| The US House is poised to vote on the Senate-passed version of health care reform. The bill number is HR 3590. Please contact your House Member today – you should be calling/emailing/faxing the Washington DC and Oregon offices. Not sure who your Congressman is? CLICK HERE. Or find your Congressman’s addresses by CLICKING HERE and using the zip code utility in the upper left-hand corner.
The Ten Worst Provisions in Senate Health Care Bill!
Spends Way Too Much: $2.5 trillion over the first ten years that the plan is fully implemented. This includes the “Cornhusker Kickback,” ”Louisiana Purchase” and other wasteful spending intended to buy votes
Raises Taxes During a Recession: Hikes taxes $493 billion with new levies on so-called “Cadillac” plans, a new Medicare payroll tax on higher-income earners, and taxes on health insurance and drug manufacturing companies, which are sure to be passed on consumers in the form of higher premiums
Individual Mandate: Requires individuals to carry health insurance or exacts a fine up to $750
Business Burdens: taxes employers with more than 50 full-time workers if they are not offered insurance. CBO estimates employers would opt to drop as many as 5 million workers from private insurance, and pay the fine instead of maintaining current coverage
Huge Medicaid Expansion: an estimated 40 percent expansion of the entitlement program would greatly increase costs for government and taxpayers. States would be forced to manage the increased load. However, the federal government would pick up a large share of the new cost
Insurance Companies can still Limit Benefits: Although one of the prime reasons for this entire effort was to force insurance companies to live up to their commitments, the Senate bill would only ban lifetime-benefit caps. Insurance companies can still invoke yearly limits that will have essentially the same effect
Bad for Seniors: Cuts $120 billion from Medicare Advantage, which CBO says will result in fewer seniors with access to vision, dental and flu shots. Ultimately, up to 2.6 million seniors could lose their Medicare Advantage coverage
More Bureaucracy: Creates comparative effectiveness panels, a Medicare Advisory Board and a Health Care Commissioner, all of whom would be responsible for oversight of the greatly-expanded government role in health care and invoking rationing in attempts to contain cost
Doesn’t Tackle Tort Reform: Despite the president’s commitment to lower medical liability costs, the bill only contains a “Sense of Senate” provision, with no real reforms that, if enacted, could save up to $54 billion over ten years
Auto-Enrollment: Businesses with more than 200 workers will be required to automatically enroll employees in health coverage |
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