This latest chart of ObamaCare only shows about a third of the complexity of the hurricane and where it is blowing us.
High Resolution Version of Chart (PDF) »
In the garage I still have a copy of the chart for HillaryCare. It was simple, Alice's Wonderland was easier to wind through, compared to this maze, a maze we're doomed to wander in search of care.
Washington, DC – Four months after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously declared “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,” a congressional panel has released the first chart illustrating the 2,801 page health care law President Obama signed into law in March.
Developed by the Joint Economic Committee minority, led by U.S Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the detailed organization chart displays a bewildering array of new government agencies, regulations and mandates.
“For Americans, as well as Congressional Democrats who didn’t bother to read the bill, this first look at the final health care law confirms what many fear, that reform morphed into a monstrosity of new bureaucracies, mandates, taxes and rationing that will drive up health care costs, hurt seniors and force our most intimate health care choices into the hands of Washington bureaucrats,” said Brady, the committee’s senior House Republican. “If this is what passes for health care reform in America, then God help us all.”
Brownback, the committee’s ranking member, added, “This updated chart illustrates the overwhelming expansion of government control over health choices and the bewildering complexity facing everyone affected by this law. It doesn’t take long to see how the recently signed health care bill causes a hugely expensive and explosive expansion of federal control over health care. Personal choices that should be between a doctor and a patient will quickly be strangled in a never ending web of bureaucracy.”
Senate Steering Committee Chairman Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) called Obamacare “a bureaucratic nightmare. The Democrats’ takeover of health care creates a byzantine network of 159 new federal programs and bureaucracies to make decisions that should be between just the patient and their doctor. It should concern everyone that at the center of this regulatory web is the new CMS chief, Donald Berwick, who has championed rationing and European socialized medicine. Americans were rightly outraged that this big government bill was rushed through Congress before anyone read or fully understood the bill’s consequences. Republicans will fight to repeal this reckless takeover and to ensure health care freedom to American families.”
In addition to capturing the massive expansion of government and the overwhelming complexity of new regulations and taxes, the chart portrays:
- $569 billion in higher taxes;
- $529 billion in cuts to Medicare;
- swelling of the ranks of Medicaid by 16 million;
- 17 major insurance mandates; and
- the creation of two new bureaucracies with powers to impose future rationing: the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Independent Payments Advisory Board.
- Rationing will be a reality and from experience that means Seniors and the Disabled…. as Sarah Palin warned us all about and was vilified for!
Brady admits committee analysts could not fit the entire health care bill on one chart. “This portrays only about one-third of the complexity of the final bill. It’s actually worse than this.”
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The War on Seniors. If you're on Medicare or if you soon will be, the future doesn't look great. You and 46 million Americans just like you are going to shoulder more than half the cost of health reform through reductions to Medicare spending. And you will bear additional burdens through indirect taxes on everything from drugs to wheelchairs and crutches.
If you are one of the 11.5 million members of Medicare Advantage plans, you may have already noticed the changes. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, "across the country, dozens of private insurers...are preparing to pare dental, vision and certain prescription-drug coverage starting next year."
The chart below shows how cuts in spending will affect seniors in conventional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans. It shows a little bit of pain at first, ratcheting even higher through time. It's as though politicians think seniors are like the proverbial frog in the sauce pan. If you turn the heat up slowly, the frog gets boiled before he realizes he's in trouble.
Sources: National Center for Policy Analysis and
the Congressional Budget Office
Redistributing from Old to Young. Since the enactment of Social Security in the 1930s and Medicare in the 1960s, Americans have lived by a simple compact: younger generations will pay the taxes necessary to support older generations, and, when they're old, the young will provide for them. If ObamaCare is permitted to go forward, there will be a reverse redistribution of health care resources from the elderly to the young. As a Senior Fellow from the left-leaning Brookings Institution has explained, "We badly need to...reallocate resources from the elderly to younger families."
Coming Soon: A Two Tiered Health Care System. As Joe Newhouse argued in Health Affairs recently, to follow its mandate the agency responsible for constraining Medicare costs will have to cause Medicare fees to fall further and further behind what private insurers pay. This means that seniors and the disabled would look increasingly less attractive to providers than higher paying private sector patients. In the worst case, Medicare enrollees could find that their access and quality of care is no better than the Medicaid enrollees who are compelled to rely on community health centers and safety net hospitals for their care.
The Spin from Washington. The Obama Administration has alleged that cutting Medicare benefits now will strengthen Medicare in the future. Said Nancy-Ann DeParle, head of the White House's Office of Health Reform, "I'm sure that some of those additional benefits have been nice, but I think what we have to look at here is what's fair and what's important for the strength of the Medicare program long term."
That's a nice story, but it's not the truth. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that health care reform will cut Medicare spending by more than $523 billion. These Medicare cuts aren't going to shore up Medicare's future; they are going to create a new entitlement program - taxpayer-funded health insurance for young Americans. The numbers tell the truth: during the next ten years, ObamaCare will spend $938 billion to expand health care for low-income Americans. To pay for it, ObamaCare will cut $523 billion from Medicare and, hardest hit, approximately $200 billion from Medicare Advantage. ObamaCare will also levy new taxes, including higher Medicare taxes.
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Back to BasicsA RETURN TO BASIC VALUES
House moves to repeal Obamacare individual mandate
Sent by GOP staff this afternoon:
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have just announced they will move to force a vote in the next 24 hours on legislation to repeal the unconstitutional “individual mandate” at the heart of President Obama’s job-killing health care law. Americans can go to this link on the America Speaking Out website starting NOW to read about the idea, vote on it, start a discussion, and share their ideas. The GOP legislation, offered by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), is a first step to repealing ObamaCare and replacing it with common-sense reforms that will lower health care costs and protect freedom.
GOP leader John Boehner adds:
House Republicans plan to force a vote as soon as today on a measure that would repeal the job-killing, unconstitutional ‘individual mandate’ at the heart of ObamaCare. This proposal, to be offered by House Ways & Means Committee Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI), will be offered as the Republican motion-to-recommit on H.R. 5486, the so-called Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act of 2010.
Rep. Camp’s idea has been posted here on the America Speaking Out website, and Americans are urged to visit, read about the proposal, and share their ideas. House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) voiced strong support for this effort to strike at the heart of ObamaCare:
“House Republicans will force a vote to end the job-killing ‘individual mandate’ at the heart of ObamaCare during the debate on the small business deficit spending bill. We’ll highlight our effort using the ‘America Speaking Out’ website to call attention to what will be, literally, the biggest vote on the new health care law since it passed. This is a first step in Republicans’ efforts to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with commonsense, step-by-step reforms to lower costs.”
This move comes one day after the new health care law experienced its latest setback, this time in the form of new job-killing mandates that flatly contradict President Obama’s now-infamous ‘if you like it, you can keep it’ pledge. The coverage controversy is the latest in a growing list of broken promises that have solidified the American people’s opposition to this job-killing health care law:
“If You Like Your Health Care Plan” … Too Bad. In stark contrast to President Obama’s oft-stated pledge that, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan,” his administration yesterday issued new job-killing mandates that will force a majority of the nation’s employers – including as many as four out of every five small businesses – to change or drop their coverage as the government sees fit. Even the Administration acknowledged its reversal, allowing “that some people, especially those who work at smaller businesses, might face significant changes in the terms of their coverage.”
ObamaCare Will Increase Costs, Not Lower Them As Promised. Despite President Obama’s claim that his health care plan would “slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government,” analyses by both the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and the Obama Administration’s Medicare actuary have confirmed that the new health care law will actually raise health care costs by $311 billion over 10 years.
ObamaCare Forces Millions of Seniors Off Medicare Coverage. Last week, President Obama re-launched his health care plan by promoting Medicare rebate checks that more than nine in 10 Medicare beneficiaries will never receive. An analysis conducted by the President’s own Medicare actuary indicates that the new health care law includes roughly $575 billion in Medicare cuts, which will be used to fund the creation of a massive new entitlement program. As a result of these cuts, enrollment in the popular Medicare Advantage program will be slashed in half.
ObamaCare Is Anti-Small Business. In April, Obama sought to reassure “jittery” small business owners by touting a health care tax credit in the ObamaCare bill that he claimed was “pro-jobs” and “pro-business.” But according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) – which joined 20 states in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare – the tax credit the Administration cites “will do little to nothing to make purchasing insurance more affordable for small firms.” According to the NFIB, only 12 percent of small businesses would benefit in any way, and the credit goes away after a short period of time.
President Obama has tried to deflect attention away from these broken promises with another tireless taxpayer-funded PR campaign, but the American people have spoken – again. Republicans are listening, and advancing this effort to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with commonsense, step-by-step reforms to lower costs and protect American jobs.
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5:52pm Eastern update GOP Rep. Lynn Jenkins reports that the vote failed 187-230.
Constitutional challenge to ObamaCare wins the first round
Thomas LifsonThe lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare, brought by Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, has won the very first legal step in a long process. A motion to dismiss brought by the Obama Administration was rejected by the judge. Rosalind S. Helderman reports on the Washington Post's Breaking News Blog:
U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson rejected arguments from Obama administration lawyers that Virginia has no standing to sue over the law and no chance of ultimately prevailing in its constitutional claim.
The suit challenges the constitutionality of the mandatory purchase of health insurance contained in the ObamaCare legislation. The next step will be a hearing of the legal arguments in Judge Hudson's courtroom in October.
Mark J. Fitzgibbons adds:
The Virginia lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of ObamaCare survived the federal government's motion to dismiss. This battle victory for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and his team overcame attempts by the Feds to claim Virginia does not have standing to sue, that the case was not ‘ripe' to be brought, and that the penalty for not purchasing health insurance is a ‘tax' that Congress may constitutionally impose anyway.
The 32-page opinion is a carefully written slam-dunk at this first stage. The federal judge wrote, "Never before has the Commerce Clause and associated Necessary and Proper Clause been extended this far."
The judge even quotes the Feds' brief that if the individual mandate is declared unconstitutional, "that's the end of the ballgame" for ObamaCare.
The Virginia case of course cites to judicial opinions about the Commerce Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, the 10th Amendment, and so on. It is remarkable, however, in one significant sense: the Virginia case remains true to the text of the Constitution.
If the judges and justices were to remain true to the Constitution itself as this case proceeds up the judicial ladder, then ObamaCare will lose. Those hoping for ObamaCare to win will stake their claims in arguments that are not supported by the pure text of the Constitution. A win by ObamaCare proponents would result in the "end of the ballgame" for restrictions on federal power
Only repeal is real
Sign the “Repeal 2010 Healthcare Reform” Petition:
Help John Boehner Fight to Repeal ObamaCare & Start Over. JohnBoehner.com
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