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Senator Harry Reid’s (D-NV) 2,074-page health care bill will increase family health insurance premiums by an average of $3,100 a year, according to new figures released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The CBO says that an average family plan will increase by 28% under the Reid bill – from $11,000 per family to $14,100 per family. In addition, a family of four with an income of $54,000 will pay 17% more of its income for premiums and cost sharing in Reid’s government-run health care legislation.
Reid’s bill will end up costing the American taxpayer $2.5 trillion and leave families with higher health care costs. “Reid’s legislative takeover of health care costs Americans $1.2 billion per page or $6.8 million per word!,” said TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty. “And what do we get for it? Socialized medicine and higher health care costs!”
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has posted a simple analysis of Reid’s bill on his web site. Reid’s bill will not only increase health care costs, but result in an estimated loss of 1.6 million jobs and leaves 24 million without health insurance. Reid imposes an $8 billion tax on uninsured Americans and $28 billion in new taxes on employers! Reid also cuts Medicare by $465 billion and cuts $118 from Medicare Advantage.
“Reid’s solution to health care reform is to tax Americans, punish senior citizens, and increase the cost of health care for everyone,” said Lafferty. “This isn’t reform, it’s a recipe for national disaster and the destruction of the finest health care system in the world.”
Rationing Mammograms & Gym Membership
Heritage Foundation expert Brian Darling has recently exposed the fact that Reid’s health care bill will result in the rationing of mammograms for women.
According to Darling, Section 2713 of the bill says that the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force will have the force of law in determining what’s in health plans or what’s not covered. Last week, the Task Force gave annual mammograms a “C” rating (not recommended). Right now, insurance companies can ignore the Task Force guideline. Under Reid/ObamaCare, it will have the force of law. A new government bureaucracy (one of 100 new bureaucracies to be created in the Senate bill), will make mammogram health care decisions for women and their physicians.
Under Reid/Obama care, mandated health insurance plans must include “mental health parity,” “behavioral health treatment,” and include “preventive care,” which can include gym memberships. (This is in Section 1302(a) of the bill.)
Marriage Penalty
Reid/ObamaCare punishes married couples. It will inflict a 0.5% payroll tax on married couples making more than $250,000 a year in wages. Co-habiting couples, however, are free to make $200,000 each before being taxed.
Employer Mandates
Reid/Obama Care will impose $28 billion in new taxes on employers that don’t provide government-approved health insurance plans! These new taxes will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for everything.
Abortion Funding
Sen. Reid’s bill will not only cost more for every family, but he has included a provision that is an abortion-funding fee that will pay for abortion on demand with taxpayer dollars. The abortion funding mandate is on page 118 of the bill. It authorizes the federal government to pay for any and all abortions through a government-run program known as the “public option.” Reid’s bill will permit the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to fund all abortions, including third trimester and partial-birth abortions! It will subsidize purchase of private plans that cover abortion on demand, too.
“Reid clearly wants American taxpayers to be forced to pay for abortion on demand through his bill. This isn’t health care, it’s the killing of unborn babies,” said Lafferty.
The Louisiana Purchase & Other Bribes
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is a so-called “moderate” who received a multi-million dollar bribe in the form of cash assistance in Reid’s bill for her vote to support debate on his legislation.
Initially, Reid dropped a $100 million dollar benefit into his bill that benefited only Louisiana. On page 432 of the bill there is a section that increases Medicaid subsidies in states that are recovering from a natural disaster during the past 7 years. That provision only applies to Louisiana! (Landrieu held out for more cash from Reid and has openly boasted that she got $300 million for her state, not just $100 million initially offered.)
Landrieu’s vote was needed by Reid in order to get the 60 votes necessary last Saturday to approve the legislation for debate within the next few weeks.
Other Senators who received deal sweeteners were: Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Evan Bayh (D-IN).
Nelson got Reid to remove a provision stripping health insurers of their anti-trust exemption; and Wyden got Reid to agreed to expand eligibility for health insurance.
In addition, Reid made sure that California, the abortion industry, and big labor got deals for support of his socialist health care bill. The abortion lobby, for example, was encouraged by Reid’s massive abortion funding mechanism in the bill. California was promised $300 million for an increase in Medicare payments to doctors.
According to the Houston Chronicle, in the House-passed version of health care reform, labor unions will receive up to $10 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts. This $10 billion will be used by unions to pay retiree benefits. The House bill will force home health care workers into unions, too! According to the Chronicle: “Under the proposed public option, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius would wield tremendous discretionary authority to regulate participating health care workers. She and various federal panels, where the unions would have guaranteed seats, would take the lead in recommending health care policy. Thus, labor would have considerable influence over decisions affecting most doctors, nurses and patients.”
These pro-union provisions could be added to Reid’s bill in a conference committee.
TAKE ACTION: Contact your two Senators and urge them to oppose passage of any legislation that nationalizes our health care system!
