The bill contains the word "shall" 3,425 times. But I'm sure all those are used to tell you how the government "shall" stay out of your health-care decisions, right? Pg. 1516 regulates vending machines: In the case of an article of food sold from a vending machine that ‘‘(I) does not permit a prospective purchaser to examine the Nutrition Facts Panel before purchasing the article or does not otherwise provide visible nutrition information at the point of purchase; and ‘‘(II) is operated by a person who is engaged in the business of owning or operating 20 or more vending machines, the vending machine operator shall provide a sign in close proximity to each article of food or the selection button that includes a clear and conspicuous statement disclosing the number of calories contained in the article. Pg. 31, under a section titled, "Sunshine on price gouging of health insurance issuers": The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with States, shall establish a process for the annual review of increases in premiums for health insurance coverage. Such process shall require health insurance issuers to submit a justification for any premium increases prior to implementation of the increase. The "doc fix"- coming in at about $200 billion-is yet to come, and will be handled in a separate piece of legislation, just as the Senate tried. The bill adds a new section to the federal tax code: "'PART VIII:HEALTH CARE RELATED TAXES.' Among the new taxes are penalties for individuals who don't purchase insurance and employers who don't provide insurance, income tax surcharges of up to 5.6% to those earning more than $1 million, and a 2.5% excise tax on medical devices." Pg. 132: The bill creates the
Office of the Ultimate Bureaucrat
Health Choices Administration headed by the Health Choices Commissioner. Among the commissioner's duties (he will be appointed by the president and approved by the Senate): "establishment of qualified health benefits plan standards," "administration of individual affordability credits under subtitle C of title III, including determination of eligibility for such credits," auditing insurance exchange participants to provide "accountability" for meeting his established standards and billing those insurance companies for the audits, collecting unspecified "data," penalizing, suspending payments to, and terminating insurance plans that don't meet exchange standards, establishing " effective and efficient administration of the Health Insurance Exchange," and "development of standards for the definitions of terms used in health insurance coverage, including insurance-related terms." No word on who will hold this unelected bureaucrat accountable for doing any of this well or fairly. But hey, look on the bright side, we will have a new federal office. And, who doesn't need another of those?