So quick but important diversion on an ObamaCare update:
Internal administration documents reveal that up to 51% of employers may have to relinquish their current health care coverage because of ObamaCare.
Small firms will be even likelier to lose existing plans.
The “midrange estimate is that 66% of small employer plans and 45% of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfathered status by the end of 2013,” according to the document.
In the worst-case scenario, 69% of employers — 80% of smaller firms — would lose that status, exposing them to far more provisions under the new health law.
“It is difficult to predict how plans and employers will behave in the coming years, but if plans make changes that negatively impact consumers, then they will lose their grandfather status.”
So change it, and lose it.
I railed against “qualified plans” for months last year.
Under the new health law, current employer-based health plans will be grandfathered — that is, they will not have to follow many Obama-Care provisions that take effect on Jan. 1, 2014. These include benefit mandates, caps on out-of-pocket expenses and limits on age-based premiums.
But they forfeit that grandfathered status if they make changes to the plans by 2014. If so, firms may have to adopt new plans or drop coverage and pay the penalty.
Under the regulations in the document, a plan is no longer considered to be grandfathered if:
• It eliminates benefits related to diagnosis or treatment of a particular condition.
• It increases the percentage of a cost-sharing requirement (such as co-insurance) above its level as of March 23, 2010.
• It increases the fixed amount of cost-sharing such as deductibles or out-of-pocket limits by a total percentage measured from March 23, 2010, that is more than the sum of medical inflation plus 15 percentage points.
• It increases co-payments from March 23, 2010, by an amount that is the greater of: medical inflation plus 15 percentage points or medical inflation plus $5.
• The employer’s share of the premium decreases more than 5 percentage points below what the share was on March 23, 2010.
“These rules will ensure that up to 69% of employees — and 80% of workers in small business — will lose their current plan within three years,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., a physician. “The reality is this: 58% of Americans want ObamaCare repealed because they fear they will lose their health care — and even their jobs — once this law is fully implemented.”(IBD)
Well, it’s not a joke anymore. They are after you.
President Obama has signed an executive order specifying the treatment for all Americans, to be prescribed by government bureaucrats.
Obama’s order appoints members to a new government committee set up by the Democrats’ new health law that will evaluate, make recommendations about and establish rules for everything from how people exercise to whether they smoke to the food they eat and the medicines they use. And it specifically requires the committee list the priorities for “lifestyle behavior modification” that the government will pursue.
The council is designed to basically implement future policy that ultimately everything will be governed by federal authorities, from food to dietary supplements to vitamins.
The June 10th executive order establishes the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council.
The Food Police.
The council’s membership, including the chiefs of Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Education, and Homeland Security departments as well as the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Federal Trade Commission.
The executive order requires the council to “provide coordination . . . with respect to prevention, wellness, and health promotion practices, the public health system, and integrative health care in the United States.”
It further must develop a “health-care strategy that incorporates the most effective and achievable means of improving the health status of Americans” and also must “carry out such other activities as are determined appropriate by the president.”
It will “set specific goals and objectives for improving the health of the United States” and “establish specific and measurable actions and timelines to carry out the strategy.”
The council then will have to report to the president on what it has done, what progress has been made and provide a “list of national priorities on health pfomotion and disease prevention to adderss lifestyle behavior modification (including smoking cessation, proper nutrition, appropriate exercise, mental health behavioral health, substance-use disorder, and domestic violence screenings) and the prevention measures.”
Herb Titus, a veteran constitutional expert and lawyer, told WND, “The council is designed to basically implement future policy that ultimately everything will be governed by federal authorities, from food to dietary supplements to vitamins.”
Deborah Stockton, executive director of the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, which deals regularly with natural foods such as raw milk, agreed with the Titus analysis.
“They say, ‘We’re going to centralize power and control. We’re going to be in control,’” she told WND. “It’s [going to be] another epic confrontation between those who will and those who won’t.”
Could it be that noncompliance will bring down the wrath of those agencies?
“It’ll be criminalized … if you don’t follow federal guidelines on nutrition, exercise,” he said. “That’s what this is designed to do. Ultimately bring everything under the federal umbrella. The only way they can accomplish that is through force.
“Ultimately that’s where it’s headed,” Titus said. “This is what people have been warning about. Here you have it.”
The executive order requires the council to “provide coordination … with respect to prevention, wellness and health-promotion practices, the public-health system and integrative health care in the United States.”
“Citizen, stop and show your papers and certify under oath you have properly exercised and ingested the proper amount of nutrition today!” scoffed one blogger.
The order also targets most of the products that are promoted as natural supplements or remedies, demanding that all “prevention programs” be based on the “science” guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control, virtually eliminating anything that is not put through the multimillion-dollar tests required of the federal agency.
Think I’m kidding:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-establishing-national-prevention-health-promotion-and-public-health
Then add: H.R. 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act (pending in Congress)
This bill would give the FDA greater regulatory powers over the national food supply and food providers with the goal of preventing food-borne illnesses and ensuring food safety. More specifically, it would increase the frequency of FDA inspections of food processing plants, expand the FDA’s traceback capabilities for when outbreaks do occur, give the FDA mandatory recall authority, and require food facilities to have safety plans in place in order to mitigate hazards. Concurrently, the bill would impose annual registration fees of $500 on all facilities holding, processing, or manufacturing food and require that such facilities also engaged in the transport or packing of food maintain pedigrees of the origin and previous distribution history of the food. Farms would not have to register.
Does a “Facility” include your garden or greenhouse?
The fun part I’ve seen so far: Recalls: H.R. 2749 provides the FDA with recall procedures for food that is deemed to be dangerous. The basis for this determination would be if the Secretary has “reason to believe” the food poses a health risk.
She “deems” it so. And we all know about Democrats and “deeming”
“I’m sorry citizen that food has been deemed to be a health hazard and you are not allowed to eat it!”
Black Market Salt anyone?
The bill would also require the creation of a national public education program on food safety. This section additionally mandates that the Department of Health and Human Services conduct food safety research.
After all, you are too dumb to eat healthy to begin with so we have to ‘re-educate’ you.
Quarantine Authority: The bill would give FDA the authority to restrict the movement of food within a State (quarantine) if there is credible evidence that the food presents an imminent threat of serious adverse health consequences or death.
Can that be “deemed”??
FDA Regulation of Agriculture: The bill would authorize and direct the FDA to regulate agricultural production practices, effectively telling farmers how to farm. Fruit and vegetable producers specifically would be subject to regulatory burdens. Agricultural groups such as the California Farm Bureau have expressed concern over these issues.
General Summary of H.R. 2749 and Farm Bureau’s Chief Concerns
H.R. 2749 would add significant new regulatory burdens for farmers, especially for produce and nut crops. The bill would establish farming standards and create a traceability system with strict record-keeping requirements. FDA would have the authority to conduct on-farm inspections as well as quarantine large geographic areas. Stiff criminal and civil penalties could be imposed for any violation of the act, including record-keeping mistakes.
http://www.montereycountyfarmbureau.org/Issues/HR_2749.htm
Quarantine Authority and Mandatory Recall: The bill’s quarantine authority allows FDA to quarantine a geographic area if there is credible evidence that food poses a health risk. The provision does not account for economic losses suffered by food producers, processors or distributors in the quarantine area. Some Members may be concerned that if the FDA ultimately lifts the quarantine for lack of confirmatory evidence, the agency has no obligation, authority or means to indemnify producers for their losses. Similarly, the bill allows FDA to act on suspicion to require a producer to cease distribution of food. No consideration is given in the legislation to indemnification for economic damages if the FDA was wrong.After all, the Government will control your Health care. So why no the nutrition that goes along with it.
http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/1/hr2749
Petition: http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum993.php
CBO Report: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:KC3T2Rie_ocJ:www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm%3Findex%3D10478+H.R.+2749:+Food+Safety+Enhancement+Act+of+2009&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjlh3G7CEnBI74BaGpy76CIlAQDXW3brSvgdm4RT50ZGv5T_aUetIZd-GwgirP75PnzVvnmKgJsob6R_qlH5ZCzNj8eIAju6cb4rRAdkeqa5KYWotdp6W0JQC6D9QFahWK1ku8n&sig=AHIEtbS9h81IMhl_JMQ5gs4370vtmCgiJg
Internal administration documents reveal that up to 51% of employers may have to relinquish their current health care coverage because of ObamaCare.
Small firms will be even likelier to lose existing plans.
The “midrange estimate is that 66% of small employer plans and 45% of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfathered status by the end of 2013,” according to the document.
In the worst-case scenario, 69% of employers — 80% of smaller firms — would lose that status, exposing them to far more provisions under the new health law.
“It is difficult to predict how plans and employers will behave in the coming years, but if plans make changes that negatively impact consumers, then they will lose their grandfather status.”
So change it, and lose it.
I railed against “qualified plans” for months last year.
Under the new health law, current employer-based health plans will be grandfathered — that is, they will not have to follow many Obama-Care provisions that take effect on Jan. 1, 2014. These include benefit mandates, caps on out-of-pocket expenses and limits on age-based premiums.
But they forfeit that grandfathered status if they make changes to the plans by 2014. If so, firms may have to adopt new plans or drop coverage and pay the penalty.
Under the regulations in the document, a plan is no longer considered to be grandfathered if:
• It eliminates benefits related to diagnosis or treatment of a particular condition.
• It increases the percentage of a cost-sharing requirement (such as co-insurance) above its level as of March 23, 2010.
• It increases the fixed amount of cost-sharing such as deductibles or out-of-pocket limits by a total percentage measured from March 23, 2010, that is more than the sum of medical inflation plus 15 percentage points.
• It increases co-payments from March 23, 2010, by an amount that is the greater of: medical inflation plus 15 percentage points or medical inflation plus $5.
• The employer’s share of the premium decreases more than 5 percentage points below what the share was on March 23, 2010.
“These rules will ensure that up to 69% of employees — and 80% of workers in small business — will lose their current plan within three years,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., a physician. “The reality is this: 58% of Americans want ObamaCare repealed because they fear they will lose their health care — and even their jobs — once this law is fully implemented.”(IBD)
Well, it’s not a joke anymore. They are after you.
President Obama has signed an executive order specifying the treatment for all Americans, to be prescribed by government bureaucrats.
Obama’s order appoints members to a new government committee set up by the Democrats’ new health law that will evaluate, make recommendations about and establish rules for everything from how people exercise to whether they smoke to the food they eat and the medicines they use. And it specifically requires the committee list the priorities for “lifestyle behavior modification” that the government will pursue.
The council is designed to basically implement future policy that ultimately everything will be governed by federal authorities, from food to dietary supplements to vitamins.
The June 10th executive order establishes the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council.
The Food Police.
The council’s membership, including the chiefs of Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Education, and Homeland Security departments as well as the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Federal Trade Commission.
The executive order requires the council to “provide coordination . . . with respect to prevention, wellness, and health promotion practices, the public health system, and integrative health care in the United States.”
It further must develop a “health-care strategy that incorporates the most effective and achievable means of improving the health status of Americans” and also must “carry out such other activities as are determined appropriate by the president.”
It will “set specific goals and objectives for improving the health of the United States” and “establish specific and measurable actions and timelines to carry out the strategy.”
The council then will have to report to the president on what it has done, what progress has been made and provide a “list of national priorities on health pfomotion and disease prevention to adderss lifestyle behavior modification (including smoking cessation, proper nutrition, appropriate exercise, mental health behavioral health, substance-use disorder, and domestic violence screenings) and the prevention measures.”
Herb Titus, a veteran constitutional expert and lawyer, told WND, “The council is designed to basically implement future policy that ultimately everything will be governed by federal authorities, from food to dietary supplements to vitamins.”
Deborah Stockton, executive director of the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, which deals regularly with natural foods such as raw milk, agreed with the Titus analysis.
“They say, ‘We’re going to centralize power and control. We’re going to be in control,’” she told WND. “It’s [going to be] another epic confrontation between those who will and those who won’t.”
Could it be that noncompliance will bring down the wrath of those agencies?
“It’ll be criminalized … if you don’t follow federal guidelines on nutrition, exercise,” he said. “That’s what this is designed to do. Ultimately bring everything under the federal umbrella. The only way they can accomplish that is through force.
“Ultimately that’s where it’s headed,” Titus said. “This is what people have been warning about. Here you have it.”
The executive order requires the council to “provide coordination … with respect to prevention, wellness and health-promotion practices, the public-health system and integrative health care in the United States.”
“Citizen, stop and show your papers and certify under oath you have properly exercised and ingested the proper amount of nutrition today!” scoffed one blogger.
The order also targets most of the products that are promoted as natural supplements or remedies, demanding that all “prevention programs” be based on the “science” guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control, virtually eliminating anything that is not put through the multimillion-dollar tests required of the federal agency.
Think I’m kidding:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-establishing-national-prevention-health-promotion-and-public-health
Then add: H.R. 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act (pending in Congress)
This bill would give the FDA greater regulatory powers over the national food supply and food providers with the goal of preventing food-borne illnesses and ensuring food safety. More specifically, it would increase the frequency of FDA inspections of food processing plants, expand the FDA’s traceback capabilities for when outbreaks do occur, give the FDA mandatory recall authority, and require food facilities to have safety plans in place in order to mitigate hazards. Concurrently, the bill would impose annual registration fees of $500 on all facilities holding, processing, or manufacturing food and require that such facilities also engaged in the transport or packing of food maintain pedigrees of the origin and previous distribution history of the food. Farms would not have to register.
Does a “Facility” include your garden or greenhouse?
The fun part I’ve seen so far: Recalls: H.R. 2749 provides the FDA with recall procedures for food that is deemed to be dangerous. The basis for this determination would be if the Secretary has “reason to believe” the food poses a health risk.
She “deems” it so. And we all know about Democrats and “deeming”
“I’m sorry citizen that food has been deemed to be a health hazard and you are not allowed to eat it!”
Black Market Salt anyone?
The bill would also require the creation of a national public education program on food safety. This section additionally mandates that the Department of Health and Human Services conduct food safety research.
After all, you are too dumb to eat healthy to begin with so we have to ‘re-educate’ you.
Quarantine Authority: The bill would give FDA the authority to restrict the movement of food within a State (quarantine) if there is credible evidence that the food presents an imminent threat of serious adverse health consequences or death.
Can that be “deemed”??
FDA Regulation of Agriculture: The bill would authorize and direct the FDA to regulate agricultural production practices, effectively telling farmers how to farm. Fruit and vegetable producers specifically would be subject to regulatory burdens. Agricultural groups such as the California Farm Bureau have expressed concern over these issues.
General Summary of H.R. 2749 and Farm Bureau’s Chief Concerns
H.R. 2749 would add significant new regulatory burdens for farmers, especially for produce and nut crops. The bill would establish farming standards and create a traceability system with strict record-keeping requirements. FDA would have the authority to conduct on-farm inspections as well as quarantine large geographic areas. Stiff criminal and civil penalties could be imposed for any violation of the act, including record-keeping mistakes.
http://www.montereycountyfarmbureau.org/Issues/HR_2749.htm
Quarantine Authority and Mandatory Recall: The bill’s quarantine authority allows FDA to quarantine a geographic area if there is credible evidence that food poses a health risk. The provision does not account for economic losses suffered by food producers, processors or distributors in the quarantine area. Some Members may be concerned that if the FDA ultimately lifts the quarantine for lack of confirmatory evidence, the agency has no obligation, authority or means to indemnify producers for their losses. Similarly, the bill allows FDA to act on suspicion to require a producer to cease distribution of food. No consideration is given in the legislation to indemnification for economic damages if the FDA was wrong.After all, the Government will control your Health care. So why no the nutrition that goes along with it.
So that will be your Food, your Health, and your Energy.
Nothing to oppressive. http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/1/hr2749
Petition: http://www.ftcldf.org/petitions/pnum993.php
CBO Report: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:KC3T2Rie_ocJ:www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm%3Findex%3D10478+H.R.+2749:+Food+Safety+Enhancement+Act+of+2009&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjlh3G7CEnBI74BaGpy76CIlAQDXW3brSvgdm4RT50ZGv5T_aUetIZd-GwgirP75PnzVvnmKgJsob6R_qlH5ZCzNj8eIAju6cb4rRAdkeqa5KYWotdp6W0JQC6D9QFahWK1ku8n&sig=AHIEtbS9h81IMhl_JMQ5gs4370vtmCgiJg
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