Dec 2, 2015

SENATE GOP DISCUSSING THE IMPENDING REPEAL OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT - USING RECONCILIATION

 

Dec. 1, 2015 Senate GOP Leadership Press Conference reconciliation process - A process established in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 by which Congress changes existing laws to conform tax and spending levels to the levels set in a budget resolution. Changes recommended by committees pursuant to a reconciliation instruction are incorporated into a reconciliation measure.

OBAMACARE: 'A BIG NIGHTMARE' FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

DEC 01 2015

'A HUGE ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN FOR THESE COMPANIES'

 

FOR SMALL COMPANIES: 'COSTS ARE UP IN 2015,' WHILE THEY'RE BURIED IN 'TEDIOUS' & 'RIDICULOUS' PAPERWORK

"The vast majority of small businesses are paying more for health insurance for their employees under the health-care law, and many expect their costs to keep going up next year, according to a survey by the advocacy group National Small Business Association."("90% Of Small Businesses Say Obamacare Drove Up Health-Care Costs," The Columbus Dispatch, 11/17/15)

• "Ninety percent of owners said their costs are up in 2015 over last year, and 84 percent expect to pay more in 2016." ("90% Of Small Businesses Say Obamacare Drove Up Health-Care Costs," The Columbus Dispatch, 11/17/15)

ARIZONA: "Small firms struggle with rising health-care costs… 'I think that, especially for small businesses that are required to provide health-care insurance, those costs, unfortunately, are going to go up due to the mandates under Obamacare,' said Kevin Peck, director of the Small Business Development Center at Eastern Arizona College. ("Small Firms Struggle With Rising Health-Care Costs," Eastern Arizona Courier, 11/28/2015)

"…said Tim Taylor, executive vice president and general manager at DRG Technologies, of Safford. 'For two years, we've had to make a choice between significantly higher premiums or a reduction in benefits. When I say reduction in benefits, I'm primarily talking about a rise in deductible amounts." ("Small Firms Struggle With Rising Health-Care Costs," Eastern Arizona Courier, 11/28/2015)

• "'In order not to have the premiums go way up, the deductible goes up. Those are kind of the choices that we have to make these days. … 'If the cost of insurance is higher, that's just that much less that we have for merit increases. Obviously, I'd like to give my best people big raises all the time, but you have to keep that in perspective with what your total labor rate's going to be. So certainly it impacts the business in that regard, and it impacts the employees.'" ("Small Firms Struggle With Rising Health-Care Costs," Eastern Arizona Courier, 11/28/2015)

"What would have been a 4.5 percent increase in health insurance costs turned into a 9 percent increase this year for a Tempe, Ariz.-based signage company due to the Affordable Care Act's tax on health insurers. That's just not fair, said Blue Media owner Jared Smith…" ("Obamacare's Tax On Health Insurers Hitting Small Businesses Instead," The Business Journals, 11/3/15)

PENNSYLVANIA: "New Obamacare mandate buries small Lehigh Valley businesses in paperwork." ("New Obamacare Mandate Buries Small Lehigh Valley Businesses In Paperwork," The [Allentown] Morning Call, 11/21/2015)

• "[Morris Black and Sons] Office manager Deb Levy estimates she'll have to spend about 40 to 60 hours filling out the Internal Revenue Service's 1095-C form for every person employed by the company over the course of the year. 'It's tedious,' she said. 'It's ridiculous … You are guessing at what codes you need to use.'" ("New Obamacare mandate buries small Lehigh Valley businesses in paperwork," The [Allentown] Morning Call, 11/21/2015)

• "'I am the HR department,' said Levy, who also handles payroll, among other duties. For each 1095-C form, she has to make two copies, one for the employee and another for the IRS, she explained. The IRS is supposed to check for accuracy by comparing the information on the forms to that of matching forms submitted by the employers' insurance carriers. 'It's a waste of taxpayer money, and it's a waste of employer time and money,' she said." ("New Obamacare mandate buries small Lehigh Valley businesses in paperwork," The [Allentown] Morning Call, 11/21/2015)

• "'It's a huge administrative burden for these companies,' said Michael Stocker, an employee benefits broker with Hampson Mower Kreitz Insurance in Bethlehem, which counts Morris Black and Sons among its clients. It is also a burden for the brokers. Stocker said he has been spending so much time during the week interpreting and explaining the law to clients that he's had to go to the office on Saturdays and Sundays to get the rest of his work done." ("New Obamacare mandate buries small Lehigh Valley businesses in paperwork," The [Allentown] Morning Call, 11/21/2015)

 

CONNECTICUT: Obamacare 'going to be a big nightmare for a lot of businesses' "Companies with 50 to 99 full-time employees must offer affordable insurance to employees and their dependents starting Jan. 1. They also must file tax forms with the government by Jan. 31 detailing the cost of their coverage and the names and Social Security numbers of employees and their dependents. While companies of all sizes are subject to the law must file the forms, smaller businesses without big staffs to handle the paperwork may have to hire someone to do it — at a cost of hundreds or thousands of dollars. 'It's probably going to be a big nightmare for a lot of businesses,' said David Lewis, president of Operations Inc., a human resources provider based in Norwalk, Connecticut." ("Small Businesses Face New Obamacare Rules," Asbury Park Press, 10/25/15)

 

'THE SMALL BUSINESS HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGE … IS STRUGGLING TO CATCHON'

"After nearly two years in operation and millions of dollars spent in development, the small business health insurance exchange created by the Affordable Care Act is struggling to catch on. Nationally, about 85,000 people, from 11,000 small businesses, have coverage through the online marketplace known as the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, according to the latest federal data released in May." ("Small Businesses Snub Obamacare's SHOP Exchange," USA Today, 11/2/15)

• "That's less than 1% of people with coverage in the U.S. small group insurance market that in 2013 had about 16.7 million people enrolled in health plans…"("Small Businesses Snub Obamacare's SHOP Exchange," USA Today, 11/2/15)

• 'Response has been substantially smaller than expected' "The Congressional Budget Office in January estimated 1 million people would enroll for coverage through SHOP in 2015. No one expected the SHOP exchange to have a large enrollment, but industry officials say its early response has been substantially smaller than expected." ("Small Businesses Snub Obamacare's SHOP Exchange," USA Today, 11/2/15)

 

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SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

OBAMACARE: THIS DEAL'S GETTING WORSE ALL THE TIME

NOV 20 2015

'HIGHER PREMIUMS, FEWER DOCTORS AND SKIMPIER COVERAGE'

 

"Many people signing up for 2016 health policies under the Affordable Care Act face higher premiums, fewer doctors and skimpier coverage, which threatens the appeal of the program for the healthy customers it needs. Insurers have raised premiums steeply for the most popular plans at the same time they have boosted out-of-pocket costs such as deductibles, copays and coinsurance in many of their offerings." ("Rising Rates Pose Challenge to Health Law," The Wall Street Journal, 11/19/15)

'STICKER SHOCK' – 'INSURERS HAVE RAISED PREMIUMS STEEPLY FOR THE MOST POPULAR PLANS'

"Health insurance consumers logging into HealthCare.gov on Sunday for the first day of the Affordable Care Act's third open enrollment season may be in for sticker shock…" ("Many Need To Shop Around On HealthCare.gov As Prices Jump, U.S. Says," New York Times, 10/31/15)

• "'Every year I feel like I'm starting all over again, and I just dread it,' said Ms. Galen, 63, of Warrenton, Ore. 'My stress level just shoots up.'" ("Shopping For Health Insurance Is New Seasonal Stress For Many," The New York Times, 11/18/15)

"Premiums for individual plans offered by the dominant local insurers are rising almost everywhere for 2016, typically by double-digit percentage increases, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of plan data in 34 states where the HealthCare.gov site sells insurance. More than half of the midrange 'silver' plans are boosting the out-of-pocket costs enrollees must pay, while more than 80% of the less-expensive 'bronze' plans are doing so. The Obama administration has acknowledged that premiums are going up, releasing an official analysis that, by one metric, showed the price of second-lowest-cost silver plans was rising 7.5% on average for 2016." ("Rising Rates Pose Challenge to Health Law," The Wall Street Journal, 11/19/15)

• "In markets throughout the country, the plan in the most popular category that was least expensive this year will not be offered next year." ("In Many Obamacare Markets, Renewal Is Not An Option," The New York Times, 11/18/15)

'SKY-HIGH DEDUCTIBLES'

"…for many consumers, the sticker shock is coming not on the front end, when they purchase the plans, but on the back end when they get sick: sky-high deductibles that are leaving some newly insured feeling nearly as vulnerable as they were before they had coverage." ("Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All But Useless,"The New York Times, 11/14/15)

"In many states, more than half the plans offered for sale through HealthCare.gov, the federal online marketplace, have a deductible of $3,000 or more, a New York Times review has found." ("Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All But Useless," The New York Times, 11/14/15)

• "In Miami, the median deductible, according to HealthCare.gov, is $5,000. (Half of the plans are above the median, and half below it.) In Jackson, Miss., the comparable figure is $5,500. In Chicago, the median deductible is $3,400. In Phoenix, it is $4,000; in Houston and Des Moines, $3,000." ("Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All But Useless," The New York Times, 11/14/15)

• "'The deductible, $3,000 a year, makes it impossible to actually go to the doctor,' said David R. Reines, 60, of Jefferson Township, N.J., a former hardware salesman with chronic knee pain. 'We have insurance, but can't afford to use it.'" ("Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All But Useless," The New York Times, 11/14/15)

• "'We could not afford the deductible,' said Kevin Fanning, 59, who lives in North Texas, near Wichita Falls. 'Basically I was paying for insurance I could not afford to use.' He dropped his policy." ("Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All But Useless," The New York Times, 11/14/15)

• "'Our deductible is so high, we practically pay for all of our medical expenses out of pocket,' said Wendy Kaplan, 50, of Evanston, Ill. 'So our policy is really there for emergencies only, and basic wellness appointments.' Her family of four pays premiums of $1,200 a month for coverage with an annual deductible of $12,700." ("Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All But Useless," The New York Times, 11/14/15)

• "Alexis C. Phillips, 29, of Houston, is the kind of consumer federal officials would like to enroll this fall. But after reviewing the available plans, she said, she concluded: 'The deductibles are ridiculously high. I will never be able to go over the deductible unless something catastrophic happened to me. I'm better off not purchasing that insurance and saving the money in case something bad happens.'" ("Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All But Useless," The New York Times, 11/14/15)

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good afternoon everyone I think you already know that we are going to be

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moving the Obamacare repeal bill instead of this week we anticipate finishing

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that sometime Thursday it's important I think for the american people to

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understand that republicans still stands strong and united against the Obamacare

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legislation it's been exactly to disaster we predicted in late 2009 when

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it first cleared the Senate higher co-payment higher deductibles higher

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premiums lost jobs has been a catastrophic had a catastrophic impact

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on our economy and we intend to do everything we can to get rid of it

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obviously we're not anticipating a presidential signature but I think the

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president should have to take credit for the debacle that this legislation has

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creative this is really about political accountability if you look at the

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Obamacare legislation many of the most onerous provisions don't kick in four

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years after the bill as actually passed and of course that was intentional but I

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remember like many others

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voting against the Obamacare legislation on Christmas Eve at 7 a.m. in the

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morning in 2009 in a purely partisan exercise but this is what happens when

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you try to jam through big piece of legislation on a purely partisan basis

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they don't end up working out too well and indeed as majority leader said this

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has been a disaster for the American people all of the promises the president

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made in trying to sell Obamacare have proved proven to be false if you like

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what you have you can keep it

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premiums would go down for a family of four by $2,500 and that's why ever since

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2008 you seen president's political party lose members indeed there's only

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thirty people who voted for obama-care still in the united states senate they

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lost the house that lost most of the governors

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houses across the country as well as legislature because the american people

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simply don't like this bill and the president should have known better we're

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gonna vote to repeal it on Thursday and it's not a question of whether Obamacare

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work is working or not it is not we know that for a fact and if you look at the

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impact it's had on premiums the average families premiums in this in this

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country have gone up by almost $3,000 since passage of Obamacare and you know

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what does that mean in in in in the real world people I tell you from personal

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experience we've had been contacted by people in my state of South Dakota one

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family who saw their health insurance premiums go up by eight thousand dollars

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this last year

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$8,000 I mean what what family can survive and $1,000 increase in their

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daily living expenses we had another constituent who contacted our office who

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said that their family was going to probably paid the penalty and go without

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health insurance so they can continue to pay their mortgage buy groceries and pay

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other bills that's what happened is happening in the lives of ordinary

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working americans in this country and so this is gotta change somethings gotta

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give we had a better approach the president clearly is more concerned

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about his legacy than he is about hard working americans in this country who

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are feeling the harmful effects of his bad law but we're gonna do everything we

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can and we made a commitment to American people that we would do everything

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within our power to try and reverse course on this move in a different

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direction a direction that leads to lower costs for the american people for

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better access more affordable healthcare and so that's what we're gonna do this

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week we're gonna have that vote vote been a long time coming and we're going

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to send the president legislation that

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will repeal this bad law we are going to vote this week to repeal the health care

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law the wheels clearly have come off the lawyer seeing it right now with costs

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that are up co-pays that are up and so many co-ops have failed you know to to

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help people who don't have insurance

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the president should not have had to hurt so many people who already had

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insurance and what many people are finding now as they may have coverage

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but they can't get care the Affordable Care Act is very far from actually being

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affordable and it's time for Democrats to work with us to replace this health

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care law with something that gives people Affordable Care instead of

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unusable coverage on another matter the president today at a press conference in

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Paris he talked about Isis you know he's been talking about Isis being contained

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I was in Afghanistan over Thanksgiving I will tell you

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Isis is not contained Isis is expanding isis has jumped the fence they're

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sending out franchises around the world and now have a significant presence in

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Afghanistan so the president is that this climate conference the American

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people have that is a very very low priority they're focused on jobs the

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economy and terrorism and whatever the president agrees to in Paris is

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something is going to have to come and discuss with the United States Senate

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and bring it to congress on on Obamacare it hasn't been too many weeks ago that

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the administration was saying that there would be twenty million people covered

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through the individual policies options under Obamacare by the end of next year

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now the Secretary of Health and Human Services is saying we're really ten

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million four million less than we had last year is a more realistic goal for

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this year now this was working why would that be the case you have higher cost

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than families have ever seen before

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for the first time ever the average deductible for health insurance is now

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over $2000 and for many individual policies the average deductible is

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$5,000 on that the Bronze level

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or one person or $10,000 for the family if you're only paying thousands of

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dollars for insurance and you've got five or ten thousand dollars you have to

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pay before you get coverage for most working families for most families in

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america that's like not having insurance at all

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Planned Parenthood for all the reasons we've discussed over the last month and

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it is a way to put the measure on the president's desk and that's what we

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intend to not inconsistent in any way in my judgment the health care that Planned

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Parenthood allegedly provides over and above abortion services are provided by

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community health centers around the country dramatically greater number of

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community health centers around the country and that's where the funding

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ought to reside yeah

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the whole issue is still a work in progress and I think the refugee issue

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is likely to be dealt with and some way and there are a lot of moving parts you

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know we prefer not to be passing a measure with this many different bill

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Senate but because the democrats here in the Senate refused to let us pass the

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individual appropriations bill that's what we're left with and so it is

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complicated

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lot of different bills lot of different ideas we're working our way through them

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through the two appropriations committees and sometime before eleven

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will resolve all that and move forward to try one of our houses have a robust

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bill through the reconciliation process of repealing Obamacare and expand to

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some extent the number of things

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repeal we believe it will have broad appeal in the Senate and in the house