Pelosi’s rush to pass her health care takeover

Here is a question answer dialogue between Pelosi and a reporter from The Weekly Standard on September 24.

TWS: Madam Speaker, do you support the measure to put the final House bill online for 72 hours before it’s voted on at the very end?

PELOSI: Absolutely. Without question.

Well, Pelosi had her fingers crossed because the Bill is not final and she is pushing for a Saturday vote.  There is absolutely no reasonable explanation for why Congress is trying to rush through this legislation, but there are some logical ones that I can come up with.

One, Obama needs this legislation to pass quickly because like I mentioned before he needs it before his Afghanistan decision.   His latest excuse for not making a decision of General McCrystal’s recommendations was he wanted to wait until there was resolution with the Afghan elections.  Well, that situation is resolved and still no decision.

The second and equally despicable reason is that they do not want the American public to fully understand what is in the legislation.  The last time they waited too long there was public outrage.  Remember Obama’s initial goal was to get it passed before the first Congressional recess…before they would have to face their constituents.  Like the TARP and the Stimulus, they wanted to pass it before people realized what was going on.  They do not want you to see things such as this except revealed by Rep John Boehner.

“On line 17, p. 110 Section 222, under “Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. The Speaker’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions.  What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run plan. It’s right there on line 16, page 96, Section 213, under “Insurance Rating Rules.” The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account - and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services. Section 213 describes the process in which the Health Benefits Commissioner is to assess the monthly premiums that will be used to pay for elective abortions under the government-run plan. The Commissioner must charge at a minimum $1 per enrollee per month.”

The GOP members of Congress have put together a 30 page summary of Pelosi’s new legislation.  You can read it here.

I have copied and pasted the upfront bullet points from this summary to give an overview of what this particular legislation does.

• Creation of a government-run health plan that experts say would result in up to 114 million Americans losing their current coverage-a clear violation of any pledge to allow individuals to keep their current health plan;
• Nearly half a trillion dollars in tax increases on certain income filers, a majority of whom are small businesses-and $729.5 billion in tax increases overall;
• Insurance regulations that would raise costs for nearly all Americans, particularly young Americans, and confine choice of plans to those approved by a board of bureaucrats;
• New price controls on health insurance companies that provide perverse incentives to keep individuals sick rather than managing chronic disease, while impeding patient access to important services just because those services do not provide a direct clinical benefit;
• Additional federal mandates that would significantly erode the flexibility currently provided to employers-and could result in firms dropping coverage;
• Massive expansion of Medicaid to all individuals with incomes below 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Level ($33,075 for a family of four), replacing the existing private health coverage of millions with taxpayer-funded health care-and imposing tens of billions of dollars in new unfunded mandates on States;
• Denial of health plan choice to 15 million Americans, consigning them instead to a Medicaid program riddled with bureaucratic obstacles and poor access to care, such that its own beneficiaries do not consider it “real insurance;”
• Language opening employers operating group health plans to State law remedies and private causes of action-subjecting employers to review by 50 different State court rulings, thereby raising costs and encouraging more employers to drop their current health plans;
• Liability “reforms” intended to ensure trial lawyers do not have their compensation reduced, rather than meaningful changes that would reduce the cost of health care by eliminating wasteful defensive medicine practices;
• Establishment of a bureaucrat-run health Exchange that would abolish the private market for individual insurance outside the Exchange-and could evolve into a single-payer approach due to the Exchange’s ability to cannibalize existing employer plans;
• Creation of a new government board, the “Health Benefits Advisory Committee,” that would empower federal bureaucrats to impose new mandates on individuals and insurance carriers;
• Taxation of individuals who do not purchase a level of health coverage that meets the diktats of a board of bureaucrats-including those who cannot afford the coverage options provided;
• New, job-killing taxes-$135 billion worth-on employers who cannot afford to provide their workers health insurance, resulting in up to 5.5 million lost jobs, according to a model developed by President Obama’s chief economic advisor;
• Penalties as high as $500,000 on employers who make honest mistakes when filing paperwork with the government health board-which would likely dissuade businesses from continuing to provide coverage, increasing enrollment in the bureaucrat-run Exchange;
• “Low-income” health insurance subsidies to a family of four making up to $88,200;
• Arbitrary and harmful cuts to popular Medicare Advantage plans that would result in millions of seniors losing their current health coverage; and
• Expanded price controls on pharmaceutical products that would discourage companies from producing life-saving breakthrough treatments.

As you read these points and the summary itself, you will see a theme emerging.  It starts with the healthcare mandate (which Pelosi does not think has serious constitutional implications) and then regulates private industry into non-existence.  Here are the general problems I see right away after my first reading.  And if the vote goes down Saturday like Pelosi wants it will be the only reading I get.

• The mandate.  With this mandate come fines and taxes on businesses and individuals.
• There is provision after provision giving advantages to the government plan.  This contradicts Obama’s notion that the plans will operate on equal terms.
• Numerous bureaucracies are created.  This breeds inefficiency and will take decision making away from the people and their doctors.
• The existing entitlements are increased and entirely new entitlements are created.  This is more burden and more costs.  They have used gimmicks to hide the actual costs.  Basically they front loaded the taxes and fines and back loaded entry into the system for cost estimate purposes.  They also do not include the Medicare payment increase.
• There is also very little restrictions to what the Health Czar can do.  This freedom will push us even more quickly to a single payer system and give too much power to the executive branch.
• Forces taxpayers to fund abortions.

Hopefully pressure comes down to hold the vote until our representatives have time to really digest what is in it, but I doubt it.  If they were truly concerned about reform and not their agenda then there would be no rush.  But they want power and an ever expanding federal government, not reform.  Another promise down the drain.