... is what on earth the Tax Reform Act of 1986
has to do with healthcare?
Democrats are using HR 3200 to, they hope, make sweeping changes to the TRA of 1986. There are an ungodly amount of references listing corrected, amended, revised, and deleted sections to the TRA, not all of which are easily deciphered to see if they even apply to healthcare reform.
And what else that's not healthcare related is in this healthcare bill? Well a lot of
organizational structure for the Organs of the Healthcare State:
This is an operations manual, in effect, for a new insurance company called America, Incorporated. And like new companies, the business model is not solid yet: so instead of specifics about how the company will make money, re-invest capital, or lower costs, it’s filled with SWOT analyses (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and detailed descriptions of jobs, roles, and tasks such as bill collection, arbitration, information technology, and so on.
Of course, this really isn’t a start-up company. It’s the federal government, so it will become a health benefits provider in exactly the same way the United States Armed Forces is a security service, the USPS is a private courier, or the FBI is a speed-trap cop.
And how the mysterious
Health Insurance Exchange (HIE) will lower (some) costs:
It’s basically a stock exchange; but instead of stock, it’s insurance plans that are bought and sold. Insurance companies can throw their basic, advanced, and premium insurance plans into a market exchange. The government then picks the cheapest and best plans to incorporate into America, Inc.’s new offerings. Is your plan too expensive? If so, America, Inc. doesn’t take it. If yours lower than your competitors’? We’ll take a look at it.
This is the first real concept of how, theoretically, costs could go down,because it means that America, Inc., only selects the cheapest plans of all those submitted into the marketplace. Of course, an exchange only works to lower some cost because other costs go up. The implication here is that the government would always take the lowest costing offerings, meaning private insurers get stuck with more expensive ones. Ergo: private insurer premiums will go up in the HIE.
The Czar has a much stronger stomach than I, and he's reading through the whole mess. If you liked the "stimulus" bill, you'll
love the healthcare bill. Go read it, right now.
What does it have to do with the tax code? MONEY! Lots of it.
ReplyDelete$500 billion of the healthcare price tag alone is going to be paid for by changes to the tax code.
The tax code is also going to be changed to work with the HR 3200 to channel the vast sums of money that are now going to the insurers, and give it instead to the government. It's perhaps the last big pool of largely untapped assets that the government isn't receiving a huge portion of through the tax code. There was an article explaining this that I stumbled on this week. I'll try to find it again.
Loneviking, I believe it. Anything important enough for a bunch of papges of US Code is driven by dollars and cents.
ReplyDeleteIt's about moving us even more to a socialist state. It's bad business and will result in bad medicine.
ReplyDeleteAs Nancy Reagan used to say, "Just say no."
Money is a tool these Socialists use to pay off their friends and buy more influence. There are plenty of rich Socialists around who want more money too, but most of them are trust-fund baby bureaucrats who don't know squat about running an actual business, just how to exploit their social-standing and climb the pyramid of power.
ReplyDelete