The Rethuglicans don't care about reducing the deficit, how can they when their very first vote in the House will be a vote to repeal the healthcare reform bill?! Repeal of the HC bill will ADD at least 230 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years, this is a CBO estimate which the GOP ignores. The GOP are still trying to convince you the people want them to repeal the HC bill, amazing since Americans love the new provisions like keeping their kids on their plans til age 26, not being dropped from coverage should you get sick, no denying coverage because of preexisting conditions, tax credits to small businesses that cover their employees.
From Salon...Republicans on the healthcare repeal warpath might want to take a hard look at a recent Los Angeles Times article reporting a surprising -- to the insurers -- uptick in the number of small businesses offering health insurance to their employees. The businesses are taking advantage of a tax break in the Affordable Care Act that is designed specifically for enterprises with fewer than 25 employees and moderate pay scales.
"We certainly did not expect to see this in this economy," said Gary Claxton, who oversees an annualsurvey of employerhealth plans for the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. "It's surprising."
... In the six months after the law was signed in March, UnitedHealth Group Inc., the country's largest insurer, added 75,000 new customers who work for companies with fewer than 50 employees. The Minnesota company called the increase notable but declined to reveal further details.
Coventry Health Care Inc., an insurer in Maryland that focuses on small businesses, signed contracts to cover 115,000 new workers in the first nine months of this year, an 8 percent jump.
In California, Warner Pacific Insurance Services in Westlake Village, a major servicer of insurance brokers, has seen business grow more than 10 percent this year, a company executive said.
And Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest insurer in the Kansas City, Mo., area, is reporting a 58 percent jump in the number of small businesses buying insurance since April, the first full month after the legislation was signed into law.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned on Tuesday that repeal of the health-care overhaul law would not only add to the deficit but would also bring back the "worst abuses of the insurance industry." Her remarks came in a telephone press conference with regional reporters in response to a potential early vote by House Republicans to scrap the landmark Affordable Care Act. She said the agency would send Congress a letter on Wednesday showing how Americans are adapting to the first steps taken to carry out the law. She expressed confidence that the law would prevail because she says Americans are now seeing its benefits. She suggested that Republicans needed to have conversations with their constituents to appreciate those benefits. Republicans have argued that Congress overstepped its powers by enacting the law, and that the law itself would add to the deficit. In Washington, incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor defended the GOP's upcoming effort to repeal the health-care law, reported the Washington Post, saying, "The American people are expecting quick action from the Republican majority." Sebelius said legal challenges are likely to end in a series of "mixed rulings" over years. She added that two key rulings so far have sided with the law. Another took issue with one provision, the insurance mandate, but did not call for a complete dismantling of the law. She said the Congressional Budget Office's study found that the law would save $1 trillion, adding that the number refutes GOP arguments that the law would add to the deficit. "There is no question that repeal would be a huge step backward that we can't afford," she said. She said her agency would distribute state-by-state data on how the law has benefited individuals, families, seniors and small businesses. She says the data would "show what will happen if Republican leaders in Congress got their way and the law was repealed." She singled out Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City as an example of how the new law had brought relief to businesses and workers. The insurer, she said, had already enrolled more than 9,000 new members who are insured through 400 employers. About one-third of the new members didn't have In her home state of Kansas, she said, 50 employers and unions have been able to maintain health coverage for early retirees because of the act's early retiree reinsurance program. "If repeal succeeds, it would put care for those retirees in serious jeopardy," she said. She said repeal also would mean 16,000 young Kansans would lose health insurance under their parents' "We know that countless people would continue to see their premiums rise without new rules that now limit the amount of health-care premium dollars that insurers can spend on administrative costs, like marketing and CEO salaries," she says. She added that 30,000 seniors in Kansas had received $250 checks to cover the so-called doughnut hole in prescription "Repeal would take tax credits away from 4 million small businesses," she said, adding that "what's happening in Kansas we can see replicated across the country. We can't afford to take benefits away from families, to bring back all of the worst practices of the insurance industry, to deny coverage to 32 million and add a trillion to the deficit by the end of the next decade." She said Republicans needed to look at the evidence that "reforms are working for millions of Americans." She said HHS would continue carrying out the law and added, "What we intend to do is focus on continuing to implement the law effectively, improving it where we can." Also on Tuesday, the Small Business Majority released a poll showing that the health-reform law would make most of them more likely to provide health insurance for their workers. The organization, a national nonprofit advocacy group for small businesses, said the survey included 619 business owners with fewer than 50 workers. It said 33 percent of businesses that don't offer insurance said they'd be more likely to do so because of the tax credits. To qualify for the credits, the businesses must have fewer than 25 workers whose average annual wages must be under $50,000. The law allows small businesses to get tax credits of up to 35 percent of their health insurance costs, beginning in the 2010 tax year. "These findings are very encouraging," said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority. The poll found that only 31 percent of small business owners were familiar with the insurance exchanges. Insurance exchanges, which go into effect in 2014, will allow small businesses and individuals to band together to buy insurance. Among the survey's other findings:
|
