“The ACA essentially imposes price ceilings on Medicare payments to providers. These price controls will lead to fewer health care options and lower quality of care for the Medicare population. In contrast, the Rivlin/Ryan approach would affect both the demand and supply side of the health care market – patients would shop and providers would respond. Provision for low-income beneficiaries in the form of health spending accounts could be structured to keep pace with the new system. The more realistic cost savings resulting from the Rivlin/Ryan proposal could be accomplished without the unintended consequences of price ceilings.”
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan spoke at an e21 event where he said the true cost of ObamaCare is $700 billion in new deficit spending. “Ryan said this afternoon at the National Press Club that the only reason a Congressional Budget Office letter claims the national health care law will reduce the deficit–i.e. bring in more revenue through tax hikes and Medicare cuts than it spends on Obamacare–is because ‘the books have been severely cooked’–not by the CBO but by the Democrats who wrote the bill.”
“There are a great many things wrong with Obamacare, but the biggest is perhaps one that neither party is paying any attention to: It is one huge entrapment scheme that will turn patients and providers into criminals. The most blatant example of this is in the ‘doc fix’ that Congress passed with major bipartisan support earlier this month, saving doctors from a nearly 23 percent cut in Medicare reimbursement that they would have otherwise faced this year. Congress has been passing this fix every year since 1997, but this time, in an effort to offset its $20 billion price tag, it has included a little twist to squeeze working families called ‘exchange recapture subsidy.’ Under this provision, the government will go after low-wage families to return any excess subsidies they get under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
“Christmas gift-giving always begins with a wish list. This year, conservatives yearning to halt the government-driven health care provisions of Obamacare are making their list – and hoping the new GOP majority won’t hesitate to check it twice.”
“Already, Medicaid is the second largest item on the average state budget at 21% (education is first at 22%). But according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that is all about to change very soon thanks to Obamacare. Remember, more than half of the health care coverage expansion under Obamacare is attained by placing Americans on Medicaid. CMS projects that state and local spending on Medicaid will increase 41.4% between 2010 and 2011. 41%!!!”
“Rising entitlement spending is already driving the federal budget off a cliff. But Obamacare would add fuel to the fire with the largest entitlement expansion since the 1960s. So it takes a special kind of audacity for Obamacare’s apologists to continue to insist that the new law will cut the projected budget deficits. Evidence clearly shows otherwise.”
“After receiving several inquiries about the mandate’s cost in the wake of Monday’s court decision in Virginia, the office of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Tuesday sent around the Congressional Budget Office’s June estimate for repealing the mandate. The bottom line, according to CBO: Doing so would bring in $202 billion from its 2014 start date to 2019.”
ObamaCare created the budget-busting CLASS Act, which the new Deficit Commission has proposed to repeal. “Repealing CLASS is a start, but Congress must seriously reconsider the entire health-care bill, paying particular attention to its two most expensive provisions: the Medicaid expansion and the health-insurance subsidies. Beyond their exorbitant price tags, these programs increase the ranks of those dependent on government by tens of millions of people.”
“The coauthors argue that a more sustainable, marketbased, and patient-centered version of health reform must instead convert existing defined benefit promises into ‘defined contributions’ that individuals and their families then can use to enroll in coverage arrangements of their choice. Capretta and Miller recommend that Medicare subsidies should no longer hide the true cost of promised benefits but provide beneficiaries incentives to obtain the most value for them. They find that a move to replace both traditional Medicaid assistance and the tax preference for ESI with defined contribution payments would open up new possibilities for explicit and beneficial coordination between the Medicaid program and the coverage normally offered to working-age Americans.”
“During the 2010 midterm elections Republican Congressional Candidates promised
voters that if they took control of Congress, they would withhold the funding needed by the
Obama Administration to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
House Republican leaders also signed a “Pledge to America” that they would return the country
to 2008 discretionary spending levels. To achieve these spending objectives, Republicans must
start by identifying discretionary programs to target for defunding when they assume control of
the House of Representatives in January 2011. This analysis identifies potential programs in
the healthcare reform law that may serve as a starting point for the 112
th
Congress.”