The
unfortunately named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010,
passed by 111th Congress, touted the following:
-
increased access to health insurance coverage
(not necessarily access to health care)
-
expansion
of federal private health insurance market requirements
-
creation
of health insurance exchanges to provide individuals and small employers with
access to insurance
-
expansion
of Medicaid coverage
The
federal government pledged to cover the cost of the most massive bureaucratic
expansion of our health care system by an increase in tax revenues and
reduction in spending on Medicare and other federal health programs.
According
to the Congressional Budget Office estimates, Obamacare will add at least $1
trillion dollars to spending over the next ten years. Since we are already
broke, do we really need more spending we cannot afford?
As
soon as Obamacare became law, the legal challenges began. Individuals, states,
and other groups sued on constitutional grounds - the forced mandate for
individuals to purchase health insurance being beyond Congress’s enumerated
powers. The states sued because the expansion of Medicaid infringed on states’
rights, forcing them to accept “onerous conditions in exchange for federal
funds.”
The
Supreme Court issued on June 28, 2012 its decision on National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. The
findings were as follows:
-
“the
individual mandate is a constitutional exercise of Congress’s authority to levy
taxes”
-
“the
individual mandate is not a valid exercise of Congress’s power under the
Commerce Clause or the Necessary and Proper Clause”
-
“In
regards to the Medicaid expansion, the federal government cannot terminate
current Medicaid program federal matching funds if a state refuses to expand
its Medicaid program”
-
“If
a state accepts the new Obamacare Medicaid expansion funds, it must abide by
the new expansion coverage rules”
-
A
state can refuse to participate in the expansion without losing any of its
current federal Medicaid matching funds”
-
“All
other provisions of Obamacare remain intact” (ACA: Summary, July 3, 2012)
The
Supreme Court, using semantics in its decision, changed the law written and
passed by Congress, making the individual mandate a “tax.” Justice Roberts used
the opportunity to make his mark in “judicial activism from the bench” history,
by siding with the liberals.
“While
most of the major provisions of the law do not take effect until 2014, some
provisions are already in place, with others to be phased in over the next few
years,” more specifically, 2018. (CRS Report for Congress, July 3, 2012)
Temporary
programs were created for “targeted groups.” These programs were responsible
for the premium escalation of everybody’s health insurance since 2010. The
targeted groups were:
-
High-risk
uninsured individuals with preexisting conditions
-
Reinsurance
program to reimburse employers for a portion of the health insurance claims
costs for 55-64 year old retirees (unions must be protected)
-
Small
business tax credits for businesses with less than 25 full-time “equivalents”
(FTEs), average wages below $50,000 who choose to offer health
insurance.(suddenly, employees have become “equivalents” in federal jargon)
-
Prior
to 2014, “states may choose voluntarily to expand their Medicaid programs”
Private
health insurance changes have taken effect and are responsible for such
increase in premiums that eventually everybody will be forced into the federal
health exchanges, including “children” under the age of 26.
-
Children
under 19 cannot be denied insurance and benefits based on preexisting
conditions
-
Major
medical plans cannot impose any lifetime dollar limits on essential health
benefits and are prohibited from doing so beginning in 2014 (Does anyone
believe that these companies will stay in business after 2014?)
-
Preventive
care with no cost sharing must be provided
-
Coverage
cannot be rescinded except in case of fraud
-
Insurers
must have an appeals process for coverage and claims (I thought that existed
already, are they trying to reinvent the wheel?)
-
Insurers
have to limit the ratio of premiums spent on administrative costs v. medical
costs – called the medical loss ratio, MLRs.
I
predict that most private insurers will be pushed out of business. Americans
will be forced into a government health insurance exchange, a privilege for
which they will have to pay a tax determined by the omnipotent government. A 15-member
bureaucratic death panel will deny as much medical care as possible based on
age and utility of a “unit” (person) in order to save money.
Obamacare
is so great that the ruling elites and Congress have exempted themselves from it.
We will have a two tier healthcare system, just like under communism, the
elites will have their private hospitals and polyclinics while the proletariat
will become part of the exchanges where shortages, rationing, and denial of
care will dominate.
Health
care will be financed, organized, and delivered according to the rules of the
IRS and HHS. Poor families will receive subsidies to purchase coverage through health
exchanges. Excise taxes will be imposed on those who can afford Cadillac plans.
The tax code, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and other federal programs will be modified
in order to reduce benefits for rationing purposes and to tax those able to pay
more.
As
enacted, Obamacare “requires state Medicaid programs to expand coverage to all
eligible non-pregnant legal residents with incomes up to 133% of the federal
poverty level, or risk losing their federal Medicaid matching funds.” The
Supreme Court, however, found that the Medicaid expansion violated the
Constitution. (CRS, p. 6)
Obamacare
will make the doctor shortage worse. It has already caused the cancellation of
many doctor-owned hospitals. Thousands of new bureaucrats will take over our
health care system while the federal government will replace American trained
physicians, who might leave the profession, with third world doctors. Plans to
admit students to medical school based on racial and ethnic quotas and not
merit, involving shorter training, will exacerbate the problem and deliver
substandard care.
Doctors
will be paid the same regardless of specialty and the government will set all
doctors’ fees. (ACA, p. 241, p. 253)
Based
on the Massachusetts model of Romneycare, the average wait to see a doctor will
expand similarly from 33 days to over 55 days. Patients will have to pay for
life-saving drugs but life-ending drugs will be free. If health care for everyone
is important, shouldn’t life-saving drugs be free instead of life-ending drugs?
The
government will specify which doctors will write an end-of-life order. (p. 429)
Patients on social security will be required to attend end-of-life planning
seminars every five years, a sort of death counseling, and a mandated
advanced-care planning consultation. (p. 425)
Oncology
hospitals will ration cancer care according to the patient’s age. (p. 272,
section 1145)
IRS
will control the enforcing of Obamacare, have direct and mandated access to our
bank accounts, will levy 20 new taxes, will control costs, promote efficiency, and, in the process, will
reduce our life expectancy by denying needed care - that will kill many
Americans before their time.
IRS
will have real-time access to an individual’s bank account and will have the
authority to make electronic fund transfers from those accounts. (ACA, pp.
58-59)
The
Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation cost
projections for Obamcare do not include the Supreme Court’s decision, which
precludes HHS Secretary Sebelius from penalizing states that choose not to
participate in the Medicaid expansion. (CRS Report, July 3, 2012, p. 5)
If
a state decides not to implement the Medicaid expansion, “low-income adults
below the poverty line who were not covered by, or eligible for, the state’s
existing Medicaid program would in general be ineligible for the exchange
subsidies.” (CRS Report, p. 8)
Low-income
Americans would have to pay for the health exchange out of their own pockets.
The very people President Obama vowed to help with his mandate are now being taxed
by his regime because they merely exist and the government knows what is best
for them.
If
the medical profession is allowed to unionize and thus strike, a new Pandora’s
Box will be opened. Recently in the UK, unionized doctors and nurses went on
strike, leaving patients without care, while scheduled surgeries were postponed.
David
Martin, Executive President of the Media Research Center, said, “the media
played a role in deceiving Americans about the impact of this horrific law,
regurgitating verbatim every lie told by the Obama Administration. Every
promise the media and the Obama Administration made about Obamacare – that it
would make healthcare cheaper without increasing taxes or deficits, that you
can keep your doctor, the businesses would not be hit with crippling
regulations and taxes – has been broken.” (June 28, 2012)
Political
pundits, liberals and RINOs, have attempted miserably to spin the Supreme Court’s
decision in perplexing ways such as, Justice Roberts tricked the liberals by
siding and voting with them, but he is such a brilliant and clever conservative.
Interestingly,
Senator Obama voted in 2005 against the man who saved his health care law. “The
bottom line is this: I will be voting against John Roberts’ nomination.”
Senator Obama continued, “I hope that his jurisprudence is one that stands up
to the bullies of all ideological types.” Justice Robert’s “jurisprudence and
outstanding legal thinking” did not stand up to liberal bullying and he voted
against the productive Americans in our society.
Americans
are not giving up. Orly Taitz filed a class action suit on behalf of Christian
and Jewish U.S citizens.
“Healthcare Obama Tax is illegal as it
violates Equal Protection Clause, Due Process Clause, Establishment Clause, and
Free Exercise of Religion Clause of the U.S. Constitution by exempting Muslim
citizens, and places a heavy tax burden on Christian and Jewish U.S. Citizens
to pay a de facto Judeo-Christian Obama Tax not only for themselves, but also
for Muslim citizens, who are exempt.” (July 5, 2012, 113 page complaint, filed
in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California)
The
stark truth in Realityville is that Obamacare is the biggest victory for
President Obama, the biggest loss of personal freedom in America, the downgrading
of medical care quality to levels of third world nations, the highest tax hike
in the history of our country, and the biggest usurpation of our Constitution.
Columnist
Note: Credit due to Honorable David Kithil of Marble Falls, Texas for providing
specific page numbers from HB3200
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