Obamacare Is Even
Worse Than Critics Thought
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Washington Examiner
Editorial
September 22, 2010 |
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Much more has
been revealed about Obamacare since President
Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi pushed the
bill on Americans six months ago. (J. Scott
Applewhite/AP file)
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Six months ago,
President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rammed
Obamacare down the throats of an unwilling
American public. Half a year removed from the
unprecedented legislative chicanery and backroom
dealing that characterized the bill's passage,
we know much more about the bill than we did
then. A few of the revelations:
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» Obamacare
won't decrease health care costs for the
government. According to Medicare's actuary, it
will increase costs. The same is likely to
happen for privately funded health care.
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As written, Obamacare
covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama's promise
that it wouldn't. This means that tax dollars will be
used to pay for a procedure millions of Americans across
the political spectrum view as immoral. Supposedly, the
Department of Health and Human Services will bar
abortion coverage with new regulations but these will
likely be tied up for years in litigation, and in the
end may not survive the court challenge. |
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Obamacare won't allow
employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage
they have and like. By Obama's estimates, as many as 69
percent of employees, 80 percent of small businesses,
and 64 percent of large businesses will be forced to
change coverage, probably to more expensive plans. |
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Obamacare will increase
insurance premiums -- in some places, it already has.
Insurers, suddenly forced to cover clients' children
until age 26, have little choice but to raise premiums,
and they attribute to Obamacare's mandates a 1 to 9
percent increase. Obama's only method of preventing
massive rate increases so far has been to threaten
insurers. |
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Obamacare will force
seasonal employers -- especially the ski and amusement
park industries -- to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay
off employees. |
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Obamacare forces states
to guarantee not only payment but also treatment for
indigent Medicaid patients. With many doctors now
refusing to take Medicaid (because they lose money doing
so), cash-strapped states could be sued and ordered to
increase reimbursement rates beyond their means. |
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Obamacare imposes a
huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business.
It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every
vendor from whom they make purchases of more than $600
in a year, with duplicate forms going to the Internal
Revenue Service. Like so much else in the 2,500-page
bill, our senators and representatives were apparently
unaware of this when they passed the measure. |
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Obamacare allows the
IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if you
do not purchase a qualified insurance plan. The bill
funds 16,000 new IRS agents to make sure Americans stay
in line. |
| If you
wonder why so many American voters are angry, and no
longer give Obama the benefit of the doubt on a variety
of issues, you need look no further than Obamacare,
whose birthday gift to America might just be a GOP
congressional majority. |