{"id":2603,"date":"2009-11-23T12:28:34","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T17:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=2603"},"modified":"2009-11-23T12:28:34","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T17:28:34","slug":"the-true-cost-of-health-insurance-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=2603","title":{"rendered":"The True Cost of Health Insurance "Reform""},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard some folks say that they’d happily pay their part<\/a> to get health insurance for everyone.  The only problem is, they think that it’s just a matter of money; a few (or a whole bunch of) extra bucks out of their paychecks.  But there’s more to it than that.  Republicans have come out with some numbers<\/a> that show this is a bit more costly than that.  A sampling:<\/p>\n

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5.5 million \u2014 Number of jobs that could be lost as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health insurance coverage, according to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer<\/p>\n

$1.055 trillion \u2014 New federal spending on expanded health insurance coverage over the next ten years, according to a Congressional Budget Office preliminary score of the bill<\/p>\n

0.7% \u2014 Percentage of all that new spending occurring in the bill\u2019s first three years-representing a debt and tax \u201ctime bomb\u201d in the program\u2019s later years set to explode on future generations<\/p>\n

$88,200 \u2014 Definition of \u201clow-income\u201d family of four for purposes of health insurance subsidies<\/p>\n

114 million \u2014 Number of individuals who could lose their current coverage under the bill\u2019s government-run health plan, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And what about paying for all of this with Medicare fraud reduction?<\/p>\n

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$60 billion \u2014 Loss sustained by taxpayers every year due to Medicare fraud, according to a recent 60 Minutes expose; the government-run health plan does not reform the ineffective anti-fraud statutes and procedures that have kept Medicare on the Government Accountability Office\u2019s list of high-risk programs for two decades<\/p>\n

Zero \u2014 Prohibitions on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid from using cost-effectiveness research to impose delays to or denials for access to life-saving treatments.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That silly talk about "death panels"?<\/p>\n

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$634 Billion \u2014 Amount that could be saved by denying individuals access to treatments that are not \u201ccost-effective,\u201d according to a report by the liberal Commonwealth Fund; Section 1160 of the bill gives bureaucrats in the Obama Administration virtual free rein to develop a new \u201chigh-value\u201d reimbursement system for Medicare by May 2012<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Your money would be buying more government intrusion, less freedom, subsidies for those "poor" making $80,000 a year, expansion of unemployment, and a price tag that, while it may feel good at the beginning, will hit up-and-coming wage earners the hardest.  <\/p>\n

Happily pay for this?  Really?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve heard some folks say that they’d happily pay their part to get health insurance for everyone.  The only problem is, they think that it’s just a matter of money; a few (or a whole bunch of) extra bucks out of their paychecks.  But there’s more to it than that.  Republicans have come out with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15,18,275],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doug","category-economics-taxes","category-government","category-healthcare"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t