Fun? Facts about Health Care “Reform”

I thought that for today’s article, I would just post various health care factoids I have found on my travails thru cyberspace.

• Hat tip to BigGovernment.com – What health care provider is the biggest denier of health insurance claims?

Health Claim Denials by Provider

That’s right – MEDICARE denied nearly 7% of claims submitted to them; more than any private insurer and nearly double the industry average. So much for government run health care being the more fair system and providing coverage to all.

• Obama said in August in a town hall meeting, “The public option, whether we have it or we don’t have it, is not the entirety of health-care reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it.”
• But in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, it is being said that behind the scenes, Obama is lobbying hard for a way to include the public option. -

“But now, senior administration officials are holding private meetings almost daily at the Capitol with senior Democratic staff to discuss ways to include a version of the public plan in the health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nev.), plans to bring to the Senate floor later this month, according to senior Democratic congressional aides.”

• Hat tip to Investors.com -  Of the 5 states, Hawaii, Oregon, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Maine in the USA that have socialistic government health care:
  • Hawaii – Their Prepaid Healthcare Act and its coverage mandates have left Hawaiians with fewer coverage choices, higher costs and nearly double the number of uninsured. Recent budget cuts resulted in discontinuation of its coverage for children.
  • Oregon – Their state-controlled care includes an official list that dictates what treatments will be covered based on annual budget constraints. If your disease is above the treatment line, you are covered. Below the line — you’re not.
    • However, patients being denied treatment often receive an additional note in their denial letters — the system telling them it will pay for “physician aid in dying.” Oregon won’t help you live, but it will help you die.
    • Massachusetts – In the three years since the Massachusetts “universal” coverage plan was launched, the state still has thousands of uninsured, costs have exploded to unsustainable levels, and waiting lists for treatments have appeared.
    • Tennessee – This state’s “TennCare” program, an attempt to expand coverage to low-income uninsured, included dead people, escaped felons and NBA stars. It drove doctors and insurers out of the state, and has been on the brink of insolvency several times.
      • Tennessee’s Democrat governor, Phil Bredesen, recently went to Washington, D.C., to explain to Congress that government health care does not lower cost.
      • Maine – This plan, named after the state’s motto and dubbed “Dirigo”, meaning to lead is a universal coverage plan and is most similar to the plans circulating on Capitol Hill. It was proposed in May 2003 by Democrat Gov. John Baldacci and passed a scant four weeks later. Much like the $787 billion federal “stimulus” plan that passed Congress in February of this year, nobody read the Dirigo plan either.
      • Gov. Baldacci promised it would cover all of the state’s 128,000 uninsured by 2009, health costs would be brought down, the bureaucracy would be streamlined and the plan would fund itself on the cuts in the bureaucracy with no tax increases. Sound familiar?
        • In the six years since it became law in Maine, it has insured 3% of the uninsured. That is about 3,400 citizens out of the 128,000.
        • By ’07 the system was so broke that it is no longer accepting new enrollees.
        • The “streamlined” bureaucracy has left the taxpayers with a 17 million dollar price tag for administrative costs.
        • State wide, within the system costs have increased a whopping 74% since it became law.
          • Multiple agencies and layers of bureaucracies have enabled this bloated system to flounder.
          • These very agencies tell health care providers what they can spend on new technologies, even though those costs are borne by hospitals and doctors.

For my last little factoid, I turn to Capital.gr where they are reporting that under the health care bills now being considered by Congress, our dear old friends at the IRS would amass more size and power:

• The IRS would be in charge of making sure individuals purchase health insurance.
  • It would collect penalties from large companies that don’t offer insurance to their employees. And it would assist state officials in administering tax credit subsidies for the purchase of health insurance.
  • The Senate Finance Committee will be considering a bill that has 17 provisions adding new duties to the IRS, this according to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

“I am very concerned about…the unprecedented role of the [IRS] in implementing a social program that has nothing to do with the IRS’ primary mission of collecting taxes,” Grassley said in letter he wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week.

Some of those new duties for the IRS include, but (as we have come to know with our Government) are not limited to:

• Subsidies to families with income up to 400% of the poverty level (about $88,200.00 for a family of four) will enable those in this bracket to purchase health coverage through a state insurance exchange (public option).
• Those applying for these subsidies will have to provide proof of income and family size to the state exchanges. The state exchanges will then compare this to the guidelines set out by the IRS.
• If you qualify one year for the subsidy, but the next year you get a raise and earn more than 400% of the poverty level, you have to pay part or all of that subsidy back to the IRS. So our government is telling families – don’t succeed.
• If you don’t comply, then the IRS will fine you. Err, tax you.
• The IRS will still be able to withhold tax refunds or other government payments from those who fail to pay the penalty, up to $1,900 per family, for failing to purchase insurance.

So there you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen; more government, bigger government and, thanks to the new duties of the IRS, a meaner government. Hat tip to the far left…

Conservative Hideout Recommends

• White House Seeks Health Care Snitches  (maggiesnotebook)
• Live Blogging Health Care Summit  (maggiesnotebook)
• Liar in Chief’s Health Care Speech  (WesternFront America)

Related posts:

1. Conservative Hideout Health Care Plan II: Competition & HSA
2. BREAKING IN 2011: Implantable Microchip Backfires, Kills New Health Care Plan
3. Life in the Liberal Zone: Health Care
4. Single Payer: A Faulty Rationale
5. Conservative Hideout Health Care Plan: Part One