Speaker Nancy Pelosi just unveiled the House Democrats' health care bill, which is 1,990 pages (PDF here). You'll forgive me if I haven't yet read all of it, but the clear takeaway is that as expected, the bill is to the left of the Senate version. It includes a mandate that forces individuals to purchase insurance or pay a tax, as well as a requirement that employers provide insurance or pay a tax. It also creates government-run insurance exchanges on which a government-run plan would be offered alongside privately-administered plans that would be subject to heavier government regulation.
Pelosi said that the bill would cost less than $900 billion over 10 years, wouldn't add to the deficit, and would expand coverage to 36 million who do not have health insurance. The problem with the $900 billion estimate is that it doesn't include over $200 billion in costs for a so called "doc fix" which was included in the initial bill that was priced at over $1 trillion. Instead, as the Senate tried to do, the House will move separate legislation to prevent scheduled cuts to doctors' payments under Medicare.
Scanning through the bill, I noticed that the bill would add a new section to the federal tax code: "PART VIII:HEALTH CARE RELATED TAXES." Among the new taxes are penalties for individuals who don't purchase insurance and employers who don't provide insurance, income tax surcharges of up to 5.6% to those earning more than $1 million, and a 2.5% excise tax on medical devices.
Will provide updates as I read through the bill.
Pingback| 10.29.09 @ 12:10PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Pelosi Drops 1,990 Page links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Trick-Or-Treat? Pelosi Unveils 1,990 Page Halloween Health Care Bill | PoliJAM Blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Pelosi Drops 1990 Page … PV online links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Dan| 10.29.09 @ 2:05PM
Just thumbing through it, I didn't see if "Botox" was covered?
Pingback| 10.29.09 @ 2:24PM
The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Pelosi Drops 1990 Page … | My Health and Lifest links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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A Rush To Dissect The House Bill – Blog Watch links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Bill Owens: Move Health Care “As Rapidly As Possible” - BrianFaughnan’s blog - RedSt links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Bill Owens: Move Health Care “As Rapidly As Possible” - BrianFaughnan’s blog - RedSt links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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House Rolls Out "Health Care" Bill - INGunOwners links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Fun Facts About Pelosi’s 1,990-Page Health-Care Hodge-Podge | The Latest Conservative links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
mrpeabody| 10.29.09 @ 7:13PM
How do I read this POS??? The PDF is just a bunch of jibberish. Maybe Nancy P will mail me a copy?
eternalboomer| 10.29.09 @ 10:50PM
Has anyone tried to read this dribble? - what a crock of Sh-t. Wake the f--k up America. We are being taken to the cleaners.
Pingback| 10.30.09 @ 2:17AM
1990 Page Health Care Bill « The Taluto Report links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Nick| 10.30.09 @ 10:34AM
At 1990 pages, that comes out to $500+ million a page!
John| 11.1.09 @ 12:23AM
Wow, If you wonder if the why the radio pundits are barking fowl, read this. Folks if you think its bad now, hold on if this passes.
Download this and read it, 1990 pages, at least scan it.
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