What Are Your Concerns About the New Health Care Bill?

[DJQ]

I'm still seeing a lot of people that are oppossed to the new bill citing conservative talking points, Fox News talking points, misleading mass emails, etc.

So maybe we can use this thread to address the individual concerns that people have, rather than just bash the bill as a whole.

So my question to those that are still oppossed...

Just what don't you like about the new bill?

[bluffmanxx]

two concerns only. neither of which have to do with the details.

1) the cost
2) advancing the entitlement mentality

that's it. the details can be fine tuned (i hope)

[Moab]

Define entitlement mentality on both side.

I have one.
I pay my own health cost so this doesn't include me:
Why should anyone below 100,000 gross adjusted income level pay for for health insurance. I maintain the middle class does the vast majority of service for this country .. they are the backbone, they fight the wars, police our gang infested neighborhoods, fight city and rural fires clean, our streets deliver the mail bag your the food and on and on .. We will always have 15 % of the population that contributes nothing to society and they are a given and can just be factored in as is the 15% uber wealthy.

We owe it to the working men and women of America a better bill than this, but this will do for starters.

[Niccivan]

My concerns are the following

1) cost
2) are there ways to weed out those who opt out of buying policies because they "can't afford" it, but can afford to have a cell phone, High Def TV with all the specialty channels, XBox live, and all the rest of life's little luxuries.....???


Doug - I personally think there is no way of NOT advancing the entitlement mentality if we can't do what I've mentioned in my 2nd concern, along with those other people who choose not to work at all, when they are perfectly able.

[CJ]

I admit it..I am clueless what this thing really is, and how it will affect me when I am no longer able to work, and have the Private Insurance with my job.
I hear talk that this will cause our rates to increase. This has already been happening. My company pays 1/2 my bill.

2008--$46 wk
2009- 50 wk
2010- 56 wk

So, I have never used the insurance, I haven't been to a Dr for maybe 25 years. I have visted an urgent care a few times, for broncitus, paid the bill myself..I am confident that if I needed medical care today, the care would be superior.
What kind of care will I get with this new program?

[bluffmanxx]

entitlement mentality = expecting something for free that you are perfectly capable of earning and paying for.

how do we determine who qualifies? why does person A with whatever excuse they have get to collect freebies while person B who may have more reason to "expect" those freebies but has a stronger work ethic and busts his ass to be responsible have to pay for himself AND person A??

why do people who make unwise choices in their lives qualify for handouts simply because they are irresponsible??

as for advancing the entitlement mentality - it's simple. the easier you make life for those who would rather not waste their time working, the more people you get who make that choice.

i guess it boils down to this. if you choose to fuck up your life, guess what?? you have earned a fucked up life. if you choose to work your ass off, you should be allowed to have a better quality of life. but so often, that's somehow seen as unfair.

what happens if in year two i grow my business by an additional 50%?? (the 50% increase in year one got me to break even) i'll be making around $15,000 a month if i can pull that off. guess what?? i deserve it, because i worked my ass off for it. if i go down in flames, i'll just go out and get as many jobs as i need to support myself. working two full time jobs would be a breeze after this last year. and i'd even be collecting a paycheck instead of digging in my poket to pay the rent. wow, that would be amazing!!

bottom line, i don't expect a lazy retirement. i'll probably die by 65 or so anyways. and if i sound like i'm complaining, i'm not. by and large i'm broke and happy - i just wish there were a couple more hours a day for sleep!!!

[billybob]

The cost!!! A lot of people, if they lived in their means and not buy luxury items could afford to pay for insurance. Any one that thinks this is not going to cost, well!!!

[Moab]

Lmao ..

[skyguy2007]

Two things that really hurt middle income people, lowering the CAF plan from $5000 to $2500, and dis-allowing anything but scrips & doctor visits...not good seeing as everyone saves 25 cents on the dollar tax free under this. Increasing the level before you can deduct medical expenses from 7% to 10% of gross income. These two things alone take billions out of pockets, and not high income pockets, but 30-90k per year pockets.

[LadyWrestler]

U.S. House of Representatives Approves Final Health Care Package by Votes of 219-212 and 220-211

Date: Sunday, March 21, 2010

Scrambling for support hours before the historic vote, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives approved their final health care overhaul package by votes of 219-212 and 220-211 on Sunday night, March 21. (The package needed 216 votes to pass; no Republicans voted in support.) On Saturday, Democratic leaders decided against using the controversial “self-executing” rule that would have deemed the Senate health care bill approved once the House passed the reconciliation bill of adjustments to the Senate bill. This decision meant House members voted separately on H.R. 3590, the Senate-passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (approved 219-212 with 34 Democrats crossing party lines; see below) and then voted separately on H.R. 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010 (approved 220-211 with 33 Democrats crossing party lines; see below). As indicated in the attached letter, the Brick Industry Association alerted Members of Congress that it considered votes against the Senate bill, the reconciliation bill, and any rule to advance this flawed package as key votes for the industry. The final outcome was in jeopardy until approximately 4:15 p.m. on Sunday when Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI-1) and other anti-abortion Democrats finally agreed to support the package after the White House said President Obama would sign an executive order reaffirming the ban on federal funding for abortions.

The underlying Senate bill will become law as soon as President Obama signs it. As early as Tuesday, March 23, the U.S. Senate will begin debate on a one-week or longer battle over the House reconciliation bill of adjustments to the Senate bill. Senate Democratic leaders indicated Sunday afternoon that they believe they have at least 52 votes for the reconciliation bill (51 are needed for passage), while Senate Republicans have vowed to offer numerous amendments to try to derail the package. If any changes are made to the House-approved reconciliation bill, the House will need to vote again on the amended bill. Uncertainty also exists regarding whether the Senate Parliamentarian will rule that the House reconciliation bill runs afoul of budget points of order in the Senate, which also could stymie the reconciliation bill.

Democratic leaders made several tweaks to the reconciliation package last week, in addition to the use of budget gimmicks, to keep the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimate of the final package under $1 trillion. Although CBO’s preliminary estimate of the package is $940 billion over 2010-2019 (the ten-year period Democrats insisted be scored), CBO reported the package would cost $1.2 trillion for the true first 10 years (2011-2020) and $2.3 trillion in the first decade of full implementation (2014-2023) because less than 2% of the bill’s real costs occur before 2014, when most benefits and the exchanges begin. The last-minute revenue-raisers to the bill that could impact the brick industry include counting part-time employees in the employer mandate threshold (2 part-time employees equal 1 full-time employee); failing to index the Medicare payroll tax income thresholds to inflation, either for the base 0.9% increase or the total 3.8% new tax on investment income; and indexing the thresholds at which high-value insurance plans must pay a 40% excise tax to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) instead of CPI+1% as originally proposed by the President. Below are key provisions:

●Employers with more than 50 full-time employees (2 part-time employees count as 1 full-time employee in the threshold calculation) must offer qualifying coverage or pay a $2,000 annual penalty per employee, minus the first 30 workers who will be deducted from the penalty calculation.

●Employers also face a $3,000 annual fine per employee if the coverage they offer is deemed “unaffordable” and an employee opts out and receives a subsidy to purchase insurance in the new exchange.

●The Medicare payroll tax will increase 0.9% to 2.35% for individuals earning more than $200,000 annually/$250,000 for joint-filers. An additional 2.9% tax increase, for a total new Medicare tax of 3.8%, will be applied to investment income from interest, dividends, capital gains, etc. for the income thresholds noted above. The 3.8% tax begins in 2012, and income thresholds are not indexed to inflation.

●Beginning in 2018, high-value insurance plans costing more than $10,200 for individuals/$27,500 for families will be subject to a new 40% excise tax, indexed to CPI inflation.

●Employers who currently provide retiree health benefits and receive a subsidy to help pay for their Medicare Part D costs will lose the tax exclusion in 2013 on these subsidies, making them taxable for the first time.

●New taxes on health industry providers ($67 billion over 10 years on insurers, $33 billion on drug companies, and $20 billion on medical device manufacturers) will increase prices and premiums for patients.

●Beginning in 2013, Flexible Spending Accounts will be capped at $2,500 annually.

●With a few low-income exceptions, individuals who do not purchase insurance must pay a penalty of $695 annually or 2.5% of income.

●The package assumes that more than $500 billion in Medicare cuts will be implemented even though Congress has not been willing to approve similar cuts in the past, setting the stage for an even greater transfer of health care costs to the employment-based private insurance system.

●Six months after the package is enacted, insurers would be prohibited from imposing lifetime limits on coverage; children up to age 26 could remain on their parents’ plan; and children could not be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Beginning in 2014, adults could not be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

All Republicans voted against the bills.

34 Democrats Voted Against the Senate Bill- Bobby Bright (AL-2), Artur Davis (AL-7); Arkansas – Marion Berry (AR-1), Mike Ross (AR-4); Georgia - John Barrow (GA-12), Jim Marshall (GA-8); Idaho - Walt Minnick (ID-1); Illinois – Dan Lipinski (IL-3); Kentucky – Ben Chandler (KY-6); Louisiana - Charlie Melancon (LA-3); Maryland – Frank Kratovil (MD-1); Massachusetts – Stephen Lynch (MA-9); Minnesota – Collin Peterson (MN-7); Mississippi - Travis Childers (MS-1), Gene Taylor (MS-4); Missouri – Ike Skelton (MO-4); New Jersey – John Adler (NJ-3); New Mexico – Harry Teague (NM-2); New York – Michael McMahon (NY-13), Michael Arcuri (NY-24); North Carolina – Larry Kissell (NC-8), Mike McIntyre (NC-7), Heath Shuler (NC-11); Ohio – Zack Space (OH-18); Oklahoma - Dan Boren (OK-2); Pennsylvania – Jason Altmire (PA-4), Tim Holden (PA-17); South Dakota – Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD-At Large); Tennessee – Lincoln Davis (TN-4), John Tanner (TN-8); Texas – Chet Edwards (TX-17); Utah - Jim Matheson (UT-2); Virginia - Glenn Nye (VA-2), Rick Boucher (VA-9)

33 Democrats Voted Against the Reconciliation Bill- Bobby Bright (AL-2), Artur Davis (AL-7); Arkansas – Marion Berry (AR-1), Mike Ross (AR-4); Georgia - John Barrow (GA-12), Jim Marshall (GA-8); Idaho - Walt Minnick (ID-1); Kentucky – Ben Chandler (KY-6); Louisiana - Charlie Melancon (LA-3); Maryland – Frank Kratovil (MD-1); Minnesota – Collin Peterson (MN-7); Mississippi - Travis Childers (MS-1), Gene Taylor (MS-4); Missouri – Ike Skelton (MO-4); New Jersey – John Adler (NJ-3); New Mexico – Harry Teague (NM-2); New York – Michael McMahon (NY-13), Michael Arcuri (NY-24); North Carolina – Larry Kissell (NC-8), Mike McIntyre (NC-7), Heath Shuler (NC-11); Ohio – Zack Space (OH-18); Oklahoma - Dan Boren (OK-2); Pennsylvania – Jason Altmire (PA-4), Tim Holden (PA-17); South Dakota – Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD-At Large); Tennessee – Lincoln Davis (TN-4), Jim Cooper (TN-5), John Tanner (TN-8); Texas – Chet Edwards (TX-17); Utah - Jim Matheson (UT-2); Virginia - Glenn Nye (VA-2), Rick Boucher (VA-9)