The Hays Daily News, March 20, included a letter from Sen. Pat Roberts lamenting Friday’s second anniversary of the passage of Obamacare. One of the reasons he is working to repeal health care reform is that “the law…increases premiums for families by $2,100 a year.” I wondered, “Where does that figure come from?”
A quick search showed that same statement had also been made by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Sen. Mike Enzi, Sen. Mike Johans, and Sen. Orrin Hatch. They reference a letter from the Congressional Budget Office to Sen. Evan Bayh written when the Affordable Care Act was being debated. “Buried deep” on Page 5 is a table that indeed shows some family premiums going up; but only for a certain kind of family.
The Expected Premium Increase Before Accounting for Subsidies for a non-group family is listed as +10 to 13%. This is where the $2,100 figure comes from. However, the CBO expects this to be only about 17% of the public. These would be the people who can not get insurance through an employer. Most of us would be the Small Group, less than 50 employees (premiums +1 to -2%) or the Large Group, more than 50 employees (premiums 0 to -3%). The Senators are quoting a figure relating to one piece of the puzzle and telling us that this represents the whole puzzle.
Those figures come from the line labeled “Before Accounting for Subsidies”; you see, Obamacare will give those non-group families a subsidy to help pay for health insurance, if their income is less than 400% of the poverty line (this would effect families making less than $92,200 per year). After Accounting for Subsidies most of those families Sen. Roberts claimed would be getting hit with an increase of $2,100 will actually see a substantial premium reduction (-56 to -59%). I’m surprised Sen. Roberts didn’t see this figure; it is on the very next line.
Senator Roberts, two years ago you and your GOP colleagues argued in Congress to ration health care according to the patient’s wealth and to continue putting insurance company profits ahead of the customer’s health. You got out-voted.
Wednesday 21 March 2012
Sunday 4 March 2012
This time it is actually true! War on Religion
The follow-up to It's All True! War On Religion!
This time the letter contains actual truth.
Last week in the Readers Forum section of this paper a letter was published under the headline "Well Done". The letter decried the Obama administration's "war on religion" and extolled the work done on our behalf by our representatives in Congress; Pat Roberts, Jerry Moran and Tim Huelskamp. I trust that most of the readers picked up on the sarcasm; for you see, unlike some other letter writers, I deliberately wrote a letter where not a word was true.
If you have done your taxes for 2011, you know that the $800 tax credit you had in 2009 and 2010, called "Making Work Pay", disappeared in the pointless debt limit fight. When politicians, like our representatives, talk about the "failed stimulus", remember that legislation reduced your tax bill for two years but is gone now.
In fairness, I need to point out that this week Rep. Huelskamp voted for you to pay 2% less in FICA taxes in 2011 (the payroll tax holiday). Sen. Moran and Roberts voted "NO" and "Not Voting".
In 2008 we had a financial meltdown and a recession. In my original letter, I gave our representatives credit for figuring out to keep such a thing from ever happening again. The truth is, they have done nothing of the kind. In fact, they have obstructed other people's attempts to fix the problems by voting against legislation, threatening to nullify laws, and blocking Presidential appointments. "Well Done" is opposite of what we should say to our representatives in Congress.
The Feb. 13th letter , I mentioned a "war on religion", wherein Obama was going to force all women to take birth control pills, whether they wanted them or not. Did anyone really believe that? In reality, women will be able to follow whatever their religious beliefs are concerning contraceptives, regardless of health insurance regulations. There is no "war on religion"; have you heard of anyone doing time in Leavenworth because they are a Methodist?
This time it is all true.
Published in The Hays Daily News
You may have noticed a couple of places where I tried to inject humor in my monologue, but I did it without accusing any particular woman of being a slut and a prostitute.
This time the letter contains actual truth.
Last week in the Readers Forum section of this paper a letter was published under the headline "Well Done". The letter decried the Obama administration's "war on religion" and extolled the work done on our behalf by our representatives in Congress; Pat Roberts, Jerry Moran and Tim Huelskamp. I trust that most of the readers picked up on the sarcasm; for you see, unlike some other letter writers, I deliberately wrote a letter where not a word was true.
If you have done your taxes for 2011, you know that the $800 tax credit you had in 2009 and 2010, called "Making Work Pay", disappeared in the pointless debt limit fight. When politicians, like our representatives, talk about the "failed stimulus", remember that legislation reduced your tax bill for two years but is gone now.
In fairness, I need to point out that this week Rep. Huelskamp voted for you to pay 2% less in FICA taxes in 2011 (the payroll tax holiday). Sen. Moran and Roberts voted "NO" and "Not Voting".
In 2008 we had a financial meltdown and a recession. In my original letter, I gave our representatives credit for figuring out to keep such a thing from ever happening again. The truth is, they have done nothing of the kind. In fact, they have obstructed other people's attempts to fix the problems by voting against legislation, threatening to nullify laws, and blocking Presidential appointments. "Well Done" is opposite of what we should say to our representatives in Congress.
The Feb. 13th letter , I mentioned a "war on religion", wherein Obama was going to force all women to take birth control pills, whether they wanted them or not. Did anyone really believe that? In reality, women will be able to follow whatever their religious beliefs are concerning contraceptives, regardless of health insurance regulations. There is no "war on religion"; have you heard of anyone doing time in Leavenworth because they are a Methodist?
This time it is all true.
Published in The Hays Daily News
You may have noticed a couple of places where I tried to inject humor in my monologue, but I did it without accusing any particular woman of being a slut and a prostitute.
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