What Is In Your Health Care Bill? Part 2

Picking up where I left off in Part 1 of my analysis of a list of claims about H.R. 3200 that is circulating around the Internet.

pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue the Government on [sic.] price fixing. No "judicial review" against Government Monopoly

Probably because this isn't price fixing. Also not clear how this is a "government monopoly" in that the government is merely creating a mechanism by which private companies compete for customers. (A single-payer system would be a monopsony, but unfortunately that's not in the cards.)

pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The Government will tell YOU what you can earn.

Nothing in the bill requires that a physician participate in the program.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE

Not true. First, the bill requires that the employer auto-enroll employees at the lowest priced option, not the public option. Second, p 148, line 3 allows for employees to opt out.

Pg 146 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for health care for part time employees and their families.

True, in part. The requirement is that employers pay for part-timers on a pro-rated basis based on the number of hours they work vs. the number of hours of full-time employees work. Without a requirement like this, unscrupulous employers (or any employer with a fiduciary responsibility to investors for that matter) would make as many jobs part time as possible to skirt the requirement.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer with a payroll over $400k who does not provide the public option will pay 8% tax on all payroll/pg 150 Lines 9-13 Business with a payroll between $251k & $400k who doe not provide the public option well pay 2-6% tax on all payroll

True. If you are going to require employers to provide insurance, this seems like a pretty fair penalty for those who break the law.

Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who does not have acceptable health care according to the Government will be taxed 2.5% of their income.

True. The "acceptable health care" according to the government is a plan that meets the requirements for the "basic" plan. The tax is also capped at the average price of such a plan, so the intent is clearly to motivate people to get insurance.

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay)

Seems to be correct, not sure what the reason for this is given that I believe that nonresident (but still legal) aliens are eligible for benefits. One interesting thing is that there is a corollary for US citizens who don't live in the US: they are also considered to be covered and not subject to the tax.

Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of the health care Administration (Government) will have access to ALL Americans financial and personal records.

This is an absurd claim. The bill modifies the laws governing the IRS to require them to provide the Health Care Administration with basic tax information (income, number of dependents, etc.) necessary for determining a person's eligibility for insurance subsidies. Your bank account, investment portfolio, divorce proceedings, etc. are safe from the HCA.

PG 203 Line 14-15 HC - "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax" Yes, it says that

No, it doesn't. What it says is "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax imposed by this chapter for purposes of determining the amount of any credit under this chapter or for purposes of section 55." In other words, you can't deduct the tax for not having health insurance (it's really a penalty that is administered by the IRS, I'd argue) from your income for purposes of determining your eligibility for health insurance subsidies.

Coming up next, a look at a whole group of claims that are based on the assumption that Medicare and Medicaid don't exist (and are probably a bad idea). . .