Talkin' Turkey about Health Care

Below are some great points about the Senate version of the health care bill put out by Take Back Medicine.

Click here for the one page PDF handout that you can hand out to relatives and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday.

From Take Back Medicine --

SENATE HEALTH CARE BILLS ARE THE REAL TURKEYS THIS THANKSGIVING

Reid’s Senate version of ObamaCare calls for:

• Hiding the $1.8 Trillion price tag by not accounting for actual costs.

• Major reductions in Medicare benefits to seniors.

• Major Tax Increases on every American to pay for it all.

• Reid called for increasing the Medicare payroll tax.

THE AAPS SURVEYS SHOWS THAT 70% OF DOCTORS WOULD REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PUBLIC PLAN IN THIS BILL

“TALKING TURKEY” (Courtesy: www.PatientsFirst.com)

1. Harry Reid has had his bill for 6 weeks – shouldn’t the American people have the same time period to review it and know what the bill contains? After all, 2,074 pages isn’t exactly light reading.

2. Some treatments could be deemed unnecessary – A government task force recently declared that mammograms for women younger than 50 were not recommended. The Health and Human Services Secretary quickly backed away from her task force’s declaration, but under these bills unaccountable bureaucracies would have vast new powers to coerce doctors to follow their recommendations.

3. Young people would be required to pay higher premiums – A study by actuarial firm Oliver Wyman found the restrictive new insurance regulations in both the House and Senate bills would increase premiums for young people by 69 percent.

4. Everyone would be forced to purchase costly plans – Requiring everyone to purchase expensive health care plans with high premiums – and not allowing people to choose affordable options that meet their budgets and needs – would mean lower-cost high-deductible plans would no longer be available.

5. Loads of new taxes – Nonpartisan experts at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) have concluded that new excise taxes on medical devices would be passed on to patients, increasing insurance premiums and increasing prices on everything from wheelchairs to pacemakers. The tax increases in the Senate bill add up to almost $500 billion.

6. Expands Medicaid and shifts costs – The Senate bill would force 15 million Americans into the flawed Medicaid program, which 4 in 10 doctors won’t accept because the program underpays providers. Studies show that expanding the program directly increases costs for everyone else, since doctors and hospitals must make up for their losses under Medicaid by shifting costs to other patients.

7. Taxes “Cadillac” and union plans – The new 40 percent tax on high-end “Cadillac” health insurance plans (any plan over $8,500 for an individual or $23,000 for a family) would force companies to shift costs to employees or to reduce the value of the health benefits they provide.

8. Government-forced health care mandates on employers would require employers to pay up to 8% higher payroll taxes in the House bill and $750 per employee in the Senate bill. This will result in lower pay and job losses, especially for low-income workers.

9. Medicare benefits would be slashed by over $400 billion, reducing benefits for seniors and jeopardizing access to care for millions of others. If these cuts do not materialize, then the bills will dramatically increase deficits.

10. Millions will still be uninsured. Even though the whole health care system will be turned upside-down, the CBO says at the end of 10 years there will still be 24 million uninsured Americans under the Senate bill.

SENATE DEMOCRATS BILL “BY THE NUMBERS”
From Sen. Tom Coburn, MD (OK)

0 — provisions guaranteeing taxpayers do not finance abortion
0 — provisions prohibiting the rationing of health care
0 — number of senators required to enroll in the new government-run plan
8 — number of new taxes created in the bill, according to JCT analysis
13 — pages in the bill’s table of contents
20.8 – pounds the bill weighs printed out
36 — pages in the CBO estimate of the price tag
70 — government programs authorized by the bill
1,697 — times the Secy. of HHS is given authority to create, determine, or define things in the bill
2,074 — pages in the bill

3,607 — uses of the word "shall" in the bill
$6.8 million — cost to taxpayers per word
24 million — people left without health insurance
$1.2 billion — cost to taxpayers per page
$5-$10 billion — additional funding needed for the IRS to implement the bill
$8 billion —taxes levied on uninsured individuals
$25 billion —additional Medicaid mandates placed on states
$28 billion —new taxes on employers not providing government approved plans
$100 billion — estimated annual fraud in Medicare and Medicaid $118 billion —cuts to Medicare Advantage
$465 billion — total cuts to Medicare
$494 billion — revenue from new taxes/fees levied on American families and businesses
$2.5 trillion — cost for full implementation of the legislation
$12 trillion — total U.S. national debt