Tag: Exchanges (page 2)

Michigan voters could face a May 7 vote on how they want to pay for billions of dollars in road and bridge repairs in the next few years.

A key lawmaker has put forward a plan under which voters would be asked to choose between a legislative plan to hike fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees, or a second option that would involve a 2-percentage-point increase in the state's 6% sales tax.

The statewide vote would be premised on the gas tax increase and vehicle registration hike already getting approved in the Legislature. So choosing neither would not be an option.

MORE

Yessirree, SSDD in Lansing.

Stand tall, legislators!  The One Term Nerd works to undermine your most every important move.  There are options available to help solve road funding.

True to form, It seems Michigan's governor Rick Snyder is all about cronyism.  Up or down. About "partnerships", and complicit deal making with bigger government, and BIGGER business. Big. Big. Big.

Big.

The insurance behemoths that will briefly exist under a 'marketplace' of insurers will likely make a lot of folks quite well-to-do.  Though we should have little problem with entrepreneurial folks and making a buck, it is worth noting it ain't gonna be Joe six pack, but carefully selected recipients of the public's new expense of an insurance exchange.  As this develops, pay careful attention to the 'players', and note that prior to 2010, many of the businesses handling billions in insurance premiums didn't exist.

Same show. Same suckers. New ringmasters.

Step. Right. Up.

And the governor of our state is as-they-say, "all in". He apparently views such matters as one might view a Siamese twin sharing the same heart. So when the poison in the federal government is injected, we all feel the 'euphoria'. From the Detroit News:

The Michigan health insurance exchange required by federal law got a boost from Washington Thursday with a $30.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for planning and implementation.

The Michigan Affordable Insurance Exchange will be an online marketplace where insurance firms compete to sell low-cost health insurance to consumers. Gov. Rick Snyder hopes to form Michigan's exchange in partnership with the U.S. A blueprint for the plan is due to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 15.

Michigan last year missed a deadline to try to form its own exchange because Republican legislators saw the move as backing President Barack Obama's 2010 massive health care overhaul.

Snyder wants the exchanges, apparently based on some funding that comes along with it.  But the funding is only temporary,and the rules for an exchange set up as "local" will not be allowed to carry the rules that local (state) citizens might want.  The default nature of a federal set of rules is in fact the reality NO MATTER who sets up the exchange.  The expense of ongoing operations of course will fall on the backs of  Michigan citizens.

Tomorrow at 830AM there will be hearings.  You may not be able to make it, but you can have your testimony entered into the record.

You can e-mail the Committee Clerk: Malika Abdul-Basir
E-Mail: mabdul@house.mi.gov and ask that your e-mail be entered into public testimony.  

House Standing Committee Meeting
Health Policy, Rep. Gail Haines, Chair
DATE: 11/29/2012
TIME: 8:30 AM
PLACE: Room 519 House Office Building, Lansing, MI
AGENDA: SB 693 (Sen. Marleau) Insurance; health; MiHealth marketplace; establish.

Any Republicans Reps who vote for this have a problem on their hands. Since the re-election of Barack Obama, conservatives, and other Republican activists have had to redouble efforts in stopping the implementation of Obamacare. And as observed during a conference call tonight they will likely prevail. A brief discussion of hitting newly re-elected speaker Jase Bolger with a recall faded quickly, though it will not likely be forgotten by some.  Bolger, who won by a narrow margin (roughly 800 votes) is being closely watched on the exchange issue and one other key issue close to the heart of traditionalists and conservatives; ALAC. (HB 4769)  The controversy surrounding the Roy Schmidt party switch also haunting him adds fuel.

If Bolger is seen on the wrong side of these issues by conservatives, and particularly the exchange, could be as damaging to the political careers of any reps who vote FOR the exchanges as a recall of Bolger might be.  One only needs to look at a simple mailing sent out during the primary season to understand how any perceived supporter of Obamacare will be permanently labeled. (below)

When he said:

"....that's freedom, and I'll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners"

He touched on a point that is relevant no matter whom the leadership might be.  The interference and 'concern' over the affairs of our lives is too often conflicting with the independence we claim as our birthright.  Some folks forget that we have to be able to fail. That risk and reward is a part of the American dream.  That sometimes, our decisions make us healthy, and sometimes not.

Its NOT government's place to provide a boost for a business.  Its NOT government's place to control the healthcare choices through exchanges or limitations on where one buys insurance or the care itself.  Its NOT the government's place to provide housing. Nor is it government's place to control the terms of employment, and compensation that business provides.

Ryan is correct.  

Republicans in Michigan and elsewhere ought to take note of the future VP's comments and internalize them.  

Right Governor Snyder?

With all due respect, it takes a little more substance to represent your state sir.  Especially when 26 states are ready to tell Obama where he can stick his health care.  They pretty much have already. And given the outcome of the upcoming electoral contests in the Senate, the Congress, and yes, the 'occupied' White house, its likely that doing anything to capitulate with the insanity would be a foolish endeavor we would have to roll back anyhow.

Why in the heck would we want to complicate things further?

Take a lesson from one of your counterparts.  Governor Rick Perry has kicked Obama's messenger, 300 style, into the abyss from which such laws emanate.

He pretty much told that gal to deliver a go-to-hell with the mandate, expansive overreach, and unconstitutional buggery of the american people with a letter delivered today.  A message for the man who was elected president in our nations fit of idiocy, who has shown himself to be incapable of recognizing cause and effect, misunderstands markets, and has no respect for what our founders shed blood for.  

"Obamacare," or whatever the current name is for the redistributive healthcare plan, is unraveling daily.  Between the "unforeseen" costs, and technical problems with implementing it, the biggest government grab of power in the history of the country is showing itself to be what we have called it all along. A worthless, dangerous, legislative Cluster-Foxtrot.

Michigan has had the opportunity to say no to the legislation under the tenth amendment, yet has not yet done so. Our previous Attorney General Mike Cox joined with 26 other states in a lawsuit against Obamacare, and the current AG has continued that course. And as the case makes its way into the Supreme Court of the United States, we are still working against ourselves by accepting the federal bribes and creating the framework for the Obamacare implementation.

But it still must pass through our legislature.

Yesterday, there was an opportunity for testimony on the Michigan Healthcare exchange. The Honorable Chairwoman Gail Haines was gracious enough to extend the public meeting time so that citizens could have their voices heard. One of those voices, Abigail Nobel, spoke regarding Senate Bill 693.

Sec. 3407c. (1) A qualified health plan offered through a state exchange pursuant to the patient protection and affordable care act, Public Law 111-148, and the health care and education reconciliation act of 2010, Public Law 111-152, shall not provide coverage for elective abortion. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an individual, organization, or employer participating in a qualified health plan offered through a state exchange from purchasing optional supplemental coverage for elective abortion outside of the exchange as provided in subsection (2).

Read the rest. Its as if its thrown in there to appease conscience conservatives.  Of course we don't wish to see tax dollars spent on abortion. We don't want to see abortions frankly.

However, every time a bill is crafted to capitulate with the left and its great society plans, it seems there has to be riders and subsequent action to (hopefully) silence dissent from the right.