While the national health insurance exchange advocated by President Obama and congressional leaders is sometimes described as a nationwide pool of health insurance providers, its major functionwould be to provide a platform for a government-run public healthplan. The result would be a massive erosion of private healthinsurance and consolidation of federal control of the financing anddelivery of medical services.
The play-or-pay mandates in the health care reform bills, whichrequire employers to offer health insurance to their workers or pay a tax to the federal government, will affect between 95 million and105 million workers, and 509,000 to 1.4 million employers,including up to 1 million small businesses. The mandates will put5.2 million low-wage workers at risk of unemployment or reducedworking hours.
Congress is reportedly considering raising taxes by at least $540billion over 10 years to fund President Obama's health careinitiative through a "surtax" on top of the highest individual taxrates.