HR 3962

The chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has delivered his scoring of HR 3962 to members of Congress and the news isn’t good. Not only does it look like the bill will wind up costing more than projected by the CBO, the pledge that the bill will not reduce services to Medicare recipients will be difficult, if not impossible, to keep.

Some of you may remember Rick Foster from the fiasco surrounding George Bush’s Medicare Prescription Drug Plan. Foster’s cost estimates for the plan were more than $200 billion higher than the CBO’s.

In an email to members this morning, Progressive Democrats of America calls HR 3962, "a very bad bill."

This bill is, so far, a very bad bill that will further enmesh corporations into our government and our daily lives without addressing the problem. It diminishes all of our rights, not just reproductive ones, by failing to recognize healthcare as a human right, not a commodity to be traded on Wall Street.

And, it does next to nothing to help Americans who are now being gouged by healthcare corporations. “if you like your insurance--you get to keep it” has morphed into “if you have insurance, you have to keep it whether you like it or not, and if you don’t have it--you have to buy it.”

:::snip:::

In 2007, I was fortunate enough to become a 'reporter' by way of becoming a radio talk show host in Colorado. I began interviewing candidates in Colorado and had several candidates on my show who went on to successful victories. And, being an ex-Pat from North Carolina, I took time from my vacation and family visits in NC to seek out NC candidates like Larry Kissell.
During my interview with him, I was very impressed with his statements on supporting the working class families in NC-08 that had lost their factory jobs and were working 2 and 3 jobs just to make ends meet. So I am frankly stunned that he would be on the fence on the current health care bill, when these same families are the ones more likely not to have good health insurance.
the letter I wrote him follows:

Congressman Kissell,

AARP and AMA support HR 3962. But LK says that the projected CBO cuts to Medicare would violate his pledge NOT to cut Medicare.

Has the insurance industry bought our Rep?