As Congress returns to Washington, the crucial decisions that await lawmakers will have enormous financial ramifications for the country for years to come. House and Senate leaders continue their struggle to land a health care bill on the President’s desk this month, even though proposed legislation would add to the federal deficit long-term, requires states to spend more on programs they are currently seeking to cut back on, and slam Americans of all incomes with new taxes. Accompanying the health care debate is the attempt to raise the ceiling on …
In the ongoing attempts of Congress to find an alternative to the “public plan” in health reform, the Senate bill includes a provision to give the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) a new role: sponsoring health plans to compete against private health plans in every state in the nation. Heritage expert Ed Haislmaier has studied the provisions responsible for this new role for OPM, and finds that OPM’s new power would go well beyond its current capacity and allow for the …
While the nation’s unemployment rate continues to linger around 10%, Congress will soon return to Washington to devise a way to get a health care bill passed by both the House and Senate. As the negotiations loom, a recent paper by Heritage’s John Ligon explores the devastating effects that the employer mandate in the House health care bill would have for small business. In order to pressure more businesses into providing health care for their employees, the House bill includes an incremental payroll tax on employers that fail to do …
The Washington Post’s EJ Dionne’s had an op-ed yesterday detailing six policy areas where House Democrats believes they can pull the Senate health care bill further to the left. For every issue that Dionne identifies, a House victory would lead America even further down the path to government run medicine: 1. A National Health Insurance Exchange A national exchange would create a vehicle for federal regulation of insurance policies and one-size-fits-all health plans that don’t necessarily meet the needs of all Americans. This threatens the federalist division of power between …
In their quest for universal health care coverage, liberal lawmakers have come to a harsh awakening. As it turns out, insuring everyone is expensive! So, in an attempt to make good on their vast promises without going beyond President Obama’s $900 billion spending limit for health care reform, the Democrats have turned to Medicaid as a means to expand coverage in both the House and Senate health care bills. Momentarily putting aside the question of whether expanding the nation’s worst program counts as reform, expanding Medicaid poses yet problems, using …
In the ongoing attempts of Congress to find an alternative to the “public plan” in health reform, the Senate bill includes a provision to give the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) a new role: sponsoring health plans to compete against private health plans in every state in the nation. As Kay Cole James, a former director of OPM, points out in a recent op-ed, the FEHBP works because OPM plays the neutral role of an umpire: federal employees choose the private …
This Monday the Senate voted on two amendments that determined whether savings from Medicare will be used to enhance the solvency of the financially troubled Medicare program or be used to finance new government health programs and additional spending. Once again, the lesson for taxpayers is clear: Pay no attention to Senate rhetoric on health policy. Pay close attention to Senate action. Gregg Amendment on Medicare Solvency: Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) offered an amendment that would have required any new spending or revenue reductions stemming from the Senate health care …
Debate continues on the Senate floor on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (H.R.3590), and the focus continues to be on Medicare and Medicare Advantage. While proposing spending cuts in one program to create another, the Senate leadership is claiming that all of these Medicare cuts are possible without cutting benefits or services in current Medicare programs, such as Medicare Advantage and Home Health Care. Stabenow’s Medicare Advantage Amendment. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) proposed an amendment which would ensure that spending reductions to the Medicare Advantage program …
The closer you look at the 2074 page Senate Health Bill (H.R. 3590), the more and more complicated it becomes. Forget that level playing field. As the Congress tries to figure out how to extend health insurance coverage to all Americans (They won’t, of course), Senate Democrats have proposed a federally designed health insurance exchange to operate in the several states through which individuals and small employers can purchase bureaucrat- approved health insurance. Embodied in this scheme is the inclusion of generous taxpayer subsidies for Americans whose income falls below …
Last week’s consideration of amendments to Obamacare focused on Medicare, which is used as one of the main sources of funding for the expansion of Medicaid and the establishment of a new health care entitlement under Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) bill. The McCain Amendment. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) offered an amendment to recommit and require the Senate Finance Committee to revise Sen. Reid’s health care bill to exclude all spending cuts to Medicare. Senate Democrats include nearly $500 billion in Medicare cuts to pay for the legislation. Sen. McCain …
