Health Care Bill Link: http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure! Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed! Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process) Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.k Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard. Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer. Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN) Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange. Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans) Page 91: The Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan. Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter. Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed. Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives. Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families. Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll Page 167: Any individual who doesnât' have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income. Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them). Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records. Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it really says that. Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected Page 24 1: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!) Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc. Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries. Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs. Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing! Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions. Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government. Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion, Hospitals cannot expand without government approval. Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on "community" input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN. Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing. Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc. Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals Page 379:20More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone). Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time. Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death. Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends. Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT. Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life. Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN. Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN. Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage. Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090802/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_fact_check FACT CHECK: Distortions rife in health care debate By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer Charles Babington, Associated Press Writer 53 mins ago WASHINGTON â Confusing claims and outright distortions have animated the national debate over changes in the health care system. Opponents of proposals by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats falsely claim that government agents will force elderly people to discuss end-of-life wishes. Obama has played down the possibility that a health care overhaul would cause large numbers of people to change doctors and insurers. To complicate matters, there is no clear-cut "Obama plan" or "Democratic plan." Obama has listed several goals, but he has drawn few lines in the sand. The Senate is considering two bills that differ significantly. The House is waiting for yet another bill approved in committee. A look at some claims being made about health care proposals: CLAIM: The House bill "may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia," House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said July 23. Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey said in a July 17 article: "One troubling provision of the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years ... about alternatives for end-of-life care." THE FACTS: The bill would require Medicare to pay for advance directive consultations with health care professionals. But it would not require anyone to use the benefit. Advance directives lay out a patient's wishes for life-extending measures under various scenarios involving terminal illness, severe brain damage and situations. Patients and their families would consult with health professionals, not government agents, if they used the proposed benefit. CLAIM: Health care revisions would lead to government-funded abortions. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says in a video, "Unless Congress states otherwise, under a government takeover of health care, taxpayers will be forced to fund abortions for the first time in over three decades." THE FACTS: The proposed bills would not undo the Hyde Amendment, which bars paying for abortions through Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor. But a health care overhaul could create a government-run insurance program, or insurance "exchanges," that would not involve Medicaid and whose abortion guidelines are not yet clear. Obama recently told CBS that the nation should continue a tradition of "not financing abortions as part of government-funded health care." The House Energy and Commerce Committee amended the House bill Thursday to state that health insurance plans have the option of covering abortion, but no public money can be used to fund abortions. The bill says health plans in a new purchasing exchange would not be required to cover abortion but that each region of the country should have at least one plan that does. Congressional action this fall will determine whether such language is in the final bill. CLAIM: Americans won't have to change doctors or insurance companies. "If you like your plan and you like your doctor, you won't have to do a thing," Obama said on June 23. "You keep your plan; you keep your doctor." THE FACTS: The proposed legislation would not require people to drop their doctor or insurer. But some tax provisions, depending on how they are written, might make it cheaper for some employers to pay a fee to end their health coverage. Their workers presumably would move to a public insurance plan that might not include their current doctors. CLAIM: The Democrats' plans will lead to rationing, or the government determining which medical procedures a patient can have. "Expanding government health programs will hasten the day that government rations medical care to seniors," conservative writer Michael Cannon said in the Washington Times. THE FACTS: Millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover. Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions. Obama says the goal is to identify the most effective and efficient medical practices, and to steer patients and providers to them. He recently told a forum: "We don't want to ration by dictating to somebody, 'OK, you know what? We don't think that this senior should get a hip replacement.' What we do want to be able to do is to provide information to that senior and to her doctor about, you know, this is the thing that is going to be most helpful to you in dealing with your condition." CLAIM: Overhauling health care will not expand the federal deficit over the long term. Obama has pledged that "health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade, and I mean it." THE FACTS: Obama's pledge does not apply to proposed spending of about $245 billion over the next decade to increase Medicare fees for doctors. The White House says the extra payment, designed to prevent a scheduled cut of about 21 percent in doctor fees, already was part of the administration's policy. Beyond that, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the House bill lacks mechanisms to bring health care costs under control. In response, the White House and Democratic lawmakers are talking about creating a powerful new board to root out waste in government health programs. But it's unclear how that would work. Budget experts also warn of accounting gimmicks that can mask true burdens on the deficit. The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says they include back-loading the heaviest costs at the end of the 10-year period and beyond.