10 Facts Every American Should Know About Speaker

Pelosi’s 1,990-Page Gov’t Takeover of Health Care

Members of Congress and the American people are just beginning to look at Speaker
Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) 1,990-page government takeover of health care, but it’s already
becoming clear just how costly and unsustainable this proposal is. From higher taxes on
middle-class families to job-killing mandates on small businesses to cuts in Medicare
benefits for seniors, here are 10 facts every American should know about Speaker
Pelosi’s 1,990-page government takeover of health care:

1. RAISES TAXES ON MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES. Speaker Pelosi’s health care

bill imposes a range of tax increases on families with income below $250,000, breaking a
promise made by President Obama. Tax increases on middle class families include: an
individual mandate tax of up to 2.5 percent of income for taxpayers earning as little as
$9,350; repeal of a tax break on medicine purchased with funds from an HSA (health
savings account); limits to tax relief through FSAs (flexible spending accounts); taxes on
medical devices that will inevitably be passed on to consumers; and a new tax on all
insurance policies.

2. MASSIVE CUTS TO MEDICARE BENEFITS FOR SENIORS. Despite grave

warnings from CBO, FactCheck.org, and the independent Lewin Group that cuts to
Medicare of the magnitude included in Speaker Pelosi’s bill would have a negative
impact on seniors’ benefits and choices, Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill stays the course
and cuts Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars.

3. NO PROTECTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill

claims to exempt small businesses from the steep eight percent ‘pay or play’ employer
mandate. The facts tell a different story. Using Census data compiled by the Small
Business Administration, this so-called ‘exemption’ hammers small employers with only,
on average, 17 or more employees to new taxes and mandates. The outfits affected
employ 70 percent of all small business employees, or 42.3 million workers. Adding to
the assault on small businesses, the bill does not index the small business “exemption”
amounts, meaning more and more small businesses will be ensnared by this job-killing
employer mandate each year.

4. INCREASES THE COST OF HEALTH INSURANCE. Imposing a new $2 billion

tax on insurance policies will be passed on to patients in the form of higher premiums.
Changes to the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit will, according to estimates by
CBO, will raise Medicare Part B premiums by $25 billion and Part D premiums by 20
percent. And imposing an unfunded mandate on the states to pay for the bill’s Medicaid
expansion will shift the burden of this expansion on state taxpayers who may experience
tax increases to cover the cost.

5. USES GIMMICKS TO HIDE BUDGET-BUSTING COST, PILES UP DEBT ON

FUTURE GENERATIONS. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill claims to be deficit
neutral, but uses budget gimmickry to hide its massive total cost. Working families across
America know they cannot simply decide that a bill they get in the mail doesn’t exist, but
that’s exactly what congressional Democrats are doing. In order to meet the President’s
‘target’ spending total of $900 billion, Democrats have simply swept costly provisions
under the rug, including the $245 billion ‘doc fix.’

6. IMPOSES JOB-KILLING EMPLOYER MANDATES. Additional taxes on

employers and new government mandates that dictate acceptable insurance will place
new and crushing burdens on employers. These are burdens that will ultimately fall
squarely on the backs of workers in the form of reduced wages, fewer hours or lost
employment. CBO agrees that "[e]mployees largely bear the cost of... play-or-pay fees in
the form of lower wages." According to the National Federation of Independent Business
(NFIB), the nation’s largest small business association, an employer mandate of this
magnitude will disproportionately impact small businesses, triggering up to 1.6 million
lost jobs. Two-thirds of those jobs would be shed by small businesses.

7. TILTS THE PLAYING FIELD IN FAVOR OF THE GOVERNMENT-RUN

INSURANCE COMPANY. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill promises not to give the
government-run plan advantages over private insurers in the market, but the opposite is
true. The bill provides billions in start-up funding for the government-run plan, and while
it requires the plan to repay the money over time it does not require the plan to pay
interest on this “loan.” This interest-free, taxpayer-subsidized loan is potentially worth
millions of dollars and tilts the playing field in favor of the government-run plan.

8. THREATENS CASH-STRAPPED STATES WITH UNFUNDED MANDATES.

Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill swells the number of Americans on the government rolls
by expanding Medicaid eligibility. Medicaid is financed through a federal-state
partnership, but the bill dumps nearly ten percent of the mandated expansion included in
the bill onto the states. States, already struggling with fiscal constraints, would be left on
the hook for billions of dollars due to this unfunded mandate.

9. CREATES A NEW MONSTROSITY IN THE TAX CODE. Starting in 2011,

Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill imposes a 5.4 percent tax on adjusted gross income
above $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for married couples. Yet, the dollar
amounts for which the tax kicks in are not indexed for inflation. We’ve seen this horror
film before: the Alternative Minimum Tax, another Frankenstein’s monster of the tax
code, also wasn’t indexed for inflation and now affects millions of middle class families
with incomes below the Democrat’s surtax.

10. MISSES AN OPPORTUNITY TO CURTAIL JUNK LAWSUITS. Speaker

Pelosi’s health care bill misses a critical opportunity to rein in junk lawsuits and costly
defensive medicine. The bill includes only a voluntary grant program to deal with the
medical liability crisis instead of including real reform, which would produce tens of
billions of dollars in savings, improve efficiency in our health care system and reduce
costs for patients and providers.

http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=152063