| Examiner Editorial: Obamacare is even worse than critics
thought The
Washington Examiner | September 22, 2010
Six months ago, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rammed Obamacare down the throats of an unwilling
American public. Half a year removed from the unprecedented legislative
chicanery and backroom dealing that characterized the bill's passage, we
know much more about the bill than we did then. A few of the revelations:
Obamacare won't decrease health care costs for the government. According
to Medicare's actuary, it will increase costs. The same is likely to happen
for privately funded health care.
As written, Obamacare covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama's promise
that it wouldn't. This means that tax dollars will be used to pay for a
procedure millions of Americans across the political spectrum view as immoral.
Supposedly, the Department of Health and Human Services will bar abortion
coverage with new regulations but these will likely be tied up for years
in litigation, and in the end may not survive the court challenge.
Obamacare won't allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage
they have and like. By Obama's estimates, as many as 69 percent of employees,
80 percent of small businesses, and 64 percent of large businesses will
be forced to change coverage, probably to more expensive plans.
Obamacare will increase insurance premiums -- in some places, it already
has. Insurers, suddenly forced to cover clients' children until age 26,
have little choice but to raise premiums, and they attribute to Obamacare's
mandates a 1 to 9 percent increase. Obama's only method of preventing massive
rate increases so far has been to threaten insurers.
Obamacare will force seasonal employers -- especially the ski and amusement
park industries -- to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay off employees.
Obamacare forces states to guarantee not only payment but also treatment
for indigent Medicaid patients. With many doctors now refusing to take
Medicaid (because they lose money doing so), cash-strapped states could
be sued and ordered to increase reimbursement rates beyond their means.
Obamacare imposes a huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business.
It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every vendor from whom
they make purchases of more than $600 in a year, with duplicate forms going
to the Internal Revenue Service. Like so much else in the 2,500-page bill,
our senators and representatives were apparently unaware of this when they
passed the measure.
Obamacare allows the IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if
you do not purchase a qualified insurance plan. The bill funds 16,000 new
IRS agents to make sure Americans stay in line.
If you wonder why so many American voters are angry, and no longer
give Obama the benefit of the doubt on a variety of issues, you need look
no further than Obamacare, whose birthday gift to America might just be
a GOP congressional majority. |