Smokers and SCHIP, the untold story.

[riverdeep]

Some are rightly questioning the funding of SCHIP funding by tobacco, but as usual, there's more to the story than dems love taxes and pubs are for fiscal responsibility. Originally, the dems didn't want to fund SCHIP with tobacco:

"House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) on Thursday at a forum sponsored by the Center for American Progress said increasing the federal tobacco tax might not be a practical way to fund a reauthorization of SCHIP and indicated that a better funding source would be to reduce Medicare Advantage payments." -4/2/07

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=22843

The problem was that by reducing overpay to the program called Medicare Advantage, it would cut into insurer's profits. Mein Feurher would veto that, and the Senate, with it's greater Republican representation, wouldn't pass it either. From same article above:

"A health care lobbyist said the White House likely will fight all attempts to lower MA plan payments, CQ HealthBeat reports."

But they had to get the funding from somewhere or a very popular and necessary program would fall. What to do, what to do? Smokers! Those cretinous bastards, we'll squeeze them for even more, and who's going to complain? They're going to the well again, they know it's not really a long term solution, but what can they do? The pubs won't budge on other funding. And money, thanks to Dear Leader's version of fiscal responsibility, is damn tight. That part doesn't get told.

For an excellent, unbiased, brief, and readable summary of some other parts that aren't getting told, here's an article by FactCheck:

http://www.factcheck.org/bushs_false_claims_about_childrens_health_insurance.html

It especially puts the 'crowd-out effect' into proper perspective.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Yes, the GOP talked about them 'pitting seniors against kids' this summer. However, no one took my

suggestion: Just cut Bush's occupation of Iraq short by 3 months!

[DaveJ]

2. "Those cretinous bastards"

Nice summary of how smokers are considered. In addition to paying for healthcare, though, why not just tax smokers a flat 99% of all their income. They can pretty much fund every government program and still be thought of as cretinous bastards. Problem solved!

Oh and regarding Medicare Advantage, I never heard of it so don't know if the program is a good one or not. But I can appreciate the concern for a loss of jobs in any business. Too bad industry cannot be more flexible in changing their lines of business to accommodate what the public needs most.

[nosmokes]

3. But there's a simple way for smokers to avoid the tax...n/t

[Mojorabbit]

4. Simple for some

but not for others

[nosmokes]

7. I didn't say *easy*!

Believe me, I'm well aware of the addictive nature of cigarettes and exactly how tough they are quit. Even when faced with the dire health consequences of continued use the addiction to the goddam things is as strong as any I've ever encountered,including opiates.My Ultimate motivation was being tired of contributing to big tobacco's bottom line

[riverdeep]

5. A little more on Medicare Advantage

The Medicare Advantage program, passed with the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, was a way to privatize a portion of the Medicare industry. Besides racking up ridiculous profits for the providers who participate, the long term tactical goal here is to bankrupt Medicare sometime in the next decade and to force all seniors into private care.

These two reasons are why Pubs didn't want this touched, and what led us to this mess. This blog entry provides a great intro:

"In the midst of so much bad news, how have insurers continued to maintain double-digit earnings growth? Bloomberg explains: 'UnitedHealth’s profits rose 22 percent on gains from government-sponsored medical programs.” Here Bloomberg is referring to what it describes as “the boon UnitedHealth has seen from increasing the profitability of its Medicare programs for the elderly and adding 290,000 members in state Medicaid programs for the poor in the 12 months through June 30.' "

http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2007/08/health-plans-sc.html

Think Blackwater for the health industry.

[riverdeep]

6. BTW, I realize this is not nearly as engrossing as a sex scandal,

but if you wonder where the pubs get their money to buy media outlets, fund think tanks, fund election recalls, and other things, this kind of thing is how. They master the fine print to their advantage.

edit: for spelling

[Breeze54]

8. Thanks, riverdeep

This is pissing me off and I guess, I too, must be a "cretinous bastard"! :P

"Smokers! Those cretinous bastards, we'll squeeze them for even more!!" No shit!!

John Dingell needs to use more creative thinking!

[Liberal In Texas]

9. Instead, how about a Chinese products tax? Anything imported from China

would have 2% (or name your %) tacked on.

There would be no end to the money for kids, and probably other stuff as well.

[notadmblnd]

10. Why don't they increase taxes on alcohol?

[riverdeep]

11. Sure, they could tax liquor, or cigs, or Chinese products,

or SUVS, or Whoppers, or whatever other 'evil' we can find. But I think the dems had the right idea in the first place. They won't be able to enact it under this administration, but they've put a band-aid to hold it for a while until they can address it in the next (hopefully) dem administration. The funding finally agreed on is 35 billion over 5 years, if I recall correctly. How much is available in the overpay of Medicare Advantage? From the link in post #5:



"It may have something to do with the fact that Medicare is paying insurers an average of 12 percent more (or about $1,000 more, per beneficiary) than Medicare would spend if it covered those same seniors directly."

-snip-

"How much more is Medicare paying insurers? According to the Congressional Budget Office, over the next five years, Medicare will be paying for-profit companies $54 billion above and beyond what it would cost traditional Medicare to serve the same beneficiaries. Over ten years, the bonus will total $149 billion."