How Will We Pay For The Health Care Plan?

Reality Check: Report Shows Health Care Reform Could Cost Upwards Of $1 Trillion

(CBS)  "How are we going to pay for that, Mr. President?" Sen. John McCain has asked.

That one question - how the nation really pays for health reform - just got a shocking wake up call. The Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, said Sen. Ted Kennedy's health care proposal could cost $1 trillion over 10 years and 36 million Americans would still be uninsured.

"It's a preliminary set of numbers," said Sen. Chris Dodd.

Democrats called the numbers inconclusive. Even the CBO called its own report incomplete. But the sheer magnitude of what Congress is considering is undeniable, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews.

"The news yesterday from the CBO is a turning point in the health-care debate," said Rep. Eric Cantor.

So what will health reform cost? The president has also estimated a $1 trillion - and he claims he can achieve reform without raising the deficit. The reality is - this means raising taxes. And where the president believes he can raise $267 billion, by limiting the tax deductions of high income wage earners -the reality is most of Congress opposes the idea.


"And if they're unwilling to do that, they're going to have to pick an option that has other political difficulties," said Jonathan Oberlander, an associate professor of Social Medicine at University of North Carolina. "So the question is which kind of poison do they want to drink."

The president has also outlined more than $600 billion worth of spending cuts, some of which cut Medicare payments to hospitals. Last month, the hospitals claimed at the White House they'd support billions in savings - but the reality, they now say, is they never meant cuts -that "payment cuts are not reform."

And so what's coming very soon is a dogfight over that trillion dollars. And every interest group that once promised compromise to achieve health care reform will be arguing someone else should go first.

[TerryNeese]

This plan is too expensive and not effective. Congress can lower the cost of healthcare and make it more attainable without costing the tax payers billions or trillions of dollars. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and one of the main reasons why people in this nation go uninsured. If we made it easier for small businesses to get health care, we would eliminate some of the problems of the uninsured. We need to allow small businesses to reach across state lines to foster competition between insurers, allow them to band together to spread risk and increase bargaining power, and allow them to purchase individually owned plans, like health savings accounts, for their employees using pretax dollars. These things will NOT cost the government a trillion dollars, but will still be extremely effective in solving the problem of skyrocketing prices of health care in the United States. At the NCPA, we are looking for alternatives to government run programs! www.familyissues.ncpa.org

Congress and the Obama Administration are pushing for health care reform that will move the US health care system closer to that of Canada or the UK. You can help stop a government takeover of health care from happening. Send a message to the White House and Congress by signing the ?Free Our Health Care Now? petition. Go to www.freeourhealthcarenow.com and sign the petition today!

[nearl451]

I heard this really great idea from Eddie Cantor today: Privatize insurance!!! This is the Republican answer.....continue down the path of what was wrong in the first place. Oh yeah and magically reduce costs.

IT IS ALREADY LARGELY PRIVATE MORON!! It would be laughable if the proposal weren't so pitiful.

Party of "NO" strikes again.

[babooph]

Not having the two lost wars would have already paid it,stopping them is a great start-Horses ...... Cheney saying" Reagan proved deficits do not matter" though will not cut it-getting rid of the massive insurance exec salaries & rip offs is another tactic.More will have to be done though.

[Ho_Luong_Tran]

When we talk about controlling healthcare costs, we have to remember that many reforms will ultimately save the government money.

Consider the IOM estimate of a $69 billion cost to the U.S. for patients? inability to communicate with their doctors or understand medical information. By spending money on language services to help patients understand their doctors, the U.S. Government will not only save us money in the long run, but will also take a step forward in terms of providing better care and preventing medical errors.

Dr. Ho Luong Tran
The Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (www.apiahf.org)

[dalelama1]

The libs on this site are real idiots---comparing paying federal taxes for a socialist medical system to paying state and local taxes for firemen, cops, and teachers etc...is comparing apples to oranges because if you don't like state and local taxes you can move to another state or locality...and you don't have to pay for cops, teachers, etc...twice which will be true under Nobama's plan if you decide to keep your private plan. Their dirty little secret is 36% of all USA income earners don't pay a nickel in federal taxes so they don't care how much it costs because their voters don't help carry the load. As the great Margaret Thatcher once said, "The problem with Socialism is you eventually run out of the other guy's money."

[mtoc]

you will pay for health care like rest of G8 with taxes based on income, and supplemental for items not covered. and every one must participate. if its good enough for the Legilators and senior civil servants(who get 'socialized' care) then its good for everybody!

[c_welborn]

Would most Americans sacrifice 15-20% of their disposable income (pro forma estimate of all-in tax increases to pay for the program) in order to ensure that all Americans have health insurance. That is doubtful in my opinion, especially when you consider that the reason for the lack of coverage in most cases is due to serial unemployment, negligence or being in the country with out appropriate documentation. There are always exceptions to these reasons, but this would constitute the majority of those without insurance.

[eyeswideoopen]

To understand how they expect to pay for it, you have to analyze the system itself. I can tell that you haven't really done that because if you had, you would know that this proposal is not really Obama's plan at all. It's just the next phase in the project for nationalized medical records and INTEGRATED genetics research with the practice of medicine that began in 1990.

Also, you assume that they actually intend to provide quality medical care for all who are covered. That's not the case. Remember, we have a profit-making health insurance and health care system. They are not touching the profit side of the business. Logically now... how would they reduce costs? It's a no brainer and it's provable when you do an analysis of the system they've been working on for nearly two decades... phase by phase.

[prof_s]

I'm an American living living and working in Germany where they already have an impressive national health care system. It works because the people believe in having a society which cares for everyone, not just the well to do. The question facing America isn't if or how a national health care system work can be established, but if America is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make it work. Personally, I don't think it can work in a country where it's every man, woman and child (let's not forget the neglected children) for themselves. "If America is the richest country in the world, why is it so many of us can't afford to live here?" Kevin Costner, Swing Vote.

[venkata4--2008]

Well Senator Kennedy's plan costs $ 1 trillion over next 10 years. Un just, totally unwarranted Iraq war is cost us more than that per year. And that war funded totally by borrowing. Thanks to Bush administration for $135 billions to richest.

Now for funding for this health insurance roll back tax cuts to richest and also introduce national sales tax of 2% which everybody has to pay. I know it is a very bitter pill to swallow but I am against republican way of barrow and spend.

[ctb4679]

How can we continue with the terrible system we have now? We are 37th in the world for quality of health care. Even the socialist health care in the UK and Canada, that the Republicans hate, result in healthier citizens than the US! Republicans want the insurance companies to continue to rape American business and citizens and health care providers to pay the insurance company profits. We have to change.

[dg441-2009]

Take away the free health care for all the prisoners.

[eroosevelt08]

Senator McCain should be working to accomplish the goal of insuring and improving the health of Americans instead of simply complaining about the President.

We could save trillions by cutting out the entire layer of middle managers in health care: the insurance companies.

[SugrDaddy]

"Reagen proved deficits don't matter" Richard Cheney.

[andylance1]

There needs to be a systemic reform of the entire health care system to save costs. We should examine the German system which includes paying for complementary medicine and acceptance of naturopathic medicine.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Allopathic medicine has fought all competetition for over eighty years. They publish bogus studies saying vitamins and herbs are worthless. All competition is a threat to their stranglehold on the current broken and too expensive system.

[NoBigGovt]

Obamacare is a nightmare. It is another step to get us to a single payer gov't run system which would be the end of quality healthcare in this nation. The lie about you being able to keep your existing plan is just that .. a lie. Your existing plan will not be able to compete with a gov't plan therefore the private insurance plans will dry up.

I need to ask an honest question to all the supporters of this....

Why would you give control of your healthcare to the same fools who have, just to name a few:

1.) run Social Security into the ground.... they stole the money
2.) run Medicare into the ground ... they stole the money
3.) run Medicaid into the ground ... they stole the money
4.) destroyed the housing market with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This is not about Republican vs. Democrat ... this is about liberty. Once they have their hooks into the healthcare system, there is nothing to stop them from prying into every aspect of your life under the lie of "cutting costs".

[cyberus-2009]

Of course, to make this work they are going to have to make it mandatory.

If you don't get medical insurance through your job already you have to buy into a basic plan, which if they treated it like car insurance would be issued through a "risk pool" system through the private insurance system rather than creating another entitlement like medicare/medicaid

[tazmjam]

Individual and employer-based health insurance is already based on a ?risk pool? philosophy. If you have a preexisting condition you?re too big a risk, if you?re a small business and one or two of your employees get seriously ill, the premiums go up and all the employees are put in a higher risk pool because the profit for that small group plan is no longer as great. If you?re a female of childbearing age you?re in a higher ?risk pool? because you may have children, which cuts into the insurance companies profits. If you are older and healthy you?re in a higher risk pool because the chances of you getting ill increases with age. Car insurance rates are not just based on your driving record; in some states they use your credit rating and where you live to help determine rates. Now a plan that would allow private insurance companies to bid on offering health insurance coverage to different regions of the country (for a specific length of time 1-2 years) with a set rate for everyone on the plan regardless of age, gender, or preexisting conditions, this might work. A large group of people could keep the cost down, and the region would have the buying power for the best rates just like very large companies. This might work, but not a risk pool...a risk pool would punish people based on age, gender, their health, where they live, their credit, etc... just so many things it boggles the mind. Also, for this plan to work, yes just like with car insurance everyone would have to have minimum coverage (at least catastrophic and wellness type insurance). That still leaves the issue of why people in the US are paying so much more for drugs, spiraling cost, hospital and insurance companies administrative waste, etc. to be addressed and dealt with.

[incog-nito]

America didn't have public education at one time, but now it does. It didn't have social security, but now it does. It didn't have Medicare, but now it does. And conservatives have opposed every step of the way, each time arguing that it "costs too much" or "not my problem".

America doesn't have universal health care, but it will. Conservatives will oppose it, but they will fail, like they always did. You can't stop progress.

[humptydumpty1]

The question CBS should ask is: Why does Congress think it makes economic, moral, ethical, societal or common sense to require the most responsible and productive Americans to foot the medical coverage and moral hazard bill for the most irresponsible, unproductive and/or destructive Americans?

When a convicted rapist ends up on a liver transplant list ahead, not of a member of Congress, heaven forbid, but ahead of some responsible and hard working American (perhaps one with five or six life saving, medical patents to her name), CBS will question how that could have ever happened.

Well, Congress is getting ready to pass a bill with that very impact built into it, but instead of readily comprehending that ridiculous fact, CBS is sooo friggin left wing that about all it can do is fail to comprehend how "we" will pay for medical care that will be so awful, inefficient and wasteful that nobody who understands how a Congress full of economic and moral nitwits usually pays for things (with borrowed and soon to be Zimbabwe like dollars) gives a rip how exactly it will further bankrupt an already bankrupt country.

[PacificGatePost]

While the Administration casts about for health care systems to emulate, it should note that Canada?s system isn?t as represented.

The reality is that Canada?s Medicare is breaking.
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/05/canadas-breaking-health-care-system.html

Obama and company should do their homework on Why people are dying while waiting for help North of the 49th parallel? Waiting a whole year+ for a major and critical operation is very common place.