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| House Health-Care Bill to Include $600 Billion in Tax Increases |
| 2009-06-13 |
| (Bloomberg) -- Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said. Democrats will work on the bill's details next week as they struggle through "what kind of heartburn" it will cause to agree on how to pay for revamping the health-care system, Rangel, a New York Democrat, said today. He also said the measure's cost will reach beyond the $634 billion President Barack Obama proposed in his budget request to Congress as a down payment for the policy changes. Asked whether the cost of a health-care overhaul would be more than $1 trillion, Rangel said, "the answer is yes." House Democrats plan to release their legislation next week. Obama has made a health-care overhaul a top domestic priority and is working with Congress to get legislation to his desk by October. Democrats in the House and Senate are working on legislation that would require all Americans to have health insurance, prohibit insurers from refusing to cover pre-existing conditions and place other restrictions on the industry. The legislation would establish online exchanges for individuals to purchase insurance and would require employers to provide health benefits to workers or pay a penalty. Some Democrats also are backing creation of a government-run program to expand coverage to the uninsured. The issue is the subject of bipartisan negotiations with Republican opponents. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 AARP can kiss my ass. I figure ANY plan these idiots in congress pass MUST be imposed on them for 2 years first, before it becomes effective. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-06-13 21:49 |
| #11 Correction - Cigarettes for a year - $7,300.00 in taxes per user - 43,000,000 users - $313,900,000,000 annual tax revenue - pretty soon its "real money" . |
| Posted by: Jusonter Forkbeard5139 2009-06-13 18:13 |
| #10 AARP stand proud to watch those you've conned for years start dropping off earlier and the insurance companies you front for find that the oldsters die of 'accidents' at a higher rate [as though the government paper pushers are going to classify deaths as the result of neglect by their bureaucracy]. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-06-13 18:13 |
| #9 I think the story goes like this, since Congress has just put tobacco under FDA control, the cigarette/tobacco tax will be raised to $1.00 per cigarette. i.e each pack is $20.00 in taxes, each carton is $200. If 43 Million Americans continue to smoke One pack a day for 365 days, the government can raise $271,900,000,000 - so in the roughly four years we have of the Obama Administration this is no financial problem - Next - Taxing Americans to the Poor House - to do it or not to do it - Democrats answer - Yes |
| Posted by: Jusonter Forkbeard5139 2009-06-13 18:00 |
| #8 Asked whether the cost of a health-care overhaul would be more than $1 trillion, Rangel said, "the answer is yes." Forget the "overhaul." It'll cost more to fix than it's worth. Take it to the junkyard. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-06-13 16:00 |
| #7 I think O and the Congress are fast running out of time to push this through. The polling numbers for this are falling like a rock. Even the average person knows we can't afford this now (or ever). |
| Posted by: remoteman 2009-06-13 14:10 |
| #6 As I have posted before, Medicare, our current socialized medicine experiment, is already inadequately funded and supervised by the Federal government. Now the Feds want to CUT funding for Medicare in order to pay for expanding their socialized medicine experiment. HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK WE ARE? (Don't answer that, we already know.) These proposed ideas for funding national health care and the estimates for how much it would cost are utter |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-06-13 13:48 |
| #5 That's $4000 for my wife and me. Guess I'd better start saving up for the tax man. Wait! We don't have to pay our share? Someone else is going to pick up our tab? Where is the fairness in that? |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2009-06-13 11:09 |
| #4 they will pay Drs $400 billion less and the Drs in turn will have to charge the 160mm w/private insurance $400 billion more. I don't think the private insurance companies will stand for it. They will insist also insist on cost reduction in line w/ medicare and settle for status quo. Instead the doc that can afford it will drop Medicare patients and concentrate on the privately insured. I have already seen several docs in my area drop/limit medicare patients that affected my parents. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-06-13 09:30 |
| #3 Guys, this is a one trillion dollar tax increase. The $600 billion is a down payment. The "cutting" of $400 billion from Medicare/caid means that they will pay Drs $400 billion less and the Drs in turn will have to charge the 160mm w/private insurance $400 billion more. So there's your first trillion. Because of the cost shift, the 160mm will naturally gravitate to the "cheaper" state-run plan. When the private insurance market is completely depleted, and the state can no longer shift costs "invisibly," you will refer to the $1 trillion tax increase as "the good old days." |
| Posted by: regular joe 2009-06-13 09:22 |
| #2 I'd favor a pubic i mean public plan if it meant that all Congresscritters, along with their families and aids, signed up for this insurance first. |
| Posted by: Black Bart Ebberens7700 2009-06-13 08:38 |
| #1 First time I have seen a number less than a trillion since January. Government deflation? |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2009-06-13 08:29 |