The Political Bridge

Fact Checking H.R. 3962: The Amount of the Fine for People Who Don't Get Health Coverage

From FactCheck.org

Information for this comes from a letter written by Thomas Barthold (chief of staff of the House Joint Committee on Taxation) about enforcing the individual health insurance mandate of H.R. 3962, the House-passed bill.  Those who don’t get coverage will be subject to a tax of 2.5 percent of their adjusted income beyond that threshold, up to the cost of the average national premium.

To read this letter Download JCTletter110509

"The Affordable Health Care for America Act:” After the Tumult and Shouting Subside, Will the House Divide and Fall? By DrTed

When Speaker Pelosi announced passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962), Democrats in the House of Representatives erupted in cheers and high fives.

 

Across the aisle, the Republicans watched glumly.

 

Afterwards, the Democratic and Republican House Leaders made predictable claims about H.R. 3962.

 

John Dingell (D- Michigan), the Act’s sponsor, trumpeted its passage by declaring that the “House Makes History on Health Reform:  For the first time in U.S. history, the House votes to provide quality, affordable health insurance for all Americans.”

 

John Boehner(R-Ohio), the House Minority Leader, warned that “Speaker Pelosi’s Government Takeover of Health Care Will “Dim the Light of Freedom.”

 

In all this tumult and shouting, little has been said about the impact of the proposed health care reforms upon the 50 states. This might be one of the most contentious and divisive issues in reforming America’s health care system.

 

Implementing any enacted health care reform (H.R. 3962, S. 1796 or a conciliatory measure) will be costly to the states. Nearly everybody agrees.

 

The Congressional Budget Office(CBO) has a $39 billion increase in state spending over the next ten years as a consequence of implementing H.R. 3692. This projection is based upon mandated changes in state laws governing Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollment requirements. An unforeseen  number of working poor might also be added to these rolls, because they will be unable to either purchase the required health insurance or pay the fine for not having insurance(Reuters). 

 

The Reuters’ analysis of H.R. 3692 indicates still further costs to the states. Several states anticipate allocating millions of dollars for the technology needed to administer the proposed health-care exchange system.

 

With Medicaid expenditures and state budgets currently headed toward a fiscal precipice ( Download 8001), what are the states to do about the forecasted H.R. 3962-related costs?

 

Raise taxes?  Not a good option for state officials who want to remain in office.

 

Cut core services?  Many states have already done that, and cutting more services would only compound their troubles.

 

Devising tougher Medicaid and CHIP eligibility requirements?  This, I believe, is not permissible under H.R. 3962, which prescribes a more standardized and less stringent eligibility requirements that the current Medicaid and CHIP regulations demand.   

 

Opting out of the federally mandated Medicaid and CHIP Programs? Going down this road could lead to a constitutional crisis on the question of states’ rights versus the federal government.

 

Several notable Republicans have talked about invoking state sovereignty (the Tenth Amendment  to the U.S. Constitution). Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-Minnesota), for instance, has suggested that Minnesota might cite this Amendment as a reason for not implementing portions of the (eventually) enacted federal health care program.

 

While Governor Pawlenty has been backtracking from this threat, there is a burgeoning state sovereignty (self-determination) movement in America. Nine states from conservative Georgia to liberal Washington have introduced bills or resolutions declaring self-determination under the Tenth Amendment.  A dozen (mostly red) states have been contemplating similar legislation.  

 

This recent self-determination movement has been most clearly manifested in health-related matters.  As of July, 2009, 17 (mostly blue) states have either enacted and or have been moving towards comprehensive health care reform. The medical use of marijuana has become legal in 13 states.

 

An enactment of H.R. 3692 of S.1796, or a compromise measure will then most likely give a huge boost to the state-sovereignty movement.  

 

I fear this development because Americans fought a bloody civil war to become the United States of America rather than these United States.

 

I believe that President Lincoln was right in waging that war—a house divided cannot stand.

Arizona Might Assert States Rights on Health Care Reform

From the Watchdog Examiner

 Next year, Arizona voters will decide whether its residents will be subject to the mandates in Obama and the Democrats health care reform.

The Arizona Legislature has introduced an HC2014, an initiative if passed, would amend the state constitution so that no resident would be required to participate in any public health care option.  The initiative will be on the ballot in November 2010.

Health Care Reform: Areas of Agreements and Disagreement between the House and the Senate

from TampaBay.Com; September 12, 2009

WASHINGTON — After months of hearing about differences of opinion on reforming health care in America, it may seem as if there is no chance for an agreement. But the bill passed by the House on Saturday already has much in common with what has found favor in the Senate — and some key differences, too.

Click House vs. Senate to view these areas of agreement and disagreement.

Healthcare-NOW!'s View on The Passage of the Health Care for America Act

On Saturday, November 7, 2009, the House passed H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, to much celebration by the Democratic party. Healthcare-NOW!'s view, however, is that the House bill is a gift to the insurance industry at the further expense of the people of this nation.

The bill's advocates claim it will cover an additional 36 million people, subsidize the cost of insurance for families up to 400% above the poverty level, increase Medicaid coverage to 150% above the poverty level, close the Medicare donut hole by 2019, place a surcharge on individuals making more than $500,000 and couples making more than $1,000,000, will end rescissions and pre-existing conditions.

What the Democrats fail to mention is the bill leaves millions of people uninsured, allows medical bankruptcies to persist, criminalizes and fines the uninsured, increases the number of underinsured, does nothing to contain the sky rocketing costs, blocks women from their reproductive rights, transfers massive public funds to private insurance companies strengthening their control over care, protects pharmaceutical companies' superprofits at patient expense, fails to reclaim the 31% of waste in our system, expands Medicaid without regard to the state budget crises, discriminates based on immigration status and age, and sets up several levels of care covering less for those without the ability to pay. Those who have coverage will increasingly find care unaffordable and will go without. The whole system will inevitably fail from being fiscally unsustainable.

To read more about HealthCare-NOW!'s efforts click Mobilize for Healthcare

Reuters: Healthcare Reforms will Cost U.S. States Millions

(Health-care reform)Bills in both the Senate and the House of Representatives would make more people eligible for Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor that states administer with reimbursements from the federal government.

At the same time, any bill that makes it to President Barack Obamato sign into law will likely mandate that people have health insurance. That would push more people to enrollin Medicaid and drive those numbers up even further.

To Read More: Click Cost to States

Is the House Health Care Bill Better than Nothing?

by Marcia Angell, M.D.

distributed by Huffington Post and Common Dreams

(Marcia Angell, M. D., is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.)

The House health reform bill finally passed after one of Congress's longer, less enlightening debates. Two stalwarts of the single-payer movement split their votes; John Conyers voted for it; Dennis Kucinich against. Kucinich was right.

The House bill is not a "government takeover." I wish it were. Instead, it enshrines and subsidizes the "takeover" by the investor-owned insurance industry that occurred after the failure of the Clinton reform effort in 1994. The bill has a few good but marginal provisions (expansion of Medicaid, for example). 

To read more click Health Care Reform? 

The NY Times Profiles the 39, Mostly Rural Democrats, Who Voted Nay on the House Health Care Bill

An overwhelming majority of the Democratic lawmakers who opposed the bill — 31 of the 39 — represent rural districts that were won by Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, and a third of them were freshmen. Nearly all of the fourteen freshmen Democrats who voted “no” represent districts that were previously Republican and are considered vulnerable in 2010. Geographically, 22 lawmakers from southern states formed the largest opposition bloc.  

For more information on these 30 Democrats click Nay on Health Care.

Health Care Bill: Compromise won over Rural Democratic Holdouts

Information from the Washington Post, January 9, 2009

Reps. Baron P. Hill(Ind.), Dan Maffei (N.Y), and Tom Perriello(VA) are Democratic Congressmen from predominantly rural districts. All three voted yes after concessions from the House Leadership.

For Hill the decision came down to a last-minute compromise that paved the way for an amendment ensuring that no federal funding would go to abortions.  For Tom Perriello the decision involved provisions for bigger payments to rural doctors..

 

 

AP: The House Health Care Plan is Dead on Arrival in the Senate

WASHINGTON – The glow from a health care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate.

The government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate.