Last evening the House passed the Senate's health bill, H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Over 38 states are now stating they are in process and will file suit regarding the procedures and processes, as well as substance and constitutionality issues once the bill is signed into law. This law, along with H.R. 4872, the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act which follows, will greatly expand Medicaid. Unlike Medicare, Medicaid requires states to chip in a percentage of the costs as well as administer the program. As mentioned in the January 4th posting, 43 states are facing financial deficits. Not every state was fortunate enough to get the nearly $600 million each in supplemental Medicaid deals to which Vermont and Massachusetts were privy, let alone the cornhusker kickback that Nebraska did which covered the state's required Medicaid contributions in perpetuity. (This provision for Nebraska will supposedly be eliminated in the yet to be passed by the Senate reconciliation bill.)
Last Thursday, Arizona's new budget signed by the governor dropped coverage for childless adults and the child health insurance program (CHIP) instate, leaving 357,000 Arizonans without coverage. The governor stated the "budget is a vivid reflection of how the fiscal crisis affecting state governments is cutting deeply into healthcare."
Politicians may choose to ignore the will of the people and pass legislation, but ultimately someone must pay for it. Given the present economic crisis, tax revenues are falling for both state and federal governments. It seems Washington has forgotten the fiscal realities of those outside of the Beltway. If the checks and balances built into our Constitution do not cause this legislation to be rethought, the financial realities will.
Showing posts with label HR 4872. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HR 4872. Show all posts
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
CBO Report Released Today on Cost of ObamaCare is Incomplete
The CBO Report is out on ObamaCare [H.R. 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010 combined with H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), as passed by the Senate], stating that it will cost $940 billion over 10 years. Whether this forecast is realistic is for another day’s discussion. Never mind that it uses 10 years of premiums to pay for 6 years of claims.
What is not included is “the doctor fix” for Medicare, which is estimated to be $247 billion. This means that the present health bill is NOT budget neutral, but ADDS to the deficit.
Last evening on Special Report, Bret Baier interviewed the President [transcript]:
“BAIER: And you call this deficit neutral, but you also set aside the doctor fix, more than $200 billion. People look at this and say, how can it be deficit neutral?
OBAMA: But the — as you well know, the doctors problem, as you mentioned, the "doctors fix," is one that has been there for years now. That wasn't of our making, and that has nothing to do with my health care bill. If I was not proposing a health care bill, right — let's assume that I had never proposed health care.
BAIER: But you wanted to change Washington, Mr. President. And now you're doing it the same way.
OBAMA: Bret, let me finish my — my answers here. Now, if suddenly, you've got, over the last decade, a problem that's been built up. And the suggestion is somehow that, because that's not fixed within this bill, that that's a reason to vote against the bill, that doesn't make any sense. That's a problem that I inherited. That was a problem that should have been solved a long time ago. It's a problem that needs to be solved, but it's not created by my bill. And I don't think you would dispute that.”
This bill was to be a comprehensive bill. We were told it could not be done piecemeal. We had to have one bill. Suddenly, paying doctors for their services is somehow irrelevant to providing care for our elderly citizens.
Ignoring the facts, failing address the real access to care issues and failing to add up ALL the costs of in one bill because it isn’t convenient seems more than a little disingenuous, doesn’t it?
What is not included is “the doctor fix” for Medicare, which is estimated to be $247 billion. This means that the present health bill is NOT budget neutral, but ADDS to the deficit.
Last evening on Special Report, Bret Baier interviewed the President [transcript]:
“BAIER: And you call this deficit neutral, but you also set aside the doctor fix, more than $200 billion. People look at this and say, how can it be deficit neutral?
OBAMA: But the — as you well know, the doctors problem, as you mentioned, the "doctors fix," is one that has been there for years now. That wasn't of our making, and that has nothing to do with my health care bill. If I was not proposing a health care bill, right — let's assume that I had never proposed health care.
BAIER: But you wanted to change Washington, Mr. President. And now you're doing it the same way.
OBAMA: Bret, let me finish my — my answers here. Now, if suddenly, you've got, over the last decade, a problem that's been built up. And the suggestion is somehow that, because that's not fixed within this bill, that that's a reason to vote against the bill, that doesn't make any sense. That's a problem that I inherited. That was a problem that should have been solved a long time ago. It's a problem that needs to be solved, but it's not created by my bill. And I don't think you would dispute that.”
This bill was to be a comprehensive bill. We were told it could not be done piecemeal. We had to have one bill. Suddenly, paying doctors for their services is somehow irrelevant to providing care for our elderly citizens.
Ignoring the facts, failing address the real access to care issues and failing to add up ALL the costs of in one bill because it isn’t convenient seems more than a little disingenuous, doesn’t it?
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