The Czar continues to deconstruct HR 3200

How bad is HR 3200? Worse than you can imagine. We owe our gratitude to those intrepid warriors who are reading the real thing; I'm lagging behind on the Cliff Notes version. Check this out from the Czar of Muscovy's gleanings from pp. 301-400 (and btw, he's all the way up to page 600 already):

Pundette [hey, that's me!] asked the Czar if there exists the possibility that an assessment of your income level could be done (a financial review) to determine your pre-ability to pay. As with most of this bill, it cannot be confirmed or denied. For example, §1152 (b)(4), covering post-acute care, allows for a review to determine if payment rates can be offset by geographic differences in wages. The likely intent is that poorer areas of the country might get more help, but the wording does not prohibit a more intrusive review. There’s nothing to stop it at all, in fact the phrase “appropriate assessment instrument” can mean anything someone wants it to. Heck, a local provider could unilaterally demand to review your financial background and be in accordance of this law.

But the latest from the Czar clarifies further:

Quick update. Oh yes: when you are applying as a low-income candidate to purchase prescription drugs at a lower rate, you thereby authorize the SSA to review your tax records, and your spouse's, and any S corp-type business partnerships so they can determine whether you might indeed have sufficient funds to pay a higher rate. And that isn't the worst of it.

Incredible. And to think there are some of us who are still reluctant to use our SSN for identification. But it adds to the evidence that "healthcare reform," like Cap & Trade, is a ploy to extend the government's power over and access into our personal lives.

The overall gestalt of HR 3200: an unwholesome mélange of pasted-in bits-and-pieces that haven't been reconciled with one another, and that no one understands:

Look, it’s pefectly simple. This is a pastiche of various liberal-leaning programs that have been slapped together the moment Obama won the election. No one has written this: it’s all be copy and paste stuff. Each author has trusted the author before him to do the fact-checking. As a result, this entire document is a vast mess. Sections make no sense, might contradict others, and allow for no end of creative interpretation at the taxpayer’s expense.

The Czar believes that the ordinary American supporting this initiative has not read the proposals. If he or she did, that ordinary American would say “There is no way I am entrusting my healthcare to this group. I can’t even understand what the hell they’re saying.” When you applied for healthcare coverage with your employer, do you remember how many pages the information was? Two? Three? Four? And a lot easier to understand than this stuff.

Evidently, the people who wrote it do not understand what they have written in its entirety, but worse, they think they do. But they don’t understand it anymore than the admin assistant understands the legal contracts he or she photocopies for an attorney waiting in another conference room.

Be afraid, folks. Because the only people who really do understand this stuff will be the first ones to twist it to their financial advantage. [emphasis added]

Related posts: No recourse and Another selfless citizen reads HR 3200

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