Obama Care Chatter

A few years ago Mitt Romney said Justice Roberts was a model of the type of person he’d appoint to the Supreme Court but now he and other Republicans are disappointed in the ruling of June 28, 2012. Although the President’s health care law is similar to what Romney enacted in Massachusetts (included fines for those that didn’t buy insurance), Romney said it was bad law and policy and on his first day in office he’d begin to repeal it; Obama Care will cost jobs as businesses can’t afford the costs; it raises taxes by $500 billion and reduces Medicare by $500 billion and it will increase the country’s deficit. George Stephanopoulos said a repeal of the law was doubtful; he could with an Executive Order allow states to opt out of exchanges, delay implementation and/or not fund the subsidies (expansion). On June 27, I heard a small business man say the mandate to insure employees will tie up company funds and keep them from hiring new employees and growing their businesses; this supports my belief that the cost will eat into profits and they choose profits over people; I say small similar businesses can merge, become more efficient and still grow which would lead to new hires. Romney in his response failed to say that the tax increase is not on the average American and any increase in the deficit would only occur if Republicans continue to fight the elimination of the Bush tax cuts for the rich which is much more than what he said health insurance will cost taxpayers. Romney did agree that the cost of health care must be reduced but failed to say what more could be done (see my January 16, 2012 - Health Care, February 20 - Life & the Government, February 27 thru 29 - US Medical, Parts 1-3 and May 31 - Health Care Madness blogs). I want to point out that on June 20 ABC reported that 100,000 Americans die every year because of hospital errors or problems and a study by the Leapfrog Group identified the safest hospitals in the US. Interestingly Massachusetts was number one (Maine, Vermont, Illinois and Tennessee were next). I went to the Leapfrog Group’s websites and found that they said – “If the first 3 patient safety practices were implemented in every non-rural hospital in the US over 57,000 lives could be saved, as many as 3 million serious medication errors could be prevented and close to $12.0 billion could be saved each year”. I also discovered that not all hospitals participate in the Leapfrog studies, the www.leapfroggroup.org/cp website displays the 2011 results from March 28 – July 25; the 2012 results would be posted at the end of July and you can find your hospital’s rating on hospitalsafetyscore.org/. In addition to the savings identified in my blogs and by the Leapfrog Group, no one has calculated the savings due to eliminating bankruptcies caused by medical bills or the reduction of emergency room care for the uninsured.  

The President said the Court’s decision allows 250 million Americans to keep their health insurance; allows for it to be more secure and affordable; insurance companies can no longer drop coverage when you get sick or jack up the premiums without reason; they won’t be able to charge women more than men; they must cover preventive care and some Americans will get rebates from their insurance companies because too much money was spent on administrative costs and CEO bonuses. The President said he did it because it was the right thing to do and not because it was politically correct. A poll showed 52% of Americans disapprove of the law. I think the average American doesn’t understand what is gained and Republicans have twisted the truth (Boehner said the people don’t want the government telling them what insurance to buy or how much to spend – this is not the case).

The Court decision said the government can’t force people to buy insurance but it can tax them more if they don’t. Beginning in 2014 an adult would pay $95 more in taxes, a family $285, and in 2016 an adult would pay $695 and a family $2085. The Tea Party and Justice Scalia argued that you start with health insurance and then you force people to buy broccoli; the decision shot down this argument – the government can’t force you to buy something but it can tax you more if you don’t – we already tax cigarettes, alcohol and gas guzzlers more.

On July 1 Jack Lew, the White House Chief of Staff, said Americans who can’t afford to buy health insurance can get it through a government program, there’s a tax cut of $4,000 for people needing help paying for insurance, those that are taxed will be the 1% that can afford it and choose not to buy it and spread the cost to all others (example: emergency room costs). Per George Stephanopoulos the Court said the feds can’t reduce funding to States that choose not to expand their Medicaid programs (including coverage) and it could affect 14 million people; per Lew the expansion is 100% federally funded until it drops to 90% in a few years so it’s expected the States will move forward in expanding Medicaid. Lew pointed out that college kids can stay on their parents plan, seniors no longer pay $600 because of the hole in Medicare, and parents with kids with preexisting conditions no longer worry about coverage or lifetime limits.

Lew also said Congress needs to act on the President’s proposals to create jobs (law enforcement, teachers, veterans, and infrastructure) and help people that are under water with mortgages; the Republican budget plan is to give $5 trillion in tax cuts to millionaires and the only way to pay for it is to cut benefits to middle class families through mortgage, health care and charitable donation exclusions. Tomorrow I’ll talk about Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s response to this.