Leaked White House Memo Advises Democrats on How to Spin Obamacare. WS. They understand what needs to be done with the $2.5 trillion law.
The truth is that Obamacare cannot be improved. It can only be repealed. It was passed as “comprehensive legislation,” and it must be repealed comprehensively.
Dems retreat on health care cost pitch. Politico. They can see where this is headed.
Not content at how miserably failing their straight partisan healthcare reform legislation is sitting with all of the American public, the Democrats are in retreat and re-strategize mode now. People are angry about their legislation, and how it will negatively affect them. Directly and indirectly.
They had a conference call in which a Power Point presentation was given on how to sell Obamacare. The thrust was the personal story, do not over sell, and repeatedly claim a need to improve the bill. Instead of repeal, which is largely sitting on many a taxpayer’s minds now.
Research Findings – Implementing Health Reform: A communications perspective. Lake Research Partners, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, and The Herndon Alliance.
Use personal stories — coupled with clear, simple descriptions of how the law benefits people at the individual level — to convey critical benefits of reform.
Don’t: say the law will reduce costs or deficit.
Alas, admission the plus trillion dollar law is mighty expensive and budget busting.
Obamacare Only Looks Worse Upon Further Review: Kevin Hassett at Bloomberg Businessweek cuts to the chase. A massive increase in new bureaucratic programs and systems in healthcare that cannot be challenged, including patient care models for cost control. You know, those that ration care based on costs.
Based on the administration’s own numbers, as many as 117 million people might have to change their health plans by 2013 as their employer-provided coverage loses its grandfathered status and becomes subject to the new Obamacare mandates.
Those mandates also might make your health care more expensive. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that premiums for a small number of families who buy their insurance privately will rise by as much as $2,100.
The central Obamacare mechanism for increasing insurance coverage is an expansion of the Medicaid program. Of the 30 million new people covered, 16 million will be enrolled in Medicaid. And you could end up in the program whether you want it or not. The bill states that people who apply for coverage through the new exchanges or who apply for premium-subsidy credits will automatically be enrolled in Medicaid if they qualify.
But there is more. More will get pinched or punched, depending on the cisumstances. The elderly, those with upper end health insurance plans, and more taxes on investment income.
To pay for this expansion, the bill takes $529 billion from Medicare, with roughly 39 percent of the cut coming from the Medicare Advantage program. This represents a large transfer of resources, sacrificing the care of the elderly in order to increase the Medicaid rolls.
For all this supposed reform, you, the American taxpayer, can expect a bill to the tune of $569 billion.
Front and center among the new taxes is the 40 percent excise tax on those lucky people with so-called Cadillac health plans. The higher insurance costs that are driven by the government mandates will push many more ordinary plans into Cadillac territory.
If the idea of taxing people with coverage deemed too good doesn’t bother you, maybe the new 3.8 percent tax on investment income will. That will apply even to a small number of home sales, those that generate $250,000 in profit for an individual or $500,000 for a married couple.
Oh yeah, let’s not forget. Health care law’s massive, hidden tax change. CNN Money. The one where all businesses small and large will now be overburdened by having to submit 1099 tax forms for all purchases of goods and services more than $600 per year to the IRS. Businesses make routine purchases over multiple accounts. Now they will have to take time and effort to further document and submit paperwork. And pass the cost on to you, the consumer. A business never takes the hit all the time. They will find ways to maintain their profit line at the expense of the consumer.
So there you have it. The reality of Obamacare. Care to believe the Democrat’s spin? Or the facts as laid out by Businessweek and CNN Money, based on Congressional Budget reports and the IRS?
See:
- http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/leaked-white-house-memo-advises-democrats-how-spin-obamacare
- http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41271.html
- http://www.politico.com/static/PPM153_pp.html
- http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-01/obamacare-only-looks-worse-upon-further-review-kevin-hassett.html
- http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/smallbusiness/1099_health_care_tax_change/
