After Making Obamacare Utterly Unworkable, Colorado Looks to Move to a Single-Payer Healthcare System

Ya gotta love when a plan comes together.

From BenefitsPro:

Activists in the Centennial State have gotten more than the 100,000 signatures needed to put an initiative on the ballot next year to establish a single-payer universal health care system in the state. ...  

If approved, the new system would create a state health care cooperative financed entirely by tax revenue. It would replace or at least significantly marginalize the private insurance industry in Colorado and scrap the state insurance exchange set up by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  

If passed, the new system would be financed by a 10 percent payroll tax hike, which would raise an estimated $25 billion. That is more than double all of the revenue currently flowing into the state’s general fund, according to an analysis by KUSA, the Denver NBC affiliate.  

The station also found the tax would amount to 

• $26 out of every bi-weekly paycheck for a worker making $20,000 a year; 

• $64 for one making $50,000 a year and 

• $192 for one making $150,000 a year. ...

Flowchart of the 80+ Federal Programs Spending $1 Trillion Per Year on Welfare in America

This is just a small portion of the cart, here is the full chart from the Ways and Means Committee.

Why People Aren't Buying Obamacare

From Investor's Business Daily:

It's hard to imagine that the Democratic Party, which rails against income inequality, is prepared to tax away about 3% of pre-tax income from modest-wage earners unless they buy coverage which may be of little use to them. 

Consider the options for single 27-year-olds earning $24,000 a year, or just over 200% of the poverty level, who live in St. Louis. 

The cheapest coverage available is the lowest-cost bronze plan from Coventry, a division of Aetna (NYSE:AET), for $960. But 4% of income for someone of modest means is a lot to spend for a plan that won't cover much before the $6,850 deductible is met.

Entitlement Nightmare | Bar Graph

From CATO:

Because the Obama administration has buried its head in the sand on the entitlement crisis, the next administration will face very ugly budget projections when it comes into office in 2017. The chart below shows the explosive CBO projections for the three largest entitlements. Over the next two presidential terms, spending is expected to grow 62 percent on Social Security, 73 percent on Medicare, and 45 percent on Medicaid. 

Without needed cuts, Social Security will become a $1 trillion program in 2018, and Medicare will top $1 trillion by 2022. These programs are only “working” to put the next generation of taxpayers into the poor house.

 

Cadillac Tax, Fake Enrollees and Medical Device Tax on the Michael Berry Show Today

I spent a little time on the air with Michael Berry today for an Obamacare update.  Our discussion begins at the 19 minute mark.  You can drag the player over to that timestamp:

You can hear all past Michael Berry Podcasts here.

Cadillac Tax Set to Hit As Many As 77% of Health Plans in 2018, CFOs and Unions Fret

Cadillac Tax Confuses and Frustrates Employers and Union Groups

Catch 22: To Make PPACA Fiscally Sustainable, the Cadillac Tax Must Become Politically Unsustainable

But At Least They are Watching Our Dollars: Obamacare Exchanges Fail to Catch 17 of 18 Fake Enrollees, GAO Audit

• Gov. auditors signed up 17 out of 18 fake ObamaCare enrollees for coverage through federal and state exchanges, a report released in October. 
• The GAO sent 10 auditors with fictitious enrollment information to the federal healthcare.gov site as well as two state-run ObamaCare exchanges, to sign up. 
• While eight didn't make it through the initial identity-checking process, all 10 eventually obtained coverage, even though four obviously had made up Social Security numbers that started with "000." 
• They all were able to keep their coverage despite filing fake follow-up documentation.
• In addition, the GAO tried to sign up 8 more up for Medicaid coverage. 3 made it through the process, and 4 ended up getting taxpayer subsidized private coverage instead.