BluntPolitics.com

This weekend on the pundit shows (except FOX) President Obama pitched the same spiel on health care reform which is chalk full of inaccuracies. For example, a revenue neutral bill. How can you give 30-50 million people health insurance or health care without it costing money? The neutral part comes in taxes or mandates.  A tax is defined as: noun

–verb (used with object)

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tax

Thus, forcing people to purchase insurance is a tax. These type of taxes are referred to as mandates. Mandates are the same as forcing someone to purchase insurance and thus is a tax.

On Sunday George Stephanopolus ask President Obama about forcing people who  don’t want to buy insurance if they were being taxed. The President was caught off guard and in typical socialistic fashion debated whether this was a tax or not!!! When you force people to pay for something they don’t choose it is a tax.

Huge middle-class tax increase:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgBzmoo9izw

How can we trust this president?

Politico (Politico)
- Clipping Loc. 20-55 | Added on Tuesday, August 04, 2009, 11:14 PM

Recess strategies center on health Carrie Budoff Brown | 800 words They call this a recess? The five-week House break — the Senate is meeting another week — could go a long way in determining the direction of health care reform when lawmakers return next month. Aware of the stakes, House Democratic and Republican leaders have armed their members with enough talking points and tips to keep them from taking much of a vacation. Here’s the CliffsNotes version of what you need to know about the summer strategy on health care, according to House Democratic and Republican memos: Strangely absent. Many Democrats consider the government-run insurance plan their top priority, but there’s not one mention of it in the House Democratic strategy memo. It’s a noteworthy omission, given that Democratic leaders have said repeatedly and unequivocally that the House bill will include a public plan. Members are instead encouraged to talk about insurance market reforms, which are far less controversial than the public plan. They are following a slight shift in messaging that started last month with the White House calling the bill ‘health insurance reform" rather than ‘health care reform." So what will you hear? ‘No discrimination for pre-existing conditions," according to the House Democratic memo. ‘No dropping your coverage because you get sick. No more job or life decisions made based on loss of coverage. No need to change doctors or plans. No co-pays for preventive care. No excessive out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays. No yearly or lifetime cost caps on what insurance companies cover." Weapon of choice. Despite a few recent town halls gone bad, the traditional recess sit-down with constituents is still a preferred method of spreading the message. But both Democrats and Republicans suggest a slightly more controlled option: the telephone town hall, which can make it much harder for critics of either side to hijack the event — and media headlines. An unruly event Saturday with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) suggests it may be a long recess month. After saying he would support the Democratic health care plan even if his constituents opposed it, the congressman faced chants of ‘Just say no." The shouting protesters followed him to the parking lot with signs and appeared to cheer when his car pulled away, according to a video posted on YouTube. Message of choice. Voters could be in for a confusing month. Republicans plan to argue that the Democrats want a government takeover of health care. Get used to hearing Republicans draw comparisons between the health care effort and the bailout of the auto and financial industries.’Democrats are leaving Washington on the defensive, and as a Republican challenger candidate, you must do everything you can to own the issues and frame the debate," the Republican memo states. ‘It is up to you to reaffirm what the voters already know, which is that government is NOT the answer to an ailing economy." Democrats have built a messaging strategy aimed at explicitly refuting the government takeover argument. The Democratic boogeyman is the not the government but, rather, insurers, which disrupt the doctor-patient relationship. By all means necessary. Democratic House leaders seem intent on leaving no media untouched. If you go on Facebook, they want you to visit their health care reform page. Ditto for Twitter. They also want members to create their own health care Web pages and are sending a template to member offices in case they didn’t get the hint the first time. And lawmakers should record YouTube videos, reach out to Hispanic media, hold online video chats with reporters and create flash quizzes on health reform for their websites, the leaders urge in their strategy memo. Best gimmick. You know that clock in Times Square that displays an ever-spiraling uptick in the federal debt? The ‘hidden tax" clock is next. Look for one on a member website near you, tallying the money insured families pay to subsidize the care of the uninsured. The strategy is to convince people who worry about paying more money to cover the uninsured under a reform bill that they are already footing the bill. The idea of a hidden health tax was introduced in a May report from the liberal consumer group Families USA. Its bottom line: In 2008, families paid a ‘hidden health tax" of $1,017, and individuals paid $368. Shameless coordination. Democrats will roll out all their assets. The House Democratic memo details coordination not only with the White House and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius but also with advocacy groups, including Health Care for America Now, AARP and the Service Employees International Union. Spoiler alert. Republican House leaders are urging members to submit op-eds to local newspapers for Aug. 17 to mark ‘the six-month anniversary of the signing of the failed ’stimulus’ bill’" — which will no doubt be tied back to the health care debate.

By Ric Joyner

eflex employees were told in meetings of the Senate Finance Committees plans to eliminate or cap employer tax breaks on employee benefits. After sharing this information with employees, and the impact that the cuts would have on them, they immediately asked what they could do to let help. Then we let them know that flex plans (FSAs) could lose its tax savings and eliminate our industry! Of course they were upset and began to let their voices be known to their Congressional Representatives.  www.house.gov and www.senate.gov

Here is the video the staff put together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFOrHR637Qo&feature=channel_page

Please consider writing your representative. Here is a step by step guide.

http://napba.org/Flexplan.html

For a survey that you can send to your clients and they can pass on to their employees: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229BAUR6MBC We are including this survey on each of our emails to customers and to clients. We will collect the data and send along to Congress.

Thanks again and pass this information along to clients, friends, and colleagues!

June 19, 2009

By DAVID HOGBERG
Investor’s Business Daily

Even as health care reform slows in the Senate over huge program costs, House Democrats doubled down Friday, betting on a more-expansive plan while offering few clues on how to pay for it.

Members from the House Ways and Means; Education and Labor; and Energy and Commerce committees released a “discussion draft” bill that reads like a reform wish list that will appeal to the Democrats’ base. It includes a public plan, a Medicaid expansion, subsidies for those up to 400% of the federal poverty level, and individual and employer mandates. Democrats expect it to cover about 95% of Americans.

It also might prove more costly than those of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that those bills would each cost over $1 trillion, while leaving tens of millions of people without coverage.

That sent Baucus back to the drawing board, announcing his Finance Committee would delay its hearings until after July 4.

He isn’t the only one pushing dates back. President Obama has backed off his July 31 deadline for getting a reform bill to his desk.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise that this is going to take some time to do. It’s an issue that we’ve been discussing for 40 years,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. “The president isn’t pessimistic about being able to get this through Congress this year.”

House Bill’s Cost Unknown

The CBO has yet to score the cost of a public plan or increasing Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the federal poverty level, as the House Democrat plan proposes.

Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said, “We’re going to pay for this bill. We’re going to pay for it by cutting down on expenditures in public programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and by reforms in the system that will hold down costs for everyone. And we’re going to pay for it with revenues.”

On the latter point, Ways and Means and other House panels are mulling a variety of tax hikes to pay for health care, including a value-added tax and a soda levy.

Tax hikes could be politically poisonous and cut the legs out from a tentative economic recovery. But the public also is increasingly worried about soaring budget deficits.

Also, a health plan would need 51 Senate votes if it’s fully paid for — but 60 if it’s not.

A previous CBO report concluded that some Democrat reforms would save money. The employer mandate and community rating would increase federal revenues by $48 billion and $5 billion, respectively, over 10 years. Requiring drugmakers to give the same rebate to Medicare Part D that they give to Medicaid would save $110 billion.

But the Democrats’ plan increases costs by closing the “donut hole” in Medicare Part D and eliminating annual Medicare physician payment cuts. CBO estimated that doing the latter would cost at least $318 billion over 10 years.

Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, was noncommittal on the cost of reform.

“We haven’t figured out exactly where we want that line to be,” he said when asked if the House would have to keep the cost at about $1 trillion. “A lot may depend on the level of cuts and savings. We don’t have CBO scores, so we really can’t say at this point.”

Baucus Balks

CBO scoring compelled Sen. Baucus to rework his plan. A new draft leaked to the media showed he had cut subsidies from 400% of poverty to 300% and Medicaid’s expansion from 150% of poverty to 133%.

Liberal Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein took the CBO score of the Baucus plan as a bad sign. “(H)ealth reform has just gotten harder. The hope that we could expand the current system while holding costs down appears to have been just that: a hope.”

At least one key House lawmaker seems unfazed.

“Everything is on the table. Nothing is locked in cement,” said Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. “I’ve been here a long time. We’ve got momentum.”

Surprise! People will lose their insurance and gain insurance with a net increase that moves us backwards! And sacrificing Flexible Spending Accounts hurts employees and employers by eliminating the ability to afford out of pocket medical expenses, childcare and insurance premiums to pay for the health care bill which will put millions on the uninsured list not to mention unemployment. And we will lose our freedom and choice of doctor regardless of what Obama promises.

Preliminary Analysis of Major Provisions Related to Health Insurance Coverage Under the Affordable Health Choices Act

CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation staff worked together to produce a preliminary  analysis of the major provisions related to health insurance coverage contained in the “Affordable Health Choices Act,” drafted by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).  The estimates are based on provisions from title 1 of the draft legislation released by HELP on June 9th. Among other things, the draft legislation would establish insurance exchanges (called “gateways”) through which individuals and families could purchase health insurance coverage. The proposed bill also would provide federal subsidies to substantially lower the cost of that coverage for some enrollees.

According to our preliminary assessment, enacting the proposal would result in a net increase in federal budget deficits of about $1.0 trillion over the 2010-2019 period. When fully implemented, about 39 million individuals would obtain coverage through the new insurance exchanges. At the same time, the number of people who had coverage through an employer would decline by about 15 million (or roughly 10 percent), and coverage from other sources would fall by about 8 million, so the net decrease in the number of people uninsured would be about 16 million or 17 million.

These new figures do not represent a formal or complete cost estimate for the draft legislation, for several reasons. The estimates provided do not address the entire bill—only the major provisions related to health insurance coverage. Some details have not been estimated yet, and the draft legislation has not been fully reviewed. Also, because expanded eligibility for the Medicaid program may be added at a later date, those figures are not likely to represent the impact that more comprehensive proposals—which might include a significant expansion of Medicaid or other options for subsidizing coverage for those with income below 150 percent of the federal poverty level—would have both on the federal budget and on the extent of insurance coverage.

CBO will continue to work on an ongoing basis with the HELP Committee and the other Senate and House committees involved in health care reform to provide estimates and analyses as legislation is developed.