Well it's here! The massive 2074 page Senate Health Care reform bill. It's called the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act and  Harry Reid SWEARS it's "deficit neutral" and that it "protects" Medicare. It even contains a provision for States to "opt out" of the  Government Health Insurance option! Now it's time for the Senate to reconcile this bill with the equally massive 1,990 paged  Affordable Health Care for America Act already passed by the House of Representatives. Speaker Pelosi actually stated that her bill would also "not add a dime to the deficit".  Not only will these bills add MILLIONS OF DIMES TO OUR DEFICIT, they are Ponzi  schemes that would make Bernie Madoff look like a philanthropist! These bills are economy KILLERS, small business KILLERS and  middle class destroyers! Not only that, BUT they BOTH contain a "Public Option" and the House bill makes Individual Health  Insurance policies ILLEGAL (by 2013)! It also brings BACK the disconcerting "End of  Life Counseling"! Worse yet (& Liberals will  LOVE this one) it MANDATES under penalty of FINE & PRISON that EVERYONE must purchase HEALTH INSURANCE from the "evil"  Health Insurance Companies! Maybe this is why Baucus has taken Hundreds of thousands of dollars from Health Insurers since 2007?  And what difference does it  make whether either of these bills are under $1 Trillion when we have NO MONEY to pay for this?  John Boehner tells us ALL ABOUT these bloated pieces of Government special interest payola on American's News Room with Bill Hemmer:

An even better assessment was made on 10/30/09 by Constitutional Attorney Mark Levin of the Landmark Legal Foundation. This could be the reason why the Wall Street Journal calls this bill "The Worst Bill EVER". Worse yet! This bill commits HARD TYRANNY on the American citizen BY IMPRISONING AMERICAN CITIZENS FOR UP TO 5YEARS if they don't BUY HEALTH INSURANCE! Oh yeah, it's in there! Read below:

Want more proof? Here's some clarification on the fine and prison time clauses directly from Congress http://bit.ly/25P0Y0. One of the most enjoyable videos I have seen in a LONG time is the one where Speaker Pelosi was asked by an intrepid reporter if she felt it was "fair" to imprison people who do not buy Health Insurance. Always nice to see a politician squirm when questioned about their OWN LEGISLATION!

Pelosi's Bill will also cut $500 BILLION in Medicare. What will that do? Listen to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on 11/17/09

Congressman Ed Whitfield (Kentucky) lists some other "ugly truths" about Pelosi's "health care reform" bill (also on 11/17/09):

How exactly can President Obama state that he will not increase taxes on the middle class if he allows this 1,990 paged TRAIN WRECK to pass? JUST LOOK at all the new TAXES nestled deep in side this massive bill!

Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65  percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages.  Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).

Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium.  MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.

Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs).  Insulin excepted.

Cap on FSAs (Flexible Spending Accounts) (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped). 

Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent).  This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)

Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.

Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000
($1 million married filing jointly).  MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest.  This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.

Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price.  It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments.  Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons.  Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.

Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act

Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.

Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.

Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties.  If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.

All of this began last July, when the Congressional Budget Office scored the Democrat's HR3200 Health Insurance reform bill BEFORE Democrats  snuck 75 "phantom" amendments in to the bill (which were NOT scored by the CBO). On October 7th, 2009 the CBO was then commissioned to score the 1502 paged Senate reform bill hilariously named America's Healthy Future Act of 2009. The assessment (at first) seemed to be more favorable than the earlier score given to HR3200 back in July. That is of course, until Price Waterhouse Cooper exposed the TRUE COST of the Democrat's Health Insurance reform bills. Let's just say the word ROB doesn't even begin to describe what an abject failure the Democrats "reform" bills would be. Moreover, not only will the bills NOT be deficit neutral, they will actually end up costing Tax Payers dramatically more for their health insurance For excellent in depth video commentary on Price Waterhouse Cooper's cost analysis please watch the informative video below:



Democrats have made it clear that they believe that health care is a "Fundamental Right". However, no one seems to be discussing the "fundamental rights" we LOSE under both of these bills. In fact, if it were not for Patriotic American Tax Paying Citizens voicing their INFORMED dissent at Town Hall Meetings across the country AND the ONE MILLION NINE HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX THOUSAND Patriots who showed up in Washington D.C. on 09/12/09. President Obama and a Democrat controlled House & Senate would have MOST DEFINITELY passed HR3200 in it's original UGLY form!

The sad truth is the vast majority of the population (and the majority of Senators) have not bothered to actually READ the 1,000 plus paged HR3200 bill or the 1,502 paged "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009. To save us time  the U.S. Chamber of Commerce outlined the fundamental rights we loose under the HR3200 bill Click here to read their analysis. An even better in depth analysis was recently completed by...wait for it....an ACTUAL Insurance Broker with 22 years of experience in.....wait for it.....The Health Insurance Industry! What a concept! Consult with those who actually know what they're talking about! His excellent in depth analysis of the HR3200 bill can be found on his web site @ www.wrongreform.com

Regarding America's Healthy Choices Act. All you need to do is read Section 2203 entitled "Guaranteed Issue and Renewal For Insurance Plans" (starting on Page 19). In this section we enter in to what I like to call "Lawmaker La La Land" where not only must an Insurance company COVER ALL APPLICANTS REGARDLESS OF PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, but they also are PROHIBITED from charging ANYTHING EXTRA because of pre-existing conditions. For those that have no idea how health insurance works (like those in the Senate who actually wrote this ridiculous legislation) I'll quote (in part) directly from the Wall Street Journal article of 8/12/09.

"If insurers are forced to sell coverage to everyone at any time, many people will buy insurance only when they need medical care. This raises the cost of insurance for everyone else, in particular those who are responsible enough to buy  insurance before they need it; they end up paying even higher premiums. And the more expensive the insurance, the less likely people will buy it before they need it.

That's one reason that only five states—Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Vermont—have Mr. Obama's proposal for "guaranteed issue" on the books today. New Hampshire and Kentucky repealed such laws after finding that they soon had an even smaller individual insurance market as companies fled the state.

Another proposed reform known as "community rating" imposes uniform premiums regardless of health condition. This also blows up the individual insurance market, by making it far more expensive for young, healthy or low-risk consumers to join pools—if they join at all. And if the healthy don't join risk pools, then premiums go up for everyone and insurers have little choice but to reduce their risk by refusing to cover those who have a high chance of getting sick, such as people with a history of cancer. This is why 35 states today impose no limits whatsoever on how much insurers can vary premiums and six states allow wide variation among consumers.

New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts have both community rating and guaranteed issue. And, no surprise, they have the three most expensive individual insurance markets among all 50 states, with premiums roughly two to three times higher than the rest of the country. In 2007, the average annual premium in New Jersey was $5,326 for singles and in New York $12,254 for a family, versus the national average of $2,613 and $5,799, respectively. Obama Care would impose New York-type rates nationwide."

So you see Health Insurance is about MANAGEMENT of RISK. Insuring everyone regardless of medical history and without charging anything extra is actuarially UNSOUND. Since Health Insurance companies have to be fiscally responsible, such practices lead to unmanageable risk and in turn unaffordable premiums. This is exactly why a Federal "Public Option" could NEVER POSSIBLY be considered "Healthy Competition". Why? Because insurance companies can not tap in to the Federal reserve when claims exceed revenue. A Federal "Public Option" would most certainly do so (as the Federal Government has been doing feverishly lately).

This is clearly NOT the way to "reform" our health care system and this is why we have seen predominantly Liberal news outlets like The New York Post, The Huffington Post, Salon.com and The Washington Post vehemently condemn President Obama's "Health Care"...er...."Health Insurance" reform plans. Whilst both parties (and most American's) feel that something has to be done. The question is, what is the best course  of action?  There are still those who actually believe that a "Single Payer" system would be the best option. The President does not  agree, although he clearly stated his support for such a system prior to his election. Now, he is promoting the aforementioned  "Public  Option" which by all estimates will cost the U.S. Tax Payers between $1 and $2 Trillion over the next decade! Not to mention what happens AFTER the first decade!

As Investors Business Daily stated in their 07/31/09 article a Public option will most definitely not work. In fact, it's not about choices. It's about Government control of our health care decisions. This being the case, a Public Option is most definitely not the way to reform the U.S. health care system. This is why Congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan spoke with such passion at a Senate hearing this week regarding President Obama's Health Insurance "reform". After actually READING the bills, he had some genuine concerns and he was not afraid to voice them and boy did he EVER voice his concerns!

Ask yourself, why does the health care industry basically regulate and report on itself? Why is certification and accreditation voluntary? Why don’t we have a Federal agency that acts like the FAA and investigate medical mistakes, just like airline accidents or near misses? Why do only some states have mandatory reporting requirements of medical errors? All Good Questions that need to be answered before we hand over our very health freedoms to the same Government to “regulate”.

In summary, REAL healthcare reform can be accomplished through consumer education, weeding out abuse of existing Federal entitlement programs (via a legitimate needs assessment) and increased funding and expansion of existing State sponsored Risk Pools so that people who are declined for insurance have an affordable option to continue coverage if declined on the individual major medical market. Following these few simple steps will go a long way towards not only maintaining our current health care system, but also towards keeping the bulk of our nations risk where it belongs, namely with the private health insurance industry. In light of the recent multi Trillion Dollar "Bail Outs" and many other failing corporations coming to the table with their hats in their hands (and their private jets on the tarmac) the last thing our government should do is start cutting more blind "bail out" checks in an effort to "reform" the U.S. health care system.

But hey what do I know? The video below sure makes Government sound wonderful! I mean just look at their track record!

What this Administration (and others before it) do not seem to understand are the basic fundamental principles and guidelines our Founders knew long before our current fiscal insolvency. For a refresher course on the wisdom of our Founders watch this:

By the way, unlike the lies told by the Democrats. Conservative Republicans DO HAVE a plan to reform our nation's health insurance system. It is called the "Empowering Patient's First Act" or HR3400.

About the author: C. Steven Tucker, is the President of Small Business Insurance Services, Inc. He is a multi-state licensed insurance broker who has been serving the Small Business community and Self-Employed for 15 years. C. Steven has served as a Subject matter expert for the Wall Street Journal and Fortune Small Business Magazine and hosts his own internet radio show, entitled, "Health Insurance 101." He is also touted for being a consumer watchdog against greedy insurance companies, insurance scams and unscrupulous agents on Twitter.