Last week I was able to work the Samaritan booth and speak at the American Vision Worldview Conference and I mentioned a news story I’d seen about Oregon Medicaid denying certain treatments and encouraging physician assisted suicide.
I told the attendees that I’d post the video on the blog here. It’s a reminder that whoever pays for health care gets to control the access and decisions, and why we favor patient centered models like Samaritan Ministries. Here you go:
The Cato Institute’s Michael D. Tanner has written a white paper on the new health care law. “Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Law” is available here. Below is the executive summary.
For better or worse, President Obama’s health care reform bill is now law. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act represents the most significant transformation of the American health care system since Medicare and Medicaid. It will fundamentally change nearly every aspect of health care, from insurance to the final delivery of care.
The length and complexity of the legislation, combined with a debate that often generated more heat than light, has led to massive confusion about the law’s likely impact. But, it is now possible to analyze what is and is not in it, what it likely will and will not do. In particular, we now know that:
- While the new law will increase the number of Americans with insurance coverage, it falls significantly short of universal coverage. By 2019, roughly 21 million Americans will still be uninsured.
- The legislation will cost far more than advertised, more than $2.7 trillion over 10 years of full implementation, and will add $352 billion to the national debt over that period.
- Most American workers and businesses will see little or no change in their skyrocketing insurance costs, while millions of others, including younger and healthier workers and those who buy insurance on their own through the non-group market will actually see their premiums go up faster as a result of this legislation.
- The new law will increase taxes by more than $669 billion between now and 2019, and the burdens it places on business will significantly reduce economic growth and employment.
- While the law contains few direct provisions for rationing care, it nonetheless sets the stage for government rationing and interference with how doctors practice medicine.
- Millions of Americans who are happy with their current health insurance will not be able to keep it. In short, the more we learn about what is in this new law, the more it looks like bad news for American taxpayers, businesses, health-care providers, and patients.
Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute offers this commentary on a recent LA Times piece about the Veterans Health Administration:
The Obama administration sold — well, it pitched ObamaCare to the public with this promise: “It’s time we put the health of American families back in the hands of consumers – not the insurance industry.”
The Veterans Health Administration shows how incompetent the federal government is when it comes to making medicine a patient-centered enterprise. After decades of mistreating veterans, the VHA achieved some successes in the past decade or so, such as adopting electronic medical records and improving on some measures of quality. Yet serious deficiencies remain. Today’s Los Angeles Times reports that the VA’s disability system is a nightmare for soldiers and sailors disabled in combat.
Members of Samaritan Ministries and other health care sharing organizations are exempt from the individual mandate included in the new health care law, but we’ll be sharing some of the pain of increased taxes with all other Americans as the plan phases in. John Goodman details how it will feel in a post on his Health Policy Blog:
2010
- 10% tax on tanning salons
2011
- Tax on brand name drugs ($2.5 billion).
- Medicare cut $1 billion ($22 per senior/disabled)
- Medicare Advantage cut $2 billion ($195 per senior)
- Increase in tax on non-medical Health Savings Account withdrawals from 15% to 20%
- Over-the-counter drugs become taxable ($400 million)
2012
- Tax on brand name drugs increased to $3 billion.
- Medicare cut $5 billion ($112 per senior)
- Medicare Advantage cut $6 billion ($585 per senior)
- Tax on Over-the-counter drugs ($600 million)
2013
- Taxes on wage income rises from 1.45 to 2.35% (for singles earning more than $200,000 a year (families above $250,000).
- New tax on unearned investment income 3.8% (for singles earning more than $200,000 a year (families above $250,000).
- New taxes on wheelchairs and other medical devices (2.9%)
- Flexible Spending Account contributions limited to $2500 annually
- Floor for deductible medical expenses increased from 7.5% of AGI to 10%
- Medicare cut $9 billion ($201 per senior)
- Medicare Advantage cut $9 billion ($877 per senior)
- Tax on Over-the-counter drugs ($600 million)
2014
- Individual Mandate: fine: $95
- Employer Mandate: fine: $2,000 per-worker
- Medicare cut $13 billion ($290 per senior)
- Medicare Advantage cut $13 billion ($1,267 per senior)
- Tax on Over-the-counter drugs ($600 million)
- Tax on health insurers ($6.1 billion)
This is the text of a press release issued today (Monday, 3/22/10) by Samaritan Ministries in response to passage of the health care bill:
PEORIA, IL–Members of Samaritan Ministries International will be able to continue sharing medical needs as they have done for the past 15 years, thanks to an exemption to the individual mandate in the health care bill approved by the U.S. House on Sunday, James Lansberry said Monday.
Lansberry, vice president of Samaritan Ministries International, said the exemption for members of health care sharing ministries is intact in the bill now on the president’s desk.
“Members do not need to change anything they’re doing,” said Lansberry, who is also president of the Alliance of Health Care Sharing Ministries.
He said that the reconciliation bill passed by the House and now before the Senate “also has nothing in it that we can find that affects anything related to individual mandate exemptions.”
Most importantly, Lansberry said, “Nothing has changed with respect to God’s sovereignty.”
Neither, he added, has anything changed “with our ability to continue to operate.”
Samaritan Ministries is concerned, however, about the eventual impact of the health care bill on the United States over the long term.
“This is certainly a very dangerous thing for the health care industry and for Americans in general,” Lansberry said.
On the up side, though, “There are some things economically in there that may actually increase favorability toward cash patients. I think that’s going to be a positive effect for our members.”
Lansberry also stressed that once government subsidies for health insurance plans kick in and start funding abortion, Christian health care sharing ministries “will be the only pro-life option left for Christians.”
The Samaritan VP also encouraged members to pray in the coming days and months for God’s will to be done in the health care sector.
Samaritan Ministries is a health care needs-sharing organization founded in 1994. It includes more than 14,400 member households in all 50 states and around the world. For more information about SMI or to contact James Lansberry, call 1-888-726-4276, send e-mail to jlansberry@smchcn.net or info@healthcaresharing.org, or view www.samaritanministries.org.
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For interviews, contact Jeff Whittemore at 1-888-726-4276 or jwhittemore@smchcn.net or Mike Miller at 1-877-764-2426, Ext. 142, or mikemiller@smchcn.net.
Last night by a vote of 219-212 the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR3590, which was previously passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve. They passed the bill without amendment so it now goes to President Obama’s desk. He is expected to sign the bill on Tuesday.
The bill contains in individual mandate to purchase health insurance, but it also includes an exemption from the penalty for members of health care sharing ministries. We are thankful for this island of freedom that remains in the legislation for pro-life Christians, and encourage people of faith to seek out information on these ministries and consider joining.
The individual and employer mandates do not take effect until 2014.
We will have more information on the bill and how it affects our members up soon in the form of a press release.
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano on Fox News Channel’s recently shared some of his thoughts on pending health care legislation’s constitutionality.
Since proponents of the existing proposals are fond of using anecdotal evidence, this anecdote from the other side was interesting.
4. Is there anything in the Constitution that empowers Congress to regulate health care or get between patients and their physicians or empower bureaucrats to tell physicians how to practice medicine? In a word, NO. Here is a kinky example. Last week, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) collapsed in his apartment in Cliffside Park, N.J., a few miles south of the George Washington Bridge. When he called an ambulance and it arrived, he directed the driver to bring him to Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. That direction is today perfectly lawful. Under all three health care proposals (the Senate, House, and presidential versions), such a direction would be unlawful; as an ambulance would be forced to take a patient to the hospital closest to the patient; in Sen. Lautenberg’s case, a small community hospital a few blocks from his apartment. Sen. Lautenberg voted for the Senate proposal that would have denied him the free choice that probably saved his life. (Emphasis mine.)
The likelihood of unintended consequences–quite apart from the unfortunately intended consequences–in the massive health care legislation on the table is immense. This is just one example.
