Baucus' proposal contains hidden consequenses. I smell a rat.
USAmom
2009/09/29 21:34:37
This guy is one of the five, bought by insurance lobbyists, democrats that voted no in round 1.
Baucus' proposal contains 'hidden consequences'
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 9/29/2009 7:40:00 AM
A healthcare expert says the healthcare bill drafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) creates new taxes and cuts to the Medicare program to reduce the cost to the federal government, but does nothing to reduce the cost of healthcare in the family budget.
The Wall Street Journal says the Baucus bill would break all 50 state budgets by permanently expanding Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for the poor. The bill would for the first time make Medicaid available to childless adults and also extend healthcare insurance subsidies to people up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
Under the senator's plan -- known as "America's Healthy Future Act" -- individuals who fail to pay the $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance could be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 fine.
Dennis Smith is a senior fellow in healthcare reform at The Heritage Foundation's Center for Health Policy Studies. He says that penalty is just one of the many "hidden, unknown consequences" in the legislation.
"We've been warning about this for some time of how intrusive the federal government is going to become in all of this," he states. "Obviously when you have a mandate, you have to enforce that mandate."
Smith says expanding the current Medicaid entitlement is irresponsible. As he points out, states cannot afford the existing Medicaid program.
"Congress earlier this year had to bail out the states to the tune of $87 billion over a two-year period," he notes. "[So] it makes no sense when you know the current program is unsustainable to add another 11 [million] to 15 million more people into the Medicaid program."
Smith notes that although the Baucus bill does not contain a public health insurance option, an amendment for one will be offered today in the Finance Committee -- and if that public option amendment is not approved in committee, he expects it will be offered on the Senate floor as well.
As originally introduced in mid-September, the America's Healthy Future Act carries a price tag of $856 billion -- but "will not add to the federal deficit," states a press release from Baucus' office.
Baucus' proposal contains 'hidden consequences'
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 9/29/2009 7:40:00 AM
A healthcare expert says the healthcare bill drafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) creates new taxes and cuts to the Medicare program to reduce the cost to the federal government, but does nothing to reduce the cost of healthcare in the family budget.
The Wall Street Journal says the Baucus bill would break all 50 state budgets by permanently expanding Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for the poor. The bill would for the first time make Medicaid available to childless adults and also extend healthcare insurance subsidies to people up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
Under the senator's plan -- known as "America's Healthy Future Act" -- individuals who fail to pay the $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance could be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 fine.
Dennis Smith is a senior fellow in healthcare reform at The Heritage Foundation's Center for Health Policy Studies. He says that penalty is just one of the many "hidden, unknown consequences" in the legislation.
"We've been warning about this for some time of how intrusive the federal government is going to become in all of this," he states. "Obviously when you have a mandate, you have to enforce that mandate."
Smith says expanding the current Medicaid entitlement is irresponsible. As he points out, states cannot afford the existing Medicaid program.
"Congress earlier this year had to bail out the states to the tune of $87 billion over a two-year period," he notes. "[So] it makes no sense when you know the current program is unsustainable to add another 11 [million] to 15 million more people into the Medicaid program."
Smith notes that although the Baucus bill does not contain a public health insurance option, an amendment for one will be offered today in the Finance Committee -- and if that public option amendment is not approved in committee, he expects it will be offered on the Senate floor as well.
As originally introduced in mid-September, the America's Healthy Future Act carries a price tag of $856 billion -- but "will not add to the federal deficit," states a press release from Baucus' office.
Top Opinion
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+8This creep has got to go...and the other four fake democrats on the finance committee can go with him. I have faith in what our President will do to get reform passed. He said he can do it with or without them. God Bless our president.
What else do you suppose this phony was offered? Maybe a job after he leaves office for big bucks..A job for a family member, etc..This guy is a real joke and I hope he doesn't win another election..
He is a contemptable piece of crap who should not be allowed to have free medical for himself and family at the expense of taxpayers.
But I did watch a portion of his confreence committee on C-Span the other night, last night I believe, and he didn't seem as smug and assured as he did when I saw him earlier this year, when he arrogantly said something to the effect "It's not giong to happen, There will be no healthcare reform, It's not happening."
Dear MoveOn member,
OK, this is amazing: More people believe in UFOs than oppose the public health insurance option.1
Seriously, it's easier to find someone who thinks aliens are landing spaceships in our cornfields than someone who thinks we shouldn't create a public option to keep the insurance companies honest.
The insurance companies are basically the only ones who don't like the public option—which is probably why their industry is spending nearly $5 million per week trying to fight off health care reform in Congress.2
We need to remind our senators that everyday Americans—not space aliens, and not profit-driven insurance executives—support the public health insurance option. Click here to send a free fax about the public option to Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein:
http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=...
Outside of the Senate, insurance company boardrooms, and Area 51, the support for the public option is overwhelming.
At least two thirds of Americans want the choice of a public plan.3 Fully 73% of doctors, the people who see the moral and medical need up close every day, want a public option.4 And a majority of small-business owners, who know firsthand the economic case for...
Dear MoveOn member,
OK, this is amazing: More people believe in UFOs than oppose the public health insurance option.1
Seriously, it's easier to find someone who thinks aliens are landing spaceships in our cornfields than someone who thinks we shouldn't create a public option to keep the insurance companies honest.
The insurance companies are basically the only ones who don't like the public option—which is probably why their industry is spending nearly $5 million per week trying to fight off health care reform in Congress.2
We need to remind our senators that everyday Americans—not space aliens, and not profit-driven insurance executives—support the public health insurance option. Click here to send a free fax about the public option to Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein:
http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=...
Outside of the Senate, insurance company boardrooms, and Area 51, the support for the public option is overwhelming.
At least two thirds of Americans want the choice of a public plan.3 Fully 73% of doctors, the people who see the moral and medical need up close every day, want a public option.4 And a majority of small-business owners, who know firsthand the economic case for health care reform, back it.5
Yet the health insurance companies—and some subset of the people who believe they've seen flying saucers—oppose it. And somehow, ridiculously, that's put the public option in danger in the Senate.
Can you send this free fax to your senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, to make sure they know just how popular the public option is?
http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=...
Thanks for all that you do.
–Nita, Stephen, Kat, Peter, and the rest of the team
P.S. Remember last week's email "from" the public option? Well, it turns out the public option now has its own Twitter feed—@im_publicoption—for important updates and miscellaneous observations on the state of the health care fight. Check it out here:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=847...
Sources:
1. "More Americans Believe In UFOs Than Oppose A Public Option," Media Matters, September 29, 2009
http://mediamattersaction.org...
2. "Insurance and HMO Industries Spend Nearly $700,000 Per Day to Kill Health Care Reform Measures," Public Campaign Action Fund, September 15, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=847...
3. "In Poll, Public Wary of Obama on War and Health," The New York Times, September 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/0...
4. "Poll Finds Most Doctors Support Public Option," National Public Radio, September 14, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=847...
5."Small Business Owners Say Cutting Health Care Costs, Need for Reform are Top Concerns," Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, December 3, 2008
http://www.rwjf.org/pr/produc...
Dear MoveOn member,
There aren't enough Republicans in Congress to block the public health insurance option-unless they can find Democrats who are willing to help them do it.
That's exactly what happened yesterday in the Senate Finance Committee, when three Democrats broke ranks and voted against the public option.
No matter what the headlines say, we've still got a good shot at passing the public option in the full Senate and House-it's been included in all four other committee bills and it only narrowly failed in the Finance Committee.
But we need to make sure Democrats who side with Big Insurance face consequences with the voters back home. So we scrambled overnight to make hard-hitting radio ads to run in the home states of the three Democrats who voted "no."
I can't believe it! Let's throw honest, taxpaying, hard working citizens in jail for not purchasing an insurance policy that they can't afford from a ruthless insurance co. that doesn't care!