The Huntingtonian Shedding Light on the Town of Huntington

9 Responses to Stephen Labate Pledges to Repeal Obamacare

1. Will you replace it with something else? If so, what? Will the insured continue to pay the hospital bills of the uninsured? Or will we let them die? Will people again be excluded because of pre-existing conditions? Will insurance companies be able to drop people who get sick? Will we again allow insurance companies to use our money for huge profits and bonuses rather than health care? Can we have some details?

   

   Debra
   June 29, 2012 8:36 am at 8:36 am
   

2. @debra: Well said. Most critics, including Mr. Labate, don’t actually have a viable alternative (if you do, please provide details). I find it hard to understand why anyone in this great country of ours could be against universal health care for all our citizens. “Obamacare” may not be perfect but it is a huge step forward in providing health care to the uninsured,keeping costs down for others and allowing reasonable profits for insurance companies. I think most constituents of the 3rd Congressional district will accept the healthcare legislation (passed by Congress)and subsequent Supreme Court decision and will not support “the immeduate repeal of Obamacare”.

   

   wundaboy
   June 29, 2012 9:25 am at 9:25 am
   

3. This decision marks the destruction of individual liberty, as for the first time, citizens can be forced by the government to buy a product or service.

   I guess if you don’t include Social Security, Medicare, State and Federal Taxes, Sales tax etc.

   In September 2009, President Obama told George Stephanopoulos, “For us to say you have to take responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.” Today, the Supreme Court ruled otherwise, finding that the mandate violates the Commerce Clause, but is constitutional under the taxing power.

   In 2019 (when all the provisions of the law will be in effect), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the government will see increased revenues of $104 billion from the health care act. If you divided that number into the projected US GDP for 2019, which according to the CBO economic forecast is $21.164 trillion. That would mean the tax increase provisions of the health care law would amount to .49 percent of total GDP (that’s one half of one percent).

   Depending on your rounding, that would mean the tax increases resulting from the health care law would be about the size of tax increases proposed and passed in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter, in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush and in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.

   The health care-related tax increases are smaller than the tax increase signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 and a temporary tax signed into law in 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. And they are significantly smaller than two tax increases passed during World War II and a tax increase passed in 1961.

   And after all that everyone would have health insurance.

   I pledge to the constituents of the 3rd Congressional District that as your Congressman I will vote for the immediate repeal of Obamacare.

   So you would repeal the following:

   Providing new coverage options for young adults
   Health plans are now required to allow parents to keep their children under age 26 without job-based coverage on their family coverage, and, thanks to this provision, 3.1 million young people have gained coverage nationwide.

   Making prescription drugs affordable for seniors
   Thanks to the new health care law people with Medicare received a $250 rebate to help cover the cost of their prescription drugs when they hit the donut hole in 2010. By 2020, the law will close the donut hole.

   Covering preventive services with no deductible or co-pay
   People with Medicare receive free preventive services – such as mammograms and colonoscopies – or a free annual wellness visit with their doctor. Because of the law, 54 million Americans with private health insurance gained preventive service coverage with no cost-sharing.

   Providing better value for your premium dollar through the 80/20 Rule
   Under the new health care law, insurance companies must provide consumers greater value by spending generally at least 80 percent of premium dollars on health care and quality improvements instead of overhead, executive salaries or marketing. If they don’t, they must provide consumers a rebate or reduce premiums

   Scrutinizing unreasonable premium increases
   In every State and for the first time under Federal law, insurance companies are required to publicly justify their actions if they want to raise rates by 10 percent or more

   Removing lifetime limits on health benefits
   The law bans insurance companies from imposing lifetime dollar limits on health benefits – freeing cancer patients and individuals suffering from other chronic diseases from having to worry about going without treatment because of their lifetime limits. Already, 2,251,000 people, including 872,000 women and 585,000 children, are free from worrying about lifetime limits on coverage. The law also restricts the use of annual limits and bans them completely in 2014.

   Creating new coverage options for individuals with pre-existing conditions
   Previously uninsured people who were locked out of the coverage system because of a pre-existing condition are now insured through a new Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan that was created under the new health reform law.

   Preventing illness and promoting health
   The Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the Affordable Care Act supports effective policies so that all Americans can lead longer, more productive lives.

   Increasing support for community health centers
   The Affordable Care Act increases the funding available to community health centers in all 50 states to create new health center sites in medically underserved areas, enable health centers to increase the number of patients served, expand preventive and primary health care services, and/or support major construction and renovation projects.

   

   1653
   June 29, 2012 11:18 am at 11:18 am
   

4. Well then, that seals the deal. I won’t be voting for YOU!

   Sorry, if the Republicans ever had a viable alternative to healthcare for all Americans perhaps they should have instituted it themselves years ago when they had the chance.

   The party of NO is not going to do anything, don’t fool yourselves.

   

   My Town Too
   June 30, 2012 7:34 am at 7:34 am
   

5. The irony is that the plan that Romney and Obama championed got it’s start at the Heritage Foundation which is a Conservative think tank. Here are excerpts from this article.

   “research suggests that while Heritage has advocated for health insurance exchanges for many years, others did, too. Scholars credit Alain C. Enthoven — an emeritus professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business who worked in the Defense Department during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations — with popularizing the idea for an exchange as many as three decades ago.

   Still, there’s little doubt that Heritage has been a consistent and eager promoter of the exchange idea, especially during the effort to design a new health care system for Massachusetts. That effort concluded with the Democratic legislature joining with the Republican governor, Romney, to implement a system that includes a health insurance exchange.

   On numerous occasions, Heritage scholars wrote approvingly of the exchange system in Massachusetts, known as the Connector. In a paper about the Massachusetts plan published on April 11, 2006, Edmund Haislmaier, a Heritage fellow in health care policy, wrote of the “truly significant and transformative health system changes that the legislation would set in motion.”

   

   1653
   June 30, 2012 9:02 am at 9:02 am
   

6. Those of you here who claim our health care costs will not be affected by Obamacare are completely wrong. In the latest survey by the Kaiser Family foundation http://ehbs.kff.org/pdf/8226.pdf , the average insurance premium for family coverage increased 9% since Obamacare was enacted. Starting Jan 1, 2013 Obamacare increased the threshold for deducting medical expenses from 7.5% to 10% of Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). Parents of special needs children will be hurt because they will only be allowed to contribute $2500 (currently unlimited) to flexible spending accounts to pay for special needs education. Tax deductions for employer provided prescription drug coverage for retirees are eliminated which increases the risk that this benefit will be dropped by employers. Heath savings accounts (HSA), flexible spending accounts, etc. can no longer be used to purchase over the counter medicines. Should you have a financial emergency and need an early withdrawal from an HAS, the penalty has increased from 10% to 20%. Small businesses (subchapter S Corp) are slapped with a surtax which significantly increases their capital gains, investment income and other investment income rates. There are many other taxes imposed by Obamacare beyond the mandate tax, but the ones listed above will significantly hurt the middle class.
   The Obamacare ruling prevents the federal government from forcing states to expand their Medicaid programs. Where does that leave the people who were to be covered in this pool in states that don’t implement this requirement? Will the federal government be responsible for providing them insurance? If so, how will this be paid for? Will a new federal entitlement program be required to insure them? I think it is safe to conclude that additional tax hikes are on the horizon.
   Senior citizens will be hurt the most by this law. Obamacare cuts $575 billion from Medicare to pay for the laws new entitlements. These cuts come at a time when 30% more people will enter the program. Many of the cuts come in the form of reduced reimbursements to medical providers. According to a national survey conducted by Jackson Healthcare, the 4th largest health care staffing company in the US, 26% of primary care doctors are not accepting new Medicare patients because of the cuts which are part of Obamacare http://jacksonhealthcare.com/media-room/surveys/physician-practice-trends-survey-2012.aspx.Addi Additionally, the elderly will be hit with a tax increase since they now must exceed 10% of their AGI instead of the current rate of 7.5%. Seniors will be further impacted by the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) decisions which will decide whether you can receive treatment based on cost benefit analysis to determine if your life worth saving.
   Bottom line, there is no such thing as a free lunch. All the platitudes in the world praising the utopian goals of universal coverage do not negate the fact that this is a massive tax increase the likes of which we have never seen in this country. Given the SCOTUS decision which gives the government unlimited taxing authority the sky’s the limit on how much we will ultimately pay for healthcare for all.

   

   Long Island Patriot
   July 1, 2012 8:34 am at 8:34 am
   

7. To those of you who do not understand what new taxes Obamacare will bring, read this:

   ATR is warning Americans of Taxmageddon, which will happen on January 1, 2013. This will be the largest tax hike in American history and will come in three waves.

   First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

   In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for small business owners, families, and investors (later re-upped by President Obama and Democrat Congress in 2010). The following tax hikes will occur on January 1, 2013:

   Personal income tax rates will rise on January 1, 2013. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which the majority of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

   – The 10% bracket rises to a new and expanded 15%

   – The 25% bracket rises to 28%

   – The 28% bracket rises to 31%

   – The 33% bracket rises to 36%

   – The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

   Higher taxes on marriage and family coming on January 1, 2013. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of taxable income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.

   Middle Class Death Tax returns on January 1, 2013. The death tax is currently 35% with an exemption of $5 million ($10 million for married couples). For those dying on or after January 1 2013, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

   Higher tax rates on savers and investors on January 1, 2013. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 23.8 percent in 2013. The top dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 43.4 percent in 2013. This is because of scheduled rate hikes plus Obamacare’s investment surtax.

   Second Wave: Obamacare Tax Hikes

   There are twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Some have already gone into effect (the tanning tax, the medicine cabinet tax, the HSA withdrawal tax, W-2 health insurance reporting, and the “economic substance doctrine”). Several more will go into effect on January 1, 2013. They include:

   Medicare Payroll Tax Hike takes effect on January 1, 2013. The Medicare payroll tax is currently 2.9 percent on all wages and self-employment profits. Starting in 2013, wages and profits exceeding $200,000 ($250,000 in the case of married couples) will face a 3.8 percent rate.

   “Special Needs Kids Tax” comes online on January 1, 2013 Imposes a cap on FSAs of $2500 (now unlimited). Indexed to inflation after 2013. There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. This Obamacare cap harms these families.

   Medical Device Tax begins to be assessed on January 1, 2013. Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax. Exempts items retailing for <$100.

   “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deductions goes into force on January 1, 2013. Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. Waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only.

   Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes

   When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2013, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. These tax increases will be in force for BOTH 2012 and 2013. The major items include:

   The AMT will ensnare over 31 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 31 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

   Full business expensing will disappear. In 2011, businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. Starting on 2013 tax returns, all of it will have to be “depreciated” (slowly deducted over many years).

   Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

   Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

   Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.

   How's that gonna work out for you?
   Vote for Steve LaBate while you have anything left in your pockets!!!

   

   Lahmann@verizon.net
   July 1, 2012 10:33 pm at 10:33 pm
   

8. Rep. Steve Israel has done an outstanding job representing the citizens of the 3rd Congressional District, especially for us veterans. The people, via congress and the Supreme Court, have spoken and now it is time to move on and continue work on the economy, create jobs and to put an end to the unjustified and poorly executed wars in Afganistan and Iraq started by the Bush/Cheney administration. If Mr. Labate wishes to taken seriously as a candidate, and I would like him to be, he will have to do more than criticize the health care program this country so desperately needed and prepare to have a dialogue on the many other issues we are concerned about.

   

   wundaboy
   July 2, 2012 3:58 pm at 3:58 pm
   

9. Here is something else from the Kaiser Family Foundation:

   In the latest survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 56 percent of respondents said they prefer Obamacare opponents “stop their efforts to block the law and move on to other national problems,” while 38 percent said they prefer those opponents “continue trying to block the law from being implemented.”

   Kaiser, a nonprofit, independent foundation that studies health policy and opinions, polled 1,239 adults beginning last Thursday, when the Supreme Court upheld Obama’s health law under Congress’s taxing power.

   Predictably, responses broke down on partisan lines, but independents who do not lean toward either party also preferred Obamacare critics drop their repeal push by a margin of 51 percent to 35 percent. Respondents favored the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law by a margin of 47 percent to 43 percent, Kaiser found.

   

   1653
   July 4, 2012 6:36 am at 6:36 am
   

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