Reid Should Read His Own Bill Before Crushing Nevada Families

(Office of the Nevada Governor) – Senator Harry Reid continues to brag about handing out billions of dollars in taxpayer financed “inducements” to muster the votes needed to pass his health care package. Senator Reid has also suggested Governor Gibbons misunderstands the bill and should read it. Governor Gibbons replied, “We have read the bill and THAT’S exactly what troubles us.”

Gibbons continued, “Senator Reid is way out of line with his ‘payoffs’ to Senators and Reid should read his own bill before he spouts off about the damage his work will do to Nevada families.”

Nevada is Reid’s home state.

“Senator Reid keeps saying his enticements to other senators to coerce them to support his bill are just compromise and politics as usual,” Governor Gibbons said, “but if any citizen used these tactics in day-to-day business deals, they would be led away in handcuffs and charged with bribery.”

Reid’s health care bill will cost Nevadans at least $613,000,000. That figure comes from a high-level analysis of Senator Reid’s bill made by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services Division of Health Care Financing and Policy-the Administrator of Nevada’s Medicaid Program. A copy of this analysis was provided to Senator Reid’s office weeks ago.

The Governor’s Office has read the bill, and it is true, according to Reid’s bill that the federal government (your federal income taxes) will pay for the increased costs in Medicaid (medical care paid with your federal and state taxes) for three years. (Except, of course, in Nebraska, where Senator Reid agreed to have the federal government pay for state the Medicaid expansion forever in exchange for one senator’s vote.)

But after the first three years, all states, except Nebraska, are on their own. THAT is where, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, the $613,000,000 figure comes from (2014 through 2019, and it will be a direct cost to all Nevadans).

After the Governor’s Office read the bill, it is clear many businesses will find it more profitable to pay a federal penalty and end the health insurance they provide to their employees. Those working families will be forced onto Nevada Medicaid. This, alone, will make the state Medicaid enrollment bulge beyond affordable capacity. This will also cut off health insurance many Nevadans presently enjoy.

“Senator Reid is openly buying votes to pass his bill that will crush Nevada’s working families,” Governor Gibbons said, “We have read the bill and I still firmly believe Senator Reid is wishing Nevadans a Merry Christmas with a smirk on his face and a knife in our backs.”

Governor Gibbons will also ask the Nevada Attorney General to examine Reid’s Health Care Reform package to see if the bill forcing Americans to have health insurance violates the United States Constitution. Governors in several states have asked their legal advisors to do the same thing.