Healthcare

[FromTexas]

How dare these Republicans keep getting in the way of national healthcare!!!

Lawmakers say Senate health care bill could hit feds with new taxes (10/21/09) -- GovExec.com

[EmptyTimCup]

The research found, according to Connolly and Moran, that $8,000 is equivalent to $6,500 in 2009 dollars. The average FEHBP plan already costs $6,000; if the value of dental and vision coverage increases are included in that figure, the price jumps to between $6,303 and $6,697. So, by some calculations, FEHBP plans already are above the threshold designated for the excise tax, should it be enacted. And federal employees' contributions to their Flexible Spending Accounts likely would be counted as part of the total cost, pushing them even further above the excise tax threshold, the lawmakers argued.

Because the costs of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program are likely to continue to increase, the letter said, citing this year's average 8.8 percent increase in the cost of FEHBP plans, the excise tax could hit federal employees particularly hard.

"We and members of the administration have urged the public, including more than 2 million federal employees, that if individuals or families like their current health care coverage, they will not have to change it," Connolly and Moran wrote. "The current proposal from the Senate Finance Committee could undermine that tenet of health insurance reform."

[SamSpade]

I'm similarly amused by the use of the term "obstructionist", both by the Democrats, and their willing cohorts in the news media.

Presumably, we have a collection of representatives and Senators who disagree with each other but are willing to bargain and hold each other accountable to pass workable legislation.

Yeah, I thought it was funny, but I needed to get it out there.

You would only use the term "obstructionist" if you were barreling your own agenda without regard to opposition - rather than the oft-touted panacea of "bipartisanhip" which is so often paid lip service but otherwise routinely ignored. When sides are cooperating, you can't be "obstuctionist". You can ONLY be that way when one side totally ignores the other and expects them to just step aside.

The Democrat majority is going to be short-lived. Frankly I'm astonished at how fast they've fallen into the same old crap of the 80's.

[bcp (Premo)]

We and members of the administration have urged the public, including more than 2 million federal employees, that if individuals or families like their current health care coverage, they will not have to change it," Connolly and Moran wrote

Yep, you dont have to use it. but, you damn sure can expect to pay for it just as if you did.

who can afford paying for two plans at once.
the Dems know this is going to force people to take the plan they are forced to pay for, and they fully expect to claim that nobody was forced.

a-holes.

[FromTexas]

Originally Posted by EmptyTimCup

Those obstructionist Republicans Connolly and Moran need to stop these shannigans, be mopped up, and get out of the way and let the problem be fixed!!!

[otter (Premo)]

Rep. Michele Bachmann from Minnesota offered sound advice this morning during an interview with Lee Rodgers on KSFO (audio here and MP3 here) in San Francisco, on how to turn back the various healthcare proposals working their way through Congress.


The key she says is call volume -- old-fashioned telephone call volume. Every morning, Monday through Friday she advises us to call our Congressional delegation, our two Senators and Congressional Representative, with the goal of achieving 10,000 calls every day. With staff tied up just answering this volume of calls, there is no way that healthcare can survive. And if it stalls in 2009, then the upcoming elections of 2010 guarantee its death and our freedom


To those desperate for a specific call to action, this is it. This is your answer to "what can I do."


Rep. Bachmann, a tax litigator by profession, explained in a way I never heard before why this defeat is necessary.


She cites a University of Arizona economics professor who estimates that fully 30% of private US corporate profits are now owned by the government, thanks to the Obama takeover of AIG, GM, Citigroup, etc. Before Obama's election 100% of corporate profits were private. If healthcare is taken over by the government add 14% to that figure. If cap and trade then passes add another 8%.


Sum those figures and suddenly 52% of profits in our country are government-owned. We will have become a socialist country, not in temperament, or leaning but in fact.
rest of the article