Health Care Bill Passes: Constitutional? States Plan Lawsuit Over Health-Care Overhaul
by Nicolas Minacapelli | March 22, 2010 | In Healthcare, Our Republic | 1 Comment
It’s been a month since my last post and a lot has happened; most recently the health care vote that took place yesterday – final votes can be found here. The ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’ passed 219 to 212 in a partisan effort that clearly went against public opinion where 54% opposed the health care plan in Sunday’s Rasmussen Reports poll. Not only has the health care debate been an issue about substance when it comes to patient choice (or if you wish, a form of insurance mandating enforced by the IRS) but issues of process and government corruption – arm twisting, bribery, backroom deals, and political maneuvering. The ends do not justify the means.
What I witnessed yesterday was sickening and I am saddened for our Republic. The shredding of our Constitution before our very eyes under a socialist agenda, oops fascist agenda. It was historic alright, the Democratic Party revealed themselves morally corrupt and willing to bargain votes against the will of the people. Tyrannic rule? Absolutely! Don’t get me wrong: health care reform is needed but not this travesty placed on the American people. Purchasing insurance across state lines and tort reform are just a few things that would help lower costs and increase availability. Few steps forward rather than a complete overhaul on our health care system – overall, 80% are satisfied with the quality of medical care available. So why the overhaul? Power and control.
The Doctors of the House
A landmark of liberal governance whose price will be very steep.
House Democrats last night passed President Obama’s federal takeover of the U.S. health-care system, and the ticker tape media parade is already underway. So this hour of liberal political victory is a good time to adapt the “Pottery Barn” rule that Colin Powell once invoked on Iraq: You break it, you own it.
This week’s votes don’t end our health-care debates. By making medical care a subsidiary of Washington, they guarantee such debates will never end. And by ramming the vote through Congress on a narrow partisan majority, and against so much popular opposition, Democrats have taken responsibility for what comes next—to insurance premiums, government spending, doctor shortages and the quality of care. They are now the rulers of American medicine.
Mr. Obama and the Democrats have sold this takeover by promising that multiple benefits will follow: huge new subsidies for the middle class; lower insurance premiums for consumers, especially those in the individual market; vast reductions in the federal budget deficit and in overall health-care spending; a more competitive U.S. economy as business health-care costs decline; no reductions in Medicare benefits; and above all, in Mr. Obama’s words, that “if you like your health-care plan, you keep your health-care plan.”
[...]
20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms
By David Hogberg
Investors Business Daily
1. You are young and don’t want health insurance? You are starting up a small business and need to minimize expenses, and one way to do that is to forego health insurance? Tough. You have to pay $750 annually for the “privilege.” (Section 1501)
2. You are young and healthy and want to pay for insurance that reflects that status? Tough. You’ll have to pay for premiums that cover not only you, but also the guy who smokes three packs a day, drink a gallon of whiskey and eats chicken fat off the floor. That’s because insurance companies will no longer be able to underwrite on the basis of a person’s health status. (Section 2701).
3. You would like to pay less in premiums by buying insurance with lifetime or annual limits on coverage? Tough. Health insurers will no longer be able to offer such policies, even if that is what customers prefer. (Section 2711).
4. Think you’d like a policy that is cheaper because it doesn’t cover preventive care or requires cost-sharing for such care? Tough. Health insurers will no longer be able to offer policies that do not cover preventive services or offer them with cost-sharing, even if that’s what the customer wants. (Section 2712).
5. You are an employer and you would like to offer coverage that doesn’t allow your employers’ slacker children to stay on the policy until age 26? Tough. (Section 2714).
6. You must buy a policy that covers ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventive and wellness services; chronic disease management; and pediatric services, including oral and vision care.
You’re a single guy without children? Tough, your policy must cover pediatric services. You’re a woman who can’t have children? Tough, your policy must cover maternity services. You’re a teetotaler? Tough, your policy must cover substance abuse treatment. (Add your own violation of personal freedom here.) (Section 1302).
7. Do you want a plan with lots of cost-sharing and low premiums? Well, the best you can do is a “Bronze plan,” which has benefits that provide benefits that are actuarially equivalent to 60% of the full actuarial value of the benefits provided under the plan. Anything lower than that, tough. (Section 1302 (d) (1) (A))
8. You are an employer in the small-group insurance market and you’d like to offer policies with deductibles higher than $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families? Tough. (Section 1302 (c) (2) (A).
9. If you are a large employer (defined as at least 101 employees) and you do not want to provide health insurance to your employee, then you will pay a $750 fine per employee (It could be $2,000 to $3,000 under the reconciliation changes). Think you know how to better spend that money? Tough. (Section 1513).
10. You are an employer who offers health flexible spending arrangements and your employees want to deduct more than $2,500 from their salaries for it? Sorry, can’t do that. (Section 9005 (i)).
11. If you are a physician and you don’t want the government looking over your shoulder? Tough. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized to use your claims data to issue you reports that measure the resources you use, provide information on the quality of care you provide, and compare the resources you use to those used by other physicians. Of course, this will all be just for informational purposes. It’s not like the government will ever use it to intervene in your practice and patients’ care. Of course not. (Section 3003 (i))
12. If you are a physician and you want to own your own hospital, you must be an owner and have a “Medicare provider agreement” by Feb. 1, 2010. (Dec. 31, 2010 in the reconciliation changes.) If you didn’t have those by then, you are out of luck. (Section 6001 (i) (1) (A))
13. If you are a physician owner and you want to expand your hospital? Well, you can’t (Section 6001 (i) (1) (B). Unless, it is located in a country where, over the last five years, population growth has been 150% of what it has been in the state (Section 6601 (i) (3) ( E)). And then you cannot increase your capacity by more than 200% (Section 6001 (i) (3) (C)).
14. You are a health insurer and you want to raise premiums to meet costs? Well, if that increase is deemed “unreasonable” by the Secretary of Health and Human Services it will be subject to review and can be denied. (Section 1003)
15. The government will extract a fee of $2.3 billion annually from the pharmaceutical industry. If you are a pharmaceutical company what you will pay depends on the ratio of the number of brand-name drugs you sell to the total number of brand-name drugs sold in the U.S. So, if you sell 10% of the brand-name drugs in the U.S., what you pay will be 10% multiplied by $2.3 billion, or $230,000,000. (Under reconciliation, it starts at $2.55 billion, jumps to $3 billion in 2012, then to $3.5 billion in 2017 and $4.2 billion in 2018, before settling at $2.8 billion in 2019 (Section 1404)). Think you, as a pharmaceutical executive, know how to better use that money, say for research and development? Tough. (Section 9008 (b)).
16. The government will extract a fee of $2 billion annually from medical device makers. If you are a medical device maker what you will pay depends on your share of medical device sales in the U.S. So, if you sell 10% of the medical devices in the U.S., what you pay will be 10% multiplied by $2 billion, or $200,000,000. Think you, as a medical device maker, know how to better use that money, say for R&D? Tough. (Section 9009 (b)).
The reconciliation package turns that into a 2.9% excise tax for medical device makers. Think you, as a medical device maker, know how to better use that money, say for research and development? Tough. (Section 1405).
17. The government will extract a fee of $6.7 billion annually from insurance companies. If you are an insurer, what you will pay depends on your share of net premiums plus 200% of your administrative costs. So, if your net premiums and administrative costs are equal to 10% of the total, you will pay 10% of $6.7 billion, or $670,000,000. In the reconciliation bill, the fee will start at $8 billion in 2014, $11.3 billion in 2015, $1.9 billion in 2017, and $14.3 billion in 2018 (Section 1406).Think you, as an insurance executive, know how to better spend that money? Tough.(Section 9010 (b) (1) (A and B).)
18. If an insurance company board or its stockholders think the CEO is worth more than $500,000 in deferred compensation? Tough.(Section 9014).
19. You will have to pay an additional 0.5% payroll tax on any dollar you make over $250,000 if you file a joint return and $200,000 if you file an individual return. What? You think you know how to spend the money you earned better than the government? Tough. (Section 9015).
That amount will rise to a 3.8% tax if reconciliation passes. It will also apply to investment income, estates, and trusts. You think you know how to spend the money you earned better than the government? Like you need to ask. (Section 1402).
20. If you go for cosmetic surgery, you will pay an additional 5% tax on the cost of the procedure. Think you know how to spend that money you earned better than the government? Tough. (Section 9017).
Before you continue, this is a stern message to progressives and liberals reading this post. Do not think that you have won, you may have won this battle but the war is far from over. We as Americans value something called the Constitution (which some of you claim as equal rights for everyone but only when it fits your own vision). We absolutely refuse to lay down to your rules and Utopian society. It’s ‘equal opportunity not equal results’. The health care reform fight is not over. In fact, the war is just beginning. A sleeping giant has awoken and now the American people are fired up. We will not forget come November! We’re coming after every Democrat and Republican who does not follow the principles and values that has made our country great.
“These are times that try men’s souls.” – Thomas Paine ‘The Crisis’ (1776-77)
2005 op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal by Rush Limbaugh:
I love being a conservative.
We conservatives are proud of our philosophy.
Unlike our liberal friends, who are constantly looking for new words to conceal their true beliefs and are in a perpetual state of reinvention, we conservatives are unapologetic about our ideals.
We are confident in our principles and energetic about openly advancing them. We believe in individual liberty, limited government, capitalism, the rule of law, faith, a color-blind society and national security.
We support school choice, enterprise zones, tax cuts, welfare reform, faith-based initiatives, political speech, homeowner rights and the War on Terrorism.
And at our core we embrace and celebrate the most magnificent governing document ever ratified by any nation — the U.S. Constitution.
Along with the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes our God-given natural right to be free, it is the foundation on which our government is built and has enabled us to flourish as a people.
We conservatives are never stronger than when we are advancing our principles.
Tea Partiers to Congressional Democrats: You’ll Pay in November
Tea Party leaders, livid over the passage of health care reform on Sunday night, say their next step will be to turn from fighting the bill to running the people who voted for it out of Congress. (read entire article)
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. – Amendment X
Health Care Reform Fight Shifts From Congress to the Courts
Now that the House, in a historic vote, has passed the Senate’s health care bill and sent it to the president’s desk, state lawmakers and attorneys general already are lining up to challenge its constitutionality and wage an outside-the-Beltway war against it in the courts.
The health care reform fight isn’t over. It’s just changing venues. (read article)
Twelve States Plan Lawsuit Over Obama Health Overhaul (Update2)
By Pat Wechsler
March 22 (Bloomberg) — Twelve states plan to challenge the constitutionality of the health-care overhaul passed yesterday by the U.S. House, according to statements made today.
[...]
Health-Care Overhaul Fight Moves to States, Agencies (Update1)
By Alex Nussbaum
March 22 (Bloomberg) — Health legislation passed yesterday by the U.S. House changes some rules immediately on insurance coverage while leaving much of the fight over how to remake the medical system to federal regulators, states and courts.
[...]
At least a dozen states plan to challenge the overhaul in court. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said the mandate for individuals to obtain insurance is unconstitutional and that the case will be joined by Alabama, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Washington. Michigan also will join the lawsuit, the state’s Attorney General Mike Cox said today in a statement.
Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli also announced plans for a lawsuit, saying in a prepared statement that the legislation is an “unconstitutional overreach” of federal authority. Officials in Idaho have also promised legal challenges. The cases will be filed once President Barack Obama signs the revamp into law.
[...]
State Sen. Jeb Bradley leads GOP effort to block healthcare bill in New Hampshire
CONCORD – State Sen. Jeb Bradley is leading a Republican effort at the State House to block the Democratic health care reform bill from taking effect in New Hampshire.
The amendment states: “No resident of this state, regardless of whether he or she has or is eligible for health insurance coverage under any policy or program provided by or through his or her employer, or a plan sponsored by the state or the federal government, shall be required to obtain or maintain a policy of individual insurance coverage except as required by a court or the department of health and human services where an individual is named a party in a judicial or administrative proceeding.”
[...]
Videos:
Rep. Bart Stupak (MI), one of the pro-life Democrats, leading a pack of of so-called moderate Dems who were claiming to be against the bill was found on tape — he always going to vote for the bill. His sellout vote is a disgrace but we should have known better than to trust a Democrat. True colors showing in Washington.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) blasts political process; begs members to vote against health care reform. Shame on Us
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) speaking before voting on the Democrats’ massive government takeover of health care.” Hell No You Can’t!
American public voted for socialism when they elected President Obama. The masks are coming off.
