Senate Health Care Bill will increase health care costs immediately

Somebody has got to pay for healthcare reform. There will be no health care savings for

The Baucus bill will increase our health care costs immediately.

One of the basic reasons for health care reform was to drive down our health care costs. The Baucus bill does exactly the opposite. The new fees imposed on all Americans would start in 2010.

In order to pay for this massive boondoggle, 85% of Americans with health care insurance plans right now would start paying more for that health insurance in a few months.


Straight from the Senate bill (Bill page # 221)

The Chairman‘s Mark would impose a fee on any covered entity offering clinical laboratory services in the United States. The aggregate fee on the clinical laboratory sector would be $750 million annually, beginning in 2010. Under the Mark, the aggregate fee would be apportioned among the covered entities each year based on each entity‘s relative market share of covered domestic laboratory service revenue for the prior year. The Mark would require that the fee be paid on an annual basis.

This is not all, wait until you hear this next one...

Do you take any medications at all? The Senate bill will increase the price of all medications, including the cost for medications to Medicare, Medicaid and VA patients.

According to the Senate bill, any and all manufacturers of drugs, including imported drugs, will be subject to a new tax/fee (page 217)

The Chairman‘s Mark would impose a fee on any person that manufactures or imports prescription drugs for sale in the United States.

How about drugs manufactured for Medicare, Medicaid and the VA?

Under the Chairman‘s Mark, ―covered domestic sales would include sales of branded prescription drugs made to or funded by ―specified government programs. Branded prescription drugs would be defined to include single source or innovator multiple source drugs, but would exclude orphan drugs.

Specified government programs are: Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration and TRICARE.

Oh goody- Grandma has yet one more tax increase to worry about

I cannot imagine how many people will lose their jobs at Abbott Labs because of this. This directly affects many folks living here in Kenosha.

By the way, this new tax will be imposed in 2010, for all of the 2009 incomes by these drug companies.

Oh that is not it. New taxes will be imposed on insurance companies also. Yes, that is right. If you have employer sponsored health care, your costs are going up also.

Senate Bill (page 220)

Under the Chairman‘s Mark, an annual fee applies to any U.S. health insurance provider with respect to health insurance.

So what is a US Health insurance provider?

A U.S. health insurance provider includes any company subject to Federal income tax as an insurance company under part I or part II of subchapter L of the Code, as well as any organization exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(a) of the Code that provides insurance. In addition, a U.S. health insurance provider includes (1) any insurer that sells employer-sponsored group health care coverage to employees that are either U.S. citizens or are employed in the United States, and (2) any insurer that sells health care insurance to individuals or groups of individuals (whether or not U.S. citizens) in the United States. A Federal, state, or other governmental entity is not a U.S. health insurance provider. However, a company or organization that underwrites policies for government-funded insurance is a U.S. health insurance provider for purposes of the Mark.

Great news. Federal, State and local government insurance plans are not subject to the same tax increase that the rest of us are subject to!!!

More great news. WEAC and a number of other unions will not be subject to this new tax increase either!

An employer that self-insures its employees‘ health risks is not considered a U.S. health insurance provider for purposes of the Mark.

Whew, we certainly do not want our government officials or unions paying the same amount as the rest of us, huh?

BTW, these new taxes will be imposed on the insurance companies starting in 2010 also.

This is just the tip of the iceburg when dealing with this new and wonderful "plan".

I have yet to begin the discussion on how massively Medicare will be cut, the horrifying debt being imposed on state Medicaid and Medicare programs, the government controlled plans called co-ops, and the government mandates and fines against Americans and all US businesses.

Basically, this new bill will impose $59 billion of tax and fee increases on at least the 85% of American people. The health care costs of this bill will be driven to astronomical levels and will be devastating to our economy.

Most of these new taxes will start in just 14 weeks, January 1st 2010.

The Wall Street Journal is attempting to describe this plan so average Americans will understand this massive boondoggle:

Like the House bill, Mr. Baucus uses 10 years of taxes to fund about seven years of spending. Some $215 billion is scrounged up by imposing a 35% excise tax on insurance companies for plans valued at more than $21,000 for families and $8,000 for individuals. This levy would merely be added to the insurers' "administrative load" and passed down to all consumers in higher prices. Ditto for the $59 billion that Mr. Baucus would raise by taxing the likes of clinical laboratories and drug and device makers.

Since this is a simpler bill to read, average Americans should be able to see and understand exactly how devastating ObamaCare will be to this country.