A White House Power Grab that Congress and America Doesn’t See

To achieve the goal of a universal, single-payer health system, the White House must secure the power it needs by amending the Social Security Act to transfer pivotal controls from Congress to the executive branch.  This transfer of power would ultimately give the President and the majority party, in this case the radical left Obama White House and Pelosi-Reid led progressive Democrats, the authority to frame and manipulate new policy, coverage options, and reimbursements, ultimately reshaping the future US health care system into a something unrecognizable in this country.

The deliberate setup for the White House power grab is built into the each of the health care bills and, if they fail, little-known twin bills called “MedPAC Reform of 2009” are waiting in the wings.  The bills, S.B. 1110 and H.R. 2718, craftily amend the Social Security Act and transfer the Medicare guideline and rule setting processes, from the legislative branch to the executive branch.  These bills offer cover to one another in case one doesn’t pass the House or Senate, respectively.  Remember, Democrats need to gain executive branch authority by amending the Social Security Act over Medicare regulations and physician fee schedules to transform the health care system in a single-payer, socialized system.

More importantly, Medicare’s regulations and physician fee schedules are the keystone to developing payer systems and reimbursement models across the entire health care industry.  And where Medicare goes, insurers follow.

To underscore the far-reaching power, a bulk of the states already reference or utilize the Medicare guidelines and fee schedules in determining policy, coverage, and payment, which impacts certain state-specific plans, including, but not limited to, self-funded plans, automobile insurance payers, and state workers’ compensation funds and plans – affecting even Big Labor.   For the executive branch to have such authority over Medicare regulations with little oversight is alarming.  This raises further issues of the powerful impact these federal mandates could potentially have on the states in stripping them of their own management of their respective insurance industries.

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Tags: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, government health care, government rationing, government takeover, Health Care Financing Administration
Posted Dec 8th 2009 at 6:31 pm in Big Labor, Congress, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 43214146 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sahiller/2009/12/08/a-white-house-power-grab-that-congress-and-america-doesnt-see/A+White+House+Power+Grab+that+Congress+and+America+Doesn%27t+See2009-12-09+01%3A31%3A38SusanAnne+++Hiller

HHS Chief Actuary on ObamaCare: Total Health Care Spending Will Go Up, Not Down

Richard Foster, Chief Actuary for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, released this week to several Congressional offices a financial analysis of HR 3200, the House version of ObamaCare. He reached some inconvenient conclusions for President Obama and Congressional Leadership:

-“Total national health expenditures under this bill would increase by an estimated 2.7 percent in 2019…”

 -“The additional demand for health services could be difficult to meet initially with existing health provider resources and could lead to price increases, cost-shifting, and/or changes in providers’ willingness to treat patients with low-reimbursement health coverage.”

-More than half of the expansion in coverage (18 million out of 34 million) would be from increased Medicaid coverage.

-12 million people would lose employer-sponsored coverage.

-The productivity adjustments to Medicare are “unrealistic” and providers “might end their participation” because the cuts would make serving Medicare beneficiaries unprofitable.

-Medicare Advantage enrollment would decrease by 64 percent (from a projected level of 13.2 million to 4.7 million under the proposal).

As of today, HHS still hadn’t published the analysis on their website, even though it was written by its own staff. We have a feeling it may never find a home there. So, we’ve brought it to you directly. Full financial analysis below.  

CMS OACT – Memo on Financial Impact of H R 3200 09-10-21 –

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Tags: actuary, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, employer converage, health care spending, HHS
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 1:31 pm in Exclusives, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 2028236 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2009/10/23/hhs-chief-actuary-on-obamacare-total-health-care-spending-will-go-up-not-down/HHS+Chief+Actuary+on+ObamaCare%3A+Total+Health+Care+Spending+Will+Go+Up%2C+Not+Down2009-10-23+20%3A31%3A49Capitol++Confidential