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HR 3962: Frankenstein’s Monster

November 1, 2009 By Joan of Snark

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While this column has been quiet due to other priorities (like working so that the mortgage is paid, and volunteering so that others may improve their lot in life), it doesn’t mean we haven’t been watching the wankers in Washington as they continue their dangerous attempts to complete the progressive’s long-planned enslavement of the citizens of these United States.  Indeed, our silence is due, in part, to head-shaking amazement that writing fresh material for this column becomes harder and harder because every day has become Groundhog Day.  President “I Won” continues to use our hard-earned tax monies to hump his campaign stump; appearing on television almost every day in order to jolly Americans into thinking he’s just a normal guy via some talk show or to actively campaign for Democrat candidates in upcoming elections around the country.  Speaker of the Nuthouse, Nancy Pelosi, hasn’t stopped her deer-in-the-headlights, utterly non-sensical evasion of legitimate questions; like, for example, exactly where in the Constitution does it give Congress the power to, among other oversteps, mandate health care be purchased by every American? 

And true to their lying form, “the most transparent administration in history”, this legend-in-their-own-minds gang of thugs and thieves, scuttled off like the rats they are and locked themselves into an obviously airless room in order to poke and prod and breathe some semblance of life back into deadly, massive HR 3200, their first blatant, sweeping attempt at the usurpation of the private-sector, free market-driven business of American health care.  What came out of that headlong rush into madness is HR 3962.  A veritable Frankenstein’s monster at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words, this latest incarnation of mandated submission to government welfare is designed to take over and, as is the case with anything run by the government, annihilate a full ONE-FIFTH of the nation’s economy.

It is a monster only progressives and idiots could love.  Like its predecessor, HR 3962 sets up a financial shell game by front-loading revenue and postponing serious spending to later years (years when those who would otherwise be called on the carpet for such reckless misuse of hard-earned taxpayer monies will be far away, enjoying their taxpayer-funded retirements).  It contains 13 tax hikes that will hit everyone one way or another:

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.

Note for the record that those individuals paying the “individual mandate” tax don’t get anything for their money.  It is a penalty, cleverly set up to be enforced (as a criminal liability) by the IRS.  Those folks still have to buy health insurance, and the government’s option contains higher premiums that low- and moderate-income individuals and families would have to pay for health coverage to avoid the tax.

Like its predecessor, HR 3962 includes yet another uncontrolled and unaccountable czar who will determine the requirements for health insurance policies.  For ALL health insurance policies; which means, as before, if your employer’s plan doesn’t meet the czar’s requirements, it will be determined to be illegal and you will be forced to make another “choice”.  Read:  take the government’s plan.

Of course, mandating requirements that are unsustainable, such as no exclusions for pre-existing conditions and specific items and services than must be covered as well as the minimum frequency or duration of a required covered service and the maximum allowable patient cost sharing, sets the stage for failure of the free market.  The government will simply regulate the free market for health insurance out of existence.  Leaving you with no choice but what the government wants to give you. 

And with that lack of choice must, by definition, come rationing.  The same rationing that exists in the free market and with welfare programs like Medicare and Medicaid today, though the former driven (and therefore avoidable) by consumer choice and the latter driven by its inherent purpose of pulling the unsuspecting under the control of the government for the gains of a few who consider themselves above those they see as the stupid, great unwashed masses (citizens of these United States whom they are, by oath, supposed to represent). 

There’s nothing new in this warmed-over, dung-filled bowl of swamp water soup.  Those who work hard and play by the rules are going to continue to pay for those who buy into the progressive mindset that they are entitled to something for nothing for the price of their freedom.

HR 3200 was wrong.  Its latest incarnation as HR 3962 does nothing to fix any problems and, indeed, only serves to make them worse.

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Filed Under: * Featured Posts *, Truth In Reporting Tagged With: fiscal irresponsibility, health care reform, HR 3692, HR3200, Obama health care, obama hypocrisy, Obamacare, socialized medicine

Single-Payer Health Care To Get House Vote

August 6, 2009 By Joan of Snark

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This just in, courtesy of my uber-liberal progressive (read:  most misguided) friend.  The House is planning to amend HR 3200 and replace it with HR 676 to create a national single-payer health plan.

  

In this e-mail:

  1. Single payer to receive a vote on the floor of the U.S. House
  2. Media appearances by Obama’s doctor (and PNHPer) Dr. David Scheiner
  3. New Kaiser Comparison of Congressional Health Plans
  4. Invitation to PNHP’s Annual Meeting: Saturday, October 24

August 5, 2009

Dear PNHP Members and Friends,

Breaking News!

Last Friday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi committed to bringing single-payer to a vote before the full House of Representatives when the chamber reconvenes to debate national health care reform in September.

The vote will come in the form of an amendment to the House Leadership’s incremental health legislation. The amendment, offered by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), would effectively remove the entire existing health plan and replace it with the text of H.R. 676, Rep. John Conyers’ single-payer legislation. (click here to see the text of the amendment).

This vote presents a truly historic opportunity – the first time that single-payer will be voted on in the Congress. (See the news release below).

PNHP and allied groups are now marshaling our forces to win maximum support for the Weiner single-payer amendment. We’re launching a new national campaign staffed by Ali Thebert and Nicholas Skala to make sure that members of Congress hear from their physician constituents that single payer is the only solution to the U.S. health care crisis.
Here’s what you can do:

  1. Use PNHP’s online campaign tool: send a letter to your Representative supporting the Weiner single payer amendment (click here to send a letter!).
  2. Arrange a meeting with your Representative: and use Weiner Single Payer Amendment lobbying materials available on the campaign web site (click here for the campaign web site). Try to visit your Representatives during the August recess while members are still in their districts. If you need help or strategy advice, emailali@pnhp.org.
  3. Speak out to local media and / or publish an op-ed: Please forward the included press release on the Weiner Amendment to your local media and offer to speak to the local press on behalf of the Amendment. Editorial board meetings and op-eds are also helpful at this time. (Click here for tips on writing op-eds)

In other news, PNHPer Dr. David Scheiner has been appearing in the media nationwide. Dr. Scheiner was Obama’s personal physician for 22 years until Obama became president. He was also the medical partner of PNHP National Coordinator Dr. Quentin Young for 30 years.

Dr. Scheiner has criticized the Obama health plan and called for single payer instead in media outlets ranging from Forbes magazine to Lou Dobbs to FOX News. 
Watch Dr. Scheiner’s appearance on CNN: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb-OVHmhQFM

Dr. Scheiner will appear on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday, August 7 at 10:00 Eastern on HBO. Be sure to tune in!

Other PNHP leaders have taken to the airwaves, including Margaret Flowers, Oliver Fein, Garrett Adams, Claudia Fegan and Andy Coates. Please exert every effort to speak out yourself, including through letters to the editor and op-eds.

For those of you who need help understanding the details of the various reform plans coming out of the House and Senate, the Kaiser Family Foundation has a side-by-side comparison tool for all proposals, including the House (HR 676) and Senate (HR 703) single-payer bills. (Click here for the Kaiser tool).

Finally, registration for the PNHP annual meeting on October 24 in Cambridge, MA is now open at www.pnhp.org/meeting. See our invitation letter reprinted below. We hope to see you there!

Cordially,

Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator
Ida Hellander, M.D.
Executive Director

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Aug. 5, 2009 Quentin Young, M.D., (312) 782-6006, info@pnhp.org
  Mark Almberg, PNHP, (312) 782-6006, mark@pnhp.org
  David Lerner or Karmen Ross, Riptide Communications,
(212) 260-5000

 

House vote on single payer will be historic first, doctors’ group says

Physicians call on lawmakers to ‘do the right thing’ on health reform

Hailing last week’s pledge by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a floor debate and vote on single-payer health reform this fall, a group of 16,000 physicians is launching an intensified campaign to educate lawmakers about the urgency of a “Medicare-for-All” solution to the nation’s health care crisis.

Leaders of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) say their campaign includes a stepped-up program of visits by doctors to House members in their home districts during the August recess.

Last Friday’s commitment by Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) to put hissingle-payer amendment to H.R. 3200, the House leadership’s health reform bill, to an up-or-down vote before the full House has set the stage for first-ever floor vote of its kind. The House debate on the amendment could begin as early as September.  

“Single payer has gone from being ‘off the table’ to ‘on the floor,'” said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of PNHP. “This dramatic turn of events is a striking indicator of our success. It shows the House leadership recognizes the strong public support – including among doctors – for removing the wasteful insurance company middlemen from our health system and redirecting the resultant savings into care.”

Weiner’s amendment would delete most of the language of in the House bill and instead substitute language from H.R. 676, the single-payer bill introduced by Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).

The Weiner amendment, unlike the House leadership’s bill, assures universal, comprehensive, and high-quality coverage, free choice of doctor and hospital, and no co-pays or deductibles through a publicly financed system similar to Medicare. Young said that because of massive savings on private insurance overhead and paperwork, the amendment would entail no increase in U.S. health spending, in contrast to the House bill’s $1 trillion price tag over 10 years.“By recapturing the administrative waste associated with our present multi-payer, for-profit private insurance system, estimated to be $400 billion annually, a single-payer program would have more than enough resources to cover everyone who lacks insurance now and to upgrade everyone else’s,” he said.

“A single-payer system would also possess strong cost-control tools like bulk purchasing of drugs, negotiation of fees and global budgeting, controls that are notably absent in the House bill,” he said.

Young says many union, civic and faith-based groups will be watching how lawmakers vote with an eye to the 2010 election cycle. “Lawmakers now have a golden opportunity to stand up for the best interests of their constituents, to rebuff the private, for-profit health insurance industry, and assure the health of our nation,” he said.

He continued: “Many members of Congress – including Speaker Pelosi – have told constituents that they personally support a single-payer, Medicare-for-all approach, but claim they can’t vote for it because it’s not politically feasible. Yet polls that show they would have the public’s support for such a stand. Now we’ll be watching to see whether their votes match their words.”

Single-payer bills have been introduced in Congress repeatedly over the past 60 years – starting with the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill in the 1940s, and including the Kennedy-Griffiths bill of the 1970s and the Wellstone, McDermott and Russo bills of the 1990s – but none has ever reached the floor of the House or Senate.

*****

Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) is an organization of 16,000 doctors who advocate for single-payer national health insurance.

Several leaders of PNHP have testified before congressional committees in the present health reform debate. (See links below). To interview any of these or other spokespersons, please call (312) 782-6006.

Testimony of Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., on medical bankruptcy and health reform before the Subcommittee on Administrative and Commercial Law
House Judiciary Committee, July 28, 2009:
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/july/testimony_of_steffie.php

Testimony of Dr. Woolhandler before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, July 24
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/june/testimony_of_steffie.php

Testimony of Quentin Young, M.D., M.A.C.P., before the House Ways and Means Committee, June 24
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/june/testimony_of_quentin.php

Testimony of Margaret Flowers, M.D., before the Senate HELP Committee, June 11
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/june/testimony_of_margare.php

Testimony of David U. Himmelstein, M.D. before the HELP Subcommittee, April 23
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/april/testimony_of_david_u.php


August 5, 2009Dear Colleagues,    We write to invite you to attend the Annual Meeting of Physicians for a National Health Program on Saturday, October 24, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It will be preceded by our popular Leadership Training course, starting at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, October 23, at the Harvard Faculty Club.Registration for the Annual Meeting is now on-line at www.pnhp.org/meeting. To register for leadership training (space is limited), please call Matt Petty at 312-782-6006. 

The theme of the meeting is “Evidence-based or market-based health reform? Health Policy in the Obama Era” with health economist William Hsiao, Dr. Marcia Angell (former editor, NEJM), PNHP co-founders Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, PNHP President Dr. Oliver Fein, T.R. Reid (“Sick Around the World”), former Cigna executive Wendell Potter, and more.

The conference hotel is the Royal Sonesta (617-806-4200, $209 single/double reserve by September 23), with leadership training at the nearby Harvard Faculty Club.

PNHP is committed to promoting fundamental health care reform over the long term. Although proposals based on mandating that individuals purchase private insurance (like HR 3200) have the backing of the powerful drug and insurance lobbies (PhRMA alone has already spent $17 million on supportive ads), they certainly won’t solve the health care crisis. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that we’ve seen our single-payer proposal go from being “off the table” (Senator Max Baucus) to being “on the floor,” with a commitment from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to a full House vote on single payer in the form of the Weiner amendment after the recess (see press release, enclosed).

PNHPers have played a leading role in this historic development, testifying before committees in the House and the Senate on single payer, and before the House Judiciary committee on medical bankruptcy, and making numerous media appearances, including on Bill Moyers, Bill Maher, Fox News, CNN, Colbert, Ed Schultz, Democracy Now, and more.

This surge in media and congressional interest was almost certainly triggered by the courageous and dignified acts of civil disobedience before the Senate Finance Committee by PNHPers, nurses, and citizen activists in May. 

As the administration’s inadequate proposals are either enacted or rejected, our single-payer proposal takes on even more importance as the only remedy for the health care crisis.

Please join us as we assess the status of health reform and plan PNHP’s policy and strategy for the future.

Yours truly,

Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator
Ida Hellander, M.D.
Executive Director

P.S. Your membership in PNHP is more important than ever.  Please consider renewing your membership or making a special donation at this critical time: www.pnhp.org/renew orwww.pnhp.org/donate. 

 

 
 
Welcome to socialized medicine.  It is the end of the private health insurance sector, as stated in this section of the amendment:

SEC. 104. PROHIBITION AGAINST DUPLICATING COVERAGE.
(a) IN GENERAL.-It is unlawful for a private health insurer to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this division.

The CBO is going to have a field day, since little is mentioned beyond a “global budget” to pay all of the doctors, nurses, other staffs, and “capital expenditures” associated with providing the entire country with medical care.  Funding will come from:

  • Existing sources of Federal Government revenues for health care.
  • Increasing personal income taxes on the top 5 percent income earners.
  • Instituting a modest and progressive excise tax on payroll and self-employment income.
  • Instituting a small tax on stock and bond transactions.
  •  Money that would have been spent for Federal public health care programs, including
    • the Medicare program
    •  the Medicaid program
    •  the Children’s Health Insurance Program

So, punk, you feeling “extremist” yet?  You think your unrepresenting representative is going to vote “yes” for this?  There are those who just might.  Or it could be a ploy to incite so much anger that HR 3200 and whatever ends up coming out of the Senate committee appears almost reasonable in comparison.

Don’t be fooled.  Don’t let your guard down, no matter what kind of names the Democrats want to call us.

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Filed Under: Truth In Reporting Tagged With: health care reform, HR 3200, HR 676, Obama health care, single-payer

The Recipe For Disaster Is Bubbling Up

July 16, 2009 By Joan of Snark

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“This chart depicts the health care nightmare that House Democrats have planned for families and small businesses.  This isn’t reform; it’s a recipe for disaster that will lead to higher health care costs, lower quality, rationed care, and bureaucrats making medical decisions instead of doctors and patients.  Families shouldn’t have to answer to shadowy Washington bureaucrats when they’re seeking health care treatments for themselves and their loved ones.

“If this isn’t bad enough, this new maze of government bureaucracy will be funded by a new small business tax that will cost more American jobs.  During a time of economic recession, the last thing Congress should be doing is punishing small businesses that create a majority of the jobs in this country.  If Democrats are serious about job creation and real health care reform, they’ll scrap this plan and start working with House Republicans on solutions the American people want.  Republicans have offered a plan to reduce costs and expand Americans’ access to quality care – without a small business tax.  I want to thank Rep. Brady and House Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee for their work in exposing the truth about what the Democrats’ plan means for families and small businesses.”

(Representative John Boehner, R-OH)

DemHealthPlan

Listening to the House Ways and Means Committee discuss provisions of their version of a health care reform bill (HR 3200) makes it very clear that this is, indeed, a fine representation of the hands reaching for your wallet.  It is a gigantic behemoth of federal rat mazes that creates a fiscally unsustainable and inherently inefficient bureaucracy that will have the final say over whether you live or die.

By 2013, the lowest surtax to be levied against the “wealthy” goes up unless savings are realized.  But the truth is that the government NEVER saves money when it runs programs so small business owners will be hit harder and harder as time goes by.  (It is important to remember that small business owners pay taxes via their personal 1040 returns so those “wealthy” folks making over $250,000 aren’t really taking home that amount; many are making far smaller amounts of real, spendable dollars.)  This plan for more taxpayer money going to feed the government health care machine means there will continually be less and less money available for small businesses to expand (or even be created) and thereby create jobs.  Which in turn will force more people to accept the government’s version of health insurance, thereby putting further strain on this essentially unfunded program.

If you’re thinking that this is really no big deal because you’ll just keep the health care insurance you have today or go buy your own, think again.  There’s a provision that outlaws individual private coverage:

Called… “Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage,” the “Limitation On New Enrollment” section of the bill clearly states:

“Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day” of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won’t be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

And this is only the first instance in this latest 1,000-page boat anchor where the federal government crosses the Constitutionally-defined line.

The legislation will also contain the usual amount of sheer idiocy (read:  more ways to force part you from your hard-earned money) like defining the sale of your house as a “life-changing event” that will impact your medical benefits.

It is time to contact all of your Congress critters and tell them to vote NO on this unconstitutional intrusion into your personal life.

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Filed Under: Truth In Reporting Tagged With: health care reform, HR 3200, John Boehner, Obama health care, obama hypocrisy

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