OBAMA / PELOSI / REID CARE = DUPLICITY & DECEIT...

TWELVE REASONS WHY OBAMACARE / PELOSI / REID CARE IS BAD FOR AMERICA:

1. Bait and Switch: The bill starts collecting new and higher taxes next year, but the coverage benefits don’t start until 2014 or later. Sending collections agents out four years before benefits begin is one of the budget gimmicks that Sen. Reid used so he can claim that the cost of his bill is under $900 billion, as the president has demanded.


2. The real cost: The actual 10-year cost of the legislation, once the spending begins, will be at least $2.5 trillion. And it gets worse. Budget expert Jim Capretta estimates that the bill will lead to a $4.9 trillion spending increase over 20 years.


3. The uninsured are still with us. The bill leaves 24 million people without insurance by 2019, not even close to the promised goal of universal coverage. This will be a serious problem for hospitals that still will be treating uninsured people, including illegal immigrants. The bill reduces payments by $43 billion to hospitals that serve a large number of low-income patients.


4. Job-killing taxes on employers: Employers will be faced with new penalties and taxes, especially if they hire workers who qualify for any of the new federal subsidies for health insurance. According to the Congressional Budget Office, “Firms with more than 50 workers that did not offer coverage would have to pay a penalty of $750 for each full-time worker if any of their workers obtained subsidized coverage through the insurance exchanges.”


5. Doc-Fix gimmick: And Sen. Reid is playing more games with the so-called “doc-fix,” providing a slight increase for next year but then pretending that Medicare payments to doctors will be cut by 23% the following year and that they will stay at that level for good. Doctors should be hopping mad. The House showed what a charade this is yesterday in a separate vote to give doctors their payment increase next year.


6. Bending the cost curve up: Despite the president’s promise to lower the cost curve, the CBO says that the federal commitment to health spending “would be about $160 billion higher under the legislation than under current law.”



7. Abortion: Reid would allow the new government insurance plan he creates to cover abortions and would allow companies that receive federal funds to offer policies that include abortion coverage, saying premium funds rather than taxpayer money would be used. The National Right to Life Committee said the Reid language is “completely unacceptable.” This will lead to a major floor battle.


8. Losing your current coverage: About five million people would lose their current employment-based coverage, and millions of seniors would lose their private Medicare Advantage coverage as the program is cut by $118 billion. Many of the 11 million seniors in Medicare Advantage plans are lower-income seniors who have chosen to enroll because the program provides better benefits and lower costs than traditional Medicare.


9. Scarce subsidies: Despite spending $338 billion on new subsidies through the health insurance exchange, just 19 million people will qualify for help with their costs -- even though everyone is required to have government-defined health insurance or pay a penalty. A lot of people will get sticker shock when they see the high cost of the new insurance they are required to buy and realize they don’t get any help with premiums.


10. Worst-of-both-worlds mandates: Individuals will be required to purchase health insurance, but the penalties are relatively light, providing an incentive for the young and healthy to opt out of coverage. But health insurance companies still will be required to sell policies to anyone who applies. Which means people can wait until they need expensive medical treatment to buy coverage. Which means premiums for everyone left in the pool will soar.


11. Millions more on the dole: ReidCare would add 15 million more people to the rolls of Medicare and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, exacerbating the long-term budget problems of the states that must share in the costs of this expanded coverage. The bill also creates a new government entitlement program for long-term care insurance. And in another budget gimmick, the government will be collecting taxes for the program within the 10-year budget window, but putting off spending until after that.


12. Progressive payroll tax: The bill increases the Medicare payroll tax for wealthier Americans, creating a new progressive tax schedule for this tax that surely will be raised to hit the middle class. And the revenue goes into the health reform pot, paying for benefits that have nothing to do with Medicare. This is a dangerous precedent, and only one of the plethora of new and higher taxes included in the plan.

So taxes will go up, bureaucracy will grow, the deficit will swell, and the quality of care will suffer.