Government Takeover of Health Care

Congress Clears Historic Health Care Bill

On a late-night 219-212 vote, House Democrats approved the most dramatic health policy changes in four decades. The vote sends the bill, already passed by the Senate, to Obama to sign into law... House Democrats hugged and cheered in celebration as their vote count hit the magic number of 216, and chanted: "Yes we can." Every Republican opposed the bill, and 34 Democrats joined them in voting against it... The bill's final approval represented a stunning turnaround from January, when it was considered dead after Democrats lost their crucial 60th Senate vote in a special Massachusetts Senate election. But Obama and Democrats rallied last month for a final push, and will use the Senate's budget reconciliation rules to bypass the need for 60 votes on the changes they sought to the overhaul... The healthcare revamp, Obama's top domestic priority, would usher in the biggest changes in the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system since the 1965 creation of the government-run Medicare health program for the elderly and disabled. It would require most Americans to have health coverage, give subsidies to help lower-income workers pay for coverage, and create state-based exchanges where the uninsured can compare and shop for plans. - Reuters, House approves sweeping healthcare overhaul, March 22, 2010

March 22, 2010

Reuters - The initial blush of President Barack Obama's health care triumph immediately gives way to a sober political reality — he must sell the landmark legislation to an angry and unpredictable electorate, still reeling from the recession.

Voters may not buy it.

And that could mean a disastrous midterm election year for Obama and his fellow Democrats.

"We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people," the president said late Sunday, beginning his sales pitch from the White House one hour after Congress passed the sweeping measure.

"This isn't radical reform but it is major reform," he added. "This is what change looks like."

Obama and the Democrats are certain to look for a much-needed political lift from the legislation, a capstone for a young presidency and a party after decades of trying to remake the nation's health care system.

But there's no guarantee they'll get it.

For now at least, Obama is savoring victory; he looks strong, principled and effective for getting something huge done in a city Americans detest.

Still, the near-term reward could easily be forgotten come November.

This campaign season already has been unforgiving for the White House and the Democratic Party, with a monumental loss in the Massachusetts Senate election and a spate of debilitating congressional retirements. And conditions seem ripe for the electorate to punish the party in power.

Voters are furious. They hate Washington. They also detest incumbents. They're concerned most about the economy. And unemployment that's hovering near 10 percent. They're also split over whether Obama's health plan is good for a nation with enormous budget deficits and climbing debt.

How those variables play out is anyone's guess.

Even so, Obama reassured rank-and-file Democrats before they cast what he rightly called a tough vote.

"It will end up being the smart thing to do politically because I believe that good policy is good politics," the president said Saturday at the Capitol.

Nearby, enraged tea party protesters filled the grounds and the steps of adjacent office buildings, railing against the measure and promising to fire lawmakers who backed it. Protesters were back Sunday, the message the same.

Ahead of the vote, a Gallup poll showed more Americans believe the measure will make things worse rather than better for the country as a whole and for them personally. And most polls show most people don't like the plan although some surveys showed Americans giving high marks to individual elements.

"It's very unusual that you have a major policy that doesn't have a majority of support in the public," said George Edwards, a Texas A&M University presidential historian. "When they enjoy the benefits of the bill, they may come around. But that may take some time" ...

Factbox: Details of Final Health Care Bill

March 21, 2010

Reuters - Here are key provisions of the Senate-passed legislation and the proposed changes.

INSURANCE MARKET REFORM

The legislation would require substantial insurance market reforms that would bar insurers from excluding people for pre-existing medical conditions and prevent them from arbitrarily dropping policy holders.

Insurance exchanges would be created in which small businesses and individuals without employer-sponsored coverage would be able to shop for coverage. Plans offered on the exchange would have to meet minimum benefit requirements.

The proposed changes would allow dependent children to remain on their parents' health policies until age 26.

The Senate bill requires insurers to spend at least 85 cents of every premium dollar on medical care in small group markets and 80 cents in large group markets. The proposed changes also would require Medicare Advantage insurers to spend at least 85 percent of revenues on medical care.

COVERAGE MANDATES, SUBSIDIES AND MEDICAID

Individuals would be required to obtain health insurance. Those who fail to obtain coverage would face fines of up to 2.5 percent of income by 2016.

Firms with more than 50 workers who do not offer medical coverage could face fines of $2,000 per full-time employee.

Federal subsidies would be provided to help people with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty level purchase coverage on the exchange. Proposed changes would sweeten those subsidies for lower income people.

Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, would be available to everyone with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level, which stood at $10,830 for an individual and $22,050, for a family of four. Many states have eligibility requirements below those levels.

The proposed changes would get rid of a special deal in the Senate bill that would have provided more money to Nebraska to cover costs of increased Medicaid coverage.

FINANCING

The final proposal makes some adjustments to the revenue measures in the Senate-passed bill.

The Senate bill included a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans. The proposed changes would delay implementation of the tax until 2018 instead of 2013. The tax would kick in on plans costing $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for family coverage. A higher threshold is allowed for plans covering mostly women, older workers and retirees as well as those in high-risk professions.

The bill calls for raising the payroll taxes for Medicare, the government health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled, to 2.35 percent from the current 1.45 percent for individuals earning $200,000 or more and for couples earning $250,000 or more. The proposed changes would apply the tax to some investment income as well for those high-income groups.

The bill imposes fees on medical device manufacturers, insurance providers and brand-name pharmaceuticals. The proposed changes would delay implementation of those fees.

It also puts a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services that use ultraviolet lamps goes into effect on July 1.

MEDICARE

The legislation would freeze payments to insurers that provide coverage to Medicare patients in 2011 and begin reducing the subsidy in 2012.

It would also gradually close the gap in drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries by 2020. Those who enter the coverage gap, the so-called doughnut hole, in 2010 will get a $250 rebate. In 2011 they would get a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs.

FACTBOX-U.S. Healthcare Bill Would Provide Immediate Benefits

Obamacare: It’s About Enriching Bankers and Wall Street

March 20, 2010

Infowars.com - In an effort to push through his totalitarian care bill, Obama promised the sky. One such promise was that he would give federal authorities the power to block unreasonable rate hikes. Just like the promise to put negotiations on C-SPAN, the promise to check rate hikes evaporated.

“It was a bold response to skyrocketing health insurance premiums. President Barack Obama would give federal authorities the power to block unreasonable rate hikes,” reports the Associated Press. “Yet when Democrats unveiled the final, incarnation of their health care bill this week, the proposal was nowhere to be found.”

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean says Obamacare was written by Insurance corporations.

Makes sense, considering the fact Obama’s health care “reform” was crafted at the behest of large insurance corporations.

“This is a very good bill for insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat, on Thursday. “The insurers still rule,” Lynch added. “Were just pumping subsidies into the current system, but that won’t drive down costs.”

In December, Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee Chairman, said the legislation before Congress “is a bigger bailout for the insurance industry than AIG.” Dean characterized it as “an insurance company’s dream.”

Before boarding Air Force One earlier in the week, one-time maverick congressman Dennis Kucinich characterized the bill as “a bailout for insurance companies.” Prior to subjecting himself to Obama’s voodoo — or threats, nobody knows really — Kucinich said Obamacare was designed for Wall Street banksters.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich told the truth about Obamacare in October before he sold his principles down the river.

“Maybe what we’re looking at here is another way that Wall Street’s speculative engine can be fueled, this time with the help of the premiums of tens of millions of Americans,” he said.

“There is no government of the people, for the people, by the people, only the rule of private interests,” writes Paul Craig Roberts. “The Wall Street investment banks, which created with the compliance of the regulatory authorities and the credit rating agencies, ‘toxic’ instruments that were sold world wide, thus destroying the prospects of people in many countries, are devoid of integrity and honor. Their only god is greed. And they control the US government, which is too dependent on campaign contributions to restore regulation.”

Roberts warns this predatory activity will continue with Obamacare.

Obama likes to fly around the country and say he will sock it to the insurance companies, but this is simply empty rhetoric. Obamacare will enrich and expand the power of large insurance corporations.

“If a government healthcare plan materializes, it might actually generate more work for insurance companies. A new government program would probably subcontract much of its administrative work to existing insurance companies — which is what Medicare does,” writes Rick Newman for U.S. News & World Report.

Do insurance companies hate Obamacare as Democrats insist? Not at all. This bill is almost identical to the plan written by AHIP, the insurance company trade association, in 2009. The original Senate Finance Committee bill was authored by a former Wellpoint VP. Since Congress released the first of its health care bills on October 30, 2009, health care stocks have risen 28.35%.

In addition to increasing the power of insurance companies, the “socialization” of health care will provide a boost to the Wall Street casino, otherwise known as the stock market, Newman argues.

Discount the fallacious rhetoric of Obama and the Democrats. Obamacare is about profit for large corporations, not the health of the American people.

Back in the 1980s, HMOs were billed as non-profits designed to provide less expensive care. It was all smoke and mirrors.

“Ten percent of all HMO members are in Aetna’s U.S. Healthcare HMO alone,” writes Jeremy Brecher. “They have been joined by chains of for-profit hospitals like HCA Healthgroup, which owned 300 hospitals by 2001. The stock of these corporations is avidly traded on Wall Street. Their success is measured not by the health of their members, but by the profits they can provide to their investors.”

Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich told the truth about corporate and Wall Street dominated health care because they want a government-run socialized health care system that excludes large for-profit corporations.

Obamacare also aids the banksters in their plan to bankrupt the United States and turn it into yet another third world cesspool mired in staggering debt.

“Look for an even tenser decade ahead, made tenser still by any added costs of Barack Obama’s vast new social welfare program,” writes the neocon David Frum.

Frum is right, of course — and a hypocrite. His former boss, George Bush the Lesser, was led around by the nose by a gaggle of warmongering neocon ideologues. He cranked up the national debt by more than $4 trillion. In addition to funding social programs like Medicare and Social Security that Republicans claim to hate — but continue to fund — a lot of the money went to funding military expansion and wars against manufactured enemies.

Democrats, Republicans, neocons, neolibs — they all work for the bankers. All the highfalutin rhetoric they continually espouse is nothing more than hot air on the road to serfdom.