President’s Health Law Two Years Later: More Government Intrusion, Unsustainable Washington-Dictated Mandates

WASHINGTON – Marking the second year anniversary of the unconstitutional, $2.6 trillion health spending law, U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) today released a fact sheet outlining the challenges involved with the unprecedented expansion of the federal government’s role in regulating the nation’s health care system.  Hatch and Enzi are respectively the Ranking Members of the Senate Finance and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committees.

GOVERNMENT INTRUSION

• $54 billion in new penalties on Americans that don’t buy Washington-defined health insurance coverage.  (Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act, March 2012.)
• $113 billion in new penalties on employers and entrepreneurs that do not provide Washington-dictated coverage.  (Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act, March 2012.)
• 159 new boards, offices, and panels that will further increase the influence of the Federal government.  (Republican Policy Committee Fact Sheet, February 25, 2010)
• 1,700 new or expanded powers given to the Obama Administration Secretary of Health and Human Services. (Center for Health Transformation)  
• 2,700 pages of legislation and, as of March 12, 2012, 12,307 pages of additional regulations to restrict personal freedom and micromanage the private market. (Analysis by Senate Finance Committee Minority Staff)
• 6.7 million Americans lost private health insurance while 7.4 million became dependent on government health programs, during the first two years of the Obama Administration.  (Health Insurance Coverage in the United States, 2008-2010; Congressional Research Service)

MEDICAID EXPANSIONS: MORE POWER TO WASHINGTON

• More than half those newly insuredunder the health spending law will be enrolled in the government program Medicaid.(Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act, March 2012.)
• 25.9 million more Americans will be dependent on Medicaid under the law. (2011 Actuarial Report on the Financial Outlook for Medicaid, March 2012.)
• $2.3 trillion in total state spending on Medicaid through 2020, which crowds out other local priorities such as education and law enforcement.  (2011 Actuarial Report on the Financial Outlook for Medicaid, March 2012.)
• $795 billion in new federal spending on Medicaid through 2021.  (Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act, March 2012.)
• $118 billionin new state spendingon Medicaid as a result of the health care spending law.  (Medicaid Expansions in the New Health Law: Costs to States, March 1, 2011.)    
• 66 percent of Medicaid children were denied specialist appointments, compared with only 11 percent of children with private insurance. (Auditing Access to Specialty Care for Children with Public Insurance, New England Journal of Medicine, June 16, 2011.)

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