While Congress spent the last year debating how to provide health insurance for the uninsured, a little-known provision slipped into the heath care law that could cost some Americans upwards of $2,000 a year.
The Class Act, otherwise known as the Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act, is the federal government's first long-term care insurance program.
Under-reported and the under the radar of most lawmakers, the program will allow workers to have an average of roughly $150 or $240 a month, based on age and salary, automatically deducted from their paycheck to save for long-term care.
The Congressional Budget Office expects the government will collect $109 billion in premiums by 2019.
Supporters say the program will relieve pressure on Medicaid and should help keep us out of nursing homes by enabling Americans to save for something most will eventually need -- assistance in eating, bathing or dressing in their old age.
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1. a lot of people take out long term care but then get sick and forget to pay for a few months and lose coverage
2. it is beyond laughable to assume $75/day (which is what the coverage will, per the article provide) will cover home health care in most urban areas of the country ($200/day is more typical)
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/28/2010 2:13 Comments ||
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#2
LG: you have just found the need for price fixing and strict regulation. now that the door has been kicked in, no telling what will come down the pipe
Posted by: abu do you love ||
03/28/2010 2:20 Comments ||
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#3
Gov't run "long-term" care?
Wonder if they could bundle auto and homeowner's coverage into the Gov't long-term scheme and give us a volume discount?
"My father was fond of saying you need three things in life - a good doctor, a forgiving priest, and a clever accountant. The first two, I've never had much use for."
- Oskar Schindler
When people start using the long-term care coverage and the money isn't there because they've already spent it (see Social Security) and they will need current serfs to pay for those on the program.
#7
I've never been sure about the wisdom of having LTC insurance. I figure I'm old enough that I won't have to live with this cluster fvck being created for us. Silver linings are great.
#9
I like the way the Eskimos did it better: When you're too far gone to change your own diapers they put you on an ice floe and set you adrift on the Arctic Ocean.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/28/2010 17:55 Comments ||
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#3
It'll be interesting to track the reduction in market cap of the companies writing down their earnings due to this botchjob. My guess is it will cost shareholders-- including, not least, many millions of workers, via their pension funds-- over $100B when the hit to earnings is properly accounted for.
Also, Andy McCarthy had a good take on the threat of hearings in the Henry Waxman star chamber for companies that write down: "thugocracy", ie a system under which companies that don't write down get prosecuted by the feds and sued by the SEC, and companies which do get hauled before Congress.
#4
Meanwhile, Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment "appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs."
While we're at it - lets haul in some prominent mathematicians because their judgment that Pi = 3.1415972... appears to conflict with congressional independent analysis that Pi = 3.0
Just wait until the unemployment figures come out in the upcoming months.
#6
Convenient of the dems to hold onto the actual language of the Healthcare bill until the very last minute, thus ensuring that tax and financial experts at AT&T, Cat Tractor, and others could not be given an opportunity to discover it's dubious corporate impacts.
#1
Speaking of lying liars -- Chuck Schumer just said on Meet the Press (with a straight face) that the reason there's no TSA head is because of Republicans holding up the appointments.
#3
Now, I would say that while Republicans & Democrats squabble---the One prepares the machinery to rule without elections (the way all his friends do). But, of course, things like this can't happen in America.
Sarah Palin told thousands of tea party activists gathered in the Nevada desert that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will have to explain his votes when he comes back to his hometown.
The wind whipped U.S. and Alabama flags behind Palin as she stood on the makeshift stage, holding a microphone and her notes as she spoke to the crowd. Why Alabammy flags in Nevada? Because it's a big blood red X on a plain white?
Palin says the big government, big debt spending spree of Reid, President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is over, and "you're fired." She told the crowd that Reid is "gambling away our future."
"Someone needs to tell him, this is not a crapshoot," Palin said.
She says those protesting the health care overhaul aren't inciting violence, but says they shouldn't sit down and shut up.
Palin was the main attraction at the rally about 60 miles south of Las Vegas. It kicks off a 42-city bus tour that ends in Washington on April 15. Thousands gathered on a dirt lot in Reid's hometown for what organizers are calling the "Showdown in Searchlight."
The Tea Party Express had expected between 5,000 and 10,000 people. About 8,000 people were at the event as of 1 p.m., according to an estimate from Metro Police spokesman Jay Rivera. Traffic was backed up about five miles from Searchlight. Cars and RVs filled the area as people set up lawn chairs and braced against a stiff wind whipping up dust clouds and blowing dozens of flags straight out.
Police said there had been no arrests at the event through the early afternoon, but police did briefly detain one person who had a gun in an open holster. Police also said they responded to one medical call for an person having a seizure at the event.
The rally is targeting Reid and comes on the heels of the passage of the landmark health care reform legislation, which progressives are billing as the most important piece of social legislation since the mid-1960s passage of Medicare, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Passed on a party-line vote, Democrats say the bill expands coverage to the uninsured and cuts the exploding increase in health care costs.
But to the small-government Tea Party movement, the legislation represents an unconstitutional infringement of liberty and a further extension of the welfare state.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Police also said they responded to one medical call for an person having a seizure at the event.
#2
When u see the hysteria of the teabaggers you would think they are all rich but when u really dig deep man! u feel sorry for them they need some socialism.
#7
Click here to see photos of the hugedozens of people crowd (according to the morons at CNN who can't seem to count beyond their fingers and toes...).
I know a little something about coffins. And I know when I'm being lied to.
An email arrived in my inbox this afternoon from Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's baby-brother, Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-Missouri). In this email, Carnahan pledges to not be intimidated by Coffingate, and then asks me for money. This email may be the most despicable yet of the campaign season. After a brutal 48 hours of press retractions about an incident regarding a coffin placed near his house, Carnahan is attempting to hustle money for intimidation that did not occur.
Carnahan provides a link to a piece in Politico -- the very piece that was suggested to Politico reporter Jake Sherman by a Carnahan spokesperson, (and subsequently corrected). Here is some text from his email.
They've tried every dirty trick in the book to block critical reforms that will stop insurance companies from rejecting children with preexisting conditions or denying care to those who are sick. Try as they may, we will not be intimidated.
Help me send a message that threats and extreme tactics will not work. Please contribute $100, $50 or even $25 right now to help me fight back against those who will stop at nothing to block health care reform for Missouri families....
It must be hard to get good help these days. At the center of the controversy is Sara Howard, Congressman Carnahan's spokesperson for his re-election campaign. Howard comes from SEIU, where she spent a number of years learning the ins and outs of labor-press relations.
Among those lessons was the use of race-baiting flyers that accuse Republicans of hosing down Southern blacks to prevent them from voting. Howard defended the use of this flyer in 2004, when she worked at the Missouri office of Americans Coming Together. The flyer was placed in urban neighborhoods with the intention to foment resentment in the black populace, which, at the time, was showing insufficient enthusiasm for John Kerry.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2010 00:00 ||
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After Rep. Michael Arcuri's no vote on the federal health-care legislation, four labor and activist groups wrote a letter today to Democratic Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Utica, asking to not headline a fundraiser for him Monday in Albany.
The $500 a head fundraiser is being held at the Albany offices of Capitol Public Strategies, a lobbying firm that's home to a number of former aides to Republican Gov. George Pataki.
The letter was signed by Kevin Finnegan, political director for 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East; Karen Scharff, executive director for Citizen Action of New York; Chris Shelton, vice president of CWA District 1; and Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party.
"In light of Congressman Michael Arcuri's recent vote against the historic healthcare reform bill, we urge you to cancel the upcoming fundraiser you are hosting on his behalf this Monday, March 29th at the offices of Capitol Public Strategies," the letter reads.
"Congressman Arcuri's vote against healthcare reform was a betrayal to all working Americans struggling with sky rocketing healthcare costs during this economic recession. By voting 'No,' Congressman Arcuri has sent a clear message that he stands with big insurance companies and not the middle-class families he was elected to represent."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2010 00:00 ||
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The letter was signed by Kevin Finnegan, political director for 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
#2
I am looking forward to some Republican congressmen suggesting that if and when Republicans regain control of congress, SEIU should be examined as to whether their activities have been a bit too inclined to being Racketeering Influenced resulting in their becoming a Corrupt Organization.
As Democrats tout the moral underpinnings of the federal health care system overhaul -- ensuring health care coverage for nearly all Americans -- one senator appeared to go off message when he said the legislation would address the "mal-distribution of income in America."
After the Senate passed a "fix-it" bill Thursday to make changes to the new health care law, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the influential Finance Committee, said the overhaul was an "income shift" to help the poor.
"Too often, much of late, the last couple three years, the mal-distribution of income in American is gone up way too much, the wealthy are getting way, way too wealthy and the middle income class is left behind," he said. "Wages have not kept up with increased income of the highest income in America. This legislation will have the effect of addressing that mal-distribution of income in America."
That contrasted with the arguments Democrats have been making in the past year for reinventing the health care system: to expand health care coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans and tighten regulations on insurance companies while reducing the federal deficit.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2010 00:00 ||
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So lets stick it to the rich and give to the poor.
Then lets stick it to the middle class and give it to the poor.
Then lets stick it to the poor, like the good olde days with the serfs.
Bloody Moroons. What planet did Baucus come from?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/28/2010 0:46 Comments ||
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#4
Hey Alaska Paul the only think that I like of Alaska is that Sarah paulin MILF of your, that I will do so good that I will turn that bitch liberal on a bit
#5
Let's address the mal-distribution of wealth/value creation. Seems the responsibility in this society and culture is carried by damn few to subsidize a whole lot more of wealth/value consumers.
There have always been poor. There are poor. There will always be poor because they're just not victims as co-conspirators of their own situation. It's call human free will. In every social economic racial group, there are those who will take advantage of opportunity and, unless killed or crippled by their own, can and have advance themselves in standing. There are others who choose not to.
#6
Mal-distribution; my arse. So the fact that I worked two jobs most of my adult life means I should re-distribute what I have earned to someone who wants to sit on their a$$ and do nothing? Screw this modern day Nimrod or should I say dipwap who doesn't know shit from shoe polish.
#7
If you're so worried about the "poor," Baucus (Idiot-Mont.), you redistribute all your goddam money to them.
Keep your greasy thieving fingers off my hard-earned money.
Hopefully, Montana will assure at the next possible opportunity that this clown has to start earning his money, too, instead of sucking at the taxpayers' teat. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/28/2010 13:00 Comments ||
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1.A theoretical economic system characterized by the collective ownership of property and by the organization of labor for the common advantage of all members.
2.Communism
a.A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.
#11
Obama CLAIMS to be Christian so lets see what the Bible says in both the Old Testament and the New Testament
O.T. Deuteronomy 5:21 . ' You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that [is] your neighbor's.' Micah 2:2 They covet fields and take [them] by violence, Also houses, and seize [them.] So they oppress a man and his house, A man and his inheritance.
N.T. Acts 20:33 I have coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.
The reason that America put "In God We Trust" on our currency was to show the world that we do not trust Communism when communism was spreading across the globe..
A prominent black Republican said attempts to label Tea Partiers as racists reflects a decades-long strategy by liberals to play the race card to discredit opponents.
"It is a strategy that has been used for the last 50 years by the left to create an image that they can exploit and that they can use to marginalize a movement they dislike," said Kenneth Blackwell, former Ohio secretary of state and candidate for RNC chairman.
Blackwell, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in Ohio in 2006 and since has been involved in Tea Party events in his state, said "a concerted effort is being made to demonize and marginalize and destroy an expanding citizen-based movement."
Since last weekend -- when protesters stormed Capitol Hill as legislators passed President Obama's health-care overhaul -- Tea Partiers have been accused both by Democrats and the media of racism after rumors circulated that protesters had hurled racial epithets and spat on black congressmen. A number of Tea Party leaders have been doubtful that the incidents actually occurred and have said they would not support it if it had.
Asked about media coverage of the accusations, Blackwell said the press has "been selective in their criticism" and that "they turn a blind eye to individual acts of poor taste and bigotry on the left."
Blackwell added that "if the alleged statements were made by individuals on the right, there's no cause to paint a citizens based movement with a broad brush."
Asked what could be done to bring in more black people to the movement, he dismissed the idea of specifically working to target more of a specific ethnic group, saying "there are no racial quotas in the Tea Party movement" and that "this is a real spontaneous citizen based reaction."
Blackwell also dismissed the notion that the Tea Party is solely a white party. "There are plenty of Latino, African-Americans and Asians who are distrustful of big government and who love individual liberty and they speak out both within the Tea Party movement and outside of it."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2010 00:00 ||
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I've been saying for over a year that when they get really desperate, when it looks like they have nothing left to advance their agenda, the left will resort to unfounded accusations of racism in response to anything someone on the center/right says, regardless of intent or content.
Like the old joke, "How do you know when a leftist is losing an debate on facts? He's accusing his opponent of racism!"
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/28/2010 7:40 Comments ||
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#4
It is only effective to the extent that people believe it. These days, the liberal media outlets have much less influence than they had in the past. People are turning away from them and getting their news from other outlets. People who do watch them increasingly do not believe what they have to say.
So the bottom line is that they can pretty much say whatever they want at this point because their influence on people is declining with every passing month.
Nobody I have asked has watched a news broadcast on the "alphabet" networks (abc, cbs, nbc) in the past year except one person, my 75yo former mother-in-law who watches CBS news religiously every evening.
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama did not give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the cold shoulder when they met in the White House last week, a top Obama aide said on Sunday.
"This was a working meeting among friends. And so there was no snub intended," White House senior adviser David Axelrod told CNN's State of the Union news program.
Someone needs a closer relationship to the truth, whether it's Mr. Axelrod or those who inform him.
Axelrod noted that the two leaders had met in private for two hours and had better things to do with their time than worry about protocol.
But one should always worry about manners, especially when one is head of state, and even more especially when one is head of a powerful state. President Obama did not do that. Nor did he do anything to demonstrate that this was indeed a meeting among friends -- stopping for a few photos on the way to dinner would have done that, or walking the colleague to the front door and being seen shaking hands before said colleague gets in the car taking his team to the airport. Someone is a lying little two-faced weasel. They bite, you know, and sometimes have rabies.
#6
Voters can't say they weren't warned before the election. All they had to do was listen. From the Honorable Right Reverend Hymie Town: The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end. Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.
Posted by: ed ||
03/28/2010 17:38 Comments ||
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#7
Either Obama and the a$$-kissers he has surrounded himself with are too stupid to breathe or think that their subjects are too stupid to breathe. Or both.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Sarah Palin told thousands of tea party activists gathered in the Nevada desert that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will have to explain his votes when he comes back to his hometown.
I know a little something about coffins. And I know when I'm being lied to.
After Rep. Michael Arcuri's no vote on the federal health-care legislation, four labor and activist groups wrote a letter today to Democratic Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Utica, asking to not headline a fundraiser for him Monday in Albany.
As Democrats tout the moral underpinnings of the federal health care system overhaul -- ensuring health care coverage for nearly all Americans -- one senator appeared to go off message when he said the legislation would address the "mal-distribution of income in America."
