“After a months-long battle, the Senate voted Tuesday, 87 to 12, to repeal the 1099 tax-reporting requirement in Democrats’ healthcare reform bill. The measure now goes to the president, who is expected to sign it, making it the first part of his party’s signature reform bill to be scrapped.”
“The Senate is slated to take up a House-passed 1099 repeal bill on Tuesday morning that will likely pass, a Republican aide told The Hill on Thursday night. If the House-passed measure gains approval without being amended, the bill goes to President Obama for his signature. “
“President Obama’s signature health care reform law just passed its one year anniversary, but many companies have yet to come to terms with what the new law will mean for their operating costs and bottom lines. Large firms flush with low-wage workers will get hit hard because their bare-bones, low-cost employee health insurance policies don’t comply with the new law, which takes effect in 2014. These companies will have two choices: offer an unlimited insurance minimum, or reduce their workforces.”
“Big companies may eventually look to dump their employees onto new state-run health insurance markets in the future if a key aspect of healthcare reform turns out to be successful, an Obama administration health official predicted Tuesday morning.”
“There’s ample evidence in the literature that physician productivity declines when doctors become owned employees rather than entrepreneurs. How then will the new marketplace that ObamaCare creates deliver efficiencies is downright quizzical.”
“Today, the argument is that ObamaCare is good for American business. Though there are sure to be those who experience some benefit under the new law, its overall effect will be to cause great harm to job growth and the economy at large. By and large, ObamaCare will also fail to remove the obstacles that smaller employers face to provide health insurance for workers.”
“Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz says the health overhaul law’s employer requirements will impose “too great” a pressure on small businesses.
Schultz supported the law as he watched his company’s health insurance tab — $250 million as of last year — surmount its coffee bill. But he told The Seattle Times in an interview published Tuesday that he’s now worried about what happens when it takes full effect in 2014.”
“House Democrats held a birthday party last week for passage of the health-care law. Just as we looked at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s floor speech noting the milestone, we will now examine some of the claims made by Democrats…
By contrast, House Democrats appear to show little hesitation about repeating claims that previously have found to be false or exaggerated. So let’s take a tour through the numbers.”
“The number of temporary healthcare reform waivers granted by the Obama administration to organizations climbed to more than 1,000, according to new numbers disclosed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS posted 126 new waivers on Friday, bringing the total to 1,040 organizations that have been granted a one-year exemption from a new coverage requirement included in the healthcare reform law enacted almost a year ago.”
“The claim that repeal will ‘kill jobs’ is based on the idea that lower health care costs will make it easier for employers to hire workers. That might be worth considering if there were any provisions in the new health reform law that could reasonably be expected to lower ‘costs.'”