage Didn’t Help Obama

President Obama used his health care summit to gave his side every advantage possible. Whenever opponents spoke, he got to respond. By appointing himself the moderator, Obama gave himself the first word, the last word, and the most words.

Overall, Obama gave Democrats over twice as much speaking time as Republicans. The 17 GOP’ers attending received a collective 110 minutes. By himself, Obama hogged 119 minutes of microphone time and gave his 21 fellow Democrats an additional 114 minutes. When called to account for this, Obama proclaimed it fair because, “I’m the President.”

Obama exercised free rein to cut off opponents, speak sharply, and to pass judgment on which arguments were deemed legitimate or unworthy or even ridiculed. He wasn’t just a player; he also was the referee. (more…)

Tags: campaign promise, Congressional Budget Office, Health Care Summit, private health insurance, uninsured

Morning Bell: Coal for Christmas from the Senate

This morning just after 7 AM EST, the United States Senate passed, again on a straight party-line vote, President Barack Obama’s health insurance bill. Originally scheduled for a 9 PM vote tonight, the bill’s Senate passage is a welcome Christmas gift for a beleaguered White House. However, as the First Family jets off for Hawaii, the American people, liberals, moderates, and conservatives are all saying this bill is closer to a lump of coal in their stocking than real health care reform.

The American Public Does Not Want This Bill: When the American people first turned their attention to President Obama’s health care plan, bare majorities of the American public told pollsters they supported his health care reform plan. But as the debate wore on, and the American people looked past the rhetoric and examined the details of Obama’s proposal, support for the legislation steadily declined. By mid July, more Americans opposed than supported the plan. Now that the House and Senate have both approved separate versions of the bill, strong majorities of Americans now oppose Obama’s plan. (more…)

Tags: Christmas Eve vote, Congressional Budget Office, party-line vote, senate health care bill

Morning Bell: Obamacare’s Constitutional Problems Proliferating

After the Democrats cleared the second of three 60 vote hurdles last night, Republicans ceded enough debate time back to the majority so that passage of Obamacare through the Senate will take place n Christmas Eve at 8 AM. Conservatives have every right to be disappointed that Senate Republicans did not force the maximum amount of debate possible. But they can take heart in a key point of order that will be voted on later today. Sponsored by Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and John Ensign (R-NV), that vote will lay the groundwork for the possible legal dismantling of Obama’s health program.

As we’ve detailed before, the very core of the Senate health plan includes an unprecedented expansion of the power of the federal government over the lives of every American. For the first time in history, every American would be forced to buy federally regulated and approved health insurance or face a $750 fine. As the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) wrote in 1994: “A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action. The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.” The individual mandate and other questionable measures in the bill raise serious questions as to whether Obamacare could survive a Constitutional test: (more…)

Tags: Congressional Budget Office, Fifth Amendment, Obama Health Care Plan, Sen. Jim DeMint, Sen. John Ensign

CBO: Reid Bill Forces 10 Million Out of Current Health Care

You don’t hear President Barack Obama make this promise anymore, but when he was first selling his health insurance plan, Obama repeatedly promised the American people: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” Lost in the November 18th Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) version of Obamacare, was the CBOs latest confirmation that Obama’s statement is blatantly false.

Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-WY) asked the CBO to clarify their analysis of employer-based coverage changes and this week the CBO wrote back:

“We estimate that between 9 million and 10 million other people who would be covered by an employment-based plan under current law would not have an offer of such coverage under the proposal.”

The plain English translation of the above CBO speak is: “Under Obamacare, employers will dump 10 million of their employees out of their current coverage whether they like it or not.” No wonder Obama has stopped making his “if you like your health care you can keep it” promise.

Tags: Congressional Budget Office, ObamaCare, President Barack Obama

Reid Health Bill Raises Premiums

Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a new report detailing why individuals who purchase insurance in the non-group market would see much higher premiums in 2016 under Obamacare, than they would under current law. On average, those in large-group employer-sponsored plans would see their premiums remain flat. But this is an average of two subgroups that hides major losses by millions of Americans: 1) employees with generous coverage would see benefits cut due to the tax on high-value plans, and 2) employees with pared-down plans would see their premiums increase due to increased coverage mandates and taxes on medical devices and insurers that would be passed on to employees.

CBO assumes that large group plans will shift some of their older, sicker workers to the non-group market. Approximately one-fifth of the non-group market will consist of workers who formerly had insurance through their employer. This “crowding out” occurs as government subsidized plans displace private insurance. By shifting these high-cost workers to the non-group market, group plans can offset the higher taxes under Senator Reid’s plan and thus keep premiums flat for insurance purchasers. (more…)

Tags: Congressional Budget Office, higher health care costs, higher insurance premiums, individual mandates, Obama Health Care Plan, trillion dollar deficits

Family Health Care: A Giant Game of Chance

The House and Senate health care legislation resembles a game show more than deliberate exercise in public policy. As confusing and confused legislation language is translated into dollars and cents, how much Americans will find themselves paying for health care? It looks more and more like a giant game of chance.

Not only is Congress leaving the current inequities created by the federal tax treatment of health insurance in place, it is busy creating new ones.

Family Premiums. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that under the House bill, the average premium in 2016 will be $15,000 and the average cost sharing will be $5,500 for a family policy or a total of $20,500. Under the Senate bill, the average premium will be $14,100 and the average cost sharing will be $5,000 for a family policy or a total of $19,100. Is the higher cost House plan better? How do we know? If the Senate can come in $1,400 lower than the House, could the price tag be lowered by another $1,400? If not, why not?

Under the House bill, a family of four with income of $30,000 will receive the $20,500 value for just $1,100, or less than $100 per month. The family will receive premium and cost sharing subsidies from their neighbors worth $19,400. Under the Senate bill, a family of four with income of $30,000 will receive premium and cost sharing subsidies worth $16,800, still quite generous. These subsidies are so generous in fact, that the House and Senate leaders don’t want millions of Americans to have them to buy private health insurance. (more…)

Tags: congress, Congressional Budget Office, family health care, family premiums, Medicaid, meidcare

The Senate Health Bill: The True Costs Are Unknown

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled his 2,074 page health care bill with claims that the massive measure falls under the $900 billion cost threshold promised by the President.

To put it charitably, the truth is more complicated. The bill depends on budget gimmicks and unrealistic assumptions and projected savings to reach this goal over the 10 year budget window.

Consider the four most outrageous “Budget Tricks”. By its construction, the bill:

• Excludes the Costly “Doctor Fix”. Like the House bill, the Senate bill conveniently ignores the over $200 billion price tag associated with stopping the unavoidable cuts to physicians under the Medicare program. Separating the health care bill like this enables Senator Reid to claim his bill will reduce the deficit. However, in a letter released today, CBO estimates that combining the House bill (H.R. 3961) with the “Dr. Fix” bill (H.R. 3962) would actually “add $89 billion to budget deficits over the 2010–2019 period.” (more…)

Tags: CLASS Act, Congressional Budget Office, doc fix, Medicare, Obama Health Care Plan, trillion dollar deficits

Next Week’s House Health Care Shell Game

Next week, the House of Representatives is scheduled to take up a bill (H.R. 3961) which would enact a permanent “fix” to the unquestionably flawed Medicare physician payment update formula. The Congress created a formula for physician Medicare payment that would automatically cut doctor payments, but has routinely acted to prevent its own handiwork from going into effect each year. So, under current law, any permanent fix would sharply increase Medicare spending.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill would cost an additional $210 billion over the next ten years. In fact, the measure was originally included in earlier versions of the House health care bill , but it was later carved out of the legislation in order to reduce bill’s ten year cost and make the Congressional leadership’s health care agenda appear more fiscally responsible than it is. The Senate leadership tried to pull a similar stunt a couple of weeks ago, got called on it in the press, and the ploy failed. (more…)

Tags: Congressional Budget Office, doc fix, Medicare, Obama Health Care Plan, trillion dollar deficits

Where Is Reid’s Obamacare Bill?

It has been one week since the Senate Majority Leader announced he sent his health care bill to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the American people are still not allowed to see Sen. Reid’s (D-NV) version of Obamacare. Late last week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) authored a letter to Reid demanding that Senators be given the opportunity to read the same bill that Reid sent to CBO. The American people have a constitutional right pursuant to the First Amendment to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.” In the name of transparency and participatory democracy, Senator Reid should release his bill to the American public.

All 40 Republican Senators signed the following letter last week:

On Monday, you announced that you had sent health care legislation to the Congressional Budget Office. As you know, this legislation will have a profound impact on the lives of every American, including the next generation who will be forced to pay for it. Our national debt stands at nearly $12 trillion, with a deficit of nearly $1.4 trillion. The health care bill will likely be more than 1,000 pages and is the single most important legislation we will consider and debate this year in Congress. (more…)

Tags: Congressional Budget Office, Harry Reid, Obama Health Care Plan, transparency