What kind of health insurance makes you pay premiums for three years before coverage begins?
ByAmericans who support ObummerCare won’t have any instant gratification if he’s successful in his government takeover of heatlhcare. They may be surprised to know taxes will increase immediately to pay for it, yet coverage won’t begin until 2013. Not to worry, though, Medicare cuts to seniors will happen immediately. We’ll have to hang grandma and grandpa out to dry long enough to provide coverage to their able bodied adult children.
Sixty years is how long Democrats say they’ve been pushing for legislation that provides health care access for all Americans. They’ll have to wait another three if President Obama gets a bill to sign this year.
Under the Democratic bills, federal tax credits to help make health insurance affordable for millions of low- and middle-income households won’t start flowing until 2013 — after the next presidential election. But Medicare cuts and a sizable chunk of the tax increases to pay for the overhaul kick in immediately.
The eat-your-vegetables-first approach is causing heartburn for some Democrats. Three years is a long time to wait for dessert, and opponents could capitalize on misgivings about the complex legislation to undo what would be a signature achievement for Obama.
Democrats publicly blame the delay on bureaucracy, they’re a little less forthcoming with the real reason for the delay.
Lawmakers use a 10-year accounting window to assess new programs. Starting the Medicare cuts and some of the taxes in the early years — and pushing the bulk of new spending into the latter years — helps keep the cost of the health care overhaul within Obama’s $900 billion limit. Bush used the same kind of maneuver to push the Medicare benefit through Congress.
The $900 billion limit is a bit of a lie, especially when it comes to the Baucus bill. The democrats couldn’t wait to announce the CBO’s prediction that the Baucus bill will help cut the deficit. But knowing those wily democrats we know there’s sure to be a catch – and there is! The Baucus bill isn’t really a bill at all. It’s only a summary. So the CBO score is only a guess at what they say is in the bill. There’s no legislative language for the CBO to score. But who care’s about those silly technicalities?
There is another reason why the CBO’s preliminary analysis should be taken with a grain of salt, though this one wasn’t mentioned in the report. Whatever the content of the Baucus bill once it is voted out of the finance committee, it will disappear into a legislative black hole as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and their key aides do what they did on the economic stimulus package back in February — huddle together behind closed doors to write the final bill, which will then be presented as a fait accompli in the form of a conference report. Everything else is mere sound and fury signifying nothing until Harry and Nancy do their thing in the dark.
In short, the CBO report is meaningless. Whatever passes is going to be extremely expensive. We’ll start paying for it immediately, but it conveniently won’t go into effect until after the 2012 presidential election. Chances are employers won’t start dropping employee health coverage until after the 2014 mid-term elections. And that’s when all the fun will really begin.
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