Obama's health care reform about to corn-hole us all

[redrumloa]

Many in S. Florida could face `Cadillac' healthcare tax

http://www.miamiherald.com/323/story/1332051.html

A key provision in the main Senate healthcare reform bill could cause many South Floridians to pay taxes on their employer-based insurance on the theory that they're expensive ``Cadillac'' plans.

A family that has an insurance plan valued at $27,000, for example, would pay $2,400 in taxes under the present version of the Senate Finance Committee bill.

The bill creates a 40 percent tax on healthcare benefits valued at more than $8,000 annually for an individual, $21,000 for a family. That measure includes employer and employee contributions, plus the amounts in health and flexible savings accounts.

Santiago Leon, a Miami insurance broker, says that in South Florida ``we have on the market today a surprising number of plans that would hit the `Cadillac' ceiling.''

About a third of the 11,000 employees of Baptist Health South Florida have a plan valued at more than $17,000 a year. Considering that health costs are rising far faster than inflation, it's possible those figures could be above the threshold of $21,000 in 2013, when the provision would be scheduled to take effect.

Meanwhile, Milliman, a national consulting firm, released a study earlier this year that an average employer-based, preferred provider organization plan for a family of four in the Miami area cost $20,282 in 2008.

 

[redrumloa]

Democrats want to punish the elderly.

S. Florida seniors' coverage may be cut
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/healt ... 30828.html

For Eli Bess, 85, of Sunrise, the healthcare reform debate has gotten personal. As a member of a Humana HMO, he gets a free gym membership, a benefit he says has changed his life. After some medical setbacks several years ago, ``my wife brought me the first time to the gym in a wheelchair. Now I can do anything I want.''

At the moment, both House and Senate healthcare reform proposals are seeking to slash funds to the HMOs that have attracted Bess and 283,000 other South Florida seniors because of rich benefit packages that can include free dental care and many other perks.

At present, the House bill, which has already passed, and the main Senate proposal, still in committee, offer widely different specifics for reducing benefits for South Florida's elderly.

Local congressional leaders are battling for regional protection, but Robert Berenson, a healthcare specialist with the Washington-based Urban Institute, warns that the result won't make everyone happy. ``I'm not saying nobody will feel any pain over this.''

 

[Robert]

Democrats want to punish the elderly.

You mean you didn't already know this?

That's the only reason anyone ever becomes a Democrat, votes Democrat or watches the 'Clinton News Network'.

It's because they have an unbearable desire to punish the elderly.