Nancy Pelosi said the ObamaCare bill had to be passed, unread, so we could find out what’s in it. Now we know these secret taxes and fees are just about to rear their ugly heads.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Starting in 2012, the government will charge a new fee to your health insurance plan for research to find out which drugs, medical procedures, tests and treatments work best. But what will Americans do with the answers?
What? Obama said his health care plan would save, those who have insurance, an additional $2500 a year. He didn’t say it was going to cost us more. Sounds like fraud to me.
The goal of the research, part of a little-known provision of President Barack Obama’s health care law, is to answer such basic questions as whether that new prescription drug advertised on TV really works better than an old generic costing much less.
It was “little-known” because the Democrats who pushed the bill refused to give anyone time to read the 3,500 page monstrosity.
But in the politically charged environment surrounding health care, the idea of medical effectiveness research is eyed with suspicion. The insurance fee could be branded a tax and drawn into the vortex of election-year politics.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute – a quasi-governmental agency created by Congress to carry out the research – has yet to commission a single head-to-head comparison, although its director is anxious to begin.
Translation: a new government bureaucracy that will be used to hire more cronies that will be paid for by the overburdened taxpayers.
The government is already providing the institute with some funding: The $1-per-person insurance fee goes into effect in 2012. But the Treasury Department says it’s not likely to be collected for another year, though insurers would still owe the money. The fee doubles to $2 per covered person in its second year and thereafter rises with inflation. The IRS is expected to issue guidance to insurers within the next six months.
I’m going to suggest that everyone who pays for their own insurance to drop their coverage, pay the fine and see how long Obama’s “it pays for itself” Ponzi scheme works. The good news: they will still have to treat you at the ER.
It’s beginning to look like the Republicans are TRYING to re-elect Obummer! Why else would they field such a motley, wishy-washy crew of “candidates”? It almost seems that the “Two Party System” is just a dog-and-pony-show to make the proles THINK they have a choice! Why else would Obummercare be passed UNANIMOUSLY unread and un-debated?