http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/19/health-care-whip-count-li_n_505709.html

http://www.slate.com/id/2220222/

The $940 Billion healthcare bill bill continues to move towards a contentious vote on Sunday.  216 votes are needed in the House to pass the Senate version of the healthcare bill which was passed a few months ago.

The front loaded tax collections will offer the administration with some nice window dressing for the budget deficit and the Social Security funding.  However, if this bill moves forward, it will surely have a negative impact on job retention and creation due to the higher cost of labor.  

Many of the healthcare benefits will not kick in until 2014, and it is difficult to project whether cost trends will drop or increase during this period, since the pricing of medical procedures, drugs and other related costs are fairly elastic in the healthcare arena. 

If the House passes the Senate bill, expect both the House and Senate to begin the reconcilaition process to sidestep the supermajority requirement.  To review the proposed Recociliation Provisons to modify the previously adopted Senate Healthcare Bill, see the House link below for details:

http://www.rules.house.gov/amendment_details.aspx?NewsID=4609

Caterpillar Tractor is projecting to incur an increase of 20% in their medical insurance premiums – or $100 million – to cover their 44,000 employees and retirees.

http://gretawire.blogs.foxnews.com/did-you-see-this-caterpillar-says-the-health-care-bill-will-cost-them-100-million-dollars/?action=late-new

Tags: 2010 Healthcare Bill, 2010 Tax Increases, healthcare tax, Healthcare Vote

This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 9:56 pm and is filed under General Business Matters, Healthcare, Politics, Tax - General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.