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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Baucus Bill Will Kill You If Implemented or If Dropped On Your Head

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  October 19th, 2009 at 07:15 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The Baucus bill is finally out.

It came in at 1,502 pages.

The Clinton health care bill was only 1,342 pages.

The Baucus bill has more pages than the last two Harry Potter books. Keep in mind that the last Harry Potter book was so thick they’re making it into two movies instead of one.

The Bill Number is S. 1796.

If Republicans don’t go along with the Democrats, Harry Reid is threatening to drop copies of the bill on their heads.

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  • GT350

    I wonder what surprises are contained in those 1500 pages.

    Maybe a “Olympia Snowe Healthcare Research Institute” funded with $5bn and to be located in Maine.

  • 10ksnooker

    False premises of Utopia, that’s all the Democrats have left.

    Save money, kill granny, give money saved to Democrat constituencies, become elected for life. It’s a simple plan, and granny won’t mind taking one for the common good.

    What has America become.

  • persiflage

    gargantuan, Brobdignagian, Leviathan atrocity…

    THE COLOSSUS OF ROGUES!

  • RyanOHIO

    Assuming it’s printed single-sided on 8.5 x 11″ #20 stock.

    People with back problems should be advised not to lift said bill.

  • mfarmer

    If they send a copy to the news shows, they can always use it for Robert Reich to sit on so he can see eye to eye with the host.

  • fbks

    scored for costs?

  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    Liberalism is immoral.

    Liberalism at its core is coercion and force. For all the moral preening the Left does about how much they care and how heartless we conservatives are the truth is quite the opposite. There is nothing kind about using the force of government to compel ostensibly free citizens to surrender significant portions of their labor and property (income) to the state to serve the purposes not of the nation but of the State, i.e. the government.
    Liberalism makes half the population servants to the other half of the population through various social programs that cannot be opted out of even though our lives are diminished by the confiscation of our earnings.
    Liberalism root and branch is anathema to the American tradition of individualism as well as poisonous to liberty for how can liberty exist when the state seeks to control the lives of individuals rather than the individual himself?
    Liberals are always trying to claim the moral high ground but how can this be a valid claim when their entire agenda can only be enacted by force?
    Conservatism is the truly compassionate ideology because it seeks to free, and keep free, the individual from the state.
    I do not now and will never work for the state and will die fighting against it if I must.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    It will take longer to merge with the other Senate Bill. . At this rate, It’ll be Christmas before this thing sees the light of day.

    I bet the House Bill is even bigger, more pork to dole out. Wait till they have to merge those two bills.

  • Rusty_S

    Sounds more like “Lethal Weapon.”

  • 6eorge Jetson

  • http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/blog/loren_heal Socrates

    It’s low and mean-spirited to say “for Robert Reich to sit on so he can see eye to eye with the host”. Are you some kind of moby troll?

    Because he’d have to be standing.

  • bk

    We must have wiped out a whole forest among these five bills.

  • rbdwiggins

    has been posted at the Senate Finance Committee’s website.

    However, the language is guaranteed to change behind closed-doors before the economic damage can be independently scored.

  • http://www.cis.ysu.edu/~kramer snowyowl

    The “Cadillac Plan Tax” is calculated on a monthly basis, not an annual basis. If Sally the Schoolteacher has her $16,000/year (for a family) health insurance paid for out of a 9-month salary, she pays the extra tax. If Carl the Cook pays his $20,000/year health insurance paid out of his 12-month salary, no extra tax.

    It’s there, pages

  • http://www.cis.ysu.edu/~kramer snowyowl

    It’s on pages 1420 – 1422.

  • xwraith

    I saw a link on Politico (http://www.politico.com/livepulse/1009/Finance_Committee_bill_has_been_filed_.html)
    that pointed to this link: http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2009press/prb101909.pdf

    SEC. 6008. IMPOSITION OF ANNUAL FEE ON BRANDED PRESCRIPTION PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURERS AND IMPORTERS.

    Medicaid, Medicare, and Tricare transactions excepted of course

    SEC. 6009. IMPOSITION OF ANNUAL FEE ON MEDICAL DEVICE MANUFACTURERS AND IMPORTERS.

    Increase capital costs for Doctors & Hospitals… which we pay for.

    SEC. 6010. IMPOSITION OF ANNUAL FEE ON HEALTH INSURANCE PROVIDERS.

    One common thread through all these sections is the language surrounding the taxation. It’s labeled an excise tax, but I couldn’t tell you what the tax rate is. It sounds like they set an amount to raise, such as 1 billion dollars. An entity will then get an assigned a percentage of that billion based on what percentage of the market the entity has.

    For example here is the language for sec. 6010:

    IN GENERAL.?With respect to each covered
    entity, the fee under this section for any calendar
    year shall be equal to an amount that bears the
    same ratio to $6,700,000,000 as?
    (A) the covered entity?s net premiums written during the preceding calendar year with respect to health insurance for any United States health risk, bear to
    (B) the aggregate net premiums of all covered entities written during such preceding calendar year with respect to such health insurance.

    If I’m interpreting this correctly then:
    a) Premiums will be taxed, and thus you will pay more. Either in increased co-pays or in higher premiums.
    b) That fee, while seemingly small now, will have to be increased every year, since it isn’t indexed for inflation. Raise the annual fee (always tempting to help ‘balance’ that budget) and introduce regulation (or a nationally subsidized plan) that will rob private insurers of premiums, and you could set off a positive feedback loop that will wipe out private insurers.

  • http://www.cis.ysu.edu/~kramer snowyowl

    Amount to at least $13 billion per year. All of which will be passed on to consumers.

  • gretske

    But I bet it does not have as much reality!

  • miltonmd

    day by day and inch by inch and dollar for dollar.So let us accept that it is The Deppression and let’s do something about it. I don’t agree with the new adm.blaming everything on the previous one.
    We had a country that was still feared by others. People still used the $ AS THE CURRENCY OF EXCHANGE!!!! All new administration bebieve they will do better and the other didn’t do sowell What’s so special about the Obama adm? Facing decisions, having to go face to face with the army general? THESE THINGS ARE REAL!! You realize it now.. please don’t throw stones,
    So you are in it so lead follow or get out of the kitchen.
    I never heard a president complain so much about his job!!! Being a president.!!
    Pretty soon we’ll hear “I’m a celebrity get me out of here!!!!!!

  • 1stRichard

    Page 21 SEC. 2204. PREMIUM RATING RULES.

    (a) IN GENERAL.?A health benefits plan shall be treated as a qualified health benefits plan only if the premium rate charged for any benefit level of the plan may not vary except as provided in this section. ??(b) LIMITS BASED ON SPECIFIC RATIOS.? ??(1) IN GENERAL.?In the case of a health benefits plan offered in a rating area, the premium rate charged under the plan may vary only as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3). ??(2) BY FAMILY ENROLLMENT.?The premium rate may vary by family enrollment (such as variations within categories and compositions of families) so long as the ratio of the premium for the following types of enrollment to the premium for individual enrollment does not exceed the following ratios:
    (A) Individual, 1 to 1.
    (B) Adult with child, 1.8 to 1.
    (C) Two adults, 2 to 1.
    (D) Family, 3 to 1.
    (3) AGE AND TOBACCO USE.?Within any fam1ily enrollment category, the portion of the premium attributable to each individual covered by the health benefits plan in that category may vary as follows:
    (A) LIMITED AGE VARIATION PERMITTED.?By age (within the standard age bands established under subsection (c)) so long as the ratio of the highest such premium to the lowest such premium does not exceed the ratio of 4 to 1.
    (B) TOBACCO USE.?By tobacco use so long as the ratio of the highest such premium to the lowest such premium does not exceed the ratio of 1.5 to 1.
    (c) STANDARD AGE CATEGORIES.?The Secretary shall establish standard age bands between which premium rates may vary as provided in subsection (b)(3)(A). ??
    (d) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.?Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow a health benefits plan to vary a premium rate on the basis of health status-related factors, gender, class of business, claims experience, or any other factor not described in subsection (b).

    [[[What other factor can be added subsection (b), too fat, looks? The federal government must never have that power]]]

    Page 23 SEC. 2205. USE OF UNIFORM OUTLINE OF COVERAGE DOCUMENTS.
    A health benefits plan shall provide an outline of the plan?s health insurance coverage meeting the standards of uniformity adopted by the Secretary under section 1503 of the America?s Healthy Future Act of 2009

    Page 251 SEC. 1503. DEVELOPMENT AND UTILIZATION OF UNIFORM OUTLINE OF COVERAGE DOCUMENTS. (a) IN GENERAL.?The Secretary of Health and Human Services

    [[[Consetration of power within the executive office, this is sickening and dangerous]]]

    Ok, only on Page 23 and I have to take a break before I start yelling at the monitor ?

  • njre

    That is why I have been calling it the KILL BILL!

    HORROR. Obamacare horror, as in this video

    ’3-D Halloween Obamacare Horror Show’ at

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpQlTN9kgfo

    Obama horror and obamacare horror, they go together!
    What can be a bigger horror than a ‘president’ spending a million bucks to hire attorneys to hide his original vaulted long form birth certificate? Everyone is asking why he hides his bc:-

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/20917727/WHOARETHEBIRTHERS4-0

  • GregInFla

    The way the Dems villify insurance companies, you’d think that no one on Medicaid and Medicare ever die or even have to ask twice for a medical procedure.