Note: You might want to start at the
Obamacare Index Page, especially
if you arrived here by using a search engine.
Obamacare is being developed by leftist politicians who aren't very fastidious about telling the truth.
One aspect of socialized medicine that is never fully explained is the enormous cost. Politicians speak
about the cost in terms of some number of billions (or trillions!) of dollars "over the first ten years" as if
socialized medicine will only be around for ten years. No, it is a permanent solution and the cost will
always increase every year if the government is involved.
One
Obamacare Disaster Averted, Lots More To Go. Just about every conservative critic of Obamacare
pointed to the irrational design of the CLASS Act before the legislation's enactment. In fact, the
administration's own CMS actuary said it would never work. He was ignored by his employers not because
they disagreed with him, but because they needed to pretend their legislation would reduce the deficit. ... Of
course, administration officials can't acknowledge that they always knew the program's finances could never
work, so rather than admit to cynicism they are pleading incompetence. And who knows, maybe they
really are that incompetent.
First CLASS, What Next?
In a Friday bad-news dump that was a whopper even by its own standards, the Obama administration added to the
announcement of a near-record annual deficit and an escalation of undeclared war in Uganda the news that the
CLASS Act, an ill-conceived adjunct of the Affordable Care Act, is no more. The upshot is this:
Obamacare just got a whole lot more expensive than advertised, and there is reason to believe that its Democratic
architects have long known this would happen.
More about the CLASS Act: Obama's Unbroken
String of Failures. We now know the Obama administration ignored repeated warnings, including
from Democrats like Senator Kent Conrad, about the financial solvency of this massive new entitlement.
Anyone who could do basic math knew this program was unsustainable and unworkable — and many
conservative policy experts said so at the time. In addition, the CLASS Act had been projected to reduce
the federal deficit by $86 billion during the next 10 years, so the termination of the program rips away
one of the many budget gimmicks the administration has relied on in order to pretend Obamacare would save money.
Obama
Administration Pulls the Plug on Long-Term Care Program. The Obama Administration threw in the
towel Friday, acknowledging that a Long-Term Care provision in the health care law championed by the late
Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., was financially unsustainable.
Obama
Administration Pulls the Plug on Long-Term Care Program. The Obama Administration threw in the
towel Friday, acknowledging that a Long-Term Care provision in the health care law championed by the late Sen.
Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., was financially unsustainable. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services Kathleen Sebelius wrote a letter to Congress that a 19-month "comprehensive analysis" of the Community
Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program indicated that it was not viable.
Despite
ObamaCare, Costs Continue To Soar. Until now, many of the fears about ObamaCare have been
theoretical. But this year's 9% spike in premiums is concrete evidence of the substantial harm it's
already doing to our health care system.
ObamaCare
Already Driving Up Health Premium Costs. Yesterday [9/28/2011] the Kaiser Family Foundation
released its Employer Health Benefits Survey. The most unsettling finding is that premiums for family
coverage jumped 9% in 2011 after last year's 3% rise. How much of that is due to ObamaCare is debatable,
but it's not exactly a promising start.
Obamacare sent health premiums up 9%.
The other day, I reported on a study by the insurance regulators in Ohio that showed Obamacare will push health
insurance premiums up by 55% to 85% once the thing ... becomes fully operational in 2014. But Obamacare
already has forced insurers to increase prices by mandating such things as coverage by parents of graduate
students until they are 26. The New York Times reported that this year — in the first full
year of Obamacare — insurance premiums rose 9%.
No Class. CLASS stands
for the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act. It was enacted as part of Obamacare, but,
given all of the other issues on which attention was focused at that time, little was said about CLASS. ... While
CLASS didn't get a lot of publicity, it played a fairly significant role in convincing Congress to adopt Obamacare.
This is because the Congressional Budget Office scored CLASS as generating a net of $70 billion in deficit
reduction over the next ten years. This helped to offset, on paper, the other crushing costs of Obamacare.
The Ever-Shifting
Price of ObamaCare. One reason the price of a new Cadillac isn't higher is because not
everyone wants a new Cadillac — at least not if they themselves have to pay for it. But if
everyone were in the market for a new Cadillac, one could be assured with metaphysical certitude that the
price would "necessarily skyrocket." As it is with the Cadillac, so it is with everything else:
Limited supply and soaring demand make for soaring prices. But defenders of ObamaCare tell us that the
dynamic at play in the price of everything else, including Cadillacs, doesn't work for health insurance.
ObamaCare's
Costs Just Keep Rising. Last month the CBO — Congress' official budget scorekeeper —
updated its forecast for ObamaCare's price tag. Instead of $931 billion over seven years, the CBO now
says it will cost $971 billion to pay for higher Medicaid costs, subsidies, tax credits and the rest —
a $40 billion increase. At the same time, the CBO now says ObamaCare's new taxes — the penalties
for not buying coverage, taxes on high-cost plans, and so on — will be $24 billion higher than it
projected last March.
Boehner: ObamaCare Will Bankrupt
Our Nation. The House Republicans' move forward to repeal ObamaCare has made Congressional
Democrats fighting mad. The Democrats' new mantra on Capitol Hill is that repealing their $1.2 trillion
health care law will increase the deficit. The GOP response has been both incredulous of that claim and
hard-hitting.
Cough up more for health benefits.
Raises may be small and bonuses a distant memory of better times, but one workplace number isn't frozen:
Employees can expect a double-digit percentage increase next year in the cost of health insurance they get through
the office.
Health-care bill: Sinister prescription
based on misdiagnosis. The [Obamacare] bill expands Medicaid to cover all individuals up to
133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, which would increase the number of individuals covered under
the program by more than 40 percent, placing extraordinary burdens on states. The FPL for a single
person is $29,330 and $88,000 for a family of four. This spells a financial death knell for Florida and
other states.
Anthem
Approved For Health Insurance Rate Hikes As High As 47 Percent. The state's largest insurer
has been approved to raise health premium rates by 41 percent to 47 percent for some of its
policies sold to individual buyers, in the largest price hikes yet seen in Connecticut since the adoption
of national health care reform.
Interview
with Sally Pipes on ObamaCare at Six Months. "I think the two biggest things about ObamaCare are,
one — his two goals were to achieve universal coverage, and to bend the cost curve down.
Well, we're not going to achieve universal coverage. 23 million Americans will still be uninsured
in 2019. The cost curve is not going to bend down. He originally wanted a bill that would cost
$900 billion dollars over 10 years. The CBO says this will be $940 billion over ten years,
but I believe most of the tax increases and things do not come into effect until 2014. So between 2014
and 2024, I believe, and many other economists as well, that this legislation, if not repealed and replaced,
is going to cost the American taxpayers about $2.5 trillion dollars. So we won't have universal
coverage, and the cost curve is not going to go down, it's going to go up."
Chart:
Total 10-Year Cost of Reid Bill is $2.5 Trillion. Senate Republicans have just released an
outstanding chart highlighting the accounting games that Democrats are playing with the costs of their
proposed health-care overhaul. The Democrats assert that their Senate bill would cost $848 billion
over ten years. But Congressional Budget Office projections show that only 1 percent of those
costs would kick in prior to the fifth year of what the Democrats are calling the "first 10 years."
In the bill's true first 10 years (2014 to 2023) — that is, in the first 10 years in
which it would be operational to any meaningful extent — the CBO projects that the bill would
cost $1.8 trillion.
CBO:
Real 10-Year Cost of Senate Bill Still $2.5 Trillion. [Scroll down] In those real
first 10 years (2014 to 2023), Americans would have to pay over $1 trillion in additional
taxes, over $1 trillion would be siphoned out of Medicare (over $200 billion out of Medicare
Advantage alone) and spent on Obamacare, and deficits would rise by over $200 billion. They
would rise, that is, unless Congress follows through on the bill's pledge to cut doctors' payments under
Medicare by 21 percent next year and never raise them back up — which would reduce
doctors' enthusiasm for seeing Medicare patients dramatically.
Less Health Care for More Money.
Liberals cite medical horror stories from the very states they once cheered for enacting universal health
care in order to argue for a national health care plan that will wreck the entire nation's medical care
the same way liberal states already wrecked their own medical care. Only Democrats could propose
fixing one Bernie Madoff-style scam with an even bigger Bernie Madoff-style scam.
Health care reform by
hook or by crook. Yesterday, Tom Maguire accurately described the state of the play on Obamacare:
The Senate bill seemed to be approaching its death knell and only a favorable report from the Government Budget
Office had a prayer of resuscitating it.
List of Taxes Proposed to Pay for
Health Care Reform. The U.S. Senate recently released its long-awaited proposal for
a government-run hostile takeover of the entire U.S. health care system. Predictably, it
includes a barrage of higher taxes to pay for the bill's immense price tag. [They include]
• A value-added tax, which would tax the value added to a product at
each stage of production,
• An excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages including non-diet soda and sports drinks,
• Higher taxes on alcoholic beverages including beer, wine, and spirits,
• A tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage of up to 2.5 percent of
their adjusted gross income.
Obama Admin. Actuary Finds
Unsustainable Status Quo Cheaper than Obamacare. One of President Obama's primary justifications
for pushing health care legislation has been that the status quo is "unsustainable" because of the skyrocketing
cost of medical care in the United States. The way to rein in costs, he argues, is to do adopt the
policies that he and his fellow Democrats are proposing. But a new report by the government actuary at
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a branch of the Obama administration's Department of Health
and Human Services, has found that the exact opposite is true.
The $1.9 Trillion
Gimmick. Any day now, the House is expected to vote on a $210 billion fiscal swindle that
will prevent automatic cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. ... The "doc fix" was originally part of
ObamaCare, until Mrs. Pelosi realized that adding a quarter-trillion dollars to the total tab made it
difficult to pretend the bill would reduce the deficit.
Health bills would raise taxes well before
changes roll out. Americans could pay billions of dollars more in new taxes for a few years
before they're likely to see significant change in the nation's health care system under legislation that
Congress is considering.
Bending the Health-Care Cost Curve — Upward.
Remember when President Obama said that the goal of health-care reform was to save money? The bill that
passed the House a week and a half ago, according to the Senate Budget Committee, would cost a whopping
$3 trillion after being fully implemented — more than three times the $900 billion that
the president had promised.
The True Cost of the House Health
Bill: $1.5 Trillion. The Congressional Budget Office released its preliminary score of
the bill and while some in the media have been reporting its net cost of $894 billion, the total cost of
health reform legislation is more like $1.5 trillion. So, Speaker Pelosi is essentially right back
where she started — with a huge 2,000 page plan that carries a hefty price tag...
CBO: House Bill Costs
$1.055 Trillion. The Congressional Budget Office is out with its analysis of the House Democrats'
health care bill. The headline number — likely to be widely cited in media accounts —
is that the bill costs $894 billion over 10 years. But in reality, the CBO says that the gross
cost of the bill will be $1.055 trillion. The $894 billion number reflects the taxes being
paid by individuals who don't have insurance and employers who don't provide insurance.
Death, Taxes and
Two Trillion Lies. If annual health care expenditures are going to be two trillion dollars,
then this amounts to $6,546.02 for every man, woman, and child. ... And what will we be paying for? Doctor
visits for those who couldn't otherwise afford it? What happened to Medicaid? I thought
that's what that social program was for. But wait... Medicaid doesn't cover abortions. ... What
happened to Medicare? That social program was made to help seniors with their coverage.
Why Are We Moving Toward Socialized Medicine?
Government intervention in medicine is wrecking American health care. Nearly half of all spending on health
care in America is already government spending. Yet President Obama's "reforms" will only expand that
intervention.
Health
care: Cheap at any price (hint... $900 billion). Last week, we had the cheery news from
Madame Speaker Pelosi that the cost of the House's health-care reform bill was going to come in under
$900 billion. Phew, I'm glad to know we can afford it after all.
Obamacare —
faster inflation, worse care. President Obama's promise that a government health care takeover
is the key to almost every ill echoes 19th century charlatans selling elixirs that would cure everything
from constipation to baldness. From controlling the growth of government to reining in private business
expenditures, Mr. Obama's health reform potion is promised as a cure-all. It's hardly that.
What's
In and What's Out of Health Care Legislation. The Democrats' health care "reform" would carry a
trillion-dollar price tag, vastly increase the national debt hanging over our children and grandchildren, impose
socialist control over one-sixth of our economy, and force us to obey totalitarian dictates. The mandate on
employers to provide health insurance would result in lower wages and fewer jobs.
Baucus Health Bill Could Prevent Medical Expense Deductions.
The health care reform legislation outlined by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and the Senate Finance Committee includes
a provision that would raise the threshold for deducting costly medical expenses from income tax returns.
People who do not meet that higher threshold could see their taxes rise.
The Hidden
Costs of ObamaCare. How much is this going to cost? This is a simple and reasonable question to ask
before signing a document stating that you are responsible and will pay any amount not covered by your medical insurance
when having a procedure done. ... Just imagine having any other service or purchasing a product and being told you couldn't
know the cost beforehand, although you are required to blindly sign a legally binding contract saying you will pay whatever
they later decide to charge you. That's unethical and ridiculous you'd say. Well, welcome to the American
health care system.
Eight Thoughts
on CBO. [#3] The bill spends a great deal of money — $829 billion — but is scored as
reducing the deficit over ten years because of the offsets, which include $311 billion in taxes. In addition,
the penalty on those still not purchasing insurance would be expected to bring in $1 billion a year once it's in
effect. ... [#5] We don't really know what will happen beyond 2019.
One of several T-shirts and bumper stickers
at Cafe Press.
Land Of The Fee. To keep
ObamaCare alive, Montana Democrat Max Baucus has proposed a Rube Goldberg scheme of fees and fines on insurers and the
uninsured designed to forcibly bring everyone into the loving and protective arms of the nanny state. To help
finance his Plan B, Baucus would impose annual fees of $6 billion on health insurers, $4 billion on
medical-device makers, $2.3 billion on drug manufacturers and $750 million on clinical laboratories, among
other taxes.
Baucus Healthcare Revenue
Options: This report is from May 20, 2009. Nevertheless, it is still revealing what means the
Senate Finance Committee and Mr. Baucus are considering to pay for their healthcare reform plans.
Obamacare: Unemployment You Can
Believe In. If Obamacare were a prescription drug, ads for it would say: "Use with
extreme caution. Side effects include regulatory headaches, irritated taxpayers, and swollen unemployment."
That's right. Serious studies indicate that Obamacare would kill millions of jobs. With 9.4 percent
unemployment, this is hardly the time to foul the labor market even further. The culprit is Obamacare's
proposed tax burden on employers with payrolls exceeding $250,000.
'Or' is a trillion-dollar word.
Yes, words matter. Even adding one wrong word could cost taxpayers trillions. That is exactly what is being
proposed. Currently, publicly funded programs such as Medicare and Medicaid only pay for medically necessary
health care. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, publicly said President Obama's proposed health
care plan will pay for "any service deemed medically necessary or medically appropriate." What a difference the
word "or" makes. In other words, no longer would a provider have to show that health care services are medically
necessary; they'll get paid if it is medically appropriate. Dropping "medically necessary" as a minimum requirement
would be disastrous and bankrupt our health care system.
The Federal Health Care Muggers.
The Democrats' agenda of "universal health care" is in deep trouble, as more Americans (including many "Blue Dog"
congressional Democrats) are growing increasingly uneasy about the costs. The Congressional Budget Office projects
that the proposed House of Representatives plan could cost over $1 trillion dollars, rather than saving money.
A similar plan in place in Massachusetts since 2006 has led to skyrocketing costs, long waits for care, and higher taxes,
without actually providing "universal" coverage.
The mother of
unfunded mandates. The Congressional Budget Office delivered a couple of blows to President
Obama's health care proposals last week. Fear of the trillion dollar costs and at least $240 billion
in increased deficits are chasing away even Democrats. And that's not the worst of it. The price
tag is actually much higher than reported because many of the real costs are paid for by others. The
$219 billion of "savings" touted by House Democrats refers to hospital and doctors getting less for
their services.
Inside the Monstrous Obamacare Bureaucracy:
If you think government is too big and too costly, wait until Obamacare kicks in. The Congressional Budget Office
put the price tag of the House Democrats' health care takeover plans at $1.5 trillion over 10 years. But
the CBO's fine print included a telltale caveat: "We have not yet estimated the administrative costs to the federal
government of implementing the specified policies, nor have we accounted for all of the proposal's likely effects on
spending for other federal programs." You don't need an accounting degree or clairvoyant powers. The
administrative costs and spillover spending effects will be astronomical.
Insurance Is No Answer.
Health care "reformers" keep talking about getting us more health insurance. Then they talk about cutting
costs. This is contradictory nonsense. Insurance, whether private or a government Ponzi scheme like
Medicare, means third parties pay the bills. When someone else pays, costs always go up.
Government-run plans don't save money; they add costs.
Those who claim otherwise ignore history. Government's Comedy of Errors. Does
anyone believe the federal government is a model of efficiency? Oddly enough, superior government efficiency
is a core argument offered by President Barack Obama and others pushing creation of a government-run health plan.
Obama claims, "If the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest
and it will help keep their prices down." And who would keep government honest? Surely not the designated
watchdogs, like the Inspectors-General personally fired by the President for catching a FOO (Friend of Obama)
with his hand in the till.
Reading Obama Care Bills Endangers Human Health.
Before America steps an inch closer to nationalized medicine, lawmakers and citizens alike should follow Betsy
McCaughey's lead and read this bill. Meanwhile, about the best one can say for Ted Kennedy's $1 trillion
incarnation of ObamaCare is that House speaker Nancy Pelosi's $3.47 trillion version is even worse.
Obama's Cloudy Crystal Ball:
If his economic team was 2.5 million jobs off — and counting — in projecting unemployment
just a few months into the future, how on earth can we trust their claims about all the money preventive care,
information technology, and other such measures will save us on health care 10 or 20 years from now?
Stop and think about the cost per capita.
Private insurance is far cheaper. Simple Healthcare Math:
The Washington Post reported that the CBO cost estimate for another draft version of the bill is $1.6 trillion.
In the same story, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) was quoted as saying the price tag easily could reach $2 trillion.
For sake of argument, let's assume the middle estimate of $1.6 trillion is valid and it would cover
16 million Americans.
The cost of government
health care. Free health care is a very expensive proposition. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts
Democrat, and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, are sponsoring a massive health care bill to extend coverage
to 50 million Americans who supposedly do not have it. On Tuesday [6/16/2009], the Congressional Budget Office
estimated that the cost of the Kennedy-Dodd health care bill would run to at least $1.6 trillion over 10 years
and that it would cover just one-third of the so-called "uninsured."
A Trillion Dollars in
Incompetence. Bonaparte famously said to "never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be
explained by incompetence." Thus stands the Kennedy health care bill, placeholder for the hard left dream
of a government takeover of the American health system. The bill is a taxpayer-supported monument to the
lethal stupidity of this statist objective that will leave Americans with fewer choices, more government control
over medical decisions, higher taxes, and a smaller private health insurance market (mostly union health plans paid
for by taxes on the health benefits of non-union workers) that punishes efforts to reward healthy behavior.
Paying for
Obamacare. Much of the discussion to date about health care reform has understandably
focused on the contents of the reform plan itself. But with the plan expected to cost $1-1.5 trillion
over the first ten years, an equally important question is how the president and congressional Democrats plan
to pay for it. While we won't know for certain until we see the final bill, it looks like the answer is
going to be higher — much higher — taxes. And many if not most of those taxes will
fall squarely on the middle class.
Signing On to an Obama 'Dream'.
At a news conference yesterday [5/12/2009], President Obama said, "I will not rest until the dream of health-care
reform is achieved in the United States of America." Normally dreams cost you nothing, but Mr. Obama's
determination not to rest until his becomes reality is likely to cost plenty.
The Cost of Free
Government Health Care: Proponents of government-run health care like to point out that
countries with such a system spend a smaller percentage of their gross domestic product on health care
than the United States. What they don't like to mention is how those savings are achieved. For
example: Patients lose the right to decide what treatment they'll receive. Instead, patients
receive whatever care politicians and bureaucratic number crunchers decide is "cost effective."
Upfront
costs complicate Obama's health care plan. Costs are emerging as the biggest obstacle to President
Barack Obama's ambitious plan to provide health insurance for everybody. The upfront tab could reach
$1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years, while expected savings from wringing waste and
inefficiency from the health care system may take longer to show.
The Editor asks...
Does anyone really expect government intervention to be the cure for "waste and inefficiency"?
Obama's Budget Chief Doesn't Know the
Total Cost of Obama's Health-Care Plan. Even President Obama's budget chief doesn't know how much it
will eventually cost to enact the president's vision of health-care reform. The proposed $3.5 trillion
budget for the 2010 fiscal year, which would raise the federal deficit to $1.75 trillion, contains $634 billion
for health-care reform to come from tax increases and "savings" in the medical system — money to expand health
coverage for Americans currently without health insurance.
Bam's
Bad Medicine. President Obama's new budget dedicates $634 billion over the next 10 years
to what he calls health reform. He promises — or perhaps threatens — that this vast
sum will be a down payment for universal coverage, which could require more than $1 trillion.
'Obama Robin Hood' announces $3.5 trillion budget. US
president Barack Obama has unveiled a $US3.5 trillion budget that outlines aggressive plans to boost
the recession-stricken US economy, overhaul its health care system and hike taxes on the rich.
Time to Get Out the Iron.
In a much-hyped speech aimed at rejuvenating his health care push, Obama delivered a message that was strikingly
similar to the one that has failed to resonate with the American people thus far. ... As he has done before,
Obama pledged to veto any bill that added to the deficit. But despite that commitment, the Congressional
Budget Office has ruled that the House Democrats' health care legislation would create $230 billion in
deficits over ten years.
The Ministry of Wellness.
As a restaurateur, I've been following the heath care debate especially attentively. I have already
determined that the health care bill, if passed, will cause a significant reduction in our net
profits — depending on how many employees we can shed. After reading the fifty or so pages of
the Senate "Affordable Health Choices Act" devoted to "Employers' Responsibilities," I still have no idea
whether my businesses are "small" or "large" — but I am pretty sure that it will cost me $100-$150 a
month in bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll service fees just to find out.
The Three-Step Plan to Stop Nationalized Health Care.
Congressional Democrats, after all their faux wrangling, open bribery and bully tactics, are poised to reach
agreement on a massive makeover of the American health system. This makeover will bankrupt the insurance
companies, raise premiums, and eventually lead to the full nationalization of health care. That's what it
is intended to do.
Merry Christmas: Obamacare Slaps $15,000 Annual
Fee on Middle Class Families. The Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the final Senate
health care bill indicates it would slap a mandatory annual fee of about $15,000 on middle-class families
that earn an annual income greater than 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($88,200 for a family
of four) and are not provided with health insurance by their employer.
Pelosicare's Broken Window.
All credible evidence and opinion points toward the current "reform" plans increasing the cost of insurance and
medical care. Health insurance companies have said that premiums for almost everyone will rise, with prices
doubling or tripling for many, particularly in the individual/family rather than employer group market. When
Democrats' plans to give everything to everyone for free or near-free and their intent to allow people to wait until
they're sick before buying insurance (which would seem to defy the very definition of insurance, i.e. insuring against
an unknown future event), take effect, costs will skyrocket.
