HEALTH BILL WINNERS AND LOSERS

A health reform amendment with bribes and payoffs to many Senators drafted in secret, was introduced it in the middle of a snowstorm, and passed in a Senate session at 1 a.m.  Why the big hurry? Every Democratic senator got something.


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HEALTH BILL WINNERS AND LOSERS 

A health reform amendment with bribes and payoffs to many Senators drafted in secret, was introduced it in the middle of a snowstorm, and passed in a Senate session at 1 a.m.  Why the big hurry?

Senator Reid insists that it be passed before Christmas — because they don't want the American people to know what's in it. The calendar is ticking quickly toward an election year in which a voter focus on the economy could undercut momentum for healthcare.

This special flurry of deal making with powerful senators resulted in an opportunity to insert a lot of last-minute black mail changes to obtain the votes needled for passage of this Medicare Reform.   

Dealmaker Harry Reid commented: “This is how lawmaking always worked and legislation is all about the art of compromise. This legislation is no different than other pieces of legislation.  I don't know if there is a senator that doesn't have something in this bill that was important to thim.  And if they don't have something in it important to them, then it doesn't speak well of them."

It’s obvious why elected officials prefer to bury their unpopular votes in off years. The New Year makes a difference.  Most people will tune out politics during the holiday season.   It’s always better to deliver the bad news while YOU  aren’t paying attention.

LETS LOOK AT THE WINNERS AND LOSERS OF THIS BILL!

WINNING STATES

CONNECTICUT Senator Chris Dodd got $100 million in service to the bill to help the University of Connecticut hospital. 

FLORIDA Senator Nelson got 3.5 billion to keep Medicare Advantage policies in effect.

MONTANA Superfund site to be helped in Libby Montana because it was exposed to a health hazard subject to a federal emergency declaration as of 6.17.2009.

LOUISIANA Senator Mary Lambieux, and Arkansas Senator Blanch Lincoln each get $100 million for their state’s Medicaid programs.

IOWA Senator Tom Harkins gets Iowa hospitals an increase in Medicare payments for poor service at eight of their hospitals, since they are shortchanged by the current system.

VERMONT got inserted $10 billion for community health services centers and 600 million for its small state Medicaid program.
MASSACHUSETTS got 500 million for its Medicaid program.

NORTH DAKOTA Senator Max Baucus gets money for rural health hospitals in his state.

NEBRASKA Senator Ben Nelson gets an exemption for Mutual of Omaha supplemental Medicare plan.  Blue Cross of Nebraska got an exemption for mutual companies owned by policyholders state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost. Nelson also won concessions for qualifying nonprofit insurers and for Medigap providers from a new insurance tax and was able to roll back cuts to health savings accounts. He also got a Michigan-Nebraska Blue Cross carve out on the insurance tax.

You the taxpayer will have to pay for these special deals that the above states received!

OTHER WINNERS

LONG SHOREMEN UNION has its Cadillac healthcare plan exempt from the 40% excise tax slapped on other Cadillac plans.


AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION got canceled the proposed Botox tax of 5 percent tax on cosmetic procedures and Botox treatments. This was expected to generate $6 billion for health care costs. 

TRIAL LAWYERS     Trial lawyers will continue to get at least $54 billion annually from suing the healthcare industry.  With more exposure, transparency, and lack of testing, expects that number to rapidly rise.

AARP is the winner in Medicare gap insurance. 

DRUG COMPANIES     Drug industry will get 12 years of patent protection for their high-tech drugs instead of the current three year patent protection, for biological vaccines, and drugs to combat cancer parkinsonism, and other deadly diseases. Big Pharma agreed to contribute $80 billion toward healthcare management, but got one-year amnesty in payments.

HOSPITALS will be exempt from the commission’s cost-cutting powers until 2019.  Doctors and hospitals will be paid higher reimbursements if they coordinate their care through clinics, which will be more easily controlled by the government. They will get a lump sum payment for a given patient's care.    Everyone involved in your care from the emergency room doctor to the bone doctor to the physical therapist, dear family pack dish dinner will all have to work together sit down and argue and divide the money allocate

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LOSERS

TANNING SALONS will see a 10% tax increase. This should put a lot of these people out of business in over 20,000 salons.

YOUNG ADULTS   Over 10 million young adults between the ages of 19 and 26, lack health insurance coverage and will be forced to buy insurance.  Most young adults are uninsured because they are less likely to work for employers who will give them coverage. They are also likely to assume that they will not get sick and will never need health insurance. They'd rather spend the money on other things.  Where in the constitution does it give Congress the right to mandate health insurance on any American citizen?

EMPLOYERS AND INDIVIDUALS   Individuals must purchase government-approved insurance and most employers provide coverage or face a fine.   Individuals will also face penalties if they do not comply.  You will pay immediately into a fund that you will not have access to for five more years.

MEDICALDEVICE MAKERS   A tax of $20 billion over the next decade from a 2 1/2% excise tax on sales of their devices. 

INSURANCE COMPANIES   The new bill will impose new regulations on the insurance industry, such as prohibiting companies from denying coverage once enrollees become sick.  Health insurers will offer national plans to Americans under the supervision of the Office of Personnel Management; the same entity that oversees health plans for Members of Congress.

IMMIGRANTS   Over 8 million illegal immigrants under the age of 65 will remain uninsured under this plan aimed to cover everyone with health care insurance.

ABORTED FETUSES   We talk about the health of unborn babies, but we don't want them to be born.  You will be forced to pay for abortions, late-term abortions, and probably euthanasia of our senior citizens.

QUALITY MEDICAL CARE    If hospitals admit too many patients or allow infections in the hospital their payments will be decreased.  Doctor will be graded and will see a reduction in their Medicare payments if they order more tests compared to other doctors. 

This would promote rationing, and even function as a death panel by proxy; by compelling doctors to arbitrarily cut care to you. Since Medicare has started studying utilization patterns of doctors, data will soon be available. Doctors would get more money if they deliver high-quality care at lower costs, and their income will be reduced if they order too many tests. This will change the behavior of doctors who manage your care, since they will increase their share in the money saved by Medicare. 

SENIORS   If you’re a senior on Medicare, YOU ARE THE BIGGEST LOSER and better be afraid of this bill.  Despite paying all your working lives into the Medicare trust fund, you are now in danger of having $483 billion cut out of it. 

This healthcare overhaul will certainly shorten the lives of American seniors by cutting Medicare services.    Senior consultants will counsel you on end-of-life care--a government program that will determine when to pull the plug on grandma and grandpa.

Ask most seniors who have been treated recently for illnesses and they will tell you they have yet to see significant waste and the systems. Seniors are told that Medicare spending could be cut by 30% without doing harm.  Congress insists that someone must swallow the deadly pill.  Democrats will find the money to pay for this 1.3 trillion dollar plan. It will come from the seniors. Democrats say the cuts would not be in services but in a reduction in reimbursements to doctors and health providers.

COMMENTARY

 Health care is probably the single hardest and trickiest problem our American society faces. Economically, it involves about one-sixth of our economy, and everybody in the United States has a dog in this fight.  Hospitals are now the biggest and fastest-growing employers in many communities across the country and their jobs offer the highest pay possible.

Everybody wants to live forever, yet nobody wants to cut any corners on his or her own health care: yet nobody wants to pay through the nose for everyone else’s health care costs. 

Any attempt to change the American health care system is going to be complicated; most people will have no idea how it will work out in practice. You will have to take it on faith that the Obama, Reid, Pelosi, proposal is a good one.

However, it’s hard for most of us voters to trust Congress right now.  They have failed to get us out of this recession, increase the jobs, and restore confidence in returning our country to fiscal health.  Will this 2000 page program passed at 1 am in the morning make us better?

Only 10% of healthcare needs fixing. Policies providing a more competitive market structure to bring down costs, regulations from prohibiting people from being dropped, and regulations addressing pre-existing conditions are all that are necessary.

This bill does not address costs at all.  It misses everything that is wrong with the system, and is geared to put dollars into the pockets of certain groups. This bill it is about taking over a private industry and not constructive reform.

Our best course on health care is a long-term, incremental strategy: We should be making lots of little fixes that, over time, can ease the way for bigger changes.  What we get is rationed care and exploding deficits.  Taxes going up now, Medicare cuts made now, and five years later we will start our subsidy spending.


What is the big rush? This bill is a bad bill, but a good deal for the Democratic senators.  Their short term benefits are exchanged for long term costs for our nation.

We don't need new legislation to remove waste and fraud for Medicaid and Medicare. It could be done now without costing us one trillion dollars. If we want to stimulate the economy, why not give the money back directly to the taxpayers?

Our nation is broke and Obama health care will further destroy our economy, our future, the future of our children, and will enslave us.  It isn’t isn't really about lowering costs. It's about putting Washington in charge of us and our health insurance at whatever costs necessary.

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