"Health Care Reform"

I posted this as a note on my facebook page on 3/23/10 and I thought I would post it here:

The so called Health Care Reform bill that was recently signed is not about health care, it is about insurance and taxes (and student loans, what that has to do with health care or insurance I have no clue). There are some that I know that work in the health care industry and some of them are for the bill/law and others that are not. I decided to clear some things up for those that are for it and claim that they know what is going on. I will be providing links to articles to support my statements.

First, I would like to state that I feel that this bill/law is unconstitutional. The federal government has no constitutional duty to even be involved in this, the states are the ones that would be responsible for this. There are some that will claim that the General Welfare clause of the U.S. Constitution gives the government the power to do so, that is incorrect. The General Walfare clause only has to do with the power to collect taxes (excise, tariffs, etc) and spend money to carry out the duties of the federal government as enumerated by the U.S. Constitution (see http://law.jrank.org/pages/7116/General-Welfare.html). Seeing as those duties do not include health care, then that means that they passed an unconstitutional bill.

Now I would like to talk about impact on businesses. Caterpillar stated that the bill would cost it a 20% increase in insurance costs next year which would equal about $100 million, which would impact pay to employees/retirees/shareholders (see http://www.businessinsider.com/caterpillar-claims-health-care-reform-would-hit-them-for-100-million-2010-3). Small businesses will be impacted also, those that have 50 or more employees must provide insurance or face a fine of $750.00 to $2,000.00 per employee. One business owner stated that he will stay at 49 employees (see http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/business&id=7344877). That is not good for the employment numbers if business owners are going to decide to start limiting their employment numbers to keep their costs down because of forced compliance with insurance laws.

So how about some of the taxes, lets take a look at that (See http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ake7tOWwUT6E). There is going to be a 2.3% tax on the purchase of a wheelchair (isn't that used for health care?), drugmakers will pay a $3 billion fee annually which may get passed to consumers (that is supposed to help those that can't currently afford medicines?), people will be "fined" for not buying insurance if they have to choose between insurance or food/utilities/rent (that really helps out, not), there will be a 3.8% tax on rents/interest/capital gains/investments, out of pocket medical expenses will be raised from 7.5% to 10% of income before they are deductible (again it will impact many lower income people). The impact is that rents will rise affecting many low income people, your savings will be impacted in a time that we should be encouraging saving money, if you own a business you will be impacted due to capital gains from your business being profitable and worth more. This will not be good for the economy and will make it harder for those that can't get by or those that barely do to afford even the necessities of life.

The common sense thing to do would be for the federal government to stay out of it and have the states handle it. It could be done like Massachusetts did or some other way. There some that have made the statement that "we are required to have insurance to drive a car, why not be required to have health insurance?" Well, first of all there is no federal law that requires anyone to have car insurance in order to drive; that is required by the states. Secondly, car insurance is to protect others when you have an accident, health insurance only covers you (and your family if they are covered).

This is not the time we should be doing something like this, you don't fix an ailing economy by adding more problems to it.