Some Headache Inducing ObamaCare Details

At one time, back when I was a kid, one went to the doctor, got treated, mostly paid cash or wrote a check, and was done. It was affordable. Then the government started controlling it more and more, causing costs to skyrocket. Of course the Statists said they had to step in because insurance companies were doing unfair stuff, like not paying for abortions and contraception. One of the Statists' big deals was treating pre-existing conditions. Big government stepped in, saying health costs are too high, people aren't getting the kind of treatment they, the government wanted, so in the name of good treatment and low costs, they implemented a takeover, ObamaCare, that raises costs and reduces quality treatment. Just a note here, insurance used to be for the purpose of covering oneself for bad stuff happening in the future. Now it's for anything that happens anytime for any reason.

Obama during his campaign in 2008 said absolutely no taxes will be raised on those making less than $250,000 a year. Here's what ObamaCare will charge these "rich" people beginning next year. There will be a 3.8% "investment surtax", and that's broken into brackets. There will be a 0.9% Medicare surtax added then too, once again bracketed. Well, he did say their taxes will go up. Oh my goodness, he actually told the truth about something!

Everyone, whether you want to or not, will have to by health insurance. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts determined that if you don't purchase health insurance, you'll have to pay a penalty, except it's not a penalty, it's a tax. Huh? If you don't have something, you'll get taxed on the nothing you don't have? What the hell is that?

Here's some of the "tax" breakdown for not having a product the government says you must purchase, and what happens when you don't.

2014: Families––$285 or 1 percent of total household income, whichever is greater. Individual adults- $95                                                                  

2015: Families––$975 or 2 percent of income, whichever is greater. Individual adults-$325

2016: Families––$2,085 or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is greater. Individual adults––$695.

Increasing taxes, yearly. Even after the lawless, misbegotten ruling of the Supreme Court, saying the individual mandate is a tax, the Dems and Obama are still saying it's not a tax.

If you don't have employee insurance, there will be a list of government approved insurance carriers to buy from. If you are financially strapped, you get an exemption. Gee, wonder how many people will get an opt out 'cause they're too poor, and the rest of us working our asses off will have to pay for them?

There are added restrictions for flex pay programs. Heaven forbid you have any latitude to spend your own saved money on health services and products of your own choosing. There's a lower cap on what you can put in your flex program, and the IRS! of all organizations mandates what can and cannot be purchased through the flex program.

Pharmaceutical companies will have fees (taxes) assessed against them, increasing each year. Of course, to pay for them, they'll raise costs to consumers. Yep, that'll sure drive down the cost of meds.

Full article here.   

"Debbie Downer" Wasserman Shultz, DNC Chair Again Babbling Stupidly

In yet another amazing interview with the Chair of the DNC, Debbie Downer doesn’t get it when she decries corporations imposing their values on employees, but is perfectly happy and endorses the government imposing it’s values on citizens. One can leave a company or find alternatives, in this case, to health care provisions. When dealing with the government, obey or get fined\imprisoned. 

http://youtu.be/fKvbPzsl5aQ

At one time insurance meant we combined our money to cover things that are catastrophic such as fire, flood, car accidents, debilitating diseases or being disabled. Now it includes, because the government says so, products designed to keep one from getting knocked up? I’m supposed to provide rubbers and pills to people that are poking? Give me a break.

Health Care and Insurance Industry Profits

Part of the web of lies about health insurance and health care that the Dems are weaving are that they take in obscene profits. From Forbes, here's the profit breakdown. I noticed too that the oil industry's profit margin isn't that high either. I think too that these knuckleheads in congress with six figure salaries have a way too high profit margin. What do they produce but headaches for the rest of us? Most of their legislation is damaging to the socio-economic structure of this country.

2008 Industry Rank as % of Revenues
1 Network and Other Communications Equipment 20.4
2 Internet Services and Retailing 19.4
3 Pharmaceuticals 19.3
4 Medical Products and Equipment 16.3
5 Railroads 12.6
6 Financial Data Services 11.7
7 Mining, Crude-Oil production 11.5
8 Securities 10.7
9 Oil and Gas Equipment, Services 10.2
10 Scientific, Photographic, and Control Equipment 9.9
11 Household and Personal Products 8.7
12 Utilities: Gas and Electric 8.7
13 Aerospace and Defense 7.6
14 Food Services 7.1
15 Industrial Machinery 6.9
16 Food Consumer Products 6.7
17 Electronics, Electrical Equipment 6.5
18 Commercial Banks 5.2
19 Telecommunications 5.1
20 Chemicals 5.0
21 Construction and Farm Machinery 5.0
22 Insurance: Life, Health (stock) 4.6
23 Information Technology Services 4.5
24 Computers, Office Equipment 4.3
25 Metals 3.9
26 Wholesalers: Diversified 3.5
27 Insurance: Property and Casualty (stock) 3.3
28 Specialty Retailers 3.2
29 General Merchandisers 3.2
30 Health Care: Pharmacy and Other Services 3.0
31 Packaging, Containers 3.0
32 Beverages 2.9
33 Engineering, Construction 2.7
34 Health Care: Medical Facilities 2.4
35 Health Care: Insurance and Managed Care 2.2
36 Petroleum Refining 2.1
37 Food and Drug Stores 1.5
38 Pipelines 1.5
39 Wholesalers: Health Care 1.3
40 Semiconductors and Other Electronic Components 1.0
41 Energy 0.9
42 Home Equipment, Furnishings 0.7
43 Food Production 0.6
44 Wholesalers: Electronics and Office Equipment -0.3
45 Diversified Financials -0.6
46 Motor Vehicles and Parts -0.7
47 Insurance: Life, Health (mutual) -3.0
48 Hotels, Casinos, Resorts -4.5
49 Automotive Retailing, Services -7.9
50 Forest and Paper Products -9.6
51 Entertainment -10.0
52 Real Estate -13.4
53 Airlines -13.5

Some Vaguely Heretical Thoughts on Health Care by John Cassidy

The New Yorker’s John Cassidy wrote this. He's a Statist in support of the government taking over health care and health insurance. The difference is that he tells the truth regarding what this is about. It's not about health, it's about making more people dependent on the government. Below are some quotes, full article here.

"The future cost savings that the Administration and its congressional allies are promising to deliver are based on wishful thinking and sleight of hand. Over time, the reform, as proposed, would almost certainly add substantially to the budget deficit, thereby worsening the long-term fiscal crisis that the country faces. (emphasis mine)
…
The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment to help provide health coverage for the vast majority of its citizens. I support this commitment, and I think the federal government’s spending priorities should be altered to make it happen. But let’s not pretend that it isn’t a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won’t. (emphasis mine)
Many Democratic insiders know all this, or most of it. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration before it (and many other Administrations before that) is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind. At some point in the future, the fiscal consequences of the reform will have to be dealt with in a more meaningful way, but by then the principle of (near) universal coverage will be well established. Even a twenty-first-century Ronald Reagan will have great difficult overturning it." (emphasis mine)

No American Should Have to Choose Between Health Insurance and Getting Drunk (vid)

Heritage Foundation Fiscal Analysis of ObamaCare

Throughout his campaign, and even in to the first few months in office, President Barack Obama repeatedly promised the American people that his health care plan would reduce their health insurance premiums by $2,500 a year. It has been a while since President Obama made that promise, and any honest look at the health legislation being considered in Congress explains why.

The Senate Finance Committee bill written by Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) (the Baucus bill) first drives up the cost of health insurance for all Americans and then forces everyone to buy it or face tax penalties or jail time. While the Baucus bill does cap out-of-pocket costs based on a person’s income, the effect on American families is still staggering. According to the Center for Data Analysis, the Baucus bill would:

For individuals making $34,140 (three times the Federal Poverty Level) the Baucus health care proposal could mandate up to $4,097 in annual premiums, a sum which could have been spent on over nine months of food, almost four months of housing or well over a year of utilities.

For a family of four making $69,480 (300% above poverty) the Baucus bill mandates annual health insurance premiums of $8,338, which would be worth the equivalent of over ten months of food, four months of housing or almost two years of utilities.

For individuals earning $45,520(400% above poverty) Baucus mandates $5,462 for health insurance, or over a year of food, four months of rent or a year and a half of utilities.

For families earning $92,640 (400% above poverty) Baucus mandates $11,117 in health premiums, the equivalent of over a year of food, five months of housing or two years of utilities.

And those numbers include the subsidies for health insurance in the Baucus bill. To pay for all this new health care spending, plus the massive expansion of Medicaid, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Baucus bill will collect $4 billion in fines from those who do not purchase insurance, $200 billion taxing health insurance companies with generous health plans, and $25 billion in taxes on employers. Not to mention the billions in cuts to Medicare payments to hospitals which will result in significant cost shifting to consumers.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has done a study on what all these new taxes and regulations will do to Americans health insurance premiums and the results are not pretty. Instead of reducing the average family’s health insurance premiums by $2,500 per year, as President Obama promised, the Baucus bill would actually raise them by $4,000 more than they would have been without reform.

The Baucus bill spends at least $1 trillion, fails to cover all Americans, taxes employers for creating jobs, and inflicts higher out-of-pocket health care costs on all Americans. We can do better.

Denied!

Some still think the government running health care will get more people taken care of. Someone has actually looked at the numbers. Who has the most denial of care? Cigna, Aetna, Humana? The AMA itself in its 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card (PDF of report here) has shown that Medicare, gov't run, gov't controlled, healthcare program has about double the amount of care denials than all the private insurers combined.

Every nationalized health care program is a failure and has the highest rate of denials. Every government program that's supposed to help 'the masses' is broke and bankrupt. Of course, none of these programs is about helping, it's about controlling people. This specifically is about taking over another large chunk of the insurance industry. Does anyone really think politicians in DC give a fly about anyone's health but their own?