Reuters: House Releases Healthcare Overhaul Bill

[flpoljunkie]

House Releases Healthcare Overhaul Bill
Reuters

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 3:54 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The healthcare overhaul proposal offered on Tuesday by U.S. House of Representatives' Democrats will include an extra 5.4 percent tax on those earning more than $1 million.

One congressional aide said that would bring the top tax rate for the wealthy to 45 percent.

The 1,000-page healthcare legislation will be considered by three House committees with an aim to finish work in the House by August.

President Barack Obama, who has made the healthcare overhaul his signature domestic policy issue, voiced his support for the proposal and said it would help control skyrocketing costs that have reached $2.5 trillion a year.

The legislation calls for an additional tax of 1 percent levied on those couples earning more than $350,000. Those with $500,000 in income would pay an extra 1.5 percent, according to the legislative documents. Increases could be triggered in 2013 to 2.0 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively. The millionaires' tax would remain at 5.4 percent, according to legislative documents.

The additional taxes would bring in $544 billion over 10 years to pay for the estimated $1 trillion cost of the healthcare overhaul, including bringing coverage to the estimated 45 million uninsured.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071402524.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. "The cornerstone of the plan is a public-financed health insurance option..."

"The cornerstone of the plan is a public-financed health insurance option that would compete with private insurers. The legislation includes subsidies to help people buy insurance, and requires all individuals to purchase insurance or face a tax penalty."


EDIT: Depends on just how awesome the subsidies are, of course, but it sounds good in summary.

[flpoljunkie]

3. Yes. We need to push for the House plan with a strong public option.

[Oregone]

15. The proposed subsidies are pretty awesome--they are the best part of the plan IMO

If I read correctly, those in the Exchange will only pay 1.5% to 10% of income up to households making $88K. Now, how they will make the rich bastards actually vote to pass this...no idea. :)

[JayMusgrove]

2. Well, now we have something to study up on, and get to know.

Hopefully we can launch some efforts to convince over 60 Senators to vote for it before fall.

Be ready for the Republican dog and pony show, claiming it's too costly, and then trying to get more big tax breaks for the rich again.

[Better Believe It]

7. We need 51 votes, not 60 in the Senate to pass it.

[flpoljunkie]

8. CNBC's Maria Bartiromo insisting to John Harwood this would make top tax rate 60-65%.

Harwood disagreed, but the greedy Bartiromo would have none of it. The top tax rate will be 46%--after Bush's tax cut for the top rate expires at the end of 2010. That's 39.6% plus the 5.4% surcharge. And, of course, that is only on the margins--not for every dollar of income, but the greedheads won't tell you that. The effective tax rate will be well below 46%.

As for capital gains tax, Obama has said families with incomes below $250,000 would pay current capital gains rates (a maximum tax of 15% on gains on assets held more than one year). Those earning more than $250,000 would face an increase -- a top rate of 20%.

[backscatter712]

4. EAT THE RICH!!! The funding comes from the right place for this bill... n/t

[RepublicanElephant]

5. wait 'til senate repubs and dinos turn this into another tax cut for the rich. nt

!

[Cant trust em]

11. Yep. This is going to get bloody. nt

[BlueJazz]

6. "Be ready for the Republican dog and pony show"

Ain't that the truth.
The Replugs will be screaming like Hogs and lying about the whole proposal.

See..See!..Obama is raising Taxes on your hard earned money.

Fucks News: "Obama wants to raise Taxes on every hard-working taxpayer to pay for increases in Rich Doctors"

:) :)

[Better Believe It]

9. When will the public option kick in for all individuals and employers?

January 1, 2010?

"The legislation would set up a new government-run health insurance program to compete with private coverage. The plan's payments to medical providers such as hospitals and doctors would be keyed to the rates paid by Medicare, which are lower than what private insurers pay.

Eventually, all individuals and employers would be offered the option of joining the public plan. The insurance industry says that would drive many private insurers out of business."


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlMpJGn28kqCcgU-aGcYE_ZHW-ywD99EDET80

And if anyone can find a link to the text of the legislation please post it!

[jefferson_dem]

10. Ezra Klein's first glance here -

...

The Process Is the Message: Three separate committees -- Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor -- have come together on one bill. This is an incredible achievement. If you read histories of the 1994 health-care reform fight, all of them have a substantial section on the committee crack-up: One passed a version of single-payer, another a variant of Bill Clinton's reform, another went further to the right. There was no unity.

There is unity now. And if it holds -- if the House of Representatives manages to pass this plan with a substantial majority of enthusiastic Democrats -- that significantly strengthens the House's hand in its eventual negotiations with the more fractious Senate. That's a big "if." But so too would have been the idea that three separate committees could cooperate on a bill of this size.

The Public Plan: You can download a summary sheet here. The public plan -- which is really three, or maybe four, insurance plans -- pays Medicare rates for the first three years and then begins negotiating on its own. It is open to anyone with access to the Health Insurance Exchange.

The Benefit Packages: This is why I say there could be three, even four, public plans. Within the Health Insurance Exchange, the basic plan that everyone needs to offer is, well, the "basic plan." On first glance, it's pretty comprehensive: It has to be equal in value to the prevailing employer-based insurance in the area. Cost-sharing cannot exceed $5,000 for individuals or $10,000 for families in the first year (it can then grow by the rate of inflation each year after that). It is heavily regulated. And then there is an "enhanced" plan above it, with less cost-sharing, and then a "premium" plan above that, with even less cost sharing, and then a "premium-plus" plan above that. Of these, only the "premium-plus" plan can vary in benefits, as opposed to vary in cost-sharing. The public plan can offer all levels of plan.

<SNIP>

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/07/the_house_releases_its_health-.html

[flpoljunkie]

12. Thanks!

[flpoljunkie]

13. Ezra also has the CBO score on the Tri-Com bill, minus the plans' revenue measures, of course!

The Tri-Com Bill Gets Scored

The Congressional Budget Office's score for the new House bill is out as well. (Boy, did my afternoon just get busy.) The quick version is it's projected to carry a net cost of $1 trillion over 10 years and cover 97 percent of the country's legal residents. The CBO score does not include the plan's revenue measures, so it's unclear, at this point, whether the cost is full or partially offset by the surtax, the Medicare and Medicaid savings, the employer and individual mandate, and the assorted other funding streams.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/07/the_tri-com_bill_gets_scored.html

[flpoljunkie]

14. Cost-sharing cannot exceed $5,000 for individuals or $10,000 for families in the first year

Families are subsidized up to 400% of poverty--$88,200. Does this mean this family of four earning $88,200 AGI will have to pay no more than $10,000 or the total cost of their plan cannot exceed $10,000--with the government's share of the $10,000 included.

If it's the former, that, to me, seems unaffordable for these families.

[flpoljunkie]

16. Family with 88,200 AGI will be paying no more than 11% in premiums. That's $9,702 yearly.

Insurance companies must be very pleased with this bill.

The House bill has subsidies up to 400 percent of poverty, which is equal to $43,320 for an individual and $88,200 for a family of four. At the bottom end -- 133 percent if income, as below that, you're eligible for Medicaid -- the subsidies limit your health premiums to 1.5 percent of income. At the top end -- 400 percent -- it's no more than 11 percent of income. Speaking of the out-of-pocket cap, all of the benefit packages -- from the "basic" plan on upward -- cap total costs for members. So if you're not eligible for subsidies, you're still going to be protected from catastrophic health-care costs.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/07/the_house_releases_its_health-.html

[chill_wind]

17. K & R.