From the Wall Street Journal

Meet the unelected body that will dictate future medical decisions.

As usual, the most dangerous parts of ObamaCare aren’t receiving the scrutiny they deserve—and one of the least examined is a new commission to tell Congress how to control health spending. Democrats are quietly attempting to impose a “global budget” on Medicare, with radical implications for U.S. medicine.

Like most of Europe, the various health bills stipulate that Congress will arbitrarily decide how much to spend on health care for seniors every year—and then invest an unelected board with extraordinary powers to dictate what is covered and how it will be paid for. White House budget director Peter Orszag calls this Medicare commission “critical to our fiscal future” and “one of the most potent reforms.”

As envisioned by the Senate Finance Committee, the commission—all 15 members appointed by the President—would have to meet certain budget targets each year. Starting in 2015, Medicare could not grow more rapidly on a per capita basis than by a measure of inflation. After 2019, it could only grow at the same rate as GDP, plus one percentage point.

The theory is to let technocrats set Medicare payments free from political pressure, as with the military base closing commissions. But that process presented recommendations to Congress for an up-or-down vote. Here, the commission’s decisions would go into effect automatically if Congress couldn’t agree within six months on different cuts that met the same target. The board’s decisions would not be subject to ordinary notice-and-comment rule-making, or even judicial review.

Yet if the goal really is political insulation, then the Medicare Commission is off to a bad start. To avoid a senior revolt, Finance Chairman Max Baucus decided to bar his creation from reducing benefits or raising the eligibility age, which meant that it could only cut costs by tightening Medicare price controls on doctors and hospitals. Doctors and hospitals, naturally, were furious.

Read the rest of the column

From Fox News

Last Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi begged, cajoled, and threatened health care legislation to a successful vote in her chamber, albeit by a razor thin margin of 220-215. The administration and House leadership touted this as a landmark vote, which it is, but only if you ignore the fact that the bill achieves almost none of President Obama’s promised health reform goals. In fact, it is very likely to explode the deficit, drive up health care costs, and inflict massive new taxes on middle-class Americans.

Watching events unfold in Washington at first hand, it’s become clear that health reform has become the Democrats version of “Moby Dick,” as party leaders embrace the premise that they must pass something this year and declare victory, no matter how flawed the final product is. Unfortunately, they may sink the economy along the way.

If clearer heads prevailed, Congress would scrap these partisan bills and start over:

Both the House and Senate bills will cost well over $1 trillion over the next ten years. The CBO scores the Senate bill at $829 billion and the House bill at $1.055 trillion, but only because of the most transparent budget gimmicks. The Senate Budget Committee puts the fully-implemented price tag at roughly $2.5 trillion for the first decade – demolishing the president’s promise that reforms would not cost more than $900 billion.

The cost curve for spending gets bent…up. The CBO says spending in both bills rises at 8 percent annually as far as the eye can see and CMS actuary Richard Foster says that national health spending gets worse, not better. So much for the president’s repeated assurances that reform would slow the rate of health care inflation.

New entitlements plus cost growth equals taxes, and debt, debt, debt. The CBO only scores the bills as reducing the deficit because Democrats pretend that Medicare docs will get slashed by over 20 percent in two years. Reality says Congress will borrow about $240 billion for the “doc fix”. Democrats pretend they will cut over $400 billion out of Medicare through more vigorous price controls – cuts that will never live to see the light of day. Get ready for a bubble in health entitlement debt.

What isn’t borrowed in these plans is inflicted on drug companies, diagnostic companies, private health insurance companies, “Cadillac” health plans, and individuals and businesses that don’t buy government mandated coverage. These taxes and fees, roughly 90 percent of which fall on families making under $200,000 a year, must grow even faster (10 percent annually) to keep up with the new spending spree.

Private insurance: expensive or off-limits. Taxes, fees and ill-conceived insurance reforms raise the specter of double-digit premium inflation for the majority of Americans with insurance. Millions will find their policies don’t pass muster with the bill’s insurance czar, driving them to more costly policies. The rest? Fifteen million will be thrust into Medicaid as eligibility rises to 150 percent of poverty.

It’s not too late for moderates and conservatives in Congress to force Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to chart a safer, bipartisan course. Here are five fundamental, commonsense reforms that will cost less, improve health care quality, and expand coverage:

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From the Orange County Register

It’s too bad the health care overhaul that House Democrats narrowly approved last week isn’t a medical product. If it were, it would have to come with a warning label, Which could read something like this:

WARNINGS:

•This product will increase your health insurance premiums. Millions who are satisfied with their current, low-cost health plans would have to switch to more expensive plans, solely because Congress decided they weren’t buying enough coverage.

The legislation would increase premiums even further over time, as drug companies, chiropractors, acupuncturists, fertility specialists and other special interests lobby Congress to force you to purchase coverage for their services too.

•This product will reduce the quality of your health care. America’s health care sector is often inconvenient, poorly coordinated, and makes less use of information technology than your local supermarket. Research shows that medical errors kill as many as 100,000 Americans per year.

Markets would solve those problems, but government thwarts doctors and entrepreneurs who try to improve quality. Medicare – by far the largest purchaser of medical services in the world – actually penalizes doctors and hospitals that reduce medical errors.

The House bill would cement those deficiencies in place with yet another massive government program, and create new quality problems, like insurers skimping on care and customer service for the sickest patients.

•This product probably won’t make you healthier. The House bill would expand coverage, but at a steep cost and with zero evidence that doing so is a cost-effective way of improving health.

Little research supports the notion that broadly expanding insurance coverage makes people healthier. Medicare established near-universal coverage for the elderly, yet research shows that program didn’t save a single life in its first 10 years of operation. Whether it has had any subsequent impact on mortality rates – positive or negative – remains an open question.

•This product will make you poorer. The House bill contains at least $2 trillion in explicit and implicit taxes. Tax rates for wealthy Americans would rise to 45 percent, with an ever-expanding definition of “wealthy.” For the middle class, effective tax rates would average 60 percent to 70 percent and exceed 100 percent in some cases.

•This product will make your children poorer. Since the bill would actually increase the federal budget deficit, the tax burden would grow over time.

The bill purports to cut Medicare spending, but those cuts are not likely to happen. Want proof? At the same time House Democrats promise future spending cuts, they are gutting $210 billion of spending cuts promised by past Congresses.

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From Cleveland.com

Dr. Toby Cosgrove, the leader of the Obama-praised Cleveland Clinic, predicts that in the next four to five years Americans will demand another health reform bill because the proposals moving through Congress do little to control costs.

The House bill passed last weekend and two Senate proposals fail to make the health system more efficient, and do not do enough to help Americans get healthy, Cosgrove said during a speech at Jones Day law firm in downtown Cleveland Tuesday.

“Without controlling obesity, and without controlling smoking, and without dealing with wellness, it’s going to be very difficult for us to ever control the cost of health care in the United States, and the current bills do very little along those lines,” Cosgrove said.

President Barack Obama has made controlling health care costs a focus in his health reform efforts. He visited the Clinic in July before stopping for a rally at Shaker Heights High School as part of day-long effort to reinvigorate the national health care discussion .

The president has praised the Clinic, as well as the Mayo Clinic, as models of low-cost and high-quality care. The reference comes from statistics in the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care 2008, a report from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Policy, a research and educational institution in New Hampshire.

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From Investors Business Daily

Failure to buy health insurance in the just-passed health care bill could get you five years in jail with a $250,000 fine. How can violating a law that’s unconstitutional be a felony?

The passage last Saturday night of the House health care measure by a fragile 220-215 margin may well prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. In polls, townhall meetings and tea parties, Americans have shown they don’t want a “reform” that costs a staggering $1.2 trillion yet fails to meet the left’s desire of insuring all the uninsured.

And they certainly don’t want a bill that threatens them with incarceration if they don’t comply.

This monstrosity would raise insurance premiums and taxes to prohibitive levels and add unconscionably to the national debt.

It will force physicians to leave the medical profession in droves, exacerbating an already perilous doctor shortage. This and so-called cost controls will lead to rationing.

The mechanisms for deciding who gets what, if any, care — and even what care will be available — are already in place. Some, like a cost-effectiveness board, slipped into the failed stimulus bill.

Under sections 7201 and 7203 of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bill, Americans who don’t maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay a fine/tax of up to 2.5% of income are subject to fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

As Dave Camp, R-Mich., ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, observed, “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing — buy what we tell you or go to jail.”

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From the Washington Examiner

As the Senate prepares to vote on its version of health care legislation, one of the most contentious issues will be a provision requiring employers to provide insurance coverage.

With the jobless rate at 10.2 percent and expected to climb, penalties for employers who don’t offer insurance benefits will make it difficult for moderate Senate Democrats to support the plan.

While most big companies provide workers with health insurance, many smaller employers do not, and they would end up having to come up with the money to either buy coverage or pay a penalty.

“There is no question it will result in job loss and it will encourage employers not to hire employees,” said John Goodman, president of the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis.

In the Senate, Democratic leaders are considering a $750-per-worker tax on companies that employ more than 50 people but don’t offer benefits.

The House bill passed narrowly on Saturday night requires employers to pay a tax of 8 percent of total payroll if they do not provide health care coverage that meets federal standards. The House bill requires companies to pay 72.5 percent of a single worker’s health care premiums and 65 percent of a family’s coverage.

Goodman called the proposal “a huge tax on labor,” especially if it is coupled with the 2.5 percent income tax that would be levied on an individual who went without coverage under the House bill.

The House bill would also assess a graduated payroll tax beginning at 2 percent for companies earning $500,000 annually and rising to 6 percent for those making between $670,000 and $750,000 per year.

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From OneNewsNow

National Right to Life is warning that pro-abortion Democrats will fight tooth and nail to get a prohibition on federal funding of abortion ultimately removed from their healthcare bill. 

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida), the Democrats’ chief deputy whip in the House, said yesterday that she and other pro-abortion lawmakers would work to strip the Stupak amendment included in the House health bill that bars federal funding of abortions under the public health insurance option. (See earlier article)

Wasserman Schultz told MSNBC, “I am confident that when it comes back from the conference committee that the language won’t be there.”

 Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, says the fate of the abortion funding ban depends on what U.S. senators hear from their constituents.

“They’re going to be under enormous pressures from these well-funded, pro-abortion advocacy groups — and President Obama will certainly be trying to get abortion back in the bill,” Johnson warns.

 

“Remember, all along these people have been trying to pretend that abortion wasn’t in the bill — and now this is fleshed out into the open and there’s going to be a terrific battle about this,” he says. “And in the end, the outcome is going to depend upon what input senators are getting from their constituents.”

Over the weekend, Planned Parenthood sent out an alert asking people to contact the president to ask him to live up to his promise to have abortion in the new government healthcare plan. Although the American people heard President Obama tell a joint session of Congress in September that he did not want federal funding of abortion, he promised Planned Parenthood in 2007 that abortion funding would be in his healthcare plan.

From OneNewsNow

Monstrous and a defiance of the will of the American people – that’s how one pro-family group is describing the health bill that House Democrats pushed through Saturday night by a vote of 220 to 215.

The President of Concerned Women for America, Wendy Wright, says the bill will ration care and punish citizens who don’t have government-mandated insurance.

Wright declares ”this montrous bill” will erode the best health care system in the world.

According to Wright, “In exchange for insurance, we’ll lose access to proper health care. We’ll lose health care providers who will leave the profession.”

She says the bill would “create multiple bureaucracies that will control Americans’ health care, penalize Americans for not buying a product, fine Americans if a government agent decides their health care plan is not ‘government approved’ and may force Americans to buy government mandated insurance that funds objectionable procedures.”

Wright notes that although an amendment passed to bar federal funding of abortion, Democrat leaders refused to guarantee that it will be in the final bill.  According to Wright, “the vote on the amendment may have been a ruse to gain pro-life Democrats vote on the bill.”

Meanwhile, House Republican leader, John Boehner, also issued a statement condemning the bill.

He said “Americans want a common-sense approach to health care reform, not Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2,032-page government takeover that increases costs, adds to our skyrocketing debt, destroys jobs with tax hikes and new mandates, and cuts seniors’ Medicare benefits.”

Boehner noted that Republicans have offered an alternative health care reform package which offers lower costs and expands access to quality care-without adding to the “crushing debt Washington has placed on our children and grandchildren.”

From the Wall Street Journal

The health bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is bringing to a vote (H.R. 3962) is 1,990 pages. Here are some of the details you need to know.

What the government will require you to do:

• Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a “qualified plan.” If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a “grace period” to switch you to a “qualified plan,” meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there’s no grace period. You’ll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.

• Sec. 224 (p. 118) provides that 18 months after the bill becomes law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will decide what a “qualified plan” covers and how much you’ll be legally required to pay for it. That’s like a banker telling you to sign the loan agreement now, then filling in the interest rate and repayment terms 18 months later.

On Nov. 2, the Congressional Budget Office estimated what the plans will likely cost. An individual earning $44,000 before taxes who purchases his own insurance will have to pay a $5,300 premium and an estimated $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, for a total of $7,300 a year, which is 17% of his pre-tax income. A family earning $102,100 a year before taxes will have to pay a $15,000 premium plus an estimated $5,300 out-of-pocket, for a $20,300 total, or 20% of its pre-tax income. Individuals and families earning less than these amounts will be eligible for subsidies paid directly to their insurer.

• Sec. 303 (pp. 167-168) makes it clear that, although the “qualified plan” is not yet designed, it will be of the “one size fits all” variety. The bill claims to offer choice—basic, enhanced and premium levels—but the benefits are the same. Only the co-pays and deductibles differ. You will have to enroll in the same plan, whether the government is paying for it or you and your employer are footing the bill.

• Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) says that when you file your taxes, you must include proof that you are in a qualified plan. If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt from this requirement.

• Sec. 412 (p. 272) says that employers must provide a “qualified plan” for their employees and pay 72.5% of the cost, and a smaller share of family coverage, or incur an 8% payroll tax. Small businesses, with payrolls from $500,000 to $750,000, are fined less.

Eviscerating Medicare:

In addition to reducing future Medicare funding by an estimated $500 billion, the bill fundamentally changes how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals, permitting the government to dictate treatment decisions.

• Sec. 1302 (pp. 672-692) moves Medicare from a fee-for-service payment system, in which patients choose which doctors to see and doctors are paid for each service they provide, toward what’s called a “medical home.”

The medical home is this decade’s version of HMO-restrictions on care. A primary-care provider manages access to costly specialists and diagnostic tests for a flat monthly fee. The bill specifies that patients may have to settle for a nurse practitioner rather than a physician as the primary-care provider. Medical homes begin with demonstration projects, but the HHS secretary is authorized to “disseminate this approach rapidly on a national basis.”

A December 2008 Congressional Budget Office report noted that “medical homes” were likely to resemble the unpopular gatekeepers of 20 years ago if cost control was a priority.

• Sec. 1114 (pp. 391-393) replaces physicians with physician assistants in overseeing care for hospice patients.

• Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what it costs in the lowest cost regions of the country. This will reduce payments for care (and by implication the standard of care) for hospital patients in higher cost areas such as New York and Florida.

• Sec. 1161 (pp. 520-545) cuts payments to Medicare Advantage plans (used by 20% of seniors). Advantage plans have warned this will result in reductions in optional benefits such as vision and dental care.

• Sec. 1402 (p. 756) says that the results of comparative effectiveness research conducted by the government will be delivered to doctors electronically to guide their use of “medical items and services.”

Questionable Priorities:

While the bill will slash Medicare funding, it will also direct billions of dollars to numerous inner-city social work and diversity programs with vague standards of accountability.

• Sec. 399V (p. 1422) provides for grants to community “entities” with no required qualifications except having “documented community activity and experience with community healthcare workers” to “educate, guide, and provide experiential learning opportunities” aimed at drug abuse, poor nutrition, smoking and obesity. “Each community health worker program receiving funds under the grant will provide services in the cultural context most appropriate for the individual served by the program.”

These programs will “enhance the capacity of individuals to utilize health services and health related social services under Federal, State and local programs by assisting individuals in establishing eligibility . . . and in receiving services and other benefits” including transportation and translation services.

• Sec. 222 (p. 617) provides reimbursement for culturally and linguistically appropriate services. This program will train health-care workers to inform Medicare beneficiaries of their “right” to have an interpreter at all times and with no co-pays for language services.

• Secs. 2521 and 2533 (pp. 1379 and 1437) establishes racial and ethnic preferences in awarding grants for training nurses and creating secondary-school health science programs. For example, grants for nursing schools should “give preference to programs that provide for improving the diversity of new nurse graduates to reflect changes in the demographics of the patient population.” And secondary-school grants should go to schools “graduating students from disadvantaged backgrounds including racial and ethnic minorities.”

• Sec. 305 (p. 189) Provides for automatic Medicaid enrollment of newborns who do not otherwise have insurance.

For the text of the bill with page numbers, see www.defendyourhealthcare.us.

—Ms. McCaughey is chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former Lt. Governor of New York state.

From The Hill

As the suicidal Democratic congressmen proceed to rubber-stamp the Obama healthcare reform despite the drubbing their party took in the ’09 elections, the president trotted out the endorsements of the AMA and the AARP to stimulate support. But these — and the other endorsements — his package has received are all bought and paid for. Here are the deals:

· The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians’ reimbursements under the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5-6 percent reductions in doctor reimbursements for treating Medicare patients. Bravely, each year Congress has rolled the cuts over, suspending them but not repealing them. So each year, the accumulated cuts threaten doctors. By now, they have risen to 21 percent. With this blackmail leverage, Obama compelled the AMA to support his bill … or else!

· The AARP got a financial windfall in return for its support of the healthcare bill. Over the past decade, the AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where Medicare leaves off. But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues.

Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP — which supposedly represents them — will make more money. (If this galls you, join the American Seniors Association, the alternative group; contact sbarton@americanseniors.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .)

· The drug industry backed ObamaCare and, in return, got a 10-year limit of $80 billion on cuts in prescription drug costs. (A drop in the bucket of their almost $3 trillion projected cost over the next decade.) They also got administration assurances that it will continue to bar lower-cost Canadian drugs from coming into the U.S. All it had to do was put its formidable advertising budget at the disposal of the administration.

· Insurance companies got access to 40 million potential new customers. But when the Senate Finance Committee lowered the fine that would be imposed on those who don’t buy insurance from $3,500 to $1,500, the insurance companies jumped ship and now oppose the bill, albeit for the worst of motives.

The only industry that refused to knuckle under was the medical device makers. They stood for principle and wouldn’t go along with Obama’s blackmail. So the Senate Finance Committee retaliated by imposing a tax on medical devices such as automated wheelchairs, pacemakers, arterial stents, prosthetic limbs, artificial knees and hips and other necessary accoutrements of healthcare.

So these endorsements are not freely given, but bought and paid for by an administration that is intent on passing its program at any cost.

From FOX News

In a victory for President Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed landmark health care legislation Saturday night to expand coverage to tens of millions who lack it and place tough new restrictions on the insurance industry. Republican opposition was nearly unanimous.

The 220-215 vote cleared the way for the Senate to begin a long-delayed debate on the issue that has come to overshadow all others in Congress.

A triumphant Speaker Nancy Pelosi likened the legislation to the passage of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare 30 years later — and Obama issued a statement saying, “I look forward to signing it into law by the end of the year.”

“It provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers everyone, regardless of health or income, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have access to affordable health care when they need it,” said Rep. John Dingell, the 83-year-old Michigan lawmaker who has introduced national health insurance in every Congress since succeeding his father in 1955.

In the run-up to a final vote, conservatives from the two political parties joined forces to impose tough new restrictions on abortion coverage in insurance policies to be sold to many individuals and small groups. They prevailed on a roll call of 240-194.

Ironically, that only solidified support for the legislation, clearing the way for conservative Democrats to vote for it.

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government’s mandates.

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Click here to see how your representative voted.

Representative Michele Bachmann (R–MN–6) called for a march on Washington DC yesterday, terming it a “House Call” on the health care bill. Early estimates put the crowd in DC at 50,000 people protesting against the proposed government takeover of health care in the United States. Not everyone could drop everything on short notice and take a bus to the nation’s Capitol, though so Minnesota Majority organized a Youth Rally against the health care bill at the state Capitol. The event drew a couple hundred people of all ages to the Capitol steps at noon today.

Some parents took their children out of school to attend the event for what they were calling a “real-life civics lesson.” Children, teens and adults showed up carrying home made signs with messages like, “If Obamacare is so great, why is Congress exempt,” “Give me liberty or give me death panels,” and “Choose the Public Option (OR ELSE!),” among other creative expressions opposing the takeover plan.

Talk show host Sue Jeffers emceed the rally that included a recorded message from Rep. Bachmann, speakers Jeff Peil, Jeff Davis, Tom Prichard, Rose Barrett and 13-year-old Hannah Quinn. Quinn first provided her perspective on the universal sanctity of human life and posited that a law that doesn’t respect life – from the unborn to the elderly, without regard for ability – is doomed to fail. She also delivered a message from her state representative, Peggy Scott (R-49A) to the crowd.

A chant of “kill the bill” came up repeatedly during the one-hour rally and it was wrapped up with the crowd singing along to My Country ‘tis of Thee.

“This was a nationwide phenomenon,” said Davis. “While we were at this rally at the state Capitol, other people were bussing to DC and others were visiting their representatives’ local offices. People are taking action. It’s really encouraging,” he said.

From the Wall Street Journal

None of the health-care reform proposals advancing in Congress address a fundamental problem that will soon face this country: a critical shortage of doctors. There were reform ideas put forward in Congress that would have addressed this problem. Most notably, Rep. Joseph Crowley (D., N.Y) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.) have proposed training an additional 4,000 new physicians to add to the 25,000 entering the profession each year. But their proposals haven’t made it into the bills on which congressional leaders hope to vote.

If the doctor shortage is not addressed and health-care reform is signed into law, millions of Americans will likely find themselves able to obtain insurance for the first time—but may be unable to find a doctor without a long delay. Why? Because expanding the number of insured patients but not the number of doctors will only increase the demand for services that already must meet the demands of an aging population. We must make sure there are enough health professionals to meet those new demands.

Even in the absence of health-care reform, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges, the U.S. will face a shortage of at least 125,000 physicians by 2025. We have about 700,000 active physicians today. One factor driving this shortage is that the baby-boomer generation is getting older and will require more care. By 2025 the number of people over 65 will have increased by about 75% of what it is today—to 64 million from 37 million today.

Doctors are also aging. By 2020, as many as one-third of the physicians currently practicing will likely retire. If health-care reform adds millions of people to the health-care market, the shortage of doctors will be even greater than it is projected to be now.

It is important to note that the shortage the country will soon face isn’t just of primary-care physicians. It is true that there aren’t enough primary-care doctors and nurse practitioners. But it is also true that we need more cardiologists, neurologists, general surgeons, pediatric subspecialists, urologists and other highly trained specialists.

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From Heritage.org

Nancy Pelosi has unveiled the new health care bill in the House after merging together three different versions of legislation. To appease moderate Blue Dog Democrats and to meet President Obama’s oft-stated promise that reform wouldn’t cost more than $900 billion in the first ten years, Speaker Pelosi sought to reduce the $1.5 trillion total cost of the bill. Newsflash: she failed.

The Congressional Budget Office released its preliminary score of the bill and while some in the media have been reporting its net cost of $894 billion, the total cost of health reform legislation is more like $1.5 trillion. So, Speaker Pelosi is essentially right back where she started—with a huge 2,000 page plan that carries a hefty price tag.

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