Senate Health Care Timeline

Conn Carroll / December 30, 2009

Obamacare is not yet law, but the battle over which elements of it should be repealed has already begun with both sides believing they will have the upper hand. Key to this debate will be which elements of Obamacare phase in when. Heritage Foundation scholar Robert Book has pored through the Senate bill and produced the following chart (pdf) detailing how the Senate version of Obamacare is scheduled to be implemented between 2010 and 2017. Highlights from each year include:

2010: Physician Medicare payments decrease 21% effective March 1, 2010

2011: “Annual Fee” tax on health insurance, allocated according to share of total premiums. Begins at $2 billion in 2011, then increases to $4 billion in 2012, $7 billion in 2013, $9 billion in the years 2014, 2015, and 2016, and eventually $10 billion for 2017 and every year thereafter. Two insurers in Nebraska and one in Michigan are exempt from this tax.

2012: Medicare payment penalties for hospitals with the highest readmission rates for selected conditions. (more…)