October 18, 2011

Piece-By-Piece ObamaCare Falling Apart

Obamas Crowning Achievement Is Being Whittled Down By The President Himself
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Just Last Friday, The Obama Administration Pulled The Plug On The Community Living Assistance Services And Supports (CLASS) Program. The Obama administration says it is unable to go forward with a major program in the president's signature health care overhaul law a new long-term care insurance plan. Officials said Friday the long-term care program has critical design flaws that can't be fixed to make it financially self-sustaining. (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Obama Pulls Plug On Part Of Health Overhaul Law, The Associated Press, 10/14/11) Invalidating CLASS Marks The First Time The Administration Has Backed Away From Obamas Crown Achievement -- ObamaCare. Although the program had been dogged from the start by doubts about its feasibility, its elimination marks the first time the administration has backed away from a key piece of President Obamas signature legislative achievement. (N.C. Aizenman, White House Eliminates Insurance Program For
Long-Term Care, The Washington Post, 10/14/11)

The Administration Was Unable To Conceive A Plan To Make CLASS Fiscally Efficacious. An actuarial review that Health and Human Services has just released confirms those fears: The administration could not design a long-term care program that would both hew to the health reform law -- which requires that CLASS beneficiaries receive a minimum of $50 in benefits per day -- and make the program actuarially sound. (Sarah Kliff, White House Kills CLASS, The Washington Post, 10/14/11)

Ending CLASS Damaging To Arguments That ObamaCare Will Reduce The Deficit. Whats most damaging about the decision are the larger implications for the health reform law. The pullout is expected to reduce the projected budget savings of the Affordable Care Act -- when the Office of Budget Management issues the presidents 2013 budget -- by approximately $86 billion. The health reform law will still generate $127 billion in revenue, administration officials say, but thats a big notch down from the original estimates.
(Sarah Kliff, White House Kills CLASS, The Washington Post, 10/14/11)

CLASS Was To Account For 40 Percent Of The Savings In ObamaCare. By scrapping the CLASS Act, HHS is losing about 40 percent of the savings healthcare reform was supposed to generate. The Congressional Budget Offices most recent estimates projected $210 billion in total deficit reduction from the healthcare law, $86 billion of which would have come from CLASS. (Sam Baker, Obamas HHS Ends
Controversial Program In Health Reform Law, The Hills Health Watch, 10/14/11)

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OBAMA SIGNS BILL REPEALING OBAMACARES 1099 MANDATE

Obama Signed Legislation To Repeal ObamaCares 1099 Mandate.President Barack Obama signed a bill repealing a tax-compliance mandate in last years health care law, giving a victory to business groups that led a campaign against the requirement. The repealed provision, under which companies would have had to report more transactions to the Internal Revenue Service, was included in the law as a revenue-raising measure. (Richard Rubin, Obama Signs Law Repealing Business Tax Reporting Mandate, Bloomberg, 4/14/11) Lawmakers In Both Parties Agreed, And Obama Endorsed Changes To The 1099 Provision In His State Of The Union Speech. (Richard Rubin, Obama Signs Law Repealing Business Tax Reporting Mandate, Bloomberg,
4/14/11)

OBAMA HAS PROPOSED CUTTING BILLIONS FROM HIS LEGISLATIVE ACHIEVEMENT

Obama Proposed Cutting $3.5 Billion From ObamaCares Prevention Fund. Aspects of the plan are likely to frustrate Democrats on Capitol Hill, whether it's the $3.5 billion in cuts to the health reform law's Prevention and Public Health fund, the introduction of a new form of blended rates for Medicaid, or additional costs for seniors who enroll in Medicare after 2017, according to White House fact sheets. (Jennifer
Haberkorn, Obama Links Entitlements To Taxes, Politico, 9/19/11)

OBAMACARES TANNING TAX IS COMING UP SHORT, WAY SHORT

The Tax On Tanning Was To Help Pay For ObamaCare. The tanning tax is one of the smaller taxes in a mosaic of levies and fee increases totaling about $409 billion through 2019 that Congress assembled to pay for the 2010 health-care overhaul. (Andrew Zajac, Tanning Tax Income Pales Compared With Estimate, Audit Finds, Bloomberg, 10/13/11)

Since ObamaCare Was Enacted, The Tanning Tax Has Only Contributed $54.4 Million Towards The $2.6 Trillion Cost Of ObamaCare. The tax brought in $17.8 million in the last quarter of the 2010 fiscal year and $36.6 million in the first half of fiscal 2011, according to the report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Departments inspector general for tax administration. (Andrew Zajac, Tanning Tax
Income Pales Compared With Estimate, Audit Finds, Bloomberg, 10/13/11; Office Of The Speaker Of The U.S. House Of Representatives, Report, 1/6/11)

AMERICANS ARE PAYING MORE FOR HEALTH CARE THROUGH HIGHER PREMIUMS
Workers Paid An Average Of $132 More For Family Coverage This Year. Although premiums rose, employers kept the percentage of the premium workers pay about the same: An average of 18 percent for single coverage and 28 percent for family plans. Still, with rising costs, workers paid more, up an average of $132 a year for family coverage. Since 1999, the dollar amount workers contribute toward premiums nationally has grown 168 percent, while their wages have grown by 50 percent, according to the survey.
(Julie Appleby, Cost Of Employer Insurance Plans Surge In 2011, Kaiser Health News, 9/27/11)

Cost Of Single Employee Coverage Grew 8 Percent According To The Survey. Family plan

premiums hit $15,073 on average, while coverage for single employees grew 8 percent to $5,429, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. (KHN is an editorially-independent program of the foundation.) (Julie Appleby, Cost Of
Employer Insurance Plans Surge In 2011, Kaiser Health News, 9/27/11)

AND PRESSURE IS BUILDING TO REPEAL OBAMACARES ABILITY TO RATION CARE

The Tampa Tribune: Bipartisan Consensus That IPAB Is A Mistake. There is bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill that IPAB is a mistake. Physicians groups don't like it, hospital lobbies don't like it, and even the American Medical Association, whose support helped pass ObamaCare into law, has called for its repeal. Some Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa, have signed on to Tennessee Republican U.S. Rep. Phil Roe's repeal bill. (Editorial, Return Control To The Patient, The Tampa Tribune, 10/15/11)
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Tribune: IPAB Entrusts A Board Of Bureaucrats To Ration Medicare In The Future. IPAB's proponents, including President Obama, insist this is no rationing board and point to the section of the law that says there can be no rationing. But it is what it is. The health care law may not ration Medicare directly, but it gives the board the authority to ration Medicare in the future. If Medicare costs rise too rapidly, the board has the power to make recommendations to contain those costs, and Congress must go along unless it has a different plan to make the cuts or a supermajority overrides the recommendations. (Editorial, Return Control To The Patient, The Tampa Tribune, 10/15/11) Tribune: In Short, Medicare Patients Would Lose Access To Medical Care When Medicare Payments To Doctors And Hospitals Are Cut And Physicians Then Refuse To Take New Patients. (Editorial, Return Control To The Patient, The Tampa Tribune, 10/15/11) Tribune: Amazingly, President Obama Thinks IPAB Should Have Even More Power. (Editorial,
Return Control To The Patient, The Tampa Tribune, 10/15/11)

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