Baucus health reform bill and amendments, HSAs in jeopardy.
Alert: Dangerous amendment found.
Max Baucus is still interested in pushing his plan forward as it offers a more moderate compromise to the House bill by excluding the public option and relaxing mandates. However steep taxes to 'cadillac' insurance plans and major reductions to Medicare spending has people concerned. I am still confused how Democrats can reduce spending on Medicare and claim that no rationing will take place. Anyone?
Read the bill here: America's Healthy Future Act. (Catchy title, no?)
Reading through a bill of this particular size can be daunting, so let's focus on the amendments as they are discovered in the Chairman's Mark.
Alert! Rockefeller Financing Amendment #2: The amendment would eliminate Health Savings Accounts. Eliminate Health Savings Accounts effective January 1, 2010 . (Source: page 2)
Health Savings Accounts are one of the best concepts that Congress adopted as part of the 2003 Medicare reform bill. They act as 401Ks, but unlike traditional retirement accounts allow for medical expenses to be paid out pretax. Despite being handicapped in their effectiveness, they are one of the only effective methods to ween this nation of Medicare and provide choice to consumers. They provide families an opportunity to build up their accounts slowly and purchase catastrophic insurance coverage until they can buy plans with better coverage. Ultimately by moving to HSAs we can significantly reduce our over-consumption of health services due to perverse government regulation ultimately resulting in reduced costs for everyone!
Ultimately axing the HSAs will provide a mechanism for the federal government to inject their presence in our health industry by depriving people of choice and hooking them on federally run dependencies.
26. Establishing "Teaching Health Centers" to Increase the Number of Primary Care Physicians
In order to keep up with the growing pool we are going to train doctors in health centers? Quality is one thing America excels at and this amendment could compromise it.
41. To authorize qualified physical therapists in rural areas to provide services for Medicare beneficiaries without the requirement of a physician referral
Medicare is one of the most exploited government programs with fraud rampant and waste mounting. This will open the door for physical therapists to exploit and game the system.
73. To ensure access to our nation's emergency rooms and to encourage on-call specialists to serve our nation's emergency rooms - eliminate payment reduction for ER physicians
This will directly benefit illegal aliens who currently utilize our emergency rooms in lieu of getting health insurance. To pay for this amendment an offset is cited as "This amendment would be offset by an increase in the pharmaceutical fee on brand name drugs." Due to the FDA our drugs already cost significantly more than they should, we will now be paying for ER care via expensive drugs.
101. Puerto Rico Medicare Fairness
No details here other than an offset to increase health care premiums.
124-132. Several amendments proposed by Senator Kyl to specifically eliminate rationing boards.
Can't argue there.
More to come...
Max Baucus is still interested in pushing his plan forward as it offers a more moderate compromise to the House bill by excluding the public option and relaxing mandates. However steep taxes to 'cadillac' insurance plans and major reductions to Medicare spending has people concerned. I am still confused how Democrats can reduce spending on Medicare and claim that no rationing will take place. Anyone?
Read the bill here: America's Healthy Future Act. (Catchy title, no?)
Reading through a bill of this particular size can be daunting, so let's focus on the amendments as they are discovered in the Chairman's Mark.
Alert! Rockefeller Financing Amendment #2: The amendment would eliminate Health Savings Accounts. Eliminate Health Savings Accounts effective January 1, 2010 . (Source: page 2)
Health Savings Accounts are one of the best concepts that Congress adopted as part of the 2003 Medicare reform bill. They act as 401Ks, but unlike traditional retirement accounts allow for medical expenses to be paid out pretax. Despite being handicapped in their effectiveness, they are one of the only effective methods to ween this nation of Medicare and provide choice to consumers. They provide families an opportunity to build up their accounts slowly and purchase catastrophic insurance coverage until they can buy plans with better coverage. Ultimately by moving to HSAs we can significantly reduce our over-consumption of health services due to perverse government regulation ultimately resulting in reduced costs for everyone!
Ultimately axing the HSAs will provide a mechanism for the federal government to inject their presence in our health industry by depriving people of choice and hooking them on federally run dependencies.
26. Establishing "Teaching Health Centers" to Increase the Number of Primary Care Physicians
In order to keep up with the growing pool we are going to train doctors in health centers? Quality is one thing America excels at and this amendment could compromise it.
41. To authorize qualified physical therapists in rural areas to provide services for Medicare beneficiaries without the requirement of a physician referral
Medicare is one of the most exploited government programs with fraud rampant and waste mounting. This will open the door for physical therapists to exploit and game the system.
73. To ensure access to our nation's emergency rooms and to encourage on-call specialists to serve our nation's emergency rooms - eliminate payment reduction for ER physicians
This will directly benefit illegal aliens who currently utilize our emergency rooms in lieu of getting health insurance. To pay for this amendment an offset is cited as "This amendment would be offset by an increase in the pharmaceutical fee on brand name drugs." Due to the FDA our drugs already cost significantly more than they should, we will now be paying for ER care via expensive drugs.
101. Puerto Rico Medicare Fairness
No details here other than an offset to increase health care premiums.
124-132. Several amendments proposed by Senator Kyl to specifically eliminate rationing boards.
Can't argue there.
More to come...
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