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Heritage foundation responds to president Obama. I just don’t hear the right screaming about the lies being told by this president.

By Ric Joyner

I watched all day. Fortunately it was  raining here in Florida. The final voting came about 10.15 pm. It is historic for several reasons. First, no  republicans voted in favor of the bill. This is much different than Social Security or Medicare which had republican support. The accounting on this bill is suspect because it creates new taxes for 4 years before people start to get coverage (the many uninsured). To be fair there are some things in the bill that are helpful which are actually Republican ideas (according to Nancy Pelosi tonight in her floor speech). Some of the immediate good things are that it will require insurance companies to forgo any pre-existing limitations and allow adult children to be on their parents insurance until age 26. But it does force everyone to purchase some form of insurance.  But what does this mean for eflex?

To be frank… not sure. We are not clear if the bill becomes law now or after the president signs it  or after the Senate gets done with it thus it is up in the air when the taxes take effect. This bill has $500,000,000,000 in new taxes and eflex will be affected as an employer with benefits You as an employee may be affected as well. We are not sure as of this date the exact impact. As more info becomes available  we will keep you informed.

But how will it affect eflex? Well there are two areas where we are affected. We are a TPA for Consumer Driven Plans. I am not exactly sure where CDH will fit in but my guess is that it will be a boon for us because the better the coverage an employer has the more the cost for employees and employers so there may be a scramble to buy HRAs and flex plans. But I am not totally sure which bill we are looking at because there are so many different versions. There is the President’s plan, the Senate plan (which was the one the house passed last night) and the one that limits FSAs and removes OTC. Currently, with your help, those of NAPBA and ecfc we were able to get a reprieve on both OTC and FSAs for a couple of years.

As an employer, we will have to sift through the taxes we will face in the next few months.

So I will keep you posted. Regardless, of where you stand thanks much for sharing your voice.

Another reason it is historic vote, is that with taxes comes loss of freedom. (the government doesn’t know better how to spend your money but they will try). Second, when the democrats pushed Social Security and Medicare in the past, the country has a $35,000,000,000,000 (trillion) unpaid balance!! So while some who favor this bill, feel good today that this passed their kids, grandkids and great grandkids will pay for this and they will have higher taxes. And the sad thing is that our founding fathers didn’t want big government (England) telling them how to live and how to spend their money. The Founders tried a large experiment that has never been done in the history of the world at that time, where individuals could succeed or fail on their own without government interfering. This vote moves us away from what our founding fathers wanted and even may be unconstitutional! In fact, 38 states are starting lawsuits against the federal government over the mandate for the their residents who are forced to buy insurance!

The last reason it is historic is that the polls show 55% of Americans are against this bill and 35% are for the bill. It is literally unheard of for a political party to go against the majority of American people in this manner. Most Americans, including me, want health care reforms but not this big and with such high taxes that will certainly affect the economy.

This is actually a beginning not the end of how the bill will look. The republicans in the Senate have a chance to strip out some of the  problems in this bill.

Remember too that 35 democrats departed from their party leadership and they will pay dearly by their party. The way this happens is that the party leadership will hold back on political chairmanships, office space and funding for their future campaigns!!

So it took real courage for the 35 + or –  to vote against this monster.

By Ric Joyner

Folks,

Enjoyed my day meeting with my representatives. The first was Senator Feingold’s aid…Andrew S. Our mission was not to talk about ideology but how flex plans will be affected in health care.

Since the Dems are using reconciliation the process stops until the senate finishes. But the problem is that that House has to pass the Senate version (which has the two negative impacts on flex in it. Capping the health FSA and eliminating the over the counter medicine deduction in FSA, HRA and HSA.

We explained that our software vendor provided data on all their participants which provides about 1.2 million cdh account holders. The average dollar amount put into the FSA for health expenses was $1,563.17. I then explained that the problem with this that it is average numbers and singles put in much less than families so this numbers for actual participation with families is much higher and we were there to let the Senators know that our participants asked us to pass along to the representatives that this is a hidden tax. Same thing with over the counter meds.

Interesting fact, we waited in their lobbies and the phone rang off the hook with people calling to protest the health care bill. Finally one of the aids blew a gasket literally and started to argue with the constituent that health care did need overhauling. As we left, there were other folks from other associations that were lecturing the representatives staff on big government etc. and for them not to support this bill. But by and large the calls were steady in all the offices and they were overwhelmingly against this bill (there officially is no bill but just pieces and they will be cobbled together. But do watch the senate version and the house must pass this bill). The staffers said their job was take down and pass along the information to the member but that it was tiring!

There was genuine concern by staffers they could lose the house. They don’t think they will lose the Senate. They talked about Mass election catching them all by surprise.

The Senate Aides said they have the 50 votes (the VP adds 1) to pass the bill in the Senate but in the house it is unraveling. (This was told to us by Democratic Aides). One said she had been working so hard and long hours on a bill that she would be severely depressed if it didn’t happen.

Again we didn’t talk politics just asked the senators and representative to please work together to take out this hidden tax. We received positive comments that they would. (I have known most of them for years)

BTW we ended up lost below the Capital and we took a  ride on the Senator’s subway train which I guess is a not allowed. A guard stopped us and asked if we were staff and we said no…just lost. He told us we weren’t supposed to be on the train and asked how we got there and we told  him we came down the stairs and got on. He told us to come to his desk and he checked our IDs and gave us “official business Visitor” badges.

Oh boy that was cool. We got into a ton of places (and trains) we probably shouldn’t have.  One staffer asked how we got the badges and we said it was fun riding the senators train and appreciated the nice officer that gave them to us. She said “Great, that is why I feel so safe in Washington” and rolled her eyes.

Ferdacripesake it is fun to be from Wisconsin! 

One guy from NE was wearing a giant corn cob hat to represent the cornhusker pay off!

Per a White House official:

Tomorrow afternoon at the White House, the President will deliver remarks about moving forward into the final stage of the health insurance reform debate. He’ll reiterate why reform is so crucial and what it will mean for American families and businesses: they’ll have more control over their own health care, they’ll see lower costs , and they’ll see an end to insurance company abuses. He’ll note that his proposal includes the best ideas from both parties, and he’ll restate his preference for a comprehensive bill that will reduce premiums and end discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. He’ll urge Congress to move swiftly toward votes on this legislation.
More on the event:
– The President will speak at 1:45 pm in the East Room
– He will be joined by health care professionals from around the country
– Secretary Sebelius will attend as well
– The remarks will be open press

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