House Health Care Reform Bill; Lawyers get a Treat / We get Tricked!

It has pretty well been established by both sides (or at least we thought both sides) that some sort of tort reform on medical malpractice suits needs to be addressed in any discussion about fixing some of the problems with the health care problems in this country.

For obvious reasons, one being campaign donations, the left has done nothing towards addressing this problem in any of their versions of the so-called health care reform bills they are pushing.

In fact, in the latest 1,900 page House version, not only has Speaker Pelosi left out any tort reform, it appears the PVC Princess is shilling for the trial lawyers.

From Big Government --

"...check out this juicy morsel to the trial lawyers (page 1431-1433 of the bill):

Section 2531, entitled “Medical Liability Alternatives,” establishes an incentive program for states to adopt and implement alternatives to medical liability litigation. [But]…… a state is not eligible for the incentive payments if that state puts a law on the books that limits attorneys’ fees or imposes caps on damages.

So, you can’t try to seek alternatives to lawsuits if you’ve actually done something to implement alternatives to lawsuits. Brilliant! The trial lawyers must be very happy today!

While there is debate over the details, it is clear that medical malpractive lawsuits have some impact on driving health care costs higher. There are likely a number of procedures that are done simply as a defense against future possible litigation. Recall this from the Washington Post:

“Lawmakers could save as much as $54 billion over the next decade by imposing an array of new limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, congressional budget analysts said today — a substantial sum that could help cover the cost of President Obama’s overhaul of the nation’s health system. New research shows that legal reforms would not only lower malpractice insurance premiums for medical providers, but would also spur providers to save money by ordering fewer tests and procedures aimed primarily at defending their decisions in court, Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, wrote in a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).”

Keep up them calls -- we can stop this tragedy in the making!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

You Asked For Change?

Why did they changed the rules?

For the “Baby Boom” generation 2007 was a milestone producing the first “Boomer” to file for Social Security benefits. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling filed for early benefits in October 2007. What may have seemed an eternity back in 1943 finally became reality for the government’s “safety net”. Now, with each passing day, this ever-growing group of one hundred million (plus) have trained their sights on Uncle Sam’s Community Chest for the next 25 years.

If 2007 opened doors for the largest transition of producers to retirees then this shift might prove to re-write the definition of the “haves and have nots”. With some of America’s most productive and profitable years behind her, these boomers acquired more wealth than any preceding group in American history. Such shift of monumental proportion might leave a permanent ripple in the economic welfare of future producers begging the question, how will “Generation X, Y or Z” ever dream of catching up while saddled to produce for the boomer’s final years? Or is this cause for re-distributing the wealth?

From Social Security’s inception, nearly every Congress has sponsored a bill to “fix it”. So let’s establish the fact that Social Security was broken from the start! Now, the worse case scenario for Social Security would be for a super large group like the boomers to withdrawal from the work force crashing the system and exposing it for what it really is...broke!

This boomer asks...

1. How is it possible that on the brink of the boomer retirement era we find ourselves embroiled in a worldwide economic nightmare?
2. How is it possible that the likely outcome of this disaster will leave the boomers holding the bag thus denying them all that they worked for?
3. Why does it seem more than a coincidence that just when the boomers stand ready to cash-in, the government wants to open our community chest to the rest of the world?
4. What actions, if any, by our government could have led us down such a path?
5. How low would they sink to do it?

Some of the rules “they” changed along the way…

• Permitted unqualified borrowers home loans at any cost. Others will pay for the foreclosure mess with decreased property values and increased insurance.
• Permitted credit to unqualified consumers. From college students to seniors. We pay for this mess with higher rates.
• Tend to and treat all indigents and illegal aliens in our hospitals. Others will pay higher insurance premiums to cover the costs. Increased health risks too?
• Amnesty for illegal aliens. It may be your job and vote they take next.
• Deny tort reform. Others will pay higher insurance premiums to cover the judgments.
• Government health care. Take it or leave it – cradle to grave.
• Abortion. It’s part of women’s health care. Hands off!
• Eugenics. New government programs for those who just don’t measure up to the new standards of health.
• Special needs baby. Dead baby
• Congressional health care. Not for you…silly
• Borrow, borrow, borrow. We’ll raise taxes!
• Spend, spend, spend. Let the children pay for it.
• Print, print, print. We’ll raise taxes - Let the children pay for it - Is anybody listening?
• Decreasing treasuries with higher yields. Get the Chinese to buy more!
• Leadership coming from the best tax cheats in the country. “Just a hiccup”.
• Higher corporations taxes. Push more corporations overseas.
• More people out of work in their seasoned years. Lowers final 10-year Social Security contribution thus lowers benefits.
• More seasoned workers with reduced earnings in their later years. Lowers final 10-year Social Security contribution thus lowers benefits.

Can it be more than a coincidence? Or could it be that since Lynden Johnson’s “War on Poverty” the government has been working hard behind our backs? Once affirmative action policies were initiated we began living in the two Americas John Edwards spoke of. In America #1, people play according to the ever-changing rules, set forth by government bureaucrats while in America #2, people remain ever dependent on America #1 to keep playing by these new rules.

Posted by Mike Prokop

A Review of Taxes in the House Democrat Health Care Bill

From Americans for Tax Reform --

H.R. 3962, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" has been introduced--all 1990 pages of it. This gargantuan beast contains thirteen new tax hikes. Here they all are, with description and page number (PDF version).

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000). Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act.

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.

Tea Party Patriot Weekly Action Alert; House plans to unveil the House Health Care Legislation Today

Patriots,

We see the dismay our efforts are causing Senator Reid & Speaker Pelosi -- let's keep up the good work.

The following is from our national coordinators...

According to Politico, today, Thursday, October 29 at 10:00 am, the Democrats in the House plan to unveil the House Health Care Legislation. If you are within driving distance of DC and are able to attend with signs in opposition to government takeover of health care, we encourage you to do so.

The phone calls, emails, faxes, and protests have been working. While it is hard work, please keep up the effort. It appears that our efforts are working and right now the Senate does not have the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster but we want to keep the pressure on so that this holds true.

Thursday:

Call the 25 of Blue Dog Democrats in the House plus your own Congressman and tell them why you do not want the government takeover of health care and a public option.

If you have extra time and unlimited long distance, consider calling not just the DC offices but also the local district offices.

Friday:

Call the remaining Blue Dog Democrats in the House plus your own Congressman and tell them why you do not want the government takeover of health care and a public option.

If you have extra time and unlimited long distance, consider calling not just the DC offices but also the local district offices.

Saturday:

Read the Tea Party Patriots Blog at New Patriot Journal.

Targeted Senators

We are including the DC office phone numbers and fax numbers below in case you would also like to call and fax directly to the Senators. If you fax your letters to: 678-302-5377 we will hand deliver them.

Sen. Michael F Bennet, Colorado DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-5852, DC Fax Number: 202-228-5036

Sen. Ben Nelson, NebraskaDC Office Number: 202-224-6551, DC Fax Number: 202-228-0012

Sen. Mary Landrieu, Louisiana DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-5824, DC Fax Number: 202-224-9735

Sen. Mark Pryor, Arkansas DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-2353, DC Fax Number: 202-228-0908

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-4843, DC Fax Number: 202-228-1371

Sen. Robert Byrd, West Virginia DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-3954, DC Fax Number: 202-228-0002

Sen. Jim Webb, Virginia DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-4024, DC Fax Number: 202-228-6363

Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-2023, DC Fax Number: 202-224-6295

Sen. Jon Tester, Montana DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-2644, DC Fax Number: 202-224-8594

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-4041, DC Fax Number: 202-224-9750

Sen. Mark Begich, Alaska DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-3004, DC Fax Number: 202-224-2354

Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana DC Office Phone Number: 202-224-5623, DC Fax Number: 202-228-1377

PriceWaterhouseCooper released an independent study of the Senate Finance Committee version of the government takeover of health care bill. The study showed that American family's budgets will be severely impacted by the bill and that health insurance premiums will increase dramatically. You may wish to read the study and use this as supporting documentation when you contact the Senators. Additionally, you may find some these resources helpful as well:

Tea Party Patriots Health Care Talking Points

Why Is Tea Party Patriots Focusing on Health Care

Questions to Ask Your Representative About Health Care

Catching President Obama in a lie 40 Likeminded Democrats’ Will Vote to Kill Health Bill if it Doesn’t Get Floor Vote on Pro-Life Amendment

Again showing they will do and say anything to pass a version of socialized health care, we have the so-called bastion of integrity, President Obama, now caught in a hair splitting lie...

Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com that President Barack Obama told him in a telephone conversation that when he said in his Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress that “under our plan no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” he was not talking about the actual bill drafted in the House but about the president’s own health care plan—which has never been written.

Can somebody call Rep. Charlie Wilson -- he may have a couple words about this!

Seeing that he has been lied to, Rep. Stupak is throwing in a well needed monkey wrench of the plans for ramming any version of the Health Care bill through the House....

Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com yesterday that he has organized a group of “about 40 likeminded Democrats” who will vote to kill the health-care bill if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) does not allow a floor vote on his amendment to prohibit federal funds from going to insurance plans that cover abortion.

Under Stupak’s plan, the approximately 40 Democrats in his camp would join with all House Republicans in voting to defeat the special House “rule” that would set the terms for debating and amending the health-care bill on the House floor when it is brought up for a final vote. If a majority of the House does not first vote to approve this rule, the health-care bill itself cannot be brought to the floor. (Click here for video).

If this is pulled off and these Democrats are joined by all the House Republicans they will have the 218 votes needed to kill the bill in the House.

We work on getting the names of the 40 House members so calls of support can be made to their offices. But this shows that everyday we keep these bills from moving closer to PBO's desk, more and more people are coming out against the way these bills are being cobbled together with half truths and lies.

Pelosi now playing word games on "Public Option"

The wicked progressive witch of the west, Speaker Ninny Pelosi, is out trying to fool the public over the "public option" being pushed in the House & Senate versions of the proposed health care bills.

True to progressive form, and much like this past presidential election, the left is not above spinning the truth in their push for government run health care....

A government-sponsored "public option" for health care lives, though it may be more attractive to skeptics if it goes by a different moniker, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday.

In an appearance at a Florida senior center, the Democratic leader referred to the so-called public option as "the consumer option." Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., appeared by Pelosi's side and used the term "competitive option."

"You'll hear everyone say, 'There's got to be a better name for this,'" Pelosi said. "When people think of the public option, public is being misrepresented, that this is being paid for with their public dollars." (Breitbart)

Huh... unless they plan on buying more green ink from Office Max for printing more money -- I wonder exactly what dollars will be used to pay for this public option? Obama Money? Monopoly money?

No matter where the dollars come from, no matter what they call the dollars -- one way or the other it will be coming out of our pockets. But while there plans for government run health care are slowly falling apart -- they will say or do anything for passing their socialized health care proposals.

All of our calls, faxes, letters, rallies have slowed the passing of these bills -- they are on the ropes and we must push even harder now if we want to stop this. We can do it! Their scrambling is proof we have them on the ropes! It is only with more calls, more letter, more faxes & more rallies that we can do this.

Remember, every day we keep any version of the government run health care bill one step farther away from the insidious inking it will get if it reaches President Obama's desk -- we are winning daily victories.

Patriot Alert: Left is Pushing House Members for Public Option

Patriots,

We all know NOW is crunch time if we are going to stop a government take over of our health care system. Proving the administration is worried, we see them attacking anyone, from the insurance companies and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, that is not supportive of their now estimated at $1 Trillion effort of further destroying our economy with government run health care.

I do not know how much more clear this could be... if we do not make little sacrifices and attend the rallies hosted by Tea Party Patriot groups, if we do not make the calls and send the letters to the 13 Senators and ask to vote for No Cloture (click here), if we do not pressure the Blue Dogs in the House (click here), if we do not continue this fight with every once of energy we have -- you can be sure -- the government will take over our health care system much like they did many of the banks and auto industry.

We want to thank fellow Tea Party Patriot and 9.12 member Paula for sending us this link from a Daily KOS blogger about a post on Open Left urging progressives to contact targeted House members.

From Open Left --

I am receiving new information tonight that the House DOES NOT have 218 "solid' yes votes for health care reform with a Medicare +5% public option. Representative John Larson's claim earlier today that the House had the votes appear to have included at least 12, and as many as 15, Representatives who are "lean yes" votes.

Further, I am told that if the leadership does not confirm 218 "solid" yes votes by the end of the 9:30 a.m. Democratic caucus meeting tomorrow morning, they will probably include the negotiated rate public option in the bill that is sent to the floor, not the Medicare +5% public option. At the very latest, we have until 2 p.m. to get the votes.

Lean Yes:

Ron Klein (FL-22): 202-225-3026, 561-544-6910
Dennis Moore (KS-03): 202-225-2865, 913-621-0832, 913-383-2013
Stephen Lynch (MA-09): 202-225-8273, 617-428-2000
Bob Etheridge (NC-02): 202-225-4531, 919-829-9122, 919-829-9122
Dina Titus (NV-3): 202-225-3252, 702-387-4941
John Boccieri (OH-16): 202-225-3876, 330-489-4414
Steve Driehaus (OH-1): 202-225-2216, 513-684-2723
Charles Wilson (OH-06): 202-225-5705, 740-633-5705, 330-533-7250
Christopher Carney (PA-10): 202-225-3731, 570-585-9988, 570-327-1902
John Sprat (SC-05): 202-225-5501, 803-327-1114
Ruben Hinojosa (TX-15): 202-225-2531, 956-682-5545, 361-358-8400
Solomon Ortiz (TX-27): 202-225-7742, 956-541-1242, 361-883-5868

Undecided:

Marion Berry (AR-1): 202-225-4076, 501-843-3043, 870-972-4600
Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-8): 202-225-2542, 520-459-3115, 520-881-3588

Dennis Cardoza (CA-18): 202-225-6131, 209-383-4455, 209-527-1914 Allen Boyd (FL-02): 202-225-5235, 850-561-3979
Melissa Bean (IL-8): 202-225-3711, 847-517-2927
Joe Donnelly (IN-2): 202-225-3915, 574-288-2780
Brad Ellsworth (IN-8): 202-225-4636, 812-465-6484, 812-232-0523
Baron Hill (IN-09): 202-225-5315, 812-336-3000, 812-288-3999
Mike McIntyre (NC-7): 202-225-2731, 910-323-0260, 910-735-0610
Curt Schraeder (OR-05): 202-225-5711, 503-588-9100
Jason Altmire (PA-04): 202-225-2565, 724-378-0928
Lincoln Davis (TN-04): 202-225-6831, 931-490-8699, 931-473-7251 Bart Gordon (TN-06): 202-225-4231, 615-896-1986
Glenn Nye (VA-2): 202-225-4215, 757-326-6201
Zachary Space (OH-18): 202-225-6265, 330-364-4300, 740-779-1636

Lean No:

Artur Davis (AL-07): 202-225-2665, 205-254-1960, 334-877-4414 Harry Mitchell (AZ-05): 202-225-2190, 480-946-2411
Jim Costa (CA-20): 202-225-3341, 661-869-1620, 559-495-1620 Ike Skelton (MO-04): 202-225-2876, 816-228-4242, 573-635-3499
Heath Shuler (NC-11): 202-225-6401, 828-252-1651
Tim Holden (PA-17): 202-225-5546, 717-234-5904, 610-921-3502 John Tanner (TN-08): 202-225-4714, 731-423-4848, 731-885-7070
Rick Boucher (VA-9): 202-225-3861, 276-628-1145

Notice the House members from OH leaning yes and one undecided! We must melt their fax machines and shut down their phone systems with calls!

If we are going to win, and I believe we can, we must stop 'talking' about our Founding Fathers and start making the sacrifices they made on our behalf! The future of our country and our children are depending on us.

Hope to see you this Monday 10/26/09 from 3pm - 5:30pm at the Health Care Rally at the Cleveland Clinic II. Click here for more details.