Supporters of Healthcare Bill Forced to Retool Message

Public opinion of the healthcare reform bill enacted earlier this year continues to rise in opposition, a dangerous prospect for its proponents as the mid-term elections approach. This Politico piece summarizes a host of new messaging directives to its supporters designed to try to mitigate negative sentiment towards the bill. What the article fails to point out is that there is no strategy for defending and promoting a bill that was misrepresented and disingenuous from the start. Good luck convincing Americans that even though it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's actually a golden goose.

US Chamber Sends 1099 Signatures Against 1099 Rule To Congress

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is turning up the heat on Congress to repeal the rather insane 1099 provision that was passed into law as part of the healthcare reform bill earlier this year. Check out some of the testimonials from Chamber members about what the requirement would do to their businesses.

Beware of "Compromise" on 1099 Repeal

The U.S. Chamber does a great job of outlining why Sen. Nelson's proposed alternative to an outright repeal of the healthcare bill's 1099 reporting requirement is of little benefit to businesses. It's imperative that Sen. Johanns' outright repeal is not replaced or steamrolled by Sen. Nelson's weak compromise.

Great Commentary by ACCA on 1099 Fiasco

This excellent blog post by ACCA's Charlie McCrudden details the ridiculous-ness of party politics that prevented a nonsensical, unrelated provision in the healthcare bill that will cost law-abiding businesses millions if not billions of dollars from being repealed yesterday.

Small Biz Faces Big Hits in New Healthcare Regs

As quoted in this US Chamber blog post, the IRS' National Taxpayer Advocate Service says, “…the burdens may turn out to be disproportionate as compared with any resulting improvement in tax compliance.” Be sure to check out the links to the TAS press release and report contained in the Chamber's blog post. There's even more details in their post from earlier today here.

So Can You Keep Your Current Health Insurance Plan or Not?

Unfortunately the more we learn about the details and implementation of the recently enacted healthcare reforms, the more promises we see being broken. HARDI immediately advised members to prepare for significantly higher premiums as insurance companies adjust to the new coverage mandates, but now there is more concern that employers and employees may not be able to keep their current plans anyway. The Chamber provides this nice overview of the controversial "grandfathering" interpretation, and ACCA's Charlie McCrudden posted this useful heads up recently too.

**Issue Update** Obama Appoints 15, Including Becker, During Recess

Despite strong opposition, President Obama proceeded yesterday with 15 recess appointments, including the highly controversial and twice defeated appointment of labor activist, Craig Becker, to the National Labor Relations Board. In addition to Becker, the President also appointed Mark Pearce, a labor-side attorney, but did not appoint a lone Republican nominee, Brian Hayes, or any other candidates to join the NLRB. Prospects for increasing labor-friendly regulatory changes to labor relations law now grows dramatically, though it is important to note that without Senate confirmation, recess appoints will expire in Jan. 2011.

March 28 Post: Will the President Really Appoint Craig Becker During the Recess?

The US Chamber's two most recent posts addresses the question outlining the importance of appointing a labor activist like Becker to one of the Administration's biggest financial and political supporters: organized labor. This post outlines how a recess appoint of Becker would contradict previous statements made by then-Senator Obama, while this one goes into great detail showing exactly how important the Becker nomination and EFCA is to big labor.

It is important to note that it's been a major labor disappointment to have not yet passed EFCA, and labor took another big hit when the healthcare reconciliation package passed this week because it stripped the "construction carve-out" from the original Senate bill which would have made construction businesses with as few as five employees subject to the healthcare bill's employer mandates thereby providing a huge advantage to unions.

Prepare Now for Increasing Employer Costs Post-Healthcare "Reform"

I've been somewhat surprised to have not seen more articles like this one from CNN Money projecting higher health insurance costs for employers resulting from the federal healthcare reforms passed by Congress last week. Premium costs can only go up when insurer mandates force expanded coverage or benefits. Prepare now because employers may fondly reminisce about the days of only 15-20% premium increases.

How Healthcare Reform Will Affect Small Businesses

This is a good piece from today's WSJ, but if this is the extent of the highly touted small business tax credits that were supposed to make this reform bill such a great deal, think again:

"For tax years 2010 through 2013, organizations with no more than 25 employees and average annual wages of less than $50,000 that purchase health insurance for employees would receive a tax credit that phases out as firm size and average wage increase, according to a legislative summary from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Beginning in 2014, eligible small businesses that purchase coverage through new state exchanges can also receive a tax credit for their contribution toward the employees' health-insurance premium."

Unfortunately there still seems to be far more harm than good in this so-called "reform".

What the Healthcare Reforms Will Mean for You

The WSJ and the New York Times prepared two nice summaries of what enactment of either the original Senate healthcare reform bill, or the reconciliation "sidecar" package will mean to consumers. The WSJ summary focuses more on the effects of the reconciliation bill and provides links to other excellent resources, while the NYT's piece (which I believe is flawed in some of it's projections on how the health insurance market will react) provides an excellent timeline of when major actions from the bill take affect.

House Passes Buck(s) to Senate by Passing Reconciliation Bill

The House followed up its historic passing of the Senate-passed HR 3950 by next passing HR 4872 by a 220-211 vote which sends amendments to HR 3950 to the Senate to try to pass through the controversial reconciliation process possibly as early as this week. If, however, the Senate makes any changes to this amendment bill, then whatever passes the Senate must go back to the House for another vote.

See How Your Representative Voted on HR 3950

Was your Representative one of the 219 who voted to pass the Senate healthcare bill?

Democrats who joined every Republican to vote against the bill were: Adler, Altmire, Arcuri, Barrow, Berry, Boren, Boucher, Bright, Chandler, Childers, Davis (AL), Davis (TN), Edwards, Herseth Sandlin, Holden, Kissell, Kratovil, Lipinski, Lynch, Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, McMahon, Melancon, Minnick, Peterson, Shuler, Skelton, Space, Tanner, Taylor, Teague

At the Least, Senate Healthcare Bill is Now Law

The House of Representatives passed HR 3950 219-212 which was passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve. The House will take up HR 4872 next which would become the Senate's reconciliation bill but what is most important to note is that if the House or Senate do nothing from this point on, the President will sign into law the original Senate bill most likely on Wednesday.

CBO Confirms Healthcare Bill Will INCREASE Deficit

This post to the US Chamber's blog provides excerpts of the Congressional Budget Office's response to inquiries from Congressman Paul Ryan about apparent accounting gimmicks in the latest healthcare reform bill expected to be voted on in the House tomorrow. The non-partisan CBO confirms that the current bill is likely to add to the deficit once highly questionable assumptions are removed from consideration. There is little to no evidence that anything good will come out of this bill passing tomorrow.

Reasons Why HARDI Opposes Latest Healthcare Bill

And don't just believe HARDI, but the 249 other member organizations of the StartOver! Coalition also agree that the latest changes to the Senate-passed healthcare bill will further increase costs of the bill, health insurance premium costs, taxes and penalties on employers and individuals, and provide a potentially powerful incentive for employers and individuals to both move away from privately-provided, employer subsidized health plans.

Despite All Efforts, 55% Still Oppose Healthcare Bill

This latest poll shows opposition to the current healthcare bill (and the process by which it's being advanced) is it its second highest point since the debate began last year. Perhaps this is why HARDI members have now sent over 900 letters to Congress in just 9 days urging NO votes on this bill.

In Case You Missed It: There is No Cost Reduction in Healthcare Bill

Don't believe me, just read this. The US Chamber goes on to say, "the American people understand that paying for increasing costs is not reducing costs, hence the strong desire for Congress to start over." (and why HARDI members have sent over 600 letters to Congress telling them just that)

Vote Now and Read Later

I'm still amazed how there can be so much lobbying for a bill that no one has yet seen. All we do know is that the Senate-passed healthcare bill continues to be a lot of smoke and mirrors, fails to address root causes of health insurance costs increases, and will result in new fees, taxes, and mandates on employers and individuals alike, and that is what would become law should the House pass anything this week and the Senate fails to make good on a politically damaging reconciliation bill. HARDI members have sent over 500 letters to the Hill in the last week alone urging opposition to the Senate bill, the use of reconciliation in the Senate, and to start over on a real reform bill that will actually reduce costs and increase accessibility.

Great New Info on Why Current Healthcare Bill Must be Defeated

The StartOver! Coalition, of which HARDI is a member, recently released these incredible poll results and information further demonstrating why the House should NOT pass any form of the current Senate healthcare bill next week. HARDI is already over one-third of the way to its "1000 in 10" campaign to defeat this bill!

• StartOver!'s latest television ad
• Just released Tarrance Group poll results
• PowerPoint summary of Tarrance Group poll results
• Rassmussen poll showing 55% believe in starting over

US Chamber: Six Reasons to Kill Senate Healthcare Bill

These are six great reasons, and doesn't even include the ridiculous Merkley provision which would target construction businesses (like HVACR contractors and perhaps even their suppliers). Consider the Chamber's six, plus Merkley to give seven great reasons why HARDI launched our "1000 in 10" healthcare reform campaign! Here's the quick list outlined by the Chamber (here for the full explanations and references):

• You cannot keep the plan you have.
• Your health care costs will increase.
• Your taxes will increase.
• The debt, the deficit, and federal spending will increase.
• Medicare will be cut by $500 billion.
• Jobs will be lost, or never created.