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Posted by
on
May 16, 2013
190 Million Hours and Counting…Obamacare Burden Keeps Growing and GrowingMountain of New Mandates, Rules, and Red Tape Threatens Families and Job Creators
WASHINGTON, DC – The House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and the Workforce Committees today released an updated version of the Obamacare Burden Tracker (#ObamacareBurden), which reveals the burden on employers and families has increased to almost 190 million hours. The Burden Tracker, first released in February, is a real-time, online resource to help the public keep track of all of the new government mandates, rules, and red tape resulting from Obamacare. The burden of Obamacare is already being felt, even though many provisions of the law, including the requirement for most Americans to buy government-approved health insurance or pay a tax, are not set to take effect until 2014. According to the Obama administration’s own estimates, Obamacare will require American job creators, families, and health care providers to spend almost 190 million hours per year on compliance.* This burden has increased over 60 million hours since February of this year. Every hour and dollar spent complying with the Democrats’ health care law are time and resources being taken from spending time with family, growing a business and creating jobs, or caring for patients. Since many small businesses do not employ in-house lawyers and accountants, compliance costs are especially expensive and burdensome. Given the new demands of complying with the law, it is not surprising that over 70 percent of small businesses cite the health care law as a major obstacle to job creation. What could be done in 189,822,836 hours?
*Based on administration estimates approved by the Office of Management and Budget
Posted by
on
May 14, 2013
Obamacare Oversight: The Looming Premium Rate ShockOn March 14, 2013, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to 17 of the nation's largest health insurance companies requesting analyses of the effect of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's (PPACA's) policies, mandates, taxes, and fees on health insurance premiums. Cick here to read the report. Excerpts | Scope and Methodology | Exhibits | Inquiry to Insurance Companies
Because of the proprietary and confidential nature of the material submitted by these companies, committee staff has redacted identifying information from this report and the accompanying supporting documentation. Publicly identifying the authors of these materials could disrupt the process by which insurers are required to file their proposed premium rates, especially considering that some of the information could change.[1] The committee requested the insurance companies produce their most recent existing analyses rather than create new materials when responding to the committee’s requests. The committee did so in order to capture the most realistic portrait of the PPACA’s effect on premiums. Because the committee requested that insurers submit original analyses, the statistical information is not of a uniform nature.[2] [1] Several insurers made the point that they are doing their best to guess what the market will look like on January 1, 2014. This is difficult considering (as one insurer remarked) that they have to complete these analyses while the administration has yet to issue many “relevant final ACA regulations.” [2] Some insurers calculated premium increases by age and sex, others calculated an average for each state they serve, while others tried to estimate the premium increases for a representative plan in the market. Full Report can be found at: E&C Health Insurance Premium Report
Posted by
on
March 12, 2013
On March 12, 2013 Dr. Burgess spoke on the House Floor about the coming rate shock and rising health care costs as a result of the Affordable Care Act
Posted by
on
February 27, 2013
Posted by
on
February 14, 2013
On February 14, 2013, the Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Health held a hearing to examine the Sustainable Growth Rate formula and looked at ways to work toward building a future system of paying physicians in Medicare. A recording of the hearing can be found here: SGR: Data, Measures, and Models - Building a Future Medicare Physician Payment System
Posted by
on
February 04, 2013
Representative Michael Burgess (R-TX) spoke at the Academy Health Research conference on national health policy. He was “wary” of the 2010 health care law and its health care exchanges for the uninsured. He warned that looming congressional budget struggles and sequestration would affect health care and that the exchanges would not be ready when scheduled.
Dr. Burgess Speaks at National Health Policy Conference
Posted by
on
January 22, 2013
Posted by
on
August 23, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — Who gets thumped by higher taxes inPresident Barack Obama's health care law? The wealthiest 2 percent of Americans will take the biggest hit, starting next year. And the pain will be shared by some who aren't so well off — people swept up in a hodgepodge of smaller tax changes that will help finance health coverage for millions in need. For the vast majority of people, however, the health care law won't mean sending more money to the IRS. And roughly 20 million people eventually will benefit from tax credits that start in 2014 to help them pay insurance premiums. The tax increases — plus a mandate that nearly everyone have health coverage — are helping make the law an election-year scorcher. Obama is campaigning on the benefits for the uninsured, women and young adults. His rival, Mitt Romney, and Republican lawmakers are vowing to repeal "Obamacare," saying some health care reforms are needed but not at this cost. Lots of the noise is about the financial consequences for people who decline to get coverage and businesses that don't offer theirworkers an adequate health plan. Some 4 million individuals without insurance are expected to pay about $55 billion over eight years, according to the Congressional Budget Office's estimates. Employers could be dinged an estimated $106 billion for failing to meet the mandate, which starts in 2014. But that mandate money, whether it's called taxes or penalties, is overwhelmed by other taxes, fees and shrunken tax breaks in the law. These other levies could top $675 billion over the next 10 years, under the CBO's projections of how much revenue the government would lose if the law were repealed. The biggest chunk is in new taxes on the nation's top 2 percent of earners — some $318 billion over a decade. Other major taxes are aimed at the health care industry, and some of that cost is sure to be passed along to consumers as higher prices. A rundown of the most significant tax changes — and who pays: |
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