Here's a few of the "goodies" Pelosi threw into H.R. 3962:
Page 111 - Section 223 establishes a new board of federal bureaucrats (the “Health Benefits Advisory Committee”) to dictate the health plans that all individuals must purchase.
Page 211 - Section 321 establishes a new government-run health plan that, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group, would cause as many as 114 million Americans to lose their existing coverage.
Page 297 - Section 501 imposes a 2.5 percent tax on all individuals who do not purchase “bureaucrat-approved” health insurance - the tax would apply on individuals with incomes under $250,000, thus breaking a central promise of then-Senator Obama’s presidential campaign.
Do you believe Pelosi and Obama when they say “if you like your plan you can keep your plan” … that you ultimately won’t be forced to live with government-run insurance? They have been lying about this all along.
Check out this provision…
Page 94 - Section 202(c) prohibits the sale of private individual health insurance policies, beginning in 2013, forcing individuals to purchase coverage through the federal government.
Of course, Members of Congress and their family members need not worry about how this radical overhaul of our nation's health care will affect them because...
Page 225 - Section 330 permits—but does not require—Members of Congress to enroll in government-run health care.
Page 110 - Section 222(e) requires the use of federal dollars to fund abortions through the government-run health plan—and, if the Hyde Amendment were ever not renewed, would require the plan to fund elective abortions.
Page 313 - Section 512 imposes an 8 percent “tax on jobs” for firms that cannot afford to purchase “bureaucrat-approved” health coverage; according to an analysis by Harvard Professor Kate Baicker, such a tax would place millions “at substantial risk of unemployment”—with minority workers losing their jobs at twice the rate of their white counterparts.
Page 336 - Section 551 imposes additional job-killing taxes, in the form of a half-trillion dollar “surcharge,” more than half of which will hit small businesses; according to a model developed by President Obama’s senior economic advisor, such taxes could cost up to 5.5 million jobs.
Page 520 - Section 1161 cuts more than 150 billion [dollars] from Medicare Advantage plans, potentially jeopardizing millions of seniors’ existing coverage.
Page 733 - Section 1401 establishes a new Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research; the bill includes no provisions preventing the government-run health plan from using such research to deny access to life-saving treatments on cost grounds, similar to Britain’s National Health Service, which denies patient treatments costing more than 35,000 [pounds].
And last, but certainly not least:
Page 1174 - Section 1802(b) includes provisions entitled 'Taxes On Certain Insurance Policies' to fund comparative effectiveness research, breaking Speaker Pelosi’s promise that 'We will not be taxing [health] benefits in any bill that passes the House,' and the President’s promise not to raise taxes on families with incomes under 250,000 [dollars].
And what about the eligibility of illegals for Obamacare. Yep, those loopholes that Obama lied about are still in there>.
"The Worst Bill Ever: Epic New Spending And Taxes, Pricier Insurance, Rationed Care, Dishonest Accounting: The Pelosi Health Bill Has It All."
That's what the Wall Street Journal had to say about H.R. 3962. But that's not all the Journal said:
"The health bill she [Pelosi] unwrapped last Thursday, which President Obama hailed as a 'critical milestone,' may well be the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced."
Here's a scary prognosis:
"Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics."
The Journal also writes:
"Yet at this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan 'reform' and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be 'universal coverage.' The result will be destructive on every level — for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity."
Extreme liberals in the House and the Senate, as well as Barack Obama, are indeed racing against their rising unpopularity.
And health care will only be passed if these extreme liberals can make false and empty promises and ram legislation through Congress before the American people realize they are being duped.
That's been their plan of action with each and every previous incarnation of ObamaCare and that is still their plan today.
Showing posts with label illegal aliens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label illegal aliens. Show all posts
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Health Care Reform - What's Really in the Stealth Bill?
As liberals rush ObamaCare through Congress, let's review the disparity between promises and text. Joe Wilson's declaration "You lie!" is ringing truer with each passing day.
Barack Obama promised "transparency" and giving the public five days to read the bill, but Senator Jim Bunning's (R-KY) amendment to require the bill, along with a final Congressional Budget Office score, to be posted online 72 hours before the vote, was defeated. Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) and Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) have been trying to get the House to agree to post the bill 72 hours before the vote, but while most Republicans have signed on, the Nancy Pelosi leadership is unwilling.
The Democrats still hope to rush the bill through unread. The 1,100-page Stimulus bill was posted online only 13 hours before the vote, and the 1,200-page Cap and Trade bill was posted only 15 hours before the vote.
Obama promised that the health-care bill would not cover illegal aliens, but Senator Chuck Grassley's (R-IA) amendment to require immigrants to prove their identity with a photo I.D. was rejected.
Obama promised that if you like your current health insurance you won't have to change it, but Senator John Cornyn's (R-TX) amendment to assure present insurance owners that they won't have to change their coverage, and that they can keep the coverage they have with their current employer without government driving up cost, was defeated.
Obama's appointment of 34 czars includes a Health Care Czar, but Senator John Ensign's (R-NV) amendment to require any health care czar to be subject to the constitutional Senate confirmation process was defeated. Obama's new Regulatory Czar, Cass Sunstein, defends removing organs from terminally ill patients and from deceased persons even though they did not consent to be organ donors.
Obama promised that "under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions," and his Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tried to divert attention from this bold lie by obfuscating the Hyde Amendment. But the Hyde Amendment is not a law; it's a one-year-at-a-time rider that applies only to current Medicaid programs, and would not apply to the health-care law.
The Democrats five times (twice in Senate committees, three times in House committees) defeated amendments to prohibit the health-care plan from spending federal money or requiring health insurance plans to cover abortions. They also defeated Senator Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) amendment to respect the conscience rights of health-care workers who do not want to perform abortions because of moral or religious objections.
One amendment that did pass was Senator Maria Cantwell's (D-WA) amendment that gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to define cost-effective care for each medical condition and to punish doctors who treat high-cost patients with complex conditions. That has been Obama's goal from the beginning and will inevitably lead to the "death panels" Sarah Palin warned about.
Former Senator Tom Daschle, who was scheduled to be Health and Human Services Secretary or Health Care Czar until he had to bow out, said that the law should be written in generalities so the bureaucrats can fill in the details. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and a key Obama health care adviser, may be behind the Stimulus legislation that will send "embedded clinical-decision support" to doctors via computer to warn them about what is "appropriate" and "cost-effective," backed up by the threat to impose financial penalties on doctors who are not "meaningful users."
The Democrats' health-care "reform" carries a trillion-dollar price tag, will vastly increase the national debt hanging over our children and grandchildren, impose socialist control over one-sixth of our economy, and force us to obey totalitarian dictates. The mandate on employers to provide health insurance will result in lower wages and fewer jobs.
The mandate on individuals to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, even threatening jail for those who fail to conform, amounts to a massive tax increase on individuals and families whose health insurance may lack all the new federally specified requirements.
Obama's "spread the wealth around" policy is evident in the big expansion of Medicaid combined with large cuts in Medicare. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt says that the combination of mandates to buy insurance, guaranteed issue, and community rating amounts to massive income distribution that is hidden from public view and not even debated.
Finally, we are subject to the deviousness of what House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) calls the 70 phantom amendments that were added in secret after the bill was voted out by the committee.
Barack Obama promised "transparency" and giving the public five days to read the bill, but Senator Jim Bunning's (R-KY) amendment to require the bill, along with a final Congressional Budget Office score, to be posted online 72 hours before the vote, was defeated. Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) and Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) have been trying to get the House to agree to post the bill 72 hours before the vote, but while most Republicans have signed on, the Nancy Pelosi leadership is unwilling.
The Democrats still hope to rush the bill through unread. The 1,100-page Stimulus bill was posted online only 13 hours before the vote, and the 1,200-page Cap and Trade bill was posted only 15 hours before the vote.
Obama promised that the health-care bill would not cover illegal aliens, but Senator Chuck Grassley's (R-IA) amendment to require immigrants to prove their identity with a photo I.D. was rejected.
Obama promised that if you like your current health insurance you won't have to change it, but Senator John Cornyn's (R-TX) amendment to assure present insurance owners that they won't have to change their coverage, and that they can keep the coverage they have with their current employer without government driving up cost, was defeated.
Obama's appointment of 34 czars includes a Health Care Czar, but Senator John Ensign's (R-NV) amendment to require any health care czar to be subject to the constitutional Senate confirmation process was defeated. Obama's new Regulatory Czar, Cass Sunstein, defends removing organs from terminally ill patients and from deceased persons even though they did not consent to be organ donors.
Obama promised that "under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions," and his Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tried to divert attention from this bold lie by obfuscating the Hyde Amendment. But the Hyde Amendment is not a law; it's a one-year-at-a-time rider that applies only to current Medicaid programs, and would not apply to the health-care law.
The Democrats five times (twice in Senate committees, three times in House committees) defeated amendments to prohibit the health-care plan from spending federal money or requiring health insurance plans to cover abortions. They also defeated Senator Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) amendment to respect the conscience rights of health-care workers who do not want to perform abortions because of moral or religious objections.
One amendment that did pass was Senator Maria Cantwell's (D-WA) amendment that gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to define cost-effective care for each medical condition and to punish doctors who treat high-cost patients with complex conditions. That has been Obama's goal from the beginning and will inevitably lead to the "death panels" Sarah Palin warned about.
Former Senator Tom Daschle, who was scheduled to be Health and Human Services Secretary or Health Care Czar until he had to bow out, said that the law should be written in generalities so the bureaucrats can fill in the details. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and a key Obama health care adviser, may be behind the Stimulus legislation that will send "embedded clinical-decision support" to doctors via computer to warn them about what is "appropriate" and "cost-effective," backed up by the threat to impose financial penalties on doctors who are not "meaningful users."
The Democrats' health-care "reform" carries a trillion-dollar price tag, will vastly increase the national debt hanging over our children and grandchildren, impose socialist control over one-sixth of our economy, and force us to obey totalitarian dictates. The mandate on employers to provide health insurance will result in lower wages and fewer jobs.
The mandate on individuals to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, even threatening jail for those who fail to conform, amounts to a massive tax increase on individuals and families whose health insurance may lack all the new federally specified requirements.
Obama's "spread the wealth around" policy is evident in the big expansion of Medicaid combined with large cuts in Medicare. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt says that the combination of mandates to buy insurance, guaranteed issue, and community rating amounts to massive income distribution that is hidden from public view and not even debated.
Finally, we are subject to the deviousness of what House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) calls the 70 phantom amendments that were added in secret after the bill was voted out by the committee.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The High Cost of Health Care
As Democrats and Obamabots try to remake the health care system in the face of bitter opposition (45% of doctors say they will quit their practices or retire early), the federal public option for the elderly is preparing to cut benefits. This should be part of the debate, but of course it is not.
Supporters of the health care revision tell us that its $1 trillion price tag won’t add a dime to the national deficits. But the reality is any program that expands Washington’s reach into health care will cost far more than the rosy projections we’re hearing. History shows that the bureaucracy always spends far more on programs than the Beltway experts say it will.
One program that has spun wildly out of control is Medicare, enshrined as an entitlement in 1965 over the opposition of many in Congress because they could see what was coming. Actuaries projected its cost for 1990 as $10 billion. Yet actual outlays were $107 billion. Now the program is spending more than it is taking in through the payroll tax that is supposed to fund it, leaving Washington with only two options: ration Medicare or raise taxes.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that brilliant minds in Washington will figure out a way to avoid rationing before it becomes necessary. Those heads are busy looking for places to slash right now. Medicare, for instance, is considering cutting $1.4 billion in benefits beginning on January 1st, 2010. If the new schedule is adopted, the reductions will be in fees paid to cardiologists and oncologists.
At the same time that fees for heart and cancer physicians will be trimmed by 10%, fees paid to family doctors, who can do for little heart and cancer patients, will be boosted by 8% and reimbursements paid to nurses will rise 7%. The Administration believes that moving the fees toward primary care will be a boost for preventive care which recent studies have been shown to provide no significant savings.
There are two points to take away from this mostly ignored news. One, any scheme passed by Congress and signed into law will cost taxpayers dearly. Two, the government will have to ration care because it cannot possibly pay for a nation of 305 million going on a billion demanding free medical care.
If rationing is adopted, it will have a direct effect on patients, particularly those who are suffering from two of the most serious illnesses. Heart and cancer specialists, who will be expected to accept Medicare reimbursements that are less than some procedures cost, are already reporting that they will either close their practices or limit care. Some will simply stop treating Medicare patients. Welcome to the new brave world of rationed medicine!
Anyone who believes Washington can improve health care by increasing its involvement is not thinking clearly. Its solutions tend to create bigger problems. Yes, a government takeover may improve care for a small segment of the population. But it will be far worst for everyone else. – adapted from an IBD editorial.
In looking for cost savings the government has overlooked the most obvious source for such savings: illegal aliens, legal immigrants, and their progeny who account for a disproportionate share of the uninsured and who use emergency rooms are their primary providers. What if we started demanding that emergency room patients produce evidence of citizenship as soon as possible after their condition is stabilized or sooner if a relative is available to provide that evidence? What if we required the hospitals and emergency rooms to place an automatic call to ICE by pushing a button with a pre-recorded message like, “We are treating a patient who has been unable to produce evidence of citizenship. Please arrange for immediate pick up and deportation as soon as the medical problem is under control.” What if the hospitals and emergency rooms also required the patient to identify the employer of the family breadwinner so he could be billed for any unreimbursed costs? What if they also had a mechanism for billing the countries of origin for all costs of treatment, hospitalization, detention, and repatriation? There is a good possibility of billions of saving to be had with these administrative arrangements. Obviously, Obama is not interested in savings from this quarter or he would be saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Supporters of the health care revision tell us that its $1 trillion price tag won’t add a dime to the national deficits. But the reality is any program that expands Washington’s reach into health care will cost far more than the rosy projections we’re hearing. History shows that the bureaucracy always spends far more on programs than the Beltway experts say it will.
One program that has spun wildly out of control is Medicare, enshrined as an entitlement in 1965 over the opposition of many in Congress because they could see what was coming. Actuaries projected its cost for 1990 as $10 billion. Yet actual outlays were $107 billion. Now the program is spending more than it is taking in through the payroll tax that is supposed to fund it, leaving Washington with only two options: ration Medicare or raise taxes.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that brilliant minds in Washington will figure out a way to avoid rationing before it becomes necessary. Those heads are busy looking for places to slash right now. Medicare, for instance, is considering cutting $1.4 billion in benefits beginning on January 1st, 2010. If the new schedule is adopted, the reductions will be in fees paid to cardiologists and oncologists.
At the same time that fees for heart and cancer physicians will be trimmed by 10%, fees paid to family doctors, who can do for little heart and cancer patients, will be boosted by 8% and reimbursements paid to nurses will rise 7%. The Administration believes that moving the fees toward primary care will be a boost for preventive care which recent studies have been shown to provide no significant savings.
There are two points to take away from this mostly ignored news. One, any scheme passed by Congress and signed into law will cost taxpayers dearly. Two, the government will have to ration care because it cannot possibly pay for a nation of 305 million going on a billion demanding free medical care.
If rationing is adopted, it will have a direct effect on patients, particularly those who are suffering from two of the most serious illnesses. Heart and cancer specialists, who will be expected to accept Medicare reimbursements that are less than some procedures cost, are already reporting that they will either close their practices or limit care. Some will simply stop treating Medicare patients. Welcome to the new brave world of rationed medicine!
Anyone who believes Washington can improve health care by increasing its involvement is not thinking clearly. Its solutions tend to create bigger problems. Yes, a government takeover may improve care for a small segment of the population. But it will be far worst for everyone else. – adapted from an IBD editorial.
In looking for cost savings the government has overlooked the most obvious source for such savings: illegal aliens, legal immigrants, and their progeny who account for a disproportionate share of the uninsured and who use emergency rooms are their primary providers. What if we started demanding that emergency room patients produce evidence of citizenship as soon as possible after their condition is stabilized or sooner if a relative is available to provide that evidence? What if we required the hospitals and emergency rooms to place an automatic call to ICE by pushing a button with a pre-recorded message like, “We are treating a patient who has been unable to produce evidence of citizenship. Please arrange for immediate pick up and deportation as soon as the medical problem is under control.” What if the hospitals and emergency rooms also required the patient to identify the employer of the family breadwinner so he could be billed for any unreimbursed costs? What if they also had a mechanism for billing the countries of origin for all costs of treatment, hospitalization, detention, and repatriation? There is a good possibility of billions of saving to be had with these administrative arrangements. Obviously, Obama is not interested in savings from this quarter or he would be saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Legal Immigrants, Illegal Aliens, and Their Progeny Increase Healthcare Costs
Like virtually every issue that faces the nation, our healthcare problem is greatly exacerbated by mass immigration—both legal and illegal.
A total of 43 percent of non-citizens lack health insurance, compared to just 12.7 percent of native-born Americans. These uninsured immigrants impose huge strains on our healthcare system that helped create the crisis we currently face.
Plenty of analysts and commentators have exposed how illegal aliens will receive healthcare under ObamaCare. They point out that while the House version of the plan, H.R. 3200, claims to prohibit illegal aliens from receiving benefits, the Democrats repeatedly blocked amendments that would screen for the illegals. It is estimated that 6.6 million illegal aliens will be eligible for public healthcare if the bill passes. Those who support this healthcare bill are essentially supporting a bill that, together with all of our country’s other obligations, will bankrupt the federal government and debase our currency.
This is an outrage for hardworking Americans, but I’d like to focus on two other important but largely ignored aspects of our immigration crisis that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars if Obama’s healthcare boondoggle is passed.
The first is birthright citizenship. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
The Amendment was passed for the sole purpose of granting freed slaves and their children citizenship. Senator Jacob Merritt Howard of Michigan who introduced the Amendment stated that it “will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States.”
But the obvious intent, as well as the “subject to jurisdiction thereof” clause, is ignored by federal policy that gives children of illegal aliens born in the United States automatic citizenship.
What does this have to do with the healthcare debate? Under H.R. 3200, only one family member needs to be eligible for government healthcare. After that, the whole family can get free healthcare. The Congressional Research Service acknowledged,
There could be instances where some family members would meet the definition of an eligible individual for purposes of the credit, while other family members would not… H.R. 3200 does not expressly address how such a situation would be treated. Therefore, it appears that the Health Choices Commissioner would be responsible for determining how the credits would be administered in the case of mixed-status families.
This means that if a family of illegal aliens has one child after they arrive, their “anchor baby,” a U.S. citizen, could make the entire family eligible for tax-funded healthcare. This would likely incite public opposition, but it’s easy to imagine where Obama’s handpicked “health czar” would come down on the issue. Just look at the interpretation of the 14th amendment that allows instant citizenship to the offspring of illegal aliens. Look at the gross failures of past and present Administrations to secure our borders and pursue vigorous and continuous internal enforcement using E-verify.
Another problem that makes the healthcare bill problematic is our policy of legal immigration. America annually accepts approximately one million legal immigrants in addition to the flood of illegal aliens. Most of these immigrants come through the process of chain migration, whereby legal immigrants and U.S. citizens sponsor family members. The process has spirals out of control until everyone’s cousin is eligible, regardless of professional skills or what they can contribute to this country. Chain immigrations and anchor babies do not bode well for our country’s future but there is little attention given to these matters and their adverse effects on the national interest.
All immigrants, both legal and illegal, as well as their US-born children comprises up to one third of all the uninsured in America. Compared to the native born population, they are twice as likely to be uninsured, and twice as likely to be on Medicaid. That is costing us a bundle already.
In an attempt to partially alleviate the burden chain migration places on social services, the 1996 Welfare Reform Act made some requirements that the sponsors of immigrants be financially responsible for the immigrants. Indeed most welfare programs have some limitations on non-citizens. But under H.R. 3200, new immigrants who are supposed to be supported by a sponsor can get tax-funded healthcare. They can even sponsor more immigrants!
Former Hudson Institute economist Ed Rubenstein estimates that legal immigrants and their children will be responsible for 78 percent of all increased healthcare costs by 2050, totaling 1.2 trillion dollars. Why is the Administration and Congress ignoring this obvious source of healthcare savings as it struggles to justify healthcare reform?
Unlike illegal aliens, anchor babies and legal immigrants did not break any laws. We should not demonize them, but we should not ignore the huge fiscal burden they impose on our already stretched economy.
Fixing our broken healthcare system is not easy, but making some basic changes to our immigration policy is. Securing our borders, enforcing our laws, ending birthright citizenship and chain migration, and reducing our levels of legal immigration; would do much more to lower healthcare costs than any government program.
Before America embarks on healthcare reform, we should either fix these problems in our immigration system, or at least put adequate safeguards to prevent immigrants from receiving even more free benefits at the expense of the US taxpayer.
A total of 43 percent of non-citizens lack health insurance, compared to just 12.7 percent of native-born Americans. These uninsured immigrants impose huge strains on our healthcare system that helped create the crisis we currently face.
Plenty of analysts and commentators have exposed how illegal aliens will receive healthcare under ObamaCare. They point out that while the House version of the plan, H.R. 3200, claims to prohibit illegal aliens from receiving benefits, the Democrats repeatedly blocked amendments that would screen for the illegals. It is estimated that 6.6 million illegal aliens will be eligible for public healthcare if the bill passes. Those who support this healthcare bill are essentially supporting a bill that, together with all of our country’s other obligations, will bankrupt the federal government and debase our currency.
This is an outrage for hardworking Americans, but I’d like to focus on two other important but largely ignored aspects of our immigration crisis that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars if Obama’s healthcare boondoggle is passed.
The first is birthright citizenship. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
The Amendment was passed for the sole purpose of granting freed slaves and their children citizenship. Senator Jacob Merritt Howard of Michigan who introduced the Amendment stated that it “will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States.”
But the obvious intent, as well as the “subject to jurisdiction thereof” clause, is ignored by federal policy that gives children of illegal aliens born in the United States automatic citizenship.
What does this have to do with the healthcare debate? Under H.R. 3200, only one family member needs to be eligible for government healthcare. After that, the whole family can get free healthcare. The Congressional Research Service acknowledged,
There could be instances where some family members would meet the definition of an eligible individual for purposes of the credit, while other family members would not… H.R. 3200 does not expressly address how such a situation would be treated. Therefore, it appears that the Health Choices Commissioner would be responsible for determining how the credits would be administered in the case of mixed-status families.
This means that if a family of illegal aliens has one child after they arrive, their “anchor baby,” a U.S. citizen, could make the entire family eligible for tax-funded healthcare. This would likely incite public opposition, but it’s easy to imagine where Obama’s handpicked “health czar” would come down on the issue. Just look at the interpretation of the 14th amendment that allows instant citizenship to the offspring of illegal aliens. Look at the gross failures of past and present Administrations to secure our borders and pursue vigorous and continuous internal enforcement using E-verify.
Another problem that makes the healthcare bill problematic is our policy of legal immigration. America annually accepts approximately one million legal immigrants in addition to the flood of illegal aliens. Most of these immigrants come through the process of chain migration, whereby legal immigrants and U.S. citizens sponsor family members. The process has spirals out of control until everyone’s cousin is eligible, regardless of professional skills or what they can contribute to this country. Chain immigrations and anchor babies do not bode well for our country’s future but there is little attention given to these matters and their adverse effects on the national interest.
All immigrants, both legal and illegal, as well as their US-born children comprises up to one third of all the uninsured in America. Compared to the native born population, they are twice as likely to be uninsured, and twice as likely to be on Medicaid. That is costing us a bundle already.
In an attempt to partially alleviate the burden chain migration places on social services, the 1996 Welfare Reform Act made some requirements that the sponsors of immigrants be financially responsible for the immigrants. Indeed most welfare programs have some limitations on non-citizens. But under H.R. 3200, new immigrants who are supposed to be supported by a sponsor can get tax-funded healthcare. They can even sponsor more immigrants!
Former Hudson Institute economist Ed Rubenstein estimates that legal immigrants and their children will be responsible for 78 percent of all increased healthcare costs by 2050, totaling 1.2 trillion dollars. Why is the Administration and Congress ignoring this obvious source of healthcare savings as it struggles to justify healthcare reform?
Unlike illegal aliens, anchor babies and legal immigrants did not break any laws. We should not demonize them, but we should not ignore the huge fiscal burden they impose on our already stretched economy.
Fixing our broken healthcare system is not easy, but making some basic changes to our immigration policy is. Securing our borders, enforcing our laws, ending birthright citizenship and chain migration, and reducing our levels of legal immigration; would do much more to lower healthcare costs than any government program.
Before America embarks on healthcare reform, we should either fix these problems in our immigration system, or at least put adequate safeguards to prevent immigrants from receiving even more free benefits at the expense of the US taxpayer.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Health Reform for Illegal Aliens
President Obama has been busy denying that illegal aliens would receive taxpayer-funded health care under pending legislation but the legislation on the table does, honest to goodness, effectively extend coverage to illegal aliens. That is a fact not a lie, as some would have you believe.
Take the premium subsidy in the House bill, H.R. 3200. This lies in the part of the legislation (Division A, Title II) that creates a Health Choices Administration, adds the infamous “public option,” sets up and runs the “exchange” clearinghouse for getting insurance, and controls a graduated premium subsidy program through allocation of “individual affordability credits.”
The subsidy, found in Section 242, will give a voucher to people earning between 133 percent of the official poverty level and 400 percent of that income level (or, up to about $88,000 a year for a family of four).
Legal immigrants certainly qualify under H.R. 3200 for this subsidy. Section 242(a)(1) makes eligible "an individual who is lawfully present in a State in the United States (other than as a nonimmigrant described in a subparagraph (excluding subparagraphs (K), (T), (U), and (V)) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act)."
A political fig leaf purports to keep illegal aliens from receiving the subsidy. Section 246 says, "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States."
However, reading the legislation as a whole, its glaring omission is any requirement to verify someone’s immigration or citizenship status. For instance, H.R. 3200 makes no reference to the verification system in current law that’s used for nearly all government welfare and other public programs. If lawmakers wanted enrolling agents, including bureaucrats at the new Health Choices Administration, to use the Systematic Alienage Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, the bill should include a reference and authorize SAVE’s application to this government program.
In other words, the silence of H.R. 3200 regarding SAVE and mandatory verification makes Section 246 just empty words. In fact, the Ways and Means Committee outright voted down an amendment by Rep. Dean Heller to require eligibility verification before qualifying someone to receive a taxpayer subsidy. Also, "lawfully present" covers a lot of ground. Does it include someone here under Temporary Protected Status, for instance? Again, the absence of eligibility verification requirements leaves open a lot of room for waste, fraud, and abuse.
A similar situation of setting up blinders occurs in H.R. 3200’s Medicaid provisions. Division B’s Title VII, Section 1701 expands Medicaid eligibility to those with incomes a third above the federal poverty level. This provision dictates that "the State shall accept without further determination the enrollment under this title of an individual determined by the Commissioner to be a non-traditional Medicaid eligible individual." In other words, the bill prohibits asking any further questions about new Medicaid enrollees.
Rather, the bill section promotes "presumptive eligibility" concerning Medicaid expansion. Read it for yourself, right from Section 1702(a):
(ii) PRESUMPTIVE ELIGIBILITY OPTION- Pursuant to such memorandum, insofar as the memorandum has selected the option described in section 205(e)(3)(B) of the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, the State shall provide for making medical assistance available during the presumptive eligibility period and shall, upon application of the individual for medical assistance under this title, promptly make a determination (and subsequent redeterminations) of eligibility in the same manner as if the individual had applied directly to the State for such assistance except that the State shall use the income-related information used by the Commissioner and provided to the State under the memorandum in making the presumptive eligibility determination to the maximum extent feasible. (emphasis added)
And, once again, the lack of any provision mentioning or requiring verification, mandatory use of the SAVE system under this part of the bill, or any other accountability requirement opens the process up to signing up illegal aliens for Medicaid.
In the Energy and Commerce Committee, a mandatory verification amendment was voted down when Rep. Nathan Deal offered it. A political figleaf amendment was added by voice vote, but the loopholes and potential for waste, fraud, and abuse remain wide open in the Medicaid provisions.
Whatever you think of health reform, a combination of things makes it certain that illegal aliens will receive government health coverage. The most obvious is the omission — heck, the outright rejection of corrective amendments — of eligibility verification requirements. The other factor is the designed ease of enrolling people in Medicaid, for "affordability credits," and the like.
Bottom line, the health legislation Congress is considering establishes an "enroll now, don’t ask questions later" regime. That’s a recipe for covering more people, but many of whom may not actually qualify. A huge number are almost guaranteed to be illegal aliens or legal immigrants still in their first five years in the country who are supposed to turn to their visa sponsor for financial support. And having more people in a public program translates pretty quickly into higher costs. In this case, we’re talking on the order of tens and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Take the premium subsidy in the House bill, H.R. 3200. This lies in the part of the legislation (Division A, Title II) that creates a Health Choices Administration, adds the infamous “public option,” sets up and runs the “exchange” clearinghouse for getting insurance, and controls a graduated premium subsidy program through allocation of “individual affordability credits.”
The subsidy, found in Section 242, will give a voucher to people earning between 133 percent of the official poverty level and 400 percent of that income level (or, up to about $88,000 a year for a family of four).
Legal immigrants certainly qualify under H.R. 3200 for this subsidy. Section 242(a)(1) makes eligible "an individual who is lawfully present in a State in the United States (other than as a nonimmigrant described in a subparagraph (excluding subparagraphs (K), (T), (U), and (V)) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act)."
A political fig leaf purports to keep illegal aliens from receiving the subsidy. Section 246 says, "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States."
However, reading the legislation as a whole, its glaring omission is any requirement to verify someone’s immigration or citizenship status. For instance, H.R. 3200 makes no reference to the verification system in current law that’s used for nearly all government welfare and other public programs. If lawmakers wanted enrolling agents, including bureaucrats at the new Health Choices Administration, to use the Systematic Alienage Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, the bill should include a reference and authorize SAVE’s application to this government program.
In other words, the silence of H.R. 3200 regarding SAVE and mandatory verification makes Section 246 just empty words. In fact, the Ways and Means Committee outright voted down an amendment by Rep. Dean Heller to require eligibility verification before qualifying someone to receive a taxpayer subsidy. Also, "lawfully present" covers a lot of ground. Does it include someone here under Temporary Protected Status, for instance? Again, the absence of eligibility verification requirements leaves open a lot of room for waste, fraud, and abuse.
A similar situation of setting up blinders occurs in H.R. 3200’s Medicaid provisions. Division B’s Title VII, Section 1701 expands Medicaid eligibility to those with incomes a third above the federal poverty level. This provision dictates that "the State shall accept without further determination the enrollment under this title of an individual determined by the Commissioner to be a non-traditional Medicaid eligible individual." In other words, the bill prohibits asking any further questions about new Medicaid enrollees.
Rather, the bill section promotes "presumptive eligibility" concerning Medicaid expansion. Read it for yourself, right from Section 1702(a):
(ii) PRESUMPTIVE ELIGIBILITY OPTION- Pursuant to such memorandum, insofar as the memorandum has selected the option described in section 205(e)(3)(B) of the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, the State shall provide for making medical assistance available during the presumptive eligibility period and shall, upon application of the individual for medical assistance under this title, promptly make a determination (and subsequent redeterminations) of eligibility in the same manner as if the individual had applied directly to the State for such assistance except that the State shall use the income-related information used by the Commissioner and provided to the State under the memorandum in making the presumptive eligibility determination to the maximum extent feasible. (emphasis added)
And, once again, the lack of any provision mentioning or requiring verification, mandatory use of the SAVE system under this part of the bill, or any other accountability requirement opens the process up to signing up illegal aliens for Medicaid.
In the Energy and Commerce Committee, a mandatory verification amendment was voted down when Rep. Nathan Deal offered it. A political figleaf amendment was added by voice vote, but the loopholes and potential for waste, fraud, and abuse remain wide open in the Medicaid provisions.
Whatever you think of health reform, a combination of things makes it certain that illegal aliens will receive government health coverage. The most obvious is the omission — heck, the outright rejection of corrective amendments — of eligibility verification requirements. The other factor is the designed ease of enrolling people in Medicaid, for "affordability credits," and the like.
Bottom line, the health legislation Congress is considering establishes an "enroll now, don’t ask questions later" regime. That’s a recipe for covering more people, but many of whom may not actually qualify. A huge number are almost guaranteed to be illegal aliens or legal immigrants still in their first five years in the country who are supposed to turn to their visa sponsor for financial support. And having more people in a public program translates pretty quickly into higher costs. In this case, we’re talking on the order of tens and hundreds of billions of dollars.
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