Will Health Savings Accounts be part of the future healthcare bill? Well, its starting to look questionable whether anything will even pass, but if so, here’s where things stand with Health Savings Accounts:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has now announced that the health care legislation he is drafting will include a government-run health insurance plan, or so-called “public option”. At least the most liberal of the liberals out there are being honest about this, and are for it because it will lead to a single-payer system. But most of the Democrats that support this are saying its purpose is to “increase competition” and “keep the insurance companies honest.”
Politicians saying they want to keep someone else honest. That would be pretty funny, if it weren’t so deceitful and tragic. (more…)
One of the ways Congress plans to change health insurance is to interfere with market pricing based on sex. Anytime government gets involved in the pricing of privately sold goods and services there are some unintended consequences. In this video I talk about what some of those are.
Anyone wonder why it took a week, after voting to pass a healthcare reform bill, for the Senate Finance Committee to post it for the public to view?
All 1500 pages are now available to read here:
http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2009press/prb101909.pdf
Turns out that Senators from “red” states are taking care of themselves in this bill.
Senator Harry Reid’s state of Nevada will be exempt from increased Medicaid expenses that other states will face, for the first 5 years of Obamacare. And there’s more: (more…)
The healthcare reform bills working their way through congress have a lot of fundamental features that people just don’t want. A recent survey conducted by the non-partisan research firm International Communications Research found the following:
71% oppose the individual mandate
Only 21% said they would support a law saying everyone would have to obtain health insurance approved by the government, or pay a tax of $750 or more every year.
68% oppose reducing seniors’ health benefits
One of the ways healthcare reform will be paid for is by reducing spending on Medicare. A majority of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all oppose this provision. (more…)
I recorded this to explain the penalty that will be imposed on anyone who does not follow the government mandate to purchase health insurance. While forcing people to buy health insurance is really not the best way to approach things, part of the purpose of this mandate is to bring in enough money to pay the claims of the unhealthy.
As things are being structure, this is not going to work.
The Senate Finance committee just approved a healthcare reform bill that is projected by the Congressional Budge Office (CBO) to cost $829 billion. They are even predicting that it will reduce the deficity by $81 billion.
Don’t believe it.
Since the actual bill has not been written yet, the CBO is estimating the cost based only on conceptual language. The CBO has acknowledged that the actual legislative language could result in significant changes in its estimates. Unfortunately for those of us who believe in honesty and transparency, the Democratic congressional leaders killed a requirement that the actual language of the bill be posted online at least 72 hours before Congress votes on it. (more…)
The Public Option is not really about what it purports to be about.
The Senate Finance Committee just approved the Baucus bill, effectively voting to raise health insurance premiums on most Americans. Wow!
A lot of people in Congress have never been in business, and are seemingly pretty clueless to how it all works.
But business owners get it. A poll in December found that 73% believed health care costs will increase if health care reform legislation is passed. And that was before the latest changes.
Anybody who has the slightest clue how insurance works also gets it. (more…)
Well, a lot of the Democrats are upset to find out that the plan they are pushing is going to cause rates to go up.
Have they thought about how ticked off people will be when they realize that this great healthcare solution that congress passed for them is making their health insurance even more unaffordable.
You’d think that would have some of them thinking twice about voting for this bill. But maybe there’s a scheme going on here. Because once this solution comes crashing down, the response will be that we need even more government involvement. (more…)
