Tom Perriello: The facts on health-care reform
Column by Tom Perriello
www.house.gov/perriello
One of the top concerns of working families and small businesses in the Fifth District is the skyrocketing cost of health care and the lack of access to quality, affordable care. Over the past 15 months, I have heard countless stories from Virginians about their struggles with the current health care system. Small business owners tell me they have to choose between insuring their workers or laying people off. Self-employed workers talk about their premiums have jumped 20% in just one year. Individuals with pre-existing conditions like diabetes say they can’t get health coverage. And the uninsured tell me stories—sometimes heart-breaking—about a disease that went unchecked or a trip to the emergency room after it was too late, all because they did not have health insurance.
Enough is enough. I will not stand by while Virginians put up with the abuses of the health insurance companies while they ration care and deny coverage. I believe every Virginian should have access to the same health care choices I receive as a Member of Congress, which is why I cast my vote in favor of historic health care reform legislation. This legislation will lower costs and improve care for 409,000 residents of the Fifth District, keep our hospitals from going bankrupt, and increase access to quality, affordable health care—all while reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion.
There has been so much misinformation about the health care bill, it’s hard to sort fact from fiction. Here are some facts about the health care reform legislation that you need to know:
1. Protects Medicare and closes the Part D “donut” hole for prescription drug coverage. This bill will extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by nine years. Currently, 12,500 Medicare beneficiaries in the Fifth District hit the Part D donut hole every year and are forced to pay the full cost of their prescription drugs. Under the bill, these beneficiaries will receive a $250 rebate in 2010, 50% discounts on brand name drugs beginning in 2011, and complete closure of the donut hole within a decade. A typical beneficiary who enters the donut hole will see savings of over $700 in 2011 and over $3,000 by 2020.
2. Provides tax credits for small businesses to obtain health insurance. Under the legislation, the small businesses with 100 employees or fewer will be able to join the health insurance exchange, benefiting from group rates and a greater choice of insurers. Small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $50,000 will qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. There are up to 15,200 small businesses in the Fifth District that could qualify for these credits.
3. Provides the largest middle-class tax cut for health care in history. For those who do not receive health care coverage through their employer, they will be able to purchase coverage at group rates through the new health insurance exchange. To make this insurance affordable, the legislation contains the largest middle-class tax cut for health care in history. For a family of four making $50,000, the average tax credit will be approximately $5,800. There are 183,000 households in the Fifth District that could qualify for these tax credits.
As well, this legislation reduces the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next twenty years and ensures that no federal funding can be used for abortion. The heads of major hospitals around the Fifth District—including Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital, Martinsville Memorial Hospital, Danville Regional Medical Center, and the University of Virginia Medical Center—have sent me letters in support of this legislation saying, “This legislation is critical to us and the patients we serve.” While this bill is not perfect, it is a major step forward to health care stability and security for Virginians and Americans. I cast my vote in favor of this bill knowing it is in the best interest of my constituents and our country.
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[...] Grayson (D-Kicking Ass) has gone on the offensive for the Democrats, and he has discussed with Tom Perriello (D-Taking Names) a new brand for Democrats — Congressmen with Guts. (I would add a few more to the list… [...]
What scare most of us what are the hidden things in this health care bill. As now we are hearing will be charge yearly on our investments. Students loans are even in it so why does that have an affect on health care?? Also,a concern did all the members really read the bill truely debate and understand it.
Goodbye Tom. You will definitely be a one term Congressman after this terrible choice you made. I think you know all too well that your constituents did NOT want this vote! But you arrogantly decided to shun them, and you will pay the price for it in November!
We passed a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it, but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also is exempt from it and hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke. Hmmm alrighty then……
This is just the start of socialism….we do not want to be force-fed this stuff…the demacrats will eventually break this country for which we live. The healthcare system doesn’t need an overhaul, it needs “tweaking” & “fine-tuning”. Just how scary does a “Government Run health plan” sound. Makes you not even want to go to bed at night. Just look what happened with the bailouts, we bailed out everyone EXCEPT the American people who really needed it. Yep, can’t wait for the next election, out go the demacrats for sure. If the American people would have voted on this bill, it would not have even been close, but without a doubt shot-down.
Hey Tom,
Is there or isn’t there a “public option” enacted Jan 2013? AND is “health insurance exchange” bound to be another disastrous derivatives market?
This is directly from THE RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2010 (HR4872) which passed last night:
Public Health Insurance Option.—a public plan (only available through the Health Insurance Exchange) with payment rates established by the Secretary. The public option would be required to offer basic, enhanced, and premium plans, and would be allowed to offer premium-plus plans. Payment rates for prescription drugs not covered by Medicare Part A or B will be covered by the public option at prices negotiated by the Secretary.
Page 207 (213 of 1347 in PDF reader)
Current Law
There is no federal public health insurance option that is currently available for the non-disabled population under age 65.
Medicare is an example of a federal public health insurance program for the aged and disabled. Under Medicare, Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) determine many parameters of the program including eligibility rules, financing (including determination of payroll taxes, and premiums), required benefits, payments to health care providers, and cost-sharing amounts.
Proposed Law
The provision would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) to provide for the offering of a public health insurance option through the Exchange starting Y1. The Secretary would be required to ensure that the public option provided choice, competition and stability of affordable, high quality coverage throughout the United States. The Secretary’s primary responsibility would be to create a low-cost plan without compromising quality or access to care.
The public option would only be available through the Health Insurance Exchange…
Page 244 (250)
Perriello is still smoking the good stuff. THere are a lot of hidden tax raises in the health bill which Democrats don’t like to tell the public.
For instance, on P. 88, – Chapter 2A-Medicare Tax, Sec. 1411, Imposition of Tax” we find:
(1) Application to Individuals. – In the case of an individual, there is HEREBY IMPOSED (in addition to any other tax IMPOSED by this subtitle) for each taxable year a tax equal to 3.8 percent of the lesser of -
(A) net investment income for such taxable year, or
(B) the excess (if any) of – (i) the modified adjusted gross income for such taxable year, over
(ii) the threshold amount.
(2): Application to Estates and Trusts -
In the case of an estate or trust, there is hereby imposed (in addition to any other tax imposed by this subtitle) for each taxable year a tax of 3.8 PERCENT, … ” yadda yadda yadda.
Besides being written in incomprehensible government bullshitese, this section means MORE TAXS, folks, including Estates, Trust funds, unearned income (distributions from mutual funds, etc), and it goes on and on.
From the Cardiovascular Group, the people who saved my life last year when I was dying from cardiac arrest, then pneumonia, and then brain seizures, comes the following letter:
“If implemented as propsoed, the 2010 Medicare regulations will force cardiology practices such as ours to reduce services that we can provide in our offices. If these rules are put into place, many cardiology patients will have to go to the hospital to obtain imaging services, rather than having the tests performed in the office to be interpreted by their cardiologist with the results provided quickly back to the patient. Medicare patients will have higher co-pays, and everyone will have longer wait times for tests and results. Many of these new rules are based on incorrect data that the government has used to generate revised reimbursement rates.”
I lose my health insurance/all other benefits except prorated vacation, from my company, next week, due to a lack of work and having to be reclassified as a parttime employee, not a fulltime one.
My medicines will run me a minimum of $500 a month, more likely $600 or more, all on a parttime work paycheck.
Thanks Pres. Obama and your lapdog, asskissing Rep. Perriello for destroying America. By the time the new Medicare “donut” closings take place in 2011, I could be forced to sell my house (my wife is disabled), live on Social Security that hardly would cover rent (forget about food), or stop taking my medicines and die (I have no life insurance anymore).
Yep, HOPE and CHANGE was a great slogan. Now all there is are DOPES and No Pocket Change, no work, overwhelmed hospitals, doctors leaving the practice, and illegal immigrants getting amnesty to further overwhelm our social services.
YES WE CAN. Another great slogan,. Should be “YES WE DID, FOOLED YOU and Brought Marxism to America by the ballot box.”
We have the best criminals in Congress that money can buy, and did.
WE’ll remember in November, Tom, especially you.
Thank you, Tom, for standing up for the rights of the unborn and assuring that all residents of the 5th have access to health insurance. I’ve been buying private insurance for years and having to pay taxes on it, since my employer won’t carry health insurance coverage. Now I’ll either get a tax deduction on buying a private plan, just like anyone else. Eight years of having control of all three levels of government, and the Republicans could never even figure that one out. And again, you stood up for the rights of all Virginians, at every level of life. That took guts. I know the Democrats, like Pelosi, wanted you to cave on your beliefs there, but you refused and made THEM back down. Kudos, my friend, you’ve got my vote and support in November.
Perriello is, at the very least, playing word games when he says “this legislation … ensures that no federal funding can be used for abortion.” If this is true, why is an executive order from Obama (saying there would be no funding for abortion) necessary?
Hey Phil Herup: I lose my health insurance next week, after having paid for it for 19 years. Now you’re going to pay for mine. Thanks, sucker.
Listen folks – OBAMA will always be wrong in what he does and doesn’t do…I wish everyone would understand that regaurdless of the tax credits or tax increases we needed reform! There is no right or wrong on this issue; if you have better ideas then what is presented PLEASE run for office but if all your going to do is complian and basically tear the US down the middle then YOU are part of the problem. Give it a CHANCE before you go all NAZI on the administration. I Pray for us all! GOD BLESS AMERICA!
To AW: Love your Root Beer. But seriously, I’d love to run for Congress but my health is running against me and winning. More importantly, you need a lot of money to run a good campaign and the Democrats are loaded with Mob money, union money (often the same thing), foreign money (Al Gore is the prime example), and money from the Hollyweird crowd.
Most of us are just working people, getting our hands duty keeping this country running, safe, and prosperous, at least until yesterday.
However, medical malpractice reform is badly needed. I suggest we call it “The Ambulance Chaser Prohibition Act.”
Perhaps we can reform some of the patent laws by extending patent expirations dates a couple years in return for the pharmaceutical companies lowering their prices on the highest priced drugs/most needed drugs. I had a copay of about $25 on drugs that cost $150-200, such as Lipitor, Plavix and Prevacid (full strength). When I lose my insurance next week due to a lack of work, I’ll be forced to pay the full price unless I can get some help (I now qualify for Medicare but really don’t want to take it unless I have too. My cardiologist gave me several weeks worth of samples to tie me over when my company switched insurance companies, but he ran out of them).
Right now Congress is so full of fools, crooks, communists, crazies, and tax-cheats (a separate class of crook), that many good people are dissuaded from running because of the cesspool that would have to be operating in. However, this is our challenge and it seems that individual Americans rise to the ocassion when their country needs them, so there is HOPE for the future.
My HOPE is that Obama is impeached and convicted of treason, along with Att. Gen. Eric Holder, that David Axelrod and the rest of the Chicago marxists get run over by a mob seeking free government cheese, that Hillary Clinton gets kidnapped by an African pygmy tribe who wants her to be their sex goddess, and that Nancy Pelosi’s face explodes, taking down Harry “The Thief” Reid with her. Okay, let’s throw in little Dickie Durbin, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Comrades Schakowsky & Woolsey, Harkin and Markey, in the fragmentation range. Hey Harkin, how about getting Pelosi’s ear out of your nose? (“California Dreaming”, folks).
Gotta stop eating cheese after midnight.
God Bless America because no one else is right now!
okay everyone, in case you haven’t read anything about the new bill (and assuming from some comments, some of you haven’t) if you like your health care, then you can keep it!!! this is not taking anything away from anyone!! this is giving the people who need healthcare coverage a chance to get it!! let’s all try to think of others and not just ourselves. there are millions of people in this country who are sick and get dropped from their insurance or can’t even get it because they are sick. what if it were you who were put in that situation??what if you or a friend or loved one were denied coverage because they got cancer or diabetes or any illness?? you would be singing a different tune.
@max friedman. you say you are losing your health insurance yet you are still against the reform but tell someone they are a sucker b/c they are going to be paying for yours? wow sounds hypocritical don’t you think? if i were you, i would be mad as hell and be thankful that someone is looking out for your well-being by getting this bill passed. there should be no shame in getting medicaid if you really need it.
MsScarlet: Obviously you haven’t read the part of the bill that raises taxes on everyone. If you have a retirement or just plain investment fund, you will be paying an additional 3.8% taxes on capital gains and distributions.
I forgot to mention that “medical devices” such as my defibrillator/pacemaker is also being taxed at about 3-4% (on the manufacturer who will pass the cost on to the hospital/doctor/patient/insurance company).
Death tax: back.
There are other taxes which you can find listed in various detailed articles on the internet, including http://www.freerepublic.com, American Thinker, etc.
I am mad as hell at the President and the Democrats for instituting a budgetbusting, economic shattering welfare program that will destroy our economy and keep my grandchildren in working debt for decades.
I’m mad that Obama lied but I would expect a marxist to lie, but I’m more angry at the American voters who believed his leftist crap. PT Barnum would be proud of them, and you. How about buying some real estate in Ward 8 or 9 in New Orleans? Have I got a deal for you.
By the way, Medicare Advantage is being cut by $500 BILLION dollars so people who have it now, and like it, are going to get hurt badly. You will have to pay more taxes to make up the difference and you are so blind that you don’t even see it.
If the new immigration amnesty plan goes thru, you’ll also be paying for every Jose, Chachita and Mario’s health, that of their multitudinous kids, their grandmothers, and every cousin who have come here illegally.
Go to any DC area hospital and you will see how overwhelmed they are with illegals seeking (and getting) medical treatment, but you and I are having to cover the tax-falls that this situation creates.
Now, if you are so stupid as to want this new healthcare fraud, then you can pay for me as I’m not working enough to
pay for it myself and keep a roof over my head.
By the way, my job involves saving the taxpayers of America tens of millions, hundreds of millions, and possibly billions of dollars in superfund waste site cleanup costs. I’m actually one of the most productive govt contractors around.
The return on my slashed salary is probably a positive 100-1,000 percent, depending on the case. If I don’t do my job well, you, the taxpayer loses. If I do it right, and I have for almost 18 years, then I save you a lot of money.
No job, no saving, more taxes for you. And in my opinion, you deserve all the taxes to pay that the govt can muster. Only when you look in your pocketbook and don’t find much CHANGE, will you understand the extent of your blind stupidity in supporting Obama and his merry marxists.
I’m tired of this holier-than-thou combativeness on the part of critics. This isn’t Marxist crap, this isn’t a government takeover.
We’re seeing acts of terrorism involved in this now. Those who are responsible for pushing this past debate and into the realm of terrorism-inducing hysteria need to look in the mirror and consider what they’re doing to our country.
Chris: The so-called acts of terrorism are, if real, acts of stupid people who need to be punished, including SEIU thugs who attacked Roy of the USA Numbers group last weekend.
We are not holier-than-thou. We have read lots of the bill and it is firstly, unintelligible. Nobody here can match the references up to policies, procedures, etc.
The tax raise references are there for all to see as I pointed out re P. 88-89 etc.
Even govt agencies have now conceded that the deficit will continue to grow for years and that no savings will help reduce it. Doctors are now limitiing how they will accept payments from their patients (i.e. not accepting insurance forms, only cash/check payments).
Slowly but surely you are going to see more and more stories from people who are now realizing the unintended consequences of this legislation.
I’ve been around the govt long enough to say that no bill is ever priced-out accurately. Add about 20-30% more on the initial pricing and then start from there. And no major entitlement program has ever seen a decrease in its outlays, only major, crippling tax-funded increases.
Among those who will be hit hardest will be retirees who receive “distributions” from mutual funds, etc. Go ahead and look up this in the bill, p. 88 for instance. Reportedly there are several hundred (I’ve heard up to 600) new taxes now in place or planned).
This is not the CHANGE I want and many people will soon be looking at Pres. Bush in a much better light. Reagan will be looked upon as godlike (He would have turned down a Godship rank).
Max. Seriously, buddy. Why not engage this on the merits of your own arguments instead of copypasta-ing a bunch of partisan hackery? Though, to be honest, your screeds only damage the credibility of real fiscal conservatives and people who’re looking to save the Republican Party from people like you. I mean, there’s too much outright lying and partisan wharrgarbl in what you’re spewing here- you don’t even seem to care, as long as you’re on the attack.
For instance, the capital gains taxes are going up- on people making over $250,000 a year. And they’re being pegged to 23.8%, which is still lower than the nominal tax bracket at $250,000 plus. That’s lower than it was under Clinton. That’s lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was President. Yet here you are, claiming it’ll go up for everyone, and coupling that with outlandish claims and outright lies.
You are entitled to your own opinions, sir, but you are not entitled to your own facts. The saddest thing in the world to see is someone trapped within their own narrow-minded scope of thinking, unable or unwilling to accept the truth. Again, all you’re doing is making real fiscal conservatives, libertarians, and independents queasy to support the Republican Party again, lest they be grouped in with people like you.
TO Phil: I’m not a Republican. Used to be a Democrat but that was long ago. Been an Independent the rest of the time and have cross-voted when I found a Democrat I liked, or trusted.
Re Capital-gains taxes on those making $250,000 (you forgot to mention that that is gross income, not adjusted income). Also remember that Biden and others kept lowering the income amount that this and other taxes would affect, mentioning $200,000 and $150,000.
Remember, Stalin, Mao and Ho, kept changing the amount of owned land needed to be classified as a “Kulak” so that after they first executed the largest landholders, they would lower the qualifications of the next group of Kulaks so that they could then eliminate them, and so on down the line.
Who is going to stop any changing of income levels downward for capital gains distribution taxes, Estate taxes, etc? Having been thru this re estate taxes, I can guarantee you that the rates of taxation are not going down, but probably up.
If you continue to attack the earnings of the shrinking middle class, you will end up with only the rich and only the poor, and no real tax-base inbetween
You still haven’t addressed the “medical devices” tax which is purely a money-raiser tax which hurts everyone.
Nor have you talked about the Govt taking over student loans from private banks. After the fiascos with Fannie and Freddie Mac, do you really want the govt screwing up student loans?
How about them Stimulus loans and TARP loans? The Govt can’t or won’t tell us where $500,000,000 are. How do you misplace or lose a half-a-billion-dollars? Tax-cheat Geitner isn’t talking but you would trust him with your money?
Read the healthcare bill and you will see that it is an encyclopedia of intended and unintended consequences which will (as Sean Hannity just said so eloquently) cause “irreparable harm to our country.”
Social Security is a disaster. Medicaid is a disaster and Medicare is a growing disaster. So was Section 8 housing. Ask anyone who has ever lived in a govt housing “project.”
I just got a second, parttime job in order to exist and NOT to go on the government dole though I have paid into Social Security, Medicaid, etc, all my life (and I am medically classified as disabled/handicapped). I carry my own weight but taxes are killing me, more so than my two heart attacks/cardiac arrest.
And, I can read what is in the healthcare bill.
Over the years that we’ve been hearing from Max Friedman here on AugustaFreePress.com, it’s hard to remember many instances of him referring to Democrats as anything other than Marxists or Maoists or Communists or related monikers. Now we’re told that he occasionally votes for Democrats. Interesting.
That’s called giving yourself cover. Bill O’Reilly uses the same MO. It doesn’t work for him, either.
The repeated references to Marxism, to Stalin, to Mao, in relation to Democrats is over the top. We can and will do without that nonsense in the future.
Health care reform is going to make a huge impact on people’s lives. You don’t understand just how many every day, good people, simply can’t afford health care with the current state of things.