America's new health care system revealed

[nerdy_guy]

UPDATED CHART SHOWS OBAMACARE'S BEWILDERING COMPLEXITY


Four months after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously declared "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,"a congressional panel has released the first chart illustrating the 2,801 page health care law President Obama signed into law in March.

Developed by the Joint Economic Committee minority, led by U.S Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the detailed organization chart displays a bewildering array of new government agencies, regulations and mandates.

"For Americans, as well as Congressional Democrats who didn’t bother to read the bill, this first look at the final health care law confirms what many fear, that reform morphed into a monstrosity of new bureaucracies, mandates, taxes and rationing that will drive up health care costs, hurt seniors and force our most intimate health care choices into the hands of Washington bureaucrats,"said Brady, the committee’s senior House Republican. "If this is what passes for health care reform in America, then God help us all."

Brownback, the committee’s ranking member, added, "This updated chart illustrates the overwhelming expansion of government control over health choices and the bewildering complexity facing everyone affected by this law. It doesn’t take long to see how the recently signed health care bill causes a hugely expensive and explosive expansion of federal control over health care. Personal choices that should be between a doctor and a patient will quickly be strangled in a never ending web of bureaucracy."

Senate Steering Committee Chairman Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) called Obamacare "a bureaucratic nightmare. The Democrats’ takeover of health care creates a byzantine network of 159 new federal programs and bureaucracies to make decisions that should be between just the patient and their doctor. It should concern everyone that at the center of this regulatory web is the new CMS chief, Donald Berwick, who has championed rationing and European socialized medicine. Americans were rightly outraged that this big government bill was rushed through Congress before anyone read or fully understood the bill’s consequences. Republicans will fight to repeal this reckless takeover and to ensure health care freedom to American families."

In addition to capturing the massive expansion of government and the overwhelming complexity of new regulations and taxes, the chart portrays:

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$569 billion in higher taxes;
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$529 billion in cuts to Medicare;
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swelling of the ranks of Medicaid by 16 million;
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17 major insurance mandates; and
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the creation of two new bureaucracies with powers to impose future rationing: the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Independent Payments Advisory Board.

Brady admits committee analysts could not fit the entire health care bill on one chart. "This portrays only about one-third of the complexity of the final bill. It’s actually worse than this."

[url]http://www.house.gov/brady/pdf/Obamacare_Chart.pdf[/url]

[Mish]

Unfortunately Obama's universal health care bill doesn't go far enough. A lot of people will still be unprotected and subject to the whims of insurance companies. Insurance companies have no place in monopolization of healthcare.

[Junket]

I don't know, if it's just differences between Pennsylvania, and Louisiana, or it has something to do with this new bill, but I dropped my outrageous 130 a month "liability" health insurance, and picked up an 94 dollar bill that provides me with dental, lower co-pays, and a lower deductible.

So f*ck all.

[nerdy_guy]

Although you're paying lower outright. The question is, do you think the American Government would compensate for it by increasing tax. I really hope not.

[Mish]

Higher taxes can be a good thing when the revenue raised is managed properly and delivers a high return. Germans for example pay some of the highest taxes in the world, but look at their economy and the standard of living. Lower taxes often means state of disrepair of public infrastructure and everyone ends up paying quadriple more for the same services in the process.

[nerdy_guy]

True, but in the case of health care, if fras has to pay an out-of-pocket expense on top of a higher tax then that would be very heavy then. Australians pay higher taxes but gets health care for free. Fras is paying out-of-pocket expense on top of higher tax (just an assumption) just for health care.

[Mish]

I don't know how close Obama's bill comes to matching Australia's provision, but if it comes close enough then Fras will not have to pay anything to be covered just a higher tax (which will be a lot cheaper than what he's paying at the moment).

[Junket]

I say tax the hell out of the rich.

They don't need a little cog like me defending them.

These corporations spend millions, if not billions on lawyers, and it's not to look out for my best interests.

Blue Cross Blue Shield used to be a non-profit.

Tell me, why aren't they a non-profit anymore, a health care provider in my opinion should only be a non-profit.

In any case, taxes were going to go up regardless thanks to Bush's love of credit, there's no way he would've been able to pay for his ridiculous spending habits during his own term.

[nerdy_guy]

Did you watch the documentary "Sicko" by michael moore?

By the way, Wall street and the fed gets to dictate the tax. And that's the part that really sucks.

[Junket]

Did you watch the documentary "Sicko" by michael moore?

By the way, Wall street and the fed gets to dictate the tax. And that's the part that really sucks.

No, I don't like Michael Moore.

I'm not left wing, I just go with whatever benefits me most.

[nerdy_guy]

Try "America: Freedom to Fascism" either the book or the vid

[doppelgaenger]

I like the idea of it. The US healthcare system is ridiculous! Out of all the countries I've lived in (and been sick in) USA is on par with Tunisia in healthcare service! I haven't looked at the chart, but higher taxes wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, it's just that government spending hasn't been the wisest. I wish they would make budget cuts on some of their other spending and better the international policy first.

[Junket]

I like the idea of it. The US healthcare system is ridiculous! Out of all the countries I've lived in (and been sick in) USA is on par with Tunisia in healthcare service! I haven't looked at the chart, but higher taxes wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, it's just that government spending hasn't been the wisest. I wish they would make budget cuts on some of their other spending and better the international policy first.

F*ck international policy, we don't need them.

[doppelgaenger]

We do need them. We're in debt to them.