Obama Health-Care Plan Stresses Tax Cuts. Didn't The Democrats Win The Election?
I was out all day and missed most of the reaction to Obama's suggested health-care plan. (Although I did learn from the Washington Post that this reheated version of the Senate bill is the White House team's idea of "going big." Heaven help us, I'd hate to see what "going small" looks like.)
From jumping around the blogs tonight, here's a roundup of some of the more interesting stuff.
From Think Progress:
The Obama plan maintains key elements of the Senate proposal but also incorporates stronger anti-fraud provisions and allows the federal government to review insurance rate hikes. On a call with reporters Pfeiffer insisted that the administration has not determined “on which path to move forward with”, but the bill’s substance suggests that Obama is hoping to bypass a prolonged-Senate debate and use the reconciliation process to fix the Senate bill and convince reluctant House progressives to pass the Senate legislation. “The American people deserve up or down vote on health reform,”Pfeiffer said. “We can get an up or down vote if opposition decides to take extraordinary steps of filibustering health reforms.”
But it’s unclear if progressive House members will embrace the new compromise. While the bill addresses House members’ affordability concerns, increases the excise tax thresholds and completely closes the donut hole in Medicare Part D, the legislation does not include a public option, retains the Senate bill’s state-based exchanges and keeps the start date for most reforms at 2014. (Obama’s plan also retains the Senate’s abortion compromise and most other core provisions).
And I know you're dying to read the reaction from the National Right to Life committee, right?
In its statement, the National Right to Life committee said that the president’s proposal “limits rights of Americans of all ages to use their own money to save their own lives.”
Burke Balch, the director of the National Right to Life Committee’s Powell Center of Ethics, likened the president’s plan to imposing a limit on the cost of restaurant meals.
“It is as though a government, concerned about the high cost of restaurant food, imposed a price limit of $5 per meal, and then asserted that for those who like their restaurant food, nothing will force them to change their eating habits,” the statement said. “The reality, of course, is that restaurants would be unable to afford to offer meals at prices below the cost of their ingredients. Consequently, about all restaurant-goers would be able to get would be fast food.”
Yes, because unlike health care, it's not as if you couldn't buy food and cook it yourself. (Try not to think about it, it'll just make your head hurt.)
Lambert, as usual, cuts to the chase:
NOTE: And this part is truly weird. You know the 31 million number that keeps getting tossed around? I always that was due mostly to Medicaid expansion --- moving the opportunity to get medical care after losing all your assets, like your house, up the income ladder -- but no. Right in the first paragraph:
"The President's [cough] Option" -- sorry, "Proposal" -- makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more affordable for many more.
It's a tax cut!? Are Republican talking points truly the only ponies left in the stable?
I'm not even gonna try to gild that particular lily.
More shit flinging. This isn't going to stick to the wall either.
Public Option...hmmm....still off the table. I guess the chambermaid is dusting.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
http://www.google.com/buzz/liberal0007/777qdw...
http://www.google.com/buzz/liberal0007/JckPyU...
Spread the word.
No Kucinich Amendment, no point.
No public "option" (no matter how lame), no point.
Mandates to purchase insurance thievery without actual cost controls? No point.
No optional medicare buy-in? No point.
You get the idea.
It demands a SINGLE PAYER public option completely paid for by general taxes with no out of pocket costs.
Yes you should bother sending an email.
The dems need to ignore Obama who can't seem to get over his fear of governing and repuglicans and use roconciliation to pass the public option for all, period. What is he so friggin scared of?
Saving too much money? Making the thieves that sell insurance to people so they can deny them care mad? C'mon Obama! Are you gonna stand for ANYTHING?!!!
Helloooo...Hellooooooooo...they don't WANT to pass a public option.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I still think they don't care one way or the other.
Insurance companies would love to offload their high risk people onto a publicly subsidized plan (which they will probably end up running anyway) -- it doesn't cut into their bottom line at all.
I see no mention of the Kucinich amendment (single payer option for states), so along with the lack of a universal option to buy into a public plan -- this is bunk.
I guess I had to expect it, but it's still a little disappointing.
govt-run plan is the only reason we don't have one; Even a watered-down public option could expand into something bigger down the line. Obama and Rahm reassured the medical industry lobbyists many months ago that there would be no govt plan many months ago in exchange for their political 'support'. That is the only reason that Obama didn't support something that over 85% of the Democratic base wants and that provided the only option for real and sustainable reform.
Sadly, that's not the case.
That was the original fear behind Medicare -- that it would expand. Instead, we've been snipping and trimming, piece by piece, republican president after republican president. "Medicare Advantage" was one nail in the coffin of Medicare benefits ... Just wait until the next republican in office touts "vouchers" again.
Harry Truman said it best:
“How many times do you have to get hit over the head before you figure out who’s hitting you?”
We know who is hitting us (private insurance companies), so why do we keep bending over for them?
by their corporatist enablers, the Democratic Party.
they've got these DLC stooges by the balls here.
If Team Obama really loves to compromise so much, let them do it with House progressives. It's their support he needs to win.
Just pretend they're Olympia Snow, Barry.
Isn't this proposal just an outline? A starting point? Forget the fact that it's basically pieces of both the House and Senate bill?
It's a piece all right.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
"The President's [cough] Option" -- sorry, "Proposal" -- makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today."
How is this bad? Because its not a public option? As much as I would like one, its not going to happen right now. Any sort of reform would at least pave the way for further improvements.
I have to admit, I was about to say how stupid this whole idea sounds until i read about these tax cuts for middle class. Sounds like a good thing to me.
Overall, this bill looks like a steaming pile. Please, someone hit the restart button. Oh, I guess that will happen anyway with the up/down vote. This thing stinks so bad, I'm sure it won't pass. Then progressives can get together, make something worth while and ram it down the throats of the minority party. Hahaha, LOL, I can't say that with a straight face (or write it).
@ postulate
"As much as I would like one, its not going to happen right now."
How much longer are you going to keep saying this to yourself. The people are sick and tired of the health hikes. WE THE PEOPLE elected them into office to get this done. If they can't do what they were elected to do, then its time for them to go. I'm sick and tired of this bull crap already. Stop pussyfooting around and get something done already!!
Oh, and.... STRIKE THREE OBAMA!!
Thanks for playing!
I'm with you because no matter how big a majority the dems have, no matter if we have a democrat for president, and no matter if the democrats own the house of representatives, they ALWAYS come up with one lame excuse after another for not getting the job done , no matter what the job at hand is!The chimp used budget reconciliation at least 4 times and didn't have any trouble doing so at all! Democrats make me sick to my stomach and if we are still spinning our collective wheels when the next election cycle returns , then I will not hesitate to vote for ANYONE BUT DEMOCRATS in all future elections because I have learned my lesson!
if you think Obama would step into office and BAM everyone has free heath care, then I would like some of what you are smoking. Doesnt the bill take care of the whole price hike anyway?
Theres 3 kinds of people involved here: Republicans who wont vote for anything a democrat proposes out of principle, moderate dems who wont go for a public option, and liberal dems who wont go for anything BUT a public option.
Obama is actually trying to compromise between the 3 and still gets shit on. At this point, ANYTHING that can allow more access to heathcare is a step in the right direction.
Korso isn't even IMPLYING that much less saying it!!! If Obama were doing as you claim he would have been involved with the process from the beginning NOT handing it over to right wing hacks like Baucus.
I agree. This is beyond ridiculous!!! It's like Obama and the Congressional Dems have NO clue how getting bills passed works. Well good bills anyway. It's simple you atart with Single Payer and you fight tooth and nail for that. THEN you settle for a super strong Public Option. F**king MORONS is what they've turned out to be. Corporatist scum.
President! The only industrialized nation that treats health as a privilege and commodity instead of a human right. Unsustainable and regressive, but that's what makes America unique! The corporations loooove it and that's what counts! We'll only be paying 20% of our incomes for medical costs (OMB estimate) instead of xx% - whoo hoo! To a private criminal cartel with a shoddy, unreliable product that may kill us. Or be fined. No problem. We're Americans and we looove our outlaws and our shysters and corporate bottom line.
into effect to subsidize for profit insurance companies. It's just taxpayer funds used for their profits. This proposal really is a piece of work.
Besides, I remember how all those middle class tax cuts helped me in the past. Just Kidding.
How will tax cuts subsidize insurance companies? Its hard for the government to subsidize something when they are receiving LESS in tax revenue.
Are you truly that clueless or are you just another right wing corporatist hack who thinks you can manipulate people who are more intelligent then yourself? The whole purpose of the tax cuts is that they be spent on health insurance which means that for profit insurance corporations is where the money will go. And yes you are right that it also means LESS tax revenue which means a double screwing for the taxpaying public!
.
I made some comments on this and other sites that Obama doesn't want the public option.
How long before people who point out the truth about President Obama's unwillingness to govern on behalf of the people who elected him, are decried as "Truthers" and banned from Democrat friendly websites?
Any time I say that at the Huffington post or dare to criticise Israeli policies I am censored. So I self banned from that site and have not been visiting it for the past week, for the littele I am worth and hope never to go there again, just as I would not get off my ass and vote for Obama or many of the other democrats, if an election was held today, or in the future, if all they can come up with on healthcare is this BS.
no matter how many times it's cited here.
The insurance lobby doesn't want the public option. Since they have more free speech than us, they win.
So sayeth the Supreme Court. Say Alleluia Say AMEN.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Obama is in the pocket of the insurance industry and was the cause of his Tom Daschle debacle and he did not learn.
All politicians are in the pocket of the insurance industry. The political parties simply battle one another to wind up in the pocket with the money in it, instead of winding up as pocket lint.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
they're even more in bed now that corporations can give as much money as they want. Cha-Ching!
A politician without a chance at re-election killed the Medicare buy-in just a scant couple months after defending it.
Now Rockefeller, not running again, now has a revelation about filibusters.
It's all to kill what the insurance lobby doesn't want, anyone remember the administration criticizing JL's obstruction, let alone threaten his chairmanship? Get ready, we're being played.
Didn't someone in here talk about this being a difficult election season for incumbents, several months ago?
The old guard is running scared.
They just want to pass SOMETHING, get out and hopefully avoid getting lynched.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
There, fixed that for you.
believing that Change is a comin' and Obama is going to bring it.
Because nothing enables a political sell-out more than a supporter who accepts everything he does because he's got a "D" next to his name.
Funny thing is JohnF,
When our party doesn't do what they say they are going to do, we actually speak out against it. You keep drinking that kool-aid, and keep telling yourself the Repubs is the way to go. I guess for every year a Democrat is in office, 8 years of history is errased?
I'm somehow a republican. That ain't the case sir. But it does justify my comment.
You go on attacking anyone who criticises the democrats. See how far that gets you.
If the repubs do it it is unexpected but when the dems do it it is twice the insult because not only is Obama submiting to the republicans and doing their bidding he is also insulting us. and makes it difficult to justify voting for dems. What is the use electing Democrats, only to get republican rule? I am better off staying home and know what I will get.
country.
I would not want to be in Obama's shoes for all the tea in China.
He either is too liberal/radical for the moderates or too conservative for the progressives (his base, supposedly).
He's trying to walk a tightrope to stay in power, but I'm thinking you can't be on both sides, and compromise only works when one side isn't completely batshit-crazy wrong.
Tax cuts don't help a struggling economy. Free market != complete solution to all life's wrongs. Insurance companies != health care. Doesn't take a rocket scientist.
He has barely (in the slightest amount) stood up for what he campaigned on.
2014 GOP Ticket Jeb Bush/Sarah Palin....write it down.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I'm writing it down and praying on it!! Another landslide for the Democratic Party! Please please please let this happen! Please, oh wishing hat, make it so!!
only if some of us come out to vote, which, right now is looking increasingly unlikely. Truth be told, cause I will be nobodies lapdog.
Consumer confidence hits new low. Healthcare costs skyrocketing. American job situation...a trainwreck.
Hmmm...shit...it's not baseball season...no steroid circus to distract the public with.
Wait...wait....TOYOTA! That's it....let's a have a Congressional circus about Toyota! A company we have NO jurisdiction over! Coooool! And even better...they're ASIAN!! Wooo hooo. We won't offend any brown people! It's a win win!!
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206010...
If it doesn't affect the DJIA or the S&P, no one in power gives a shit. At last check we're down 90+ points on the DJIA today because of a "slump in jobs". Welcome to the United States, financial community.
I say fuck it I would rather die. I am not going to pay any more money to fucking insurance companies.
republicanism/conservatism is a menatl illness and it has almost killed America!
about using tax cuts to make health insurance coverage more affordable? Is it because the goal is not just insurance affordability but also making participation by private insurers less tenable? If so, fine, but make that the argument.
The fact is that the bill uses taxes on some health plans to pay for coverage of those who cannot afford any. That provision has been attacked by Republicans and the left. So the administration wanting to stress tax cutting elements of the bill is hardly a surprise. In fact, attacking them for attempting to offset Republican charges and arguments is, to me, either stupid or disengenuous.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
How about extending that idea, and using taxes to pay for healthcare for everyone?
Oh, wait, that's called "socialism" by morons, or "single payer" by those who know better.
We're up against the classic battle of personal good vs social good. People want tax cuts so they have more money, not realizing that if they allowed their personal taxes to go up a little, everyone (including them) could reap the rewards of not getting screwed up an insurance cartel. We're as dumb as people think we are here.
and got elected and I would agree with you.
The reason I stated this post is either stupid or disengenuos can be found right in the headline. "Didn't Democrats win the election?" Why, yes. I believe they did. And I think they did so by promising to lower, not raise, taxes.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I agree, you'd be hardpressed to find a politician who got elected by saying he'd raise taxes.
This is because we're stupid, and more or less incapable of thinking beyond our own noses.
People get elected by promising benefits without costs, or that somehow the magical free market will solve everything. As Mike's Blog Post this morning pointed out, the second part definitely ain't so.
Pitting people against people is how our politicians win elections for the most part. Dubya was reelected when we didn't want the terrorists to "win", other politicians run on the campaign of "reforming immigration" (read: get rid of the dirty non-Americans), or "getting rid of welfare moms" (read: class warfare, reducing "entitlements") or bombing Muslim countries in an unprovoked manner (read: Crusades redux). Us vs Them is very profitable -- how can you have that if you're banding together for the common good? Those slave-owning founding fathers did say something about that, I could swear.
</rant>
But stay away from the controls of any planes until its beneficial effects are noticeable!
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
. . . and on raising taxes on those receiving more than 250K a year.
This "nobody likes taxes" meme simply isn't true.
You really think a "banker tax" isn't immensely popular right now?
Corruption favors the wealthy.
I'll correct it:
No one likes taxes that tax them or potentially tax them.
Bankers are a "them" group right now, so we have a "fuck 'em" attitude. Unless "we" are bankers, in which case we're against it. We're always self-serving to the very end.
But over 95% of us are in the same boat.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
There profits and government handouts differentiate them from "us". There is no comparison.
You Might Be A Socialist If You’ve Ever…
1. Checked a book out of the library
2. Called 911
3. Attended a public school
4. Drove on a public street
5. Visited a city park
6. Visited a state park
7. Visited a national park
8. Applied to or attended a state university
9. Applied for or received a student grant
10. Worked in government
11. Served in the military
12. Attended college on the GI Bill
13. Used a municipal sewer system
14. Used a municipal water system
15. Used a municipal gas system
16. Used a municipal electric system
17. Voted
18. Used municipal recycling services
19. Disposed of hazardous waste in a municipal program
20. Applied for or received an SBA Loan
21. Applied for or received a non-profit grant from government
22. Applied for or received a research grant form government
23. Applied for or received a government backed home loan
24. Applied for or received a farm subsidy
25. Applied for or received a business tax abatement
26. Donated to a charity
27. Took a tax deduction from a donation to a charity
28. Bought a car with government financial incentives
29. Bought a house with government financial incentives
30. Received any benefit whatsoever from projects paid for with Stimulus Funds.
well, he did campaign against taxing people's health insurance. and taxing some insurance to pay for others has a 'robbing peter' feel to it
I can, but won't, make the argument on why taxing high priced health plans makes policy sense. To me it makes no political sense so I won't.
(That and it is actually snowing here in Austin Texas and sticking to the ground. I am torn between ripping the pages out of an Incovenient Truth to use as fireplace kindling, or enjoying the rare sight of snow and the outdoors by sticking this hysterical tome in the ground so I can get on FOX.)
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I agree with you on the pointlessness of taxing expensive insurance plans. (Don't call them "health plans", it co-opts the word "health") It's all an exercise in futility anyways -- we'll see increases in costs due to a lack of collective bargaining and the eventual enforcement of purchasing healthcare insurance over the far saner proposition of just instituting a single payer system which would cost far less.
On the off chance that you weren't kidding about the snow thing:
We shouldn't have to explain why a few cold days doesn't offset the enormous climate shifting trend we've been seeing over the last few decades -- that's not scientific in any way shape or form.
"We shouldn't have to explain why a few cold days doesn't offset the enormous climate shifting trend we've been seeing over the last few decades"
explain? that makes it sound like there is something to defend, when it actually reinforces the scientific consensus on the climate crisis. and it further illustrates the confusion people have between "weather" and "climate"
In the same way people confuse "healthcare insurance" and "healthcare" in this country.
Face, meet palm.
some people confuse, and most politicians encourage the confusion
"I can, but won't, make the argument..."
that was such a tease ricky
to me, it only makes 'policy sense' if:
a) HCR was about solely cost (its not, its about rights--or that is how it should have been framed by the dems, imo)
-and-
b) if there was no other way to address the federal deficit (there are many other ways).
c) if the policies being taxed belonged only to members of richistan (which isn't the case, see some union members)
In the past two years my life has fallen apart. My wife of thirty years who has always worked. We raised a daughter sent her to school. Did everything we were supposed to do. In april of 2008 my wife was in a car accident. 6 weeks in Neuro trama ICU, almost that long in a rehab hospital. And nearly a year at home now. She is still unable to return to work. In Aug of 2008 the man I worked almost exclusivly for since 2002 died. Then I am out of work my wife can't work. The medical bills were astronomic, $87,000.00 just for drugs while she was in ICU. I started a business in nov of 2008. Got a few jobs. Thought I did pretty well considering the economy has been shit since 2000. I paid myself $32,000.00 for 2009 and did a profit loss report on the company and it said I had made a little over $17,000.00 profit for 2009. Not great but I thought ok for the first year.
The other day I get a call from my insurance company, they said we are going to raise your workmans comp by $24,000.00.
I have had it with fucking insurance. The bastards can kiss my ass!
republicanism/conservatism is a menatl illness and it has almost killed America!
No matter how hard you work, they're always looking over your shoulder figuring out some way to steal it from you.
why is a thousand page bill a bad thing?? This is one of the biggest reform bills in the history of this nation! it's a good thing there's a lot of stuff to cover all grounds and deal with loopholes! WHY IS THE NUMBER OF PAGES AN ISSUE AT ALL?!? Read the goddamn bill!
republicanism/conservatism is a menatl illness and it has almost killed America!
booyasu has a very slow internet connection.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
f**k.
me-oww!
an heroic tax protesting pilot or, in the view of project, a Republican.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
that a 1000+ page bill will be all chill and shit. Like you wouldn't need to be some fucking genius attorney to figure out all the hoi polloi-screwing loopholes buried within.
These dirty rotten bastards just made a law saying banks had to make their terms understandable to customers. They should do the same for themselves. Healthcare reform should be a page or two long. It should grant free access to medical care to everyone in the country. EVERYONE.
me-oww!
Oh I think he is left handed sir.
as a progressive stops a major step forward because it isn't a big enough step they should be returned to the store. That isn't what progressive means.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I asked Santa for a different version, but he brought this. I know it can walk, but it doesn't have a visible spine and clearly there are feet, but no balls.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Let's take Medicare for All into the elections.
This bill does nothing for years, and is designed as a corporate give-away. For those desperate to see a step in the right direction, please understand this is not movement forward. Pass this bill and health care reform just gets kicked eight years down the road.
They've taken a huge problem and a desperate need and used it as an excuse to fatten the bloodsuckers causing our health care crises even further.
Medicare for All. Even if that fails, we can still pass Obama's crappy plan in two years and lose nothing.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
May have tipped the hand a bit too far.
When our congresspeople say things like "this is as far to the right as we'll go" then go further, they're not going to back up and say "we'd like this proposal which is far more liberal than our first one." Worst bargaining tactic *ever*.
Take the turkey apart, pass the best provisions by reconciliation if you have to, but no mandates, please. Our crappy private insurance system is killing enough people as it is. Single payer, please.
We need only 50 votes. If we don't have 50 votes, then we need some different Democrats.
And elections are just nine months away.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Okay you wimmin, start pumpin!!!
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"Didn't the Democrats win the election?"
Yes, but they are proving once again that they are a bunch of pussies who are scared to death about what the Republicans will say about them.
Obama's piece of shit tax cuts HCR bill is a good partner for Reid and the senate's piece of shit tax cuts jobs bill. FUCKING TAX CUTS ARE THE ANSWER? THEN I MIGHT AS WELL VOTE REPUBLICAN! UNBELIEVABLE!
Ten percent unemployment and they offer up tax cuts as a fix. I'm sure the unemployed were happy to hear about that. What a bunch of hopeless assholes.
Quoted from a few months ago on C&L:
“Just remember… GOP policy can be summarized as: 1. Cut taxes 2. Fuck you.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_6vSltZBgA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
GOP policy can be summarized as: 1. Cut taxes 2. Fuck you.”
Gee, I always thought it was...1. Fuck You 2. Cut Taxes 3. Thank you 4. Fuck you.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
there is a "freedom" in there somewhere, maybe between 2 and 3
1. Fuck You 2. Cut Taxes 3.
ThankFuck you!!!11!! 4. Fuck you.FIFY
me-oww!
You can now say that about Democratic unemployment policy as well.
Apparently not. It was the "Democratic" Subsidiary of the Corporatist Party that won. Obama is no democrat.
Can't help but wonder how much it costs Republicans and multi-national America hating corporations to buy off Obama. Did he go as cheap as Congressional Dems?
that all seem to be missing.
Even if you can afford the coverage, if you can't afford the treatment, the coverage is worthless.
National Health Care is the only answer.
As health costs keep rising, Obama tries once again...
For all the Republican rhetoric criticizing health reform as a government takeover of health care, the House and Senate bills really went out of their way to keep the
free market in play. The plan President Obama unveiled Monday does enhance government's power - by giving authority to deny excessive premium increases by insurers.
Obama's proposal to create a seven-member rate authority to review premiums is sure to anger insurers, but until a wider health reform can be enacted, the proposed board would provide needed protection against unconcionable rate increases.
Politically, the new proposal puts Obama and the Democrats on the side of the consumer and against insurers, at a time when some annual ra te increases are approaching 40 percent and the five largest providers alone reported $12.2 billion in profits last year.
Obama can now dare congressional Republicans to defend the insurers when they meet for their health summit Thursday.
The rate increase in the non-group insurance market would be nowhere near as steep if health reform was already in place. The bills already passed by the House and Senate seek to bring down costs by rewriting the rules of the marketplace.
Obama's plan could benefit from one sensible Republican proposal - reform of medical malpractice to reduce nuisance suits and defensive medicine. But so far, the chief Republican contribution to the debate has been to try to stop reform in its tracks to keep Obama from achieving universal insurance.
On Thursday, Republicans can continue on that course to join with Obama in both limiting health care increases and extending coverage to 31 million Americans.
Adele M. Roberson
Mozartadel@aol.com
Regarding this:
NOTE: And this part is truly weird. You know the 31 million number that keeps getting tossed around? I always that was due mostly to Medicaid expansion --- moving the opportunity to get medical care after losing all your assets, like your house, up the income ladder -- but no. Right in the first paragraph:
"The President's [cough] Option" -- sorry, "Proposal" -- makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more affordable for many more.
It's a tax cut!? Are Republican talking points truly the only ponies left in the stable?
The whole proposal boils down to price controls, which have NEVER DONE ANY GOOD. Just giving people the right to dictate premiums to the insurance companies solves no one's problems. Tax cuts also don't really solve problems unless they are directed properly. Tax cuts and favoritism on group insurance led to individual/portable insurance policies being priced out of the market. If you remove the incentive, the structure of the market will change.
If you want real analysis rather than a poor excuse for public policy, Cato has analyzed this well: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11241
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