A healthcare expert says the healthcare bill drafted by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) creates new taxes and cuts to the Medicare program to reduce the cost to the federal government, but does nothing to reduce the cost of healthcare in the family budget.
The Wall Street Journal says the Baucus bill would break all 50 state budgets by permanently expanding Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for the poor. The bill would for the first time make Medicaid available to childless adults and also extend healthcare insurance subsidies to people up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. Under the senator's plan -- known as "America's Healthy Future Act" -- individuals who fail to pay the $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance could be charged with a misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 fine. Dennis Smith is a senior fellow in healthcare reform at The Heritage Foundation's Center for Health Policy Studies. He says that penalty is just one of the many "hidden, unknown consequences" in the legislation. "We've been warning about this for some time of how intrusive the federal government is going to become in all of this," he states. "Obviously when you have a mandate, you have to enforce that mandate." Smith says expanding the current Medicaid entitlement is irresponsible. As he points out, states cannot afford the existing Medicaid program. "Congress earlier this year had to bail out the states to the tune of $87 billion over a two-year period," he notes. "[So] it makes no sense when you know the current program is unsustainable to add another 11 [million] to 15 million more people into the Medicaid program." Smith notes that although the Baucus bill does not contain a public health insurance option, an amendment for one will be offered today in the Finance Committee -- and if that public option amendment is not approved in committee, he expects it will be offered on the Senate floor as well. As originally introduced in mid-September, the America's Healthy Future Act carries a price tag of $856 billion -- but "will not add to the federal deficit," states a press release from Baucus' office.
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