Category: Health Care

Corbett Extends Children’s Insurance Through 2015

Governor Tom Corbett signed into law this week a bill to extend the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through 2015. The new law also eliminates the current six-month waiting period before a child can enroll in the program, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)

CHIP provides quality, comprehensive health insurance coverage for routine doctor visits, prescriptions, dental, eye care and much more to uninsured children and teens who are not eligible for or enrolled in Medical Assistance. More than 188,000 children are currently enrolled in CHIP across the Commonwealth. Federal funds pay for approximately two-thirds of the total cost of CHIP.

The program, established in 1992, was set to expire Dec. 31. For information on CHIP, click here.

ObamaCare Explained Courtesy AFP-PA

Americans for Prosperity — Pennsylvania (AFP-PA) will host a two-hour information session on how ObamaCare will impact individuals starting 6:30 p.m., Oct. 10 at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 110 W Market St., West Chester 19382.

“Why?  Because we’re winning,” said AFP-PA director Jennifer Stefano, a frequent guest on Hannity.  That might sound crazy, but . . . Polls show that regardless of political party, the more informed people are on ObamaCare, the more they turn their backs.  In other words, the more people understand, the more they reject.  When we talk about the impact that ObamaCare will have on our lives, our families and our health, people listen!”

Questions to be answered include:

How much will ObamaCare cost you?

Will your doctor be able to provide you the same level of care under the new health care law?

What impact will it have on jobs?

What can you do to mitigate the impact ObamaCare has on you and your family?

Find out the answers to these questions and more by joining us for an informative discussion:

Appetizers and refreshments will be served

“Right now, ObamaCare is more vulnerable than it’s ever been,” said Mrs. Stefano. “For the first time in months, this law is on life-support – but we can’t stop it for good, unless we mobilize millions of Americans like you right now.”

To register for the event visit afp-westchester-healthcare.eventbrite.com/

Can a liberal do a Cryptowit Quote Puzzle faster than a conservative? Click here to find out.

Visit BillLawrenceDittos.com for another story on ObamaCare Explained Courtesy AFP-PA

 

Visit BillLawrenceOnline.com ObamaCare Explained Courtesy AFP-PA

 

Obamacare Means Less SEIU Hours

Obamacare SEIUObamacare SEIU — Local 1 in Chicago of the notoriously Democrat-supporting and fashionably progressive Service Employees International Union has gone on strike because the janitorial company Professional Maintenance has cut hours.

Why did Professional Maintenance cut hours? For the same reason a whole lot of other companies are cutting hours — the looming Obamacare mandates.

We are almost wishing we could cry for these fools but the pain they are inflicting on themselves, they inflicted on the rest of us.

In other news from the “progressive” front, Venezuela is experiencing hyper-inflation (45.4 percent in August) and has a toilet paper shortage.

Expect that here unless the Tea Party faction of the GOP winds up victorious.

Obamacare SEIU

 

Senator Chris Murphy Had To Work Last Night

Senator Chris Murphy — the Gen Xer Democrat who represents  Connecticut — was upset last night because he had to take part of the night shift for Ted Cruz’s filibuster of ObamaCare and tweeted such. Senator Chris Murphy Had To Work Last Night

“Walking into Capitol to take 11-1 shift presiding over the Senate for this pointless fairy tale non-filibuster,” the hero of white wine drinking, gated-community dwellers wrote.

Check out the responses to it.

And really Senator, since you love ObamaCare so much why aren’t you and your staff getting it?

Senator Chris Murphy Had To Work Last Night

Workers Lose Under Obamacare

Workers Lose Under Obamacare

By Elizabeth Stelle

Yes, workers lose under Obamacare.

Imagine one Monday your boss tells you the company is cutting your hours so they don’t have to give you health insurance.  This bad news is compounded when you start shopping for insurance and discover that premiums have skyrocketed in the last few years.

That’s a tough blow for any worker, but it’s becoming the new normal for individuals and families across Pennsylvania—even labor unions that supported the law are voicing their concerns.

Recently, the Nevada Chapter of the prominent union coalition AFL-CIO released a resolution stating, “The unintended consequences of the [Affordable Care Act] will lead to the destruction of the 40-hour work week, higher taxes, and force union members onto more costly plans—eventually destroying [union health plans] completely.”

No wonder Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited Philadelphia to defend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) against growing public opposition. Secretary Sebelius continues to deny the law’s adverse impact on workers, but stories of layoffs due to Obamacare are a dime a dozen.

Thanks to the ACA, public sector workers like school aides around the state are losing hours, pay and in some cases even their jobs.  East Lancaster County School District and Dallas School District in Luzerne County are cutting back on support staff to avoid the ACA’s “employer mandate” that penalizes employers for not offering health insurance to full-time employees—encouraging employers to use part-time workers and contractors, instead.

Ironically, the very organizations that ostensibly exist to protect these public sector workers—government unions—enthusiastically supported the job-killing law.

For example, in 2012 and 2013 the National Education Association gave $250,000 to Health Care for America Now!—a group lobbying for Obamacare.  The Service Employees International Union also launched $12 million in television ads supporting the law. It seems these unions failed to take into account the law’s many negative consequences.

The ACA was intended to expand access to health insurance, but in practice it reduces employment, increases insurance premiums, and hikes taxes through a complex labyrinth of rules and regulations. In effect, it’s making it harder—not easier—for the average person to access health insurance.

Under the ACA, all employers, including governments, with more than 50 employees must provide full-time workers—those working 30 hours or more per week—with health insurance.  Moreover, employer health insurance plans must meet new federal regulations and mandates regarding the cost to employees.  Failure to meet these mandates results in a substantial fine.

That’s a major burden on job creators around the country and here in Pennsylvania.

Because of the health care law’s harsh financial penalties, restaurant chains including Applebee’s and Papa John’s, big box stores like Wal-Mart and even grocery stores like Wegmans are cutting hours or benefits.  In fact, the people who struggle the most to find affordable health care—the working poor—are those hardest hit as their hours and paychecks shrink.

President Obama recently suspended this job-killing employer mandate—though his authority to do so is questionable—until after the next election.  Unfortunately, that still leaves businesses trapped in an state of uncertainty, not knowing when the government will require them to provide insurance or face a penalty.

Not only are these workers being hurt with fewer hours and less pay, but they will pay more for insurance under the ACA.  So, too, will small businesses and full-time workers.

Three years into the ACA, average family premiums have increased by $3,000.  The CEO of Highmark predicts premiums will continue to rise ¾this after Highmark already increased Pennsylvania’s individual and small group rates in 2010 and 2013.  Meanwhile, Aetna raised premiums in Pennsylvania by 10 percent in 2011, noting the ACA as a significant cost driver.

Elected officials must now find ways to protect both public and private sector workers from such skyrocketing premiums and pay cuts. A good start would be giving those without employer-based insurance the same tax benefits businesses receive—leveling the playing field for all Pennsylvania workers.

Elizabeth Stelle is a policy analyst at the Commonwealth Foundation

Workers Lose Under Obamacare

Common Core Dead, Pennsylvania Wise?

With State Rep. Bill Adolph (second from right) are Delaware County Patriots Bill Lawrence, Regina Scheerer and Maria Heider.

Common Core Dead Pennsylvania Wise?
State Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165) told a contingent from the Delaware County Patriots , this morning, Aug. 28, that Common Core is likely dead in Pennsylvania.

He said that a draft of Pennsylvania academic standards being considered by the State Board of Education will specifically include the wording “There will be no required reading lists and curriculum will remain strictly a local decision by our school boards.”
He noted the name of the standards will be changed to PA Core Standards.

He distributed a memo from State House Education Committee Chairman Paul Clymer (R-145) that in the standards “there will be no national tests or assessments, except if one is deemed necessary for special education students and then only in consultation with parents, teachers and other interested parties.”

He said the action was prompted by House Resolution 38 which passed unanimously.

Adolph, echoing earlier remarks by state Sen. Ted Erickson (R-26) said liquor-sale privatization will likely occur albeit the likely result will not be as strong as he had hoped.

He said he expects the legislature to vote next June to change the state’s pension system to a 401K-type defined contribution one from its present defined benefit one.

He said he expects, unfortunately, to see a transportation bill pass that will feature either gas tax increases or more roads tolled. He said the state roads and bridges are in that bad of shape.

Adolph said he had some confidence in the passage of reform to the state’s prevailing wage law — namely raising the exemption level of work from $25,000 where it has been since the law was passed in 1961 to $185,000 which is today’s equivalent taking into account inflation.
It’s a relatively minor reform but it’s progress.

He said Medicaid expansion will not happen unless Gov. Corbett can negotiate a lesser cost-per-recipient with the Obama Administration. As of now, Pennsylvania pays about $7,500 per recipient which is one of the highest in the nation. He said the state can’t afford to accept the expansion at that rate. He said hospital administrators have been lobbying hard for the governor to accept it.

He said he supported paycheck protection legislation that would end union dues be involuntarily deducted from workers paychecks, and that he supported bills banning teacher strikes.

Adolph said legislation will be presented calling for the impeachment of Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who has refused to defend the Pennsylvania’s law restricting marriage to members of the opposite sex. He said the action has her worried. He pointed out that her refusal to enforce a law with which she disagreed is subverting the rule of law.

Visit BillLawrenceDittos.com for another story on Common Core Dead Pennsylvania Wise?

 

Obamacare Ends Kids Health Coverage

Obamacare Ends Kids Health Coverage

“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be
able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan,
you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take
it away, no matter what.”
–Barack Obama, June 15, 2009


“If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”
Barack Obama, Aug 11, 2009


“Ha ha. Fooled ya.”
Obamacare Summer 2013

The Pittsburgh Tribune reported, yesterday, Aug. 20, that employers are planning on making their workers pay their own costs for health insurance for their children and pay extra — up to $125 per month — to keep their spouses covered.

Obamacare Ends Kids Health CoverageIt said to expect the actions to start taking place in 2015.

A lot of these people voted for Obama. They trusted him. They couldn’t get it through their heads that the guys real constituency was Wall Street investment banks, corrupt big-city politicians and GS15 federal bureaucrats.

Fooled you once, shame on you. Fooled you twice, shame on me. Hey Obama voters, hang your heads for you have been fooled twice. You have shamed yourselves — unless you are a Wall Street investment banker corrupt big-city politician or  GS15 federal bureaucrat, of course.

Obamacare Ends Kids Health Coverage

Medical Device Excise Tax (True)

Medical Device Excise Tax (True) Courtesy of Mickey Rair

(True)

The 2.3-percent Medical Excise Tax that began on Jan. 1 is supposed to be “hidden” from the consumer, but it’s been brought to the public’s attention by hunting and fishing store, Cabela’s, who have refused to hide it and are showing it as a separate line item tax on their receipts, the email states.

I did some research and found directly from the IRS’s website information that PROVES this to be true and an accurate portrayal of something hidden in Obamacare that I was not aware of!

Now being skeptical of this I went to the IRS website and found this!

Q1. What is the medical device excise tax?

A1. Section 4191 of the Internal Revenue Code imposes an excise tax on the sale of certain medical devices by the manufacturer or importer of the device.

Q2. When does the tax go into effect?

A2. The tax applies to sales of taxable medical devices after Dec. 31, 2012.

Q3. How much is the tax?

A3. The tax is 2.3 percent of the sale price of the taxable medical device.  See Chapter 5 of IRS Publication 510, Excise Taxes, and Notice 2012-77 for additional information on the determination of sale price.

Medical Device Excise Tax (True)

Medical Device Excise Tax (True)

Medicaid Expansion Failure A Win For PA

Medicaid Expansion Failure A Win For PA
By Matthew J. Brouillette

Editor’s note: A version of this commentary previously appeared on Forbes.com

When is the most humane decision the one that seems just the opposite? In refusing to expand the state’s Medicaid program, Gov. Corbett and the General Assembly have been vilified as cold and uncaring. But despite the critics, both the economic and moral arguments are on the side of those seeking to reform Medicaid, not those pushing the expansion of a broken program.

President Obama’s government health insurance overhaul, the Affordable Care Act, calls for states to expand their Medicaid programs to those up to 133 percent of the poverty line—about $15,000 for an individual or $31,000 for a family of four. But even without expansion, Pennsylvania’s program already consumes 30 percent of the state budget and is one of the most generous in the nation.

Expanding Medicaid would add close to a million new beneficiaries, resulting in fully one-quarter of the state’s population being eligible for coverage. The cost to Pennsylvania’s taxpayers through 2022 could reach $5 billion. That’s enough to give any governor or state legislature pause. It’s no surprise, then, that Pennsylvania isn’t alone in its opposition to Medicaid expansion.

So far, 20 other states agree that expansion is not a good solution for their most vulnerable citizens, despite the federal government’s offer to pay all associated costs for the first two years. What makes turning down “free” federal money so popular? Look no further than the strings attached: the results of the Medicaid program themselves.

Decades of academic research show the program has consistently failed the working poor. From greater chances of cancer recurrence, to higher in-hospital mortality rates for strokes, heart attacks, and pneumonia, to limited options for many medical procedures, Medicaid has proven unable to provide patients the care that they desperately need and deserve.

One in three doctors won’t even accept new Medicaid patients at all—that’s the difference between what Medicaid does provide, a health insurance card, and what it doesn’t, quality health care.

Unfortunately, such a harsh indictment of Medicaid hasn’t stopped politicians on both sides of the aisle from pushing for expansion instead of pursuing reforms that will better serve the working and non-working poor. What’s luring them is that promise of “free” federal money.

This same promise has broken the wills of politicians in other states who at one time opposed either Medicaid expansion or the Affordable Care Act as a whole. This list includes Florida’s Governor Rick Scott as well as Ohio’s John Kasich, who have both gone to great lengths to push expansion in their states. But once state lawmakers saw the plan’s costs and failures, as they have in Pennsylvania, they strongly resisted the push to expand the broken program.

Accepting this bribery is a short-sighted move, at best. States should have learned from experience that Washington doesn’t exactly set its promises in stone. President Obama has already proposed cutting the federal reimbursement of state Medicaid costs—twice. That was the very promise that enticed several states to jump on the expansion bandwagon in the first place.

If reimbursement rates are cut, state taxpayers will be footing the bill. Compounded with the ACA’s $500 billion price tag–a cost equal to $6,300 per family–the funding shortfall would hit every Pennsylvanian’s wallet.

But by refusing to expand Medicaid, states like Pennsylvania have helped reduce the federal deficit by an estimated $459 billion. To some, the promise of free federal funding may seem too good to pass up, but the suffering that people will endure from an expansion of Medicaid should not be so easily forgotten.

Thankfully, Pennsylvania lawmakers’ steadfast refusal to trade our neediest citizens and taxpayers for temporary political gain and uncertain federal cash is a sign that other difficult reforms may yet be on the horizon.

Matthew J. Brouillette is president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation.

Medicaid Expansion Failure A Win For PA

Medical Pricing Transparency Sought

Medical Pricing Transparency Sought — Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa) reports that he has  asked the government watchdog agency known as the Government Accountably Office (GAO) to examine consumers’ access to accurate medical pricing information.

“It is imperative that consumers have reliable information on health care costs and quality. Clearer, readily available information empowers Medicare beneficiaries and patients to shop for value and obtain high-quality care,” Toomey says.

Medical Pricing Transparency Sought