5 Effects Obamacare Will Have on Working Americans

Heritage: Obamacare will certainly have a negative impact on every American, but here are five ways it will harm working Americans:

1. Two-thirds of American employees’ wages will decrease as employers deal with increasing costs. Heritage’s Drew Gonshorowski explains the results of an Urban Institute study: “The Urban Institute claims that mid-size firms will see spending per person increase by 4.6 percent, while large firms will see spending increases by 0.3 percent per person. According to the U.S. Census, this accounts for 65.1 percent of employees—or roughly 79 million—in the U.S. who are employed by medium- or large-size firms. The study suggests: ‘Any increase in employers’ health-related costs will be offset by decreases in other compensation—whether wages or other benefits.’ This means that individuals in mid- and large-size firms will receive less in take-home wages (or other benefits) and pay a greater proportion of their compensation to health care due to Obamacare.”
2. Loss of existing insurance coverage. Because of Obamacare’s high costs, experts predict that employers will stop offering employees health coverage, forcing employees into the new government-run exchanges. Although estimates vary, it is likely that millions of Americans will lose their current coverage. For instance, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that between 5 million and 20 million Americans will lose employer-sponsored coverage, the American Action Forum estimates 35 million, and McKinsey, a consulting firm, estimates that 30 percent of employers will definitely or probably stop offering coverage after Obamacare takes full effect in 2014.
3. Premiums in the individual market are set to skyrocket. Obamacare’s new, extreme insurance rules and regulations will have dire effects on the cost of coverage that individuals and small businesses purchase on their own. As Forbes columnist and health policy analyst Avik Roy has pointed out in recent articles, “Obama adviser Jonathan Gruber has estimated that, by 2016, the cost of individual-market health insurance under Obamacare, relative to what it would have been under prior law, will increase by an average of 19 percent in Colorado, 29 percent in Minnesota, and 30 percent in Wisconsin. A prestigious actuarial firm, Milliman, has estimated that individual-market premiums in Ohio could increase by 55 to 85 percent.”
4. Full-time workers turned part-time to avoid the employer mandate. As Heritage predicted, businesses have already begun limiting the hours their employees can work, turning full-time workers into part-time workers, to avoid paying the employer mandate penalty or providing costly insurance coverage. For example, one of the nation’s 30 largest employers, Darden Restaurants, is experimenting with keeping employees under the 30-hour threshold established for Obamacare’s mandate. According to the Orlando Sentinel, “In an emailed statement, Darden said staffing changes are ‘just one of the many things we are evaluating to help us address the cost implications health care reform will have on our business.’”
5. The heavy burden of 18 taxes and penalties. Obamacare imposes 18 new taxes and penalties that will cost Americans over $836 billion between 2013 and 2022. These taxes will either hit consumers directly or be passed on through higher prices. For example, the infamous individual mandate to purchase health insurance will be imposed on 6 million Americans in 2016, many of whom are the working middle class. Nearly 70 percent of payers will be below 400 percent of the federal poverty level, and even those below the poverty level could be forced to pay the mandate tax.

Obamacare must be repealed in order to protect hard-working Americans from its harmful and far-reaching effects.

Related:

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Did You Get Your ObamaCare Letter Yet?

Thanks Obamacare: 83% of Doctors Surveyed Say They May Quit

Obama Gets Civilian Army In Healthcare Bill

Obamacare Now Estimated to Cost $2.6 Trillion in First Decade

Killing Obamacare Before It Kills Us – Part 1: The Political Battlefield

“Death Panel” Three Years Later

Do you have a gun in your house? Your Doctor wants to know and so does the government.

GAO Report: White House Intentionally Delayed Obamacare’s Cuts To Medicaid Until After 2012 Election…

Lawyers Have Already Drafted 13,000 Pages of Regulations for New ObamaTax Law

Obamacare Has Literally Replaced the Constitution

Meet the ObamaCare Mandate Committee

Obamacare rationing panels an ‘immediate danger to seniors’: former AMA president

Obamacare’s Second Anniversary: No Gift for Seniors

IPAB Spells Gloom And Doom For Medicare - Just yesterday (03.22.12) the House of Representatives voted to repeal key 'Obamacare' provision” IPAB (the CLASS ACT has also been nullified)

Catholic Groups File Against Obama Contraception Mandate – ‘Pro-Choice’ Americans At Record Low, Poll Finds

Obamacare to Herd Disabled Seniors to Bare-Bones Medicaid Plans

Obama Lies, Taxes Rise

Settling the Question of a Real Estate Tax in Obamacare

"Taxmageddon" in 2013? Can We Avoid It? Can You Afford It?

Verichip (RFID) Implants are coming, now they will have your credit and social security info connected to... part of HC Bill

RFID Chip for all Americans in 2013 as Part of ObamaCare… See Biden Telling Fed Judge He Will Have to Rule on Implanted Microchips

RFID Implant Law Hidden in Obummercare Implementation 2013 -

Update on RFID: There is definitely a provision in the ObamaCare law, whose wording is purposely vague, for a database and tracking of implanted medical devices – pacemakers, artificial joints, things that are surgically implanted to bring function back to as close to whole as possible that could eventually lead to the mark of the beast technology. But after some additional research, it appears that the regulations for this have ‘not’ been written, and probably won’t be by year end, since they are behind on so many others. This means it probably won’t happen in 2013… but if ObamaCare remains and Obama is re-elected, it is only a matter of time. Luckily since it will require lots of compliance on this piece from the device manufacturers and importers, and they’re about to get hit with sales taxes, they probably won’t be implementing much else for a while, since they must get set up for all that mayhem of reporting requirements. This is another bullet dodge for a while to give Americans the opportunity to turn things around. We know it is part of the plan: Joe Biden mark my words (RFID). The question is when will they implement… if we don’t reboot and get rid of both ObamaCare and Obama as President.

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,ObamaTax,ObamaCare taxes,ObamaCare surprises,repeal and replace ObamaCare,loss of coverage,higher premiums under ObamaCare,wake-up America,Obamaland,Mitt Romney in 2012,CBO,watch the other hand,doctor shortages,RFID chips,rationing,ObamaCare mandates

Romney During Debate: “I Will Get Rid of Obamacare”

LiveNews.com: During the third and final debate, presidential candidate Mitt Romney repeated his promise that he would work to get rid of Obamacare, the heath care law that prompts abortion funding and rationing concerns.

Romney said: “By the way, number one I get rid of is “Obamacare.” There are a number of things that sound good but, frankly, we just can’t afford them. And that one doesn’t sound good, and it’s not affordable, so I get rid of that one from day one; to the extent humanly possible, we get that out. We take program after program that we don’t absolutely have to have and we get rid of them.”

During the campaign, Romney has repeatedly indicated he would get rid of Obamacare, with his first television ad making that case.

In the October 3 debate, Romney scored points with pro-life voters for making a clear case for repealing Obamacare, the health care law that pro-life advocates have attacked for funding abortions with taxpayer dollars.

“You want it repealed. You want the Affordable Care Act repealed. Why?” moderator Jim Lehrer asked.

“I sure do,” Romney responded.

Well, in part, it comes, again, from my experience. You know, I was in New Hampshire. A woman came to me and she said, look, I can’t afford insurance for myself or my son. I met a couple in Appleton, Wisconsin, and they said, we’re thinking of dropping our insurance, we can’t afford it.

And the number of small businesses I’ve gone to that are saying they’re dropping insurance because they can’t afford it, the cost of health care is just prohibitive. And — and we’ve got to deal with cost.

And, unfortunately, when — when — when you look at Obamacare, the Congressional Budget Office has said it will cost $2,500 a year more than traditional insurance. So it’s adding to cost. And as a matter of fact, when the president ran for office, he said that, by this year, he would have brought down the cost of insurance for each family by $2,500 a family. Instead, it’s gone up by that amount. So it’s expensive.

Romney also went after the Independent Payment Advisory Board, the health care rationing board that pro-life advocates repeatedly called for repealing because it would limit life-saving medical treatments.

“We didn’t put in place a board that can tell people ultimately what treatments they’re going to receive. We didn’t also do something that I think a number of people across this country recognize, which is put — put people in a position where they’re going to lose the insurance they had and they wanted,” he said.

“So for those reasons, for the tax, for Medicare, for this board, and for people losing their insurance, this is why the American people don’t want Obamacare. It’s why Republicans said, do not do this, and the Republicans had — had the plan. They put a plan out. They put out a plan, a bipartisan plan. It was swept aside,” he said. “I think something this big, this important has to be done on a bipartisan basis. And we have to have a president who can reach across the aisle and fashion important legislation with the input from both parties.

Related:

Death Panels are HERE

On the Road to Death Panels

ObamaCare for Seniors: Sorry, You're Just Not Worth It

“Death Panel” Three Years Later

Meet the ObamaCare Mandate Committee

Obamacare rationing panels an ‘immediate danger to seniors’: former AMA president

“Death Panel” Three Years Later

The Bilderberg Group’s Connection To Everything In The World – Updated

People of Faith

Obama Regulation Czar, Cass Sunstein, Advocated Removing People’s Organs Without Explicit Consent

Obama’s "Science Czar" Advocates De-Developing the US to World of Zero Growth

Video: More Scary Stuff From Obama’s Science Czar

Holdren Says Constitution Backs Compulsory Abortion

Holdren: Seize Babies Born to Unwed Women

List of Obama’s Czars Plus Two – Updated: 8.18.09 – Remember when the Czars were the hot topic… but they overwhelmed us and forgot them to do they scary dirty jobs…

Science Czar John P. Holdren – Updated 9.2.09

Meet Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: Deny Coverage to Elderly an Disabled for the Greater Good – But don’t forget… Sarah Palin was crazy…

Complete Lives System by Ezekial Emanuel

ObamaCare… the Kiss of Death - Collection of OBAMA SCARE - Articles U CAN NOT MISS!

Obama Embraces 'Death Panel' Concept in Medicare Rule

Obamacare to Herd Disabled Seniors to Bare-Bones Medicaid Plans

"People 70 and over will not be treated under Obamacare… and you thought DEATH PANELS were gone"– Updated

Soylent Green Anyone???

Great Grandmother Mary Allen Hardison: 101-Year-Old Woman Breaks Guinness World Record... Oldest Female to Paraglide Tandem

Go Granny Go!!

Seniors Left Behind?

The 'kill granny' bill

The Return of Mediscare

Checkout: ObamaCare Survival Guide

Technorati Tags: Independent Payment Advisory Board,CBO,ObamaCare,ObamaTax,Romney-Ryan 2012,Affordable Care Act,taxes,repeal and replace ObamaCare,Medicare,presidential debates,Congressional Budget Office

So it begins: Obamacare forcing states to cap, cut prescription drug benefits for seniors and the poor

But they're the party of compassion, don't ya know:

A new report from Kaiser Health indicates states are now moving in the direction of capping or cutting prescription drug benefits.

Illinois Medicaid recipients have been limited to four prescription drugs as the state becomes the latest to cap how many medicines it will cover in the state-federal health insurance program for the poor.

Sixteen states impose a monthly limit on the number of drugs Medicaid recipients can receive and seven states have either enacted such caps or tightened them in the past two years, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KHN is a program of the foundation). The limits vary across the country. Mississippi has a limit of two brand-name drugs. In Arkansas adults are limited to up six drugs a month. Since June, Alabama has had the nation’s stingiest Medicaid drug benefit after limiting adults to one brand-name drug. HIV and psychiatric drugs were excluded. On Aug. 1 the state will relax the limit to its previous level — four brand-name drugs — after the restriction saved more money than expected and the state received money as part of a settlement with a pharmaceutical company.

Other states with Medicaid drug limits are Arkansas, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.

 

Rationing issues in Obamacare have long been a concern of pro-life groups. Although the death panels — the voluntary advanced care planning that pro-life advocates have been concerned about because it could have doctors financially motivated to promote less medical care and lifesaving treatment — occupied most of the debate, the National Right to Life Committee says other provisions cause concern.

Joe Biden really was right for once. If your life depends on these prescription drugs, Obamacare really is a big f***in' deal.

Hat tip: BadBlue

Technorati Tags: Joe Biden,ObamaCare,prescription drugs,repeal and replace ObamaCare,Medicaid,death panels,Romney-Ryan in 2012

ObamaCare Disarray as 2013 Nears… Beware!

National arts and crafts retail chain Hobby Lobby is facing backlash after filing a lawsuit opposing the HeathCare Mandate, with the owners claiming that it goes against their Christian Values. (AP)

Fox News:

A Christian-owned chain of hobby shops is facing a bitter backlash after suing the Obama administration over new requirements to provide insured employees with contraceptive and abortion coverage.

Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby filed the suit Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleging that the ObamaCare mandate violates the religious beliefs of the company's owners. The suit followed similar suits by Catholic colleges and a Denver-based company whose owners also objected to the mandate on religious grounds. While a judge has not yet ruled on Hobby Lobby's suit, a Facebook page calling for a boycott of the company, which operates 500 stores in 41 states, has appeared online, and several other forums have featured posts urging customers to steer clear of Hobby Lobby.

“I’m boycotting Hobby Lobby!” reads the heading of one posting on image posting site Flickr. “Even if you're pro-life this kind of action stinks to high heaven! If things like this can be allowed then what's next?!,” the user added.

“They’re being told they have two choices. Either follow their faith and pay the government half-a-billion dollars or give up their beliefs."

- Lori Windham, attorney for Hobby Lobby

Others have taken to social media to protest against Hobby Lobby, with a “Boycott Hobby Lobby” page on Facebook.

“I've been to two Hobby Lobby parking lots today and they were fairly empty. I used to have trouble finding a parking spot!” read one posting from the administrator of the Boycott page. “I think the boycott is catching on! I do not think they are getting the reaction they hoped for.”

Hobby Lobby owner David Green is a devout Baptist who owns one of the world's largest collections of Biblical artifacts. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Green in his suit, argued that compliance with the offending portion of the health care law that the nature of their suit is “would force religiously-motivated business owners like plaintiffs to violate their faith under the threats of millions of dollars in fines.”

Lawyers argued that company employees are well aware of Green's views and their bearing on the company.

“The Green family’s business practices ... reflect their Christian faith in unmistakable and concrete ways,” the complaint states. The company employs full-time chaplains; close all store locations on Sundays and monitors all marketing and operations to make sure that it is consistent with their beliefs.

Failure to comply with the mandate could subject the company to as much as $1.3 million in daily fines, according to Becket Fund attorneys.

"They’re being told they have two choices: Either follow their faith and pay the government half a billion dollars or give up their beliefs," Lori Windham, an attorney from the Becket Fund, told Foxnews.com. "We believe that’s a choice no one should have to make.”

David Green could not be reached for comment, but in a recent USA Today Op-Ed, he blasted the Obama administration for imposing mandates he believes he cannot comply with.

“Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy," Green wrote. "Our government threatens to fine a company that’s raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It’s not right.”

The company does not object to providing coverage that includes birth control pills, but refuses to provide or pay for two specific abortion-inducing drugs such as the so-called "morning after" pill, because Green's "most deeply held religious belief" is that life beginning at conception, the family said in a statement released through its attorneys.

As for the boycott, the company's founders believe customers have the right to vote with their feet.

"The Green family respects every individual's right to free speech and hopes that others will respect their rights also, including the right to live and do business according to their religious beliefs.," the statement said.

Hobby Lobby is believed to be the first non-Catholic company to file an objection to the healthcare mandate. The Newland family, the devoutly Catholic owners of Denver-based Hercules Industries filed a similar suit this past summer and won a court injunction that ruled that they are not obligated to follow the mandate.

“I think the law and precedent set by this case is very strong for Hobby Lobby and the Green Family,” Windham said.

 

ObamaCare's cuts to hospitals will cost seniors their lives

Received this from a friend and fellow Classmate of mine. This is his son he's talking about...

Our son was the Radiology Department Director for the largest hospital in Phoenix, for 15 years. Two years ago, a conglomerate, which was taking over hospitals around the country, via hostile buyouts, "acquired" his. The first order of their new business was to remove all the highest paid staff, replacing all with lower paid new hires.

Being of such educated stature, he was able to take his choice of several other hospital employment offers from around the country. He nearly chose Fairbanks but wisely moved just North to Paysen Arizona. Again, Radiology Department Director. Just two years ago, that community facility serving a large area just South of Flagstaff was busy and thriving financially. Today, he is unemployed again! The hospital is losing money in huge amounts. Why? Arizona has been forced to revise it's program for servicing medicare/medicade recipients, cutting care to thousands of low income and elderly patients.

The use of the radiology department's x-ray and other rooms are nearly stilled! This is certainly just one of thousands of medical facilities and doctors that are already feeling the effects of "OBAMACARE"…

ObamaCare's cuts to hospitals will cost seniors their lives

By Betsy McCaughey  -  Published September 12, 2012

FoxNews.com

President Obama is wooing seniors with promises to protect Medicare as they've known it. On the defensive because of the $716 billion his health care law takes from Medicare, Obama assures seniors he's cutting payments to hospitals and other providers, not their benefits.

Don't be bamboozled. It's illogical to think that reducing what a hospital is paid to treat seniors won't harm their care. A mountain of scientific evidence proves the cuts will worsen the chance that an elderly patient survives a hospital stay and goes home. It’s reasonable to conclude that tens of thousands of seniors will die needlessly each year.

Under ObamaaCare, hospitals, hospice care, dialysis centers, and nursing homes will be paid less to care for the same number of seniors than if the health law had not been  enacted. Payments to doctors will also be cut.

Scientific evidence published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a leading scientific journal, suggests that forcing hospitals to spend less on elderly patients will produce deadly results.

Exhaustive data on over two million elderly patients treated at 208 California hospitals from 1999 to 2008  show that elderly patients treated in low spending hospitals (bottom quintile) get less care and have a worse chance of surviving and leaving the hospital than elderly patients with the same diagnosis treated at higher spending hospitals. The research, sponsored by the National Institute on Aging and RAND and published in 2011  found that heart attack patients  were 19% more likely to die at low spending hospitals.

Over a four year period, 13,613 seniors with pneumonia, stroke, heart attacks and other common conditions who died at low spending hospitals would have recovered and gone home had they been treated at a higher spending institution.(Annals of Internal Medicine, February 1, 2011) That’s the death toll in one state with about 10% of the Medicare population.

Ignoring this evidence, the Obama administration is pressuring hospitals in all fifty states to imitate low spending hospitals. In addition to the across the board cuts in future payments to hospitals,very soon, beginning in October, 2012, the Obama administration will reward hospitals that spend the least per senior,and penalize those that spend more.  For several years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have measured hospital quality, including infection rates. But Section 3001 of the Obama health care law adds "Medicare spending per beneficiary" as a measure for the first time. Hospital administrators express alarm that the measure includes not only what is spent on an elderly patient in the hospital but also for thirty days after discharge, when the patient visits a doctor or gets physical therapy for example.

Slashing what hospitals are paid does not eliminate “fraud, waste, and abuse,”contrary to what the law’s defenders claim.  The cuts compel hospitals to operate in an environment of medical scarcity, with fewer nurses and less diagnostic equipment.

When Medicare cut payment rates to hospitals in 1997, the cuts eventually led to more deaths from heart attacks.   Seniorstreated at the hospitals incurring the largest cuts had a 6-8% worse mortality rate from heart attacksthan seniors treated at other hospitals. The reason, researchers concluded, is that hospitals coped with the cuts by reducing nursing care. (National Bureau of Economic Research, March 2011.)

Though this research did not measure harm to younger patients, it is obvious that patients of every age suffer when nurses are spread thinner. Press the call button, and you will wait longer for help.

Medicare is the single largest source of revenue for hospitals. Richard Foster, Chief Actuary of Medicare and Medicaid Services, testified to Congress that the ObamaCare cuts will eventually force 40% of hospitals to operate at a loss, affecting the standard of care. Foster also cautioned that 15% of hospitals may stop accepting Medicare.

There are safer ways to control Medicare costs, including inching up the eligibility age, asking seniors to pay an affordable share of their bills, preventing hospital infections, and empowering patients to be cost-conscious consumers. Of course, politicians will try to claim that the easy answer -- slashing payments to hospitals -- won’t hurt patients,  but the evidence shows that’s untrue.

Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D. is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and author of "Obama Health Law What It Says And How To Overturn It."

Related:

CBO Raises Estimate of Those Hit By Obama Health Care Tax & ObamaCare in Disarray

THIS isn't allowed even on Bourbon Street

There is only one way left to repeal, replace ObamaCare and reform healthcare and that is if we fire Obama in November and Hire Mitt Romney!

Cross-Posted at Ask Marion

Technorati Tags: seniors,Medicare cuts for seniors,wake-up America,wake-up seniors,watch the other hand,ObamaCare,death panels,ObamaTax,ObamaCare mandates,Mitt Romney in 2012,repeal and replace ObamaCare,Fire Obama - Hire Romney,CBO,religion,Hobby Lobby

New Romney-Ryan Ads

A new ad from the Romney-Ryan campaign takes the Democrats' Medicare attacks on Paul Ryan head on. Watch the video below:

Video:  New Romney Ad: Obama Cut Medicare to Pay for Obamacare

"You paid into Medicare for years," the voiceover says. "Every paycheck. Now when you need it, Obama has cut $716 billion from Medicare. Why? To pay for ObamaCare. So now the money you paid for your guaranteed health care is going to a massive new government program that's not for you."

And Remember:  Nobody 55 or older will be affected by any Medicare changes made, but the program will be bankrupt by 2024 for people younger if nothing is done or changed!  Ryan’s plan will save the program for those under 55-years of age.

The campaign plans a large buy with this ad in important swing state media markets.

  Video: America Deserves Better

President Obama cannot run on his record, so he is committed to tearing down Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Obama’s campaign tried to use the tragedy of a woman's death for political gain. Then, Obama’s top campaign aides were caught lying about it. Doesn't America deserve better than a president who will do and say anything to stay in power, regardless of the truth?

Romney-Ryan: America’s New Dream Team and a Clear Choice – Updated

Technorati Tags: Romney-Ryan,Romney ads,Medicare,ObamaCare,Election 2012,2012 Election,America's Come Back Team,videos

The Shock Heard Around the World May Save America – Updated

By Ask Marion

The United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) may just have fired the second shot this week that should shake every freedom loving American to their core. The temporary silence of the media, both MSM and alternative, was deafening after the Robert’s Court ruling upholding ObamaCare and then upholding the individual mandate as a tax caught everyone by surprise; the White House, the blogosphere, most so-called experts and the liberal mainstream media. Everyone had comments and responses prepared for several anticipated outcomes, but none expected this.

Rumor has it that Roberts received pressure, even threats, from undisclosed sources and caved, some say he moved to the dark side just this past week and some say Roberts has revealed himself to have real concern for the legacy of the Court that bears his name. Many feel that this ObamaCare ruling was the signature for ‘his’ court that he felt he needed.

“The Volokh Conspiracy”: Back in May, there were rumors floating around relevant legal circles that a key vote was taking place, and that Roberts was feeling tremendous pressure from unidentified circles to vote to uphold the mandate. Did Roberts originally vote to invalidate the mandate on commerce clause grounds, and to invalidate the Medicaid expansion, and then decide later to accept the tax argument and essentially rewrite the Medicaid expansion (which, as I noted, citing Jonathan Cohn, was the sleeper issue in this case) to preserve it? If so, was he responding to the heat from President Obama and others, preemptively threatening to delegitimize the Court if it invalidated the ACA? The dissent, along with the surprising way that Roberts chose to uphold both the mandate and the Medicaid expansion, will inevitably feed the rumor mill.

Then there are the speculation that Roberts is a genius, Was Judge Roberts Just Playing Bridge? or as Michael Savage said: Roberts Epilepsy Medication Affects His Cognition and affected this decision?

"Roberts is a genius": Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution says to raise revenue (taxes) a bill MUST originate in House of Representatives. This version of ObamaCare originated in the ways and means committee of the Senate! Did the Supreme Court miss that? Or is Justice Roberts sly as a fox?

And then there are those who wonder if the all American boyish looking Chief Justice has crossed over to the dark side, either recently or perhaps he was always a closet Progressive… or worse?

The word "tax" appears 413 times in the SCOTUS’s opinion #fullrepeal If you don't buy health insurance the IRS will take your tax refunds, so good luck with that! Charles Krauthammer said Roberts’ definition of this being a tax was very thin.

Some pondered since this is now a taxation issue, in light of other SCOTUS cases this year on equal protection in tax law, can Obama still give waivers? I would say no!

Palin tweeted: Congress has the power to rescind taxes, I expect them to do this after the recess in July. #Obamatax Later on with Greta Van Susteren on ‘On the Record’ Palin said, “This is a tax on all the people. Chief Justice John Roberts just shown the light on one of the big ObamaCare lies being perpetrated by President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and HHS Sec Kathleen Sibelius.”

Then there are serious concerns about the precedent now set for other horrific “taxes”, for anything they choose based, on this decision… maybe for breathing will be next? All citizens are now taxed for living here – except of course Muslims who are exempt because their religion doesn’t allow them to buy insurance. The Amish are also exempt. Some have said this is the dhimmitude tax. If you convert to Islam, you won’t have to pay. Some have suggested a new “We are all Muslims now” program; watering down both the effects of radical Islam by infiltration and cutting the funding for ObamaCare based on religious freedom.  US Catholic Church leaders are rejecting the ObamaCare Court Ruling.

This is a complicated decision and will take more than a few hours or even a few days to decipher and study. For those of you wanting to take a shot at it. Here are the links below to the 193 page decision.

28 June 2012

supreme court obamacare opinion .pdf

click here to download 193 page .pdf [776 kb]
====
click here to download directly from the supreme court website
or
click here to go to the supreme court 2011 term opinions of the court page and look for:
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
====

www.supremecourt.gov
====

After the initial shock of the virtually unconsidered ruling settled in the comments began:

"A Dark Day for American Liberty".....Statement by VA AG Ken Cuccinelli

This is a dark day for the American people, the Constitution, and the rule of law. This is a dark day for American liberty.

This decision goes against the very principle that America has a federal government of limited powers; a principle that the Founding Fathers clearly wrote into the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. The Constitution was meant to restrict the power of government precisely for the purpose of protecting your liberty and mine from the overreaching hand of the federal government.

This unprecedented decision says that Congress has the authority to force citizens to buy private goods or face fines - a power it has never had in American history, and a power King George III and Parliament didn't have over us when we were mere subjects of Great Britain. Since the federal government itself could never articulate to the court a constitutional limit to this power, Congress has gained an unlimited power to force citizens to buy anything.

I am disappointed with the court's ruling and with the unprecedented attack on American liberty the president and the previous Congress have created with this law.

Stay tuned - I will be providing more analysis on this in the coming hours, as well as next steps.

Rush Limbaugh: “There is nothing constitutional about this law (ObamaCare)!” Neal Boortz said, “Here come the death panels! and the doctor’s shortages”

Glenn Beck took the extreme step on radio today to actually demonstrate, on a pretend human being, what medicine will look like under Obamacare in the near future. Stu & Pat get a lesson from "Dr." Beck to experience what the challenges of being a "real" doctor are. Warning, the video is fairly graphic.

And longtime D.C. political operative considers today’s Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare a good thing in the fight to defeat Barack Obama in 2012. Here’s why:

The Obamacare ruling is good news for us. Real good news. It’s 2010 all over again now. Swing states will shift over to Romney in most cases. Trust me on this. We’ve done the polling. The data is conclusive on this. It’s a huge tax. We got Obama lying.

Again. The Tea Party movement, which was as real and powerful a political movement as I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, is back in play. That scares the hell out of the Obama White House. You just got a bunch of Dems sweating hard over their re-election. The Republican Party will now be a lot more focused and clearly conservative and that’s exactly what they need to be this time around. We must make the election a clear divide between one side and the other and this Obamacare ruling has forced that to happen.

And the initial reports I’m getting are telling me there was a lot more clever going on inside that decision than the initial reaction will indicate. It’s the Obama Tax now. And states were given an out. The entire law is a big ass convoluted mess and the ruling has reinforced that fact. Obama will have to defend something he doesn’t understand, and Romney can now sit back and just repeat over and over again “repeal-repeal-repeal”.

The giant has woken up. Country needed a hard kick in the ass to remind us what is at stake in November. Now we are truly ready to fight! Read full article: Here

Many including Senator Coburn have Repudiated the Chief Justice: He did Not ‘Enforce the Constitution’ Today, ‘Is On The Wrong Side’ In Ruling. Some have even mentioned the possibility of impeaching Supreme Court Justices, but in reality the chances of that moving forward would be like the impeachment of President Obama himself with the present Congress in place.

This decision was an overall a win for the Obama administration but, there is always a silver lining if you dig deep enough. There are five (actually six) good things about the Supreme Court’s ObamaCare decision: It made taxation the panacea for constitutional questions; The liberal judges inadvertently brought Federalism back; Roberts got the liberals to actually set up a limit on the Commerce Clause; This deflates Occupy Wall Street’s and the Wisconsin protestor types’ biggest cause so Mitt Romney will now have a much easier time defeating Barack Obama… plus Obama now owns this massive regressive tax increase. Plus the decision also allows states to choose ‘not’ to increase their Medicaid rolls if they choose to turn down the new related federal funds and develop their own programs. Former Clinton advisor and author (most recent book: Screwed!), Dick Morris says that might be the biggest win of all. Morris also says this win will ultimately defeat Obama.

Tammy Bruce: This==> Obama Wins the Battle, Roberts Wins the War By Gutting Commerce Clause

Several states have already chosen not to take the so-called new funds or return their ObamaCare grants and ‘not’ to expand their Medicaid programs or develop exchanges, because in the end, after the first year it will cost the states millions… if not more eventually. Alaska is the only state who did not apply for a grant and Florida, Louisiana and New Hampshire quickly returned theirs. Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas are among the list of other states who have or are expected to decline or return their funds and develop their own programs (probably most of the 27 states involved in the Supreme Court case plus Virginia who had their own case will decline the funds ). Between the states who are opting out, businesses who will keep their employee rolls to below 50 or drop their health insurance coverage all together and just pay the fine and individuals who will not purchase insurance until they are sick and need it, funding and the implementation of ObamaCare looks precarious. (But remember ObamaCare does give the IRS the ability to charge you directly by withholding monies due from your tax returns.)

The Supreme Court decision to uphold ObamaCare and the uphold the mandate as a tax leaves small business owners with the same uncertainty that has kept them from expanding and hiring and has caused many more large businesses to move offshore equating to a continued stalemate in the growth of jobs and the U.S. economy, which will both hurt President Obama’s re-election prospects. Small business owners still hope that ObamaCare will be repealed either by Congress or next January if (when) Romney is sworn in as President, but until then they will continue in the same mode of uncertainty they have now operated under for almost 3-years. “Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I’m President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over”, said Romney after hearing the ruling. He has previously vowed to give all 50 states and U.S. territories waivers the first day of his administration and then focus on repealing it completely.  If Obama is re-elected most small business owners will either choose to drop the medical coverage for their employees and pay the fine (which has always been the goal of the Obama White House to ultimately create a single-payer system) or they will keep their employee total number below 50, using outside contractors to do work instead. Large companies will also hold on until November to see if Romney is elected. But if Obama is re-elected you will see a mass exodus offshore costing the U.S. even more jobs and continuing the downward spiral of the American economy.

And in the end no matter how you look at it, if you ‘really’ look at it, America cannot afford ObamaCare. Socialized medicine is one of the benefits that is killing the European Union and we only have to look as far as Canada to realize that the care is inferior to what we have now. And for anyone who still does not believe that there is an ulterior motive to ObamaCare, amazingly an Obama administration actually found the unsustainable status quo cheaper than Obamacare… but they moved ahead anyway.

So the GOP may look back on today (June 12th 2012)… this week and realize that they owe John Roberts and his court a debt of gratitude for revitalizing the tea party and re-energizing the American Spirit. In the end… the problem is not Chief Justice John Glover Roberts… it is President Barack Hussein Obama and it is the responsibility of the American people through elections to get rid of him and other Progressives in government if he is not what we want and the opportunity to replace both Obama and ObamaCare is only months away. With the new momentum created by the highly unpopular Supreme Court rulings that have come down this week plus the encouragement of the vote to hold AG Eric Holder in contempt, things are looking better than most expected.

The people have certainly already spoken, as reflected in @MittRomney‘s fundraising numbers (in one day) since the SCOTUS ruling came down. THREE AND HALF MILLION DOLLARS and counting in small individual contributions and some 49,000 people are reported to have registered to vote on June 12th 2012.  Seems the court may have awakened a sleeping giant and in the end this unpopular and questionable ruling may just save America.

We now need to replace the word Obamacare with Obamatax

Related:

Beck GBTV Video: Reaction to Court Upholding ObamaCare -  Glenn is encouraging everyone to help spread the word and to get people registered to vote - On "Real News from The Blaze" last night, the panel discussed some of the crass and surprising reactions from Democrats following the Supreme Court's ruling. Will their actions affect the outcome of the coming election? Watch the full segment HERE. 

Thanks Obamacare: 83% of Doctors Surveyed Say They May Quit

Palin: Thank you, SCOTUS!

Chief Justice Roberts Is a Genius?

Michael Savage: Roberts Epilepsy Medication Affects His Cognition

Krauthammer: Roberts "Concocted This Finesse" To Save Court's Reputation

Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare…

“Death Panel” Three Years Later

Taxation and regulation under the health care Act

Was Judge Roberts Just Playing Bridge?

11TH HOUR? Did Justice Roberts Change His Obamacare Vote At The Eleventh Hour?

Leftist TV Networks Gush Over Chief Justice Roberts: 'The Man of the Hour' Who 'Might Have Saved' the Supreme Court

Senate GOP Will Use Reconciliation in Attempt to Repeal Obamacare

Obamacare ruling: The liberal Apotheosis of John Roberts

Obamacare Has Literally Replaced the Constitution

The Crucifixion of Chief Justice John Glover Roberts

Health-Reform is Constitutional: Here are the Tax Implications (Taxes and more taxes)

What ‘Planned Parenthood’ is to parenthood, Obamacare is to care!

And remember when the Republican leadership said they would not spike the ball should this decision go there way?  Well as usual the other side is doing just that:

While surfing the Obama campaign’s Twitter this evening, we came across the following:

Can’t read it? No problem. Let us help you out with this zoomed in version:

For those who don’t remember, “BFD” stands for “Big F***ing Deal,” which is a reference to a line that Vice President Joe Biden was caught uttering in Obama’s ear while the latter signed Obamacare into law. In other words, the Twitter feed for a sitting President just used an obscenity.

At first we thought this was probably the result of someone at Obama campaign headquarters having one too many celebratory beverages, or possibly the result of the account getting hacked. Unfortunately, not only is it not that, but it’s a deliberate fundraising ploy. The Obama campaign has literally created shirts to the effect of this simple Tweet, and the place to buy them is what the link leads to. Not convinced? Here’s a picture:

Dignity in victory is apparently a nonexistent concept at Obama campaign headquarters. And apparently this isn’t even the first time they’ve tweeted this exact message, with these exact shirts. Dignity in general may be a foreign concept as well.

H/T Twitchy and the Blaze

Solution: Repeal and replace Obama as well as Obamacare!

Freedom Works:

The Supreme Court this morning upheld Obamacare. They allowed the law to stand, including the individual mandate.

The Court has, in essence, given this decision back to Congress and the people, where political power ultimately resides.

The House of Representatives has done its duty in voting to repeal Obamacare. The American people have also spoken: They do not support Obamacare and fear its consequences more every day. In fact, a recent poll shows that two-thirds of Americans favor repeal of all or some part of the law.

With the outcome of the decision, The Heritage Foundation, America's leading conservative policy organization, has rallied and put together a Repeal Obamacare Project to raise the necessary funds to tirelessly fight for repeal.

We cannot allow Obamacare to stand, regardless of what the Court says. It must be repealed.

Your support is critical. Donate today to The Heritage Foundation's Repeal Obamacare Project.

Thank you for your support of conservative principles and the ideas that have made America great.

Sincerely,

Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
President, The Heritage Foundation

A vote has already been scheduled in the House of Representatives by Eric Cantor for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) for July 9th, and remember now that this is a tax issue we now only need 51 Senators to vote for repeal. But the big focus for the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare(ObamaTax) and the repeal of the Progressive ideology gripping our country is the repeal of Obama himself, his policies and his team in November at the ballot box. This video is absolutely the truth, the final verdict, the future of our country is up to us… and the moment is now! It is now in our hands to repeal ObamaCare in January 2013 and to do that we must elect Republicans far and wide who will repeal it. We have no choice this year but to win in November, and I mean win all around the country. We have to win Congressional seats and Senate seats and we must win the presidency. We don’t have any choice – the Supreme Court has seen to that. Time to put the petty bickering aside, get over the Romney wasn’t my first choice issue and the considerations of not voting because Romney is a Mormon or wanting to make a statement by voting for a 3rd party candidate . What is at stake is much bigger than any of that!

Technorati Tags: ObamaCare,Repeal and Replace ObamaCare,Supreme Court Rulings,John Roberts,taxes,death panels,rationing,Rush Limbaugh,Glenn Beck,Neal Boortz,solutions,doctor shortages,IRS,Tammy Bruce,Freedom Works,Repeal ObamaCare Project,Michael Savage,vote,ObamaTax

MILLER: Simple entitlement reform

Small change in Social Security/Medicare retirement age saves billions

Illustration: Entitlements by A. HUNTER for The Washington Times.

Rick Perry’s exit from the presidential race Thursday left the field with one less reformer willing to take on the single most important budgetary issue: entitlements. Social Security and Medicare’s growing liabilities are driving this nation toward a Greek-style debt crisis. Politicians know the current system is unsustainable and that raising the retirement age is a necessary reform. Few are brave enough to risk doing the right thing.

Democrats have tried to scare seniors into thinking the slightest adjustment to these programs will send them over the proverbial cliff - even though nobody is suggesting changes that would affect anyone currently over the age of 55. The reality is Social Security and Medicare are outdated and must adapt to the baby-boom generation’s longer life spans and increased health care costs. The full retirement age for Social Security is 66 years, just one year more than it was when FDR set up this Ponzi scheme.

As Mr. Perry pointed out during the campaign, Social Security was not created with the idea that Americans would live 15 or more years beyond retirement. In the 1940s, life expectancy was 61 years for men and 65 for women. Now, it’s 76 for men and 80 for women. While we’re all happy to see our parents and grandparents live much longer lives, each senior in retirement is being supported by only three younger workers. That’s why we have to borrow so much money to keep the government checks in the mail.

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney understands the problem. “I’d also add a year to two to the retirement age under Social Security,” the former Massachusetts governor said in the Fox debate on Monday. He would adjust how benefits are indexed for inflation and wealthier Americans. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum would do the same. Texas Rep. Ron Paul wants to shuttle the whole program after paying out to current retirees.

Medicare’s eligibility age of 65 years has not changed at all since the program began in 1966. Mr. Romney supports “a slightly higher retirement age” and shifting the program to the premium-support optional plan that was recently crafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. Unless something is done, Medicare’s own trustees say it will go belly-up in only eight years.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said last week that raising the Social Security retirement age gradually to 70 would reduce outlays 13 percent. Raising Medicare’s age gradually to 67 would reduce costs by 5 percent. Small changes in age mean billions in savings. As a side benefit, raising the retirement age means people would stay in the work force longer, increasing the output of the economy. In turn, that would also lead to more tax revenue in Washington to help balance the budget.

Doing nothing is no longer an option. The only alternatives to raising the eligibility are reducing benefits and hiking taxes on younger workers. Our next president needs to be someone who realizes those aren’t acceptable options.

Emily Miller is a senior editor for the Opinion pages at The Washington Times.

Obamacare Suffers Devastating Rebuke… Even With Rigging and Delaying to Hear Healthcare Case

Obamacare Suffers Devastating Rebuke

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, AP Graphics

President Barack Obama's main idea for getting quality health care at less cost was in jeopardy Wednesday after key medical providers called his administration's initial blueprint so complex it's unworkable.

Just over a month ago, the administration released long-awaited draft regulations for "accountable care organizations," networks of doctors and hospitals that would collaborate to keep Medicare patients healthier and share in the savings with taxpayers. Obama's health care overhaul law envisioned quickly setting up hundreds of such networks around the county to lead a bottom-up reform of America's bloated health care system.

But in an unusual rebuke, an umbrella group representing premier organizations such as the Mayo Clinic wrote the administration Wednesday saying that more than 90 percent of its members would not participate, because the rules as written are so onerous it would be nearly impossible for them to succeed.

"It's not just a simple tweak, it's a significant change that needs to be made," said Donald Fisher, president of the American Medical Group Association, which represents nearly 400 large medical groups around the country providing care for roughly 1 in 3 Americans. Its members, including the Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, and Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, had been seen as the vanguard for accountable care.

The medical groups say they are worried they will be left holding the bag for losses, that the government has designed things so there is no easy way to tell which patients are part of the program, and that there's no reliable way to adjust for patients who are sicker and require closer follow-up and more expensive treatments.

The deadline for public comments on the proposed regulations is still weeks away, but Fisher said "we needed to get their attention early on, so (the administration) could be thinking about how major changes are needed to make these regulations viable."

Medicare spokesman Brian Cook said the agency is doing extensive outreach to explain and take feedback on the regulations and hat "we will carefully consider this input."

"We are confident that providers' decisions on whether to participate in the program will be made on the basis of the final rule, which will reflect the feedback we receive," added Cook.

Many in the health care industry were silent partners backing Obama's overhaul law, but disappointment over the accountable care rules has put a chill into the relationship. During the congressional debate, Obama extolled Mayo and Geisinger, holding them up as a model of what he wanted to achieve for the nation. Industry criticism of his administration's proposal has been building up for weeks in online forums.

"This has all the hallmarks of a party that nobody comes to, unless there is a serious rethinking," said former Medicare administrator Gail Wilensky, who ran the agency under President George H.W. Bush.

Wilensky said the idea of coordinating care isn't the problem, but "it sounds like (the administration) really overshot the mark."

The regulations are "overly prescriptive, operationally burdensome, and the incentives are too difficult to achieve to make this voluntary program attractive," the medical group association said in its letter. One of the major problems seems to be that medical groups have little experience in managing insurance risk, and the administration blueprint rapidly exposes them to potential financial losses.

Without major changes, "we fear that very few providers will enroll ... and that (Medicare) and the provider community will miss the best opportunity to inject value and accountability into the delivery system."

Private insurers are also experimenting with versions of the accountable care idea, but successful adoption by Medicare is seen as the key to spreading it across the country. The Obama administration had estimated as much as $960 million in savings from the first three years of the program, and bigger amounts thereafter.

Fisher, the medical association head, said he does not think the administration will easily back off its approach, because on paper it saves the government money.

Source:  Fox Nation

One Clinton and Two Obama Appointed Judges to Hear Healthcare BIll Lawsuit

Instead of the full 9 member court there will only be 3 justices hearing the healthcare bill lawsuit. One of these was appointed by Clinton and the other 2 by Obama. This is no different than bribing a jury and we need to stand up and put an end to this kind of abuse of power and criminal behavior and that is what rigging a court is.

We the people have the power to petition our representatives for the impeachment of theses activist justices who fail to uphold the Constitution. They take an oath of office to uphold and protect the U S Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.

Domestic includes justices that would rewrite the Constitution to suit their personal agenda. We are at a crossroads, we can either put up or shut up! We are the ones who for years have allowed these courts to overstep their Constitutional powers. Now if we petition our representatives for impeachment they are forced to take it to the floor for action and even if they vote against us it will get into the media and send a strong message to these justices that we will no longer sit silent and let them do as they please, constitutional or not. The Constitution can only be changed by amendments voted on by 2/3 majority of our elected representatives, not by the political agenda of partisan justices. So like I said we either sit back and allow these justices to run amuck or we stand up and say enough. You can in fact write your own petition at the link here and get it moving among all the people or groups you are with.

http://www.repetitionr.com/ 

Mitt Romney:  My First Act As President Is Undoing Obamacare

Mr. President, What Is the Rush???

Obama Could Learn a Thing or Two About Health Care Reform from Massachusetts.  One, time is not the enemy.  Two, neither are the Republicans

 

Because of President Obama's frantic approach, health care has run off the rails. For the sake of 47 million uninsured Americans, we need to get it back on track.

(Now insured: Francisco Diaz of Boston consults with nurse practitioner Anna Hackett Peterson./Josh T. Reynolds for USA TODAY; Mitt Romney./AP)

Health care cannot be handled the same way as the stimulus and cap-and-trade bills. With those, the president stuck to the old style of lawmaking: He threw in every special favor imaginable, ground it up and crammed it through a partisan Democratic Congress. Health care is simply too important to the economy, to employment and to America's families to be larded up and rushed through on an artificial deadline. There's a better way. And the lessons we learned in Massachusetts could help Washington find it.

No other state has made as much progress in covering their uninsured as Massachusetts. The bill that made it happen wasn't a rush job. Shortly after becoming governor, I worked in a bipartisan fashion with Democrats to insure all our citizens. It took almost two years to find a solution. When we did, it passed the 200-member legislature with only two dissenting votes. It had the support of the business community, the hospital sector and insurers. For health care reform to succeed in Washington, the president must finally do what he promised during the campaign: Work with Republicans as well as Democrats.

Massachusetts also proved that you don't need government insurance. Our citizens purchase private, free-market medical insurance. There is no "public option." With more than 1,300 health insurance companies, a federal government insurance company isn't necessary. It would inevitably lead to massive taxpayer subsidies, to lobbyist-inspired coverage mandates and to the liberals' dream: a European-style single-payer system. To find common ground with skeptical Republicans and conservative Democrats, the president will have to jettison left-wing ideology for practicality and dump the public option.

The cost issue

Our experience also demonstrates that getting every citizen insured doesn't have to break the bank. First, we established incentives for those who were uninsured to buy insurance. Using tax penalties, as we did, or tax credits, as others have proposed, encourages "free riders" to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others. This doesn't cost the government a single dollar. Second, we helped pay for our new program by ending an old one — something government should do more often. The federal government sends an estimated $42 billion to hospitals that care for the poor: Use those funds instead to help the poor buy private insurance, as we did.

When our bill passed three years ago, the legislature projected that our program would cost $725 million in 2009. At $723 million, next year's forecast is pretty much on target. When you calculate all the savings, including that from the free hospital care we eliminated, the net cost to the state is approximately $350 million. The watchdog Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation concluded that our program's cost is "relatively modest" and "well within initial projections."

And if subsidies and coverages are reined in, as I've suggested, the Massachusetts program could actually break even. One thing is certain: The president must insist on a program that doesn't add to our spending burden. We simply cannot afford another trillion-dollar mistake.

The Massachusetts reform aimed at getting virtually all our citizens insured. In that, it worked: 98% of our citizens are insured, 440,000 previously uninsured are covered and almost half of those purchased insurance on their own, with no subsidy. But overall, health care inflation has continued its relentless rise. Here is where the federal government can do something we could not: Take steps to stop or slow medical inflation.

At the core of our health cost problem is an incentive problem. Patients don't care what treatments cost once they pass the deductible. And providers are paid more when they do more; they are paid for quantity, not quality. We will tame runaway costs only when we change incentives. We might do what some countries have done: Require patients to pay a portion of their bill, except for certain conditions. And providers could be paid an annual fixed fee for the primary care of an individual and a separate fixed fee for the treatment of a specific condition. These approaches have far more promise than the usual bromides of electronic medical records, transparency and pay-for-performance, helpful though they will be.

Try a business-like analysis

I spent most of my career in the private sector. When well-managed businesses considered a major change of some kind, they engaged in extensive analysis, brought in outside experts, exhaustively evaluated every alternative, built consensus among those who would be affected and then moved ahead. Health care is many times bigger than all the companies in the Dow Jones combined. And the president is rushing changes that dwarf what any business I know has faced.

Republicans are not the party of "no" when it comes to health care reform. This Republican is proud to be the first governor to insure all his state's citizens. Other Republicans such as Rep. Paul Ryan and Sens. Bob Bennett and John McCain, among others, have proposed their own plans. Republicans will join with the Democrats if the president abandons his government insurance plan, if he endeavors to craft a plan that does not burden the nation with greater debt, if he broadens his scope to reduce health costs for all Americans, and if he is willing to devote the rigorous effort, requisite time and bipartisan process that health care reform deserves.

By Mitt Romney - Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007.

 

The Massachusetts plan

• Everyone must buy health insurance or face tax penalties.

• Hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on free hospital care were converted into subsidies to help the needy buy insurance.

• A health insurance "exchange" was established to help connect the uninsured with private health plans at more affordable rates.

• Health plans can offer consumers higher deductibles and more restrictive physician and hospital networks in order to lower costs.

• Businesses with 11 or more workers that do not offer insurance must pay a $295 per employee fee.

Source: Massachusetts Health Connector Authority

No rationing

No public option

No cuts to seniors or duty to die lectures

Posted at 12:16 AM/ET, July 30, 2009 – True Health is True Wealth