FixHealthCarePolicy

Sen. Hatch Calls for Repeal of Obamacare Mandates

“I’ve been working to dismantle Obamacare,” declared Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). “We have to fight this terrible law that’s a threat to liberty itself.”

These comments came during a June 21^st blogger conference call held by Sen. Hatch in which he sought to rally support for two bills aimed at representing “a strategic attack on the central tenants of Obamacare.”

The American Liberty Restoration Act (S. 3502) would strike forthcoming individual mandates from the current law, while the American Job Protection Act (S.3501) would repeal what Hatch calls, a “job-killing employer mandate.”

Individual and employer mandates represent two of the most focused-upon issues on which Americans are challenging both the effectiveness and constitutionality of the health care law, signed by President Barack Obama in March. Indeed, Hatch cited that “there are now 20 states, including Utah, challenging this which the President signed into law.” (more…)

Tags: employer mandate, job killer, ObamaCare, repeal, unconstitutional

Side Effects: Obamacare Creates a Costly Drop in Employer Health Coverage

The President repeatedly promised that if you liked your health plan, you would be able to keep it. Nothing would change. Fat chance.

In fact, millions of Americans of Americans will lose or be transitioned out of their existing employer based health insurance. The official Actuary at HHS- who doesn’t speak for the Administration- said it would be 14 million. But a new report by former Director of the Congressional Budget Office Douglas Holtz-Eakin predicts it could be as high as 35 million. That kind of disruption comes at a high price: It’ll cost taxpayers nearly $1 trillion more than previously estimated.

Why? Because Obamacare calls for lavish subsidies to help low- and middle-income Americans buy health insurance. Indeed, households earning up to four times the federal poverty level are eligible for subsidies. According to 2008 Census data, some 127 million Americans would qualify. Yet the official CBO analysis of Obamacare estimated only 19 million would get subsidies. (more…)

Tags: Congressional Budget Office, employer mandate, firewall provision, Side Effects, subsidies, tax penalties

More Inconvenient Obamacare Truths

Last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final cost projections for Obamacare, finding that, contrary to White House claims, the legislation will increase national health spending by $311 billion over the next decade and will cause 14 million Americans to lose their current employer-based health coverage. President Barack Obama unleashed his staff to attack Foster’s work. Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, and White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer downplayed and criticized Foster’s analysis on the White House website. As Heritage’s Rob Bluey reports this was not the first time the author of the report, Medicare and Medicaid chief actuary Rick Foster, had been attacked by a White House: (more…)

Tags: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS Chief Actuary Rick Foster, employer mandate, Individual Mandate, Medicare Advantage, ObamaCare, Politico, welfare spending

The Obamacare Sales Pitch Paid for by Your Tax Dollars

The Department of Health and Human Services recently launched its new website, www.healthreform.gov, to serve as an informative source on what’s to come under new health care law. Unfortunately, the Web site provides little substance and more of the same rhetoric we have heard from the administration regarding health care reform. Americans should not be fooled: HHS will use the new Web site to frame the issue of health care reform in a way that is favorable to the new law, shedding no light on the crucial details Americans need to know concerning the federal overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

Now that Obamacare is law, Americans will need to know exactly what the consequences will be in order to prepare for the impact on their personal lives. But instead of offering detailed information and help locating pertinent pieces of the legislation, the new HHS Web site provides little more than fluff on the issue. This may have been tolerable during the health care debate, but now it is unacceptable. (more…)

Tags: $3000 penalty, employer mandate, health reform rhetoric, HHS, ObamaCare, taxpayer-funded Web site

Interstate Compacts for Health Insurance is Yet Another Sound Idea

Throughout the debate over liberals’ health care proposals, it has become clear that while Americans want health care reform, they reject the direction of the legislation that will be voted on in the House this weekend. The current health care bill results in a government takeover of the health care system by imposing strict regulations on insurers, mandates on employers and individuals, and an expansion of costly and inefficient entitlements. States and citizens alike are rebelling against the bill in a bipartisan manner. State legislators reject the bill because it significantly reduces their authority over health insurance markets and flexibility in managing Medicaid. With only 47 percent believing that it is the federal government’s responsibility to ensure coverage, Americans are rightly alarmed by the intrusive nature of the legislation.

Former Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) recently worked with the Heritage Foundation to outline a solution that promotes individual freedom in health care markets: interstate commerce contracts among states. Interstate commerce for health insurers would create robust competition, lowering costs for the citizens of the allied states. It is a step towards reform that states can take without action from Washington. As Rep. Feeney remarks: (more…)

Tags: employer mandate, government takeover, Individual Mandate, Medicaid, ObamaCare

A First Look at the President’s Health Summit Proposal: Liberal Proposal Number Three

In the run-up to his proposed health care summit, President Barack Obama this morning unveiled an 11-page outline of his health care proposal. Within the outline, there are 33 specific policy changes. Of course, there is no legislative text yet, so the full impact of what the President is proposing will not be known for some time.

The President’s revisions are based on the Senate bill, as amended by Senate majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and passed last Christmas Eve. According to the February 22, 2010, edition of Congress Daily, on paper, at least, the President’s outline would increase the cost of the Senate bill from $871 billion to $950 billion over ten years. Of course, the real costs depend upon the years of implementation, counting both the revenues and the benefits together.

Bridging the Gap between House and Senate Liberals. The President describes his proposal as a set of policy changes that would “ bridge the gap” between the unpopular House and Senate health care bills. The President stresses that his proposal “… adds new provisions to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse.” He also says that his proposal “puts American families and small business owners in control, of their own health care.” This latter claim is, in point of fact, disingenuous. Americans would have less control over health care decisions today, what kind of plans and benefits they get, and Washington would exercise even more control over health care financing and delivery than it does today.

(more…)

Tags: Cornhusker Kickback, employer mandate, new taxes, ObamaCare, President's proposal, public plan

The Obamacare Threat to Your Job

Heritage consultant Mark Wilson published a new study Friday, detailing how the “play-or-pay” employer mandates in H.R. 3200 will put 5.2 million low-wage workers at risk of unemployment or reduced working hours. Fox News covered the story:

Also from the report:

• The mandates will cost businesses at least $49 billion per year.
• Another 10.2 million workers would be at risk of slower wage growth and cuts in other benefits.
• The mandate will cause 9 million mostly low-wage and part-time workers to lose their employment-based health insurance.

Tags: employer mandate

Congress Raises Taxes on Poor to Pay for Health Care … Again

Throughout his campaign, President Barack Obama repeatedly promised the American people: “If you’re a family that’s making $250,000 a year or less you will see no increase in your taxes. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your personal gains tax, not any of your taxes.” Just 15 days into office, President Obama signed a bill expanding the children’s health insurance program that was paid for with a 156% tax hike on tobacco. Since slightly more than half of today’s smokers (53%) earn less than $36,000 per year, Obama’s first effort at expanding government’s role in health care also became his first broken promise.

But that first Medicaid expansion was minor league compared to the estimated $1.3 trillion health care plan Congress is considering now. And how is Obama planning to pay for his health care bill? Tax hikes. Including employer health care mandates, which as Heritage scholars James Sherk and Robert Book explain, are really just a tax on low-income workers: (more…)

Tags: employer mandate, pay or play, surtax