by admin | Dec 8, 2016 | News and Updates
Amid some discussion by Republican leaders to thwart President-Elect Trump from moving to completely repeal Obamacare, it is clear Republicans must have a definitive plan to not just repeal, but replace the current disastrous healthcare law.
And at this point, with millions of middle class Americans facing sky-rocketing premiums, narrow networks, and shoddy benefits, something must be done quickly. Perhaps the most comprehensive plan to address the healthcare system has been offered by House Speaker Paul Ryan. Ryan’s general approach is to loosen the grip of central federal control and return power to the states to improve the flexibility, efficiency, costs, and quality of healthcare for their unique populations.
Unfortunately, many states (including Arizona) expanded their Medicaid rolls to take advantage of federal matching subsidies, and will face an extra layer of complexity following a repeal. Without precedence, this Medicaid expansion was extended to include able-bodied adults who are 138 percent over the federal poverty line (FPL). This represented an additional 63,000 beneficiaries in Arizona alone. Repealing Obamacare poses a significant problem for these states as they will either be left with huge state budget deficits to make up for the loss of federal funding, or potentially be forced to kick tens of thousands of people off the health subsidies.
But there are common sense solutions to address this problem and others.
The current process for states to reform their Medicaid program is to go to the Federal Government on bended knee and apply for a waiver. As expected, these waivers have been granted with mixed approval and endure a lengthy and oftentimes politicized process. In the meantime, states struggle to shoulder increasing costs and face uncertainty whether they will be able to hedge those costs.
A critical component of Ryan’s plan is to reform the waiver process and divest more power in the states. This includes creating a set of predictable parameters, fast tracking requests that meet those parameters, and then not requiring a renewal of such waivers. The plan also requires that Medicaid waivers be federal budget neutral as a way to reduce costs and protect taxpayers from states looking to game the system.
Another key component of reform is to address the issue of able-bodied adults on Medicaid being completely insulated from the true costs of healthcare. It is critical that any reform allow states to charge reasonable premiums, offer more limited benefits, and allow waiting lists and enrollment caps for non-mandatory populations. Additionally, those states that currently have a waiver for managed care that have been previously renewed twice would be grandfathered in and not have to seek another renewal. Obamacare has incentivized able-bodied adults to remain dependent instead of self-sufficient; empowering states to make these common sense and well proven reforms is a step in the right direction.
The last key component is identifying a way to contain the spiraling costs of Medicaid. Currently Medicaid represents 15 percent of all federal healthcare spending and is growing fast. The program is unsustainable, and states must be weaned off this open ended entitlement program. One such proposal is for the federal government to allocate money to states in the form of “block grants.” Going to a block grant would mean that each state would receive a defined amount of funding for a base year and assume the state is transitioning non-mandatory populations into other coverage over time. If states are working toward streamlining costs, any savings realized could remain with the state instead of federal coffers.
Obamacare has come with a great deal of cost and pain for individuals, families, businesses, and state governments alike. It is unlikely that the transition away from it will be painless either. However, not reversing course cannot be an option for Republican leaders in Washington. Now is not the time to get cold feet. After all it should not be impossible to imagine a healthcare system driven by free market principles and individual choice rather than government mandates and punishments.
by admin | Nov 17, 2016 | News and Updates
Voters be warned: Establishment insiders are already fighting to save Obamacare.
The election is a week old, and reports are already surfacing of backroom meetings by Republicans to convince the Trump administration to scrap repeal and only make cosmetic changes to the law.
One of the ringleaders of this effort is former Governor Jan Brewer, who was key in implementing key provisions of Obamacare in Arizona. Under Brewer, Arizona became one of 32 states to support the vast expansion of Medicaid, funded through federal dollars and a massive and potentially unconstitutional bed tax. Adding insult to the process, the entire package was rammed through in the middle of night under complete suspension of House and Senate rules.
In what should be a go
lden opportunity to repeal Obamacare and replace it with bold patient centered reforms, insiders are lo
bbying to maintain the status quo. Most people that voted for President-elect Trump (and even some who didn’t) hope a
Even more troubling, Brewer is telling Trump to look to Arizona (a State he highlighted as the poster-child of Obamacare failure) as the “gold standard” for Obamacare/Medicaid reform to be followed across the country.nd expect that he will deliver on his campaign promise to repeal Obamacare. Yet people are already lining up to convince the President-Elect to crumble on his commitment to voters.
The reality is just the opposite. Arizona’s Medicaid expansion is not a model for the rest of the country – but is the most inefficient and costly mode of delivering healthcare services possible. Not only has the costs of new ACA enrollees far exceeded the initial predictions, but a study conducted at MIT found every $1 the federal government spends on Medicaid, recipients receive only $0.2 – 0.4 of benefits.
Other Republican leaders in the state should be warned: any position other than a strong and swift call for Obamacare repeal will elicit a colossal backlash from voters. It is without question that Republican success at the ballot box was a direct and enraged reaction to the healthcare disaster. And voters have held Democrats accountable. So, what is left to defend now for Republicans?? Arizona has seen 116% increases in their insurance premiums, providers dwindle down to 1-2, and the quality of their plans completely fail them.
The argument is over. Obamacare is broken. Medicaid is broken. If our elected officials and insiders choose to stand in front of the repeal train in an attempt to save Obamacare, they deserve to be run over by it.
by admin | Nov 15, 2016 | News and Updates
Presidential candidates did not discourage Peoria and Mesa voters from filling out their down ballots. Both cities had proposed 0.4 percent sales tax increases which were handedly defeated last Tuesday.
Peoria’s “Forever Tax”
Proponents of Peoria’s Proposition 400, dubbed the “Quality of Life Tax,” tried to make the case that the tax increase was needed to fund much needed public safety priorities and park ranger positions.
The truth is Prop 400 was designed to fund a lavish wish list of non- essential projects such as river trails, upgrades to neighborhood parks, a new recreation center, a new city pool, beautification of Old-Town Peoria, and a brand-new library in North Peoria (even though 12 already exist in the city). It also included funding for an aquatic center that would compete with several private swimming locations already in Peoria.
The public safety claims were such a sham that even the Peoria Police Officers Association urged a NO vote on the initiative.
What made Prop 400 even more egregious was how city elites actively used tax payer money for electioneering on behalf of the proposal. City officials plastered garbage trucks with Prop 400 signs and printed extensive materials to “educate” voters; for good reason, this is illegal.
But in the central planning paradigm, the ends justify the means. Current City Mayor Cathy Carlot argued it was the legislature’s fault that Peoria was in this unfortunate position of having to extract more money from residents. She cited the state’s changes to city impacts fees. Indeed, reforms were made to stop cities from being able to charge exorbitant impact fees on new developers to fund massive city wide projects (like libraries and aquatic centers.) Developers are still required to pay impact fees, however, those fees are meant to pay for direct and legitimate city services and infrastructure to the degree that development puts additional demand on those service. They’re NOT meant to subsidize whatever grand projects the city craves and sees the opportunity to dump onto new growth.
Proposition 400 was defeated by more than 13 points. It is clear Peoria voters sent a loud message to their elected representatives in the City – that message was a resounding ‘NO.’
Public Safety Ploy Fails in Mesa
Meanwhile in Mesa, the city was also asking voters to pass an additional 0.4 percent increase, again claiming it was necessary for public safety improvements. While this tax hike did allocate more funding to public safety than its Peoria counterpart, it was coupled with other special interest giveaways that voters couldn’t stomach.
Specifically, $15 million of the $38 million anticipated annually would have been dedicated to fund debt service on an Arizona State University satellite campus and an expansion of Benedictine University. Spending $127 million on a questionable downtown campus was simply not palatable to voters–the measure was defeated by a solid 7 points.
At the end of the day voters are getting wise to the tactics of city governments. It is no longer enough to pay lip service to public safety or use it as a Trojan horse to fund other lavish non-essential ideas. In a world where citizens are getting crushed by high insurance premiums, ever-increasing property taxes, and a diminishing purchasing power, they are demanding more accountability for their tax dollars.
Every jurisdiction in Arizona should take notice of Peoria’s and Mesa’s failures to convince voters, and think twice before asking their residents to increase taxes.
by admin | Nov 3, 2016 | News and Updates
There are already multiple reasons as to why the Arizona’s “Clean Elections” system should be scrapped, but now we can add another abuse to the list—the government program is being used to fund political parties.
This funding loophole was discovered while reviewing campaign finance reports for several “clean” candidates running for office. Several Democratic Candidates running for office contributed over $80,000 to the Democratic Party from the funds provided through the program. The largest contribution came from Corporation Commission candidate Bill Mundell ($29,000). Other contributions to the party include:
- $12,000 from LD 12 Candidate Elizabeth Brown
- $6,800 from LD 11 Candidate Corin Hammond
- $7,000 from LD 8 Candidate Carmen Casillas
- $7,000 from LD 15 Candidate Tonya McBeth
- $4,500 from LD 21 Candidate Deanna Rasmussen
- $4,500 from LD 26 Candidate Athena Salmon
- $3,600 from LD 26 Candidate Isela Blanc
- $3,300 from LD 17 Candidate Jennifer Pawlik
- $3,300 from LD 17 Candidate Steven Weichert
It is not clear whether any strings were attached to the contributions to the party, but it is probably safe to assume that the contributions were a ‘thank you’ for assistance provided in qualifying for the funding.
For those not familiar with the Clean Elections program, in order to receive government money from Clean Elections, candidates need to acquire a certain amount of $5 contributions from registered voters. In the case of statewide races, candidates need thousands of qualifying contributions, which is an extremely difficult and time consuming task.
Both state parties and their local district affiliates have a long history of providing logistic support and manpower to aid candidates in collecting their $5 contributions. Now it appears that they have discovered a way to be financially rewarded for their efforts.
Don’t be surprised to see this abusive practice explode in the future. If both political parties know that they can grow their bottom line using the Clean Elections system, they will work to run publicly funded candidates in every race–especially in noncompetitive state House and Senate races where they can siphon off the Clean Election funds to be used elsewhere.
Lawmakers need to shut this down ASAP, and that means sending reforms of the program to voters so they can end this scheme once and for all.
by admin | Oct 27, 2016 | News and Updates
Add Peoria to the list of local governments asking their residents for a massive tax increase in November. Next month, voters will get to decide whether to approve a multi-million dollar sales tax increase to fund a compilation of questionable infrastructure projects. Even more curious, virtually all of the proposed new projects in the spending plan are slated to benefit one council district in the city, clearly an unfair distribution of the revenue from the tax.
Fighting City Hall is always an uphill climb, but thankfully Senator Debbie Lesko and representative Tony Rivero (District 21) have stepped up to lead the charge against Prop 400.
Dubbing the proposal the “Forever Tax” because it lacks a sunset, Arizona State Senator Debbie Lesko and Arizona State Representative Tony Rivero formed “No Forever Tax, No on Proposition 400.”
Other key facts of Prop 400 include:
*Proposition 400 is a PERMANENT tax increase. There is no sunset or expiration of the tax.
*Public safety will receive less than 5% of the tax increase, and no money is slated for road or street improvements.
*The tax is estimated to cost the average homeowner approximately $250 per year.
*The vast majority of the tax increase is slated for one council district in the northern part of the city.
*This sales tax is in addition to at least two other tax increases in Peoria on the November 8th ballot. Who knows how high taxes will go if all of the proposals are approved.
Since this measure will appear toward the end of the ballot, we urge every hardworking taxpayer in Peoria to not forget to fill out their entire ballot and vote NO on Prop 400.
by admin | Oct 24, 2016 | News and Updates
This November Arizona voters will decide the fate of Prop 206, an initiative that implements job killing wage and benefit mandates on Arizona employers. The Club has communicated why this is a bad deal for our state.
More small business owners throughout the state are speaking out against the initiative. Gregg, a local small business owner, explains why voters shouldn’t be fooled by this out-of-state special interest ploy to unionize Arizona workers. Join Gregg in voting NO on Prop 206.
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