Another 2,000 Page Bill

United States Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (DEMOCRAT-Nev) unveiled a 2,00>0 page bill Wednesday night which alleges to reform the healthcare system in the United States.

Oh, Wait! Before I forget …

I know many of you never go to the Secret Decoder Ring Page, but today you should.

Take a second, right now, before you continue, and click HERE, scroll down to the bottom, and take a look at what I think of Newsweek's Sarah Palin cover.

Ok. Back to health care.

The first problem with the Senate bill is there doesn't appear to be any agreement on how much it will cost. According to the LA Times, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scored it at $849 billion, less than the $1.05 trillion the House version would cost.

But, the New York Times' Robert Pear pointed out in his piece on the bill that:

"Many provisions of the House bill would take effect in 2013. But to help hold down the cost of the bill, Mr. Reid decided to delay the effective date for many provisions by one year, to 2014."

The assumption, then, is Reid's bill is scored on nine years worth of benefits. I hope someone asks the CBO: In the ten years that the provisions in Sen. Reid's bill are in effect, how much will this bill cost?

Whatever the number; how will this get paid for? Here is a list of some of the tax increases as listed by CBS News:

Forty percent tax on high premium insurance plans, so-called "Cadillac" plans, those plans costing over $8,500 for individuals and $23,000 for families.

Creates a new 5 percent tax on elective Cosmetic Surgery

Increases Medicare payroll taxes by one-half percent to 1.95 percent for individuals earning more than $200,000 or couples earning more than $250,000.

Limitations on Health flexible spending accounts, capping annual contributions at $2,500.

Let's go back to those "Cadillac" plans. We know that civilian employees of the U.S. Government have great health plans available which are quite affordable because they are heavily subsidized by you and me.

I wonder if the "Cadillac" designation includes that subsidy because if it does, guess who is exempt from the Cadillac tax? Keerekt. Members of the U.S. House and Senate.

Another problem estimating the cost of the Reid plan is a great deal of the newly covered individuals will fall under the Medicaid program. Unlike Medicare, which is paid for with taxes collected by the federal government, Medicaid is a shared program between the feds and States.

According to a NY Times article by Adam Nagourney, the GOP Governors meeting in Texas are less than pleased. Nagourney reports the govs are concerned that the Reid bill,

"will impose new costs on the states at a time when governors, almost without exception, are struggling with huge shortfalls in revenues."

The feds pick up a maximum of 50 percent of states' Medicaid costs - in some cases far less - so saying people have to be covered, and then mandating that the states do the covering seems to be shifting the costs onto already bankrupt state budgets.

And, the CBO doesn't count state expenditures. It only counts the money coming into and going out of the federal coffers, so if honest accounting existed inside the Beltway (which it has not since at least 1954, the year before the Beltway was started) the states' share of Reid's bill would be counted in the total.

Governor Mitch Daniels (R-Ind) who, having been the Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush and so knows a little something about how these things work, said,

"This is a fraudulent description of the costs, direct and indirect, of this bill. We know a sucker play when we see one."

The first procedural vote will occur Saturday. If the Majority Leader rounds of 60 votes, the Senate will begin floor debate after Thanksgiving with an eye to getting to final passage before Christmas.

After that the Senate and House Democrats will meet in secret to combine the two bills into one and then come back for votes in each chamber to pass a final bill which would then go to the President for his signature.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Links to all of the stories quoted above, plus an really nice Mullfoto and that Newsweek cover which is today's Catchy Caption of the Day.