These three bills make up Obamacare.

The final bill is several bills, informally called the Baucus bill and the Reconciliation bill. It originated in the Senate as S1796, then went to the House as HR3590, and then those two were reconciled with HR4872. (Note: It originated in the Senate. Taxes can only originate out of the House. Period.)  I’ll warn you, none of the signed bills that make up Obamacare are readable. In my opinion it’s intentionally incomprehensible. The first bill, HR3200 (link at the bottom of the page), was readable and started a fire storm, because the common man could read it. They were clever with the next bill to make it incomprehensible.

S1796 – http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/s1796/text  Known as Baucus Bill.  This bill originated in the Senate, hence the “S” designation.  Since Chief Justice Roberts called the Obamacare mandate a tax, he may have set a trap with his language and re-classification of the mandate.  Not that anyone in Washington cares anymore, but the US Constitution is pretty clear – ALL TAXES MUST ORIGINATE IN THE HOUSE.  This bill, as it is now declared a tax, violates the Constitution because it originated in the Senate.

HR3590 – http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr3590/text  The House version of S1796.

HR4872 – http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr4872/text Known as the Reconciliation Bill.  This bill lays out the compromises between the House and Senate bills.   So even if you read language in S1796 or in HR3590, it could be changed in this one, HR4872.

The bills are so sweeping they don’t just write new law, but greatly amend existing Internal Revenue Service Code of 1986, Public Health laws, and the Social Security Act.  Obamacare gives broad regulatory powers to “The Secretary” of Health Human Services, Kathleen Sibelius, to establish rules and fill in the details as necessary.  This type of fill-in-the-blank law writing within 3,000-page bills is causing tremendous instability in the business world.  The rules still aren’t even all written yet.  Businesses, including insurance companies and hospitals, don’t even know the rules yet.  I guess the info is on a need-to-know basis and “The Secretary” will let us know immediately AFTER THE 2012 ELECTION!  Remember everyone – Elections Have Consequences!

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As my 2009 Washington protest sign read, “HR3200 = FUBAR”.  (Google FUBAR.)

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First House bill, HR3200, wasn’t passed in the Senate, but it is readable: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr3200/text  This is the bill that got 2 million people to descend on Washington on September 12, 2009.  This bill ticked off so many people, caused so much research and analysis to be done.  This bill spells out:

• death panels,
• grants full IRS enforcement,
• strong arms businesses to cancel their private insurance,
• nudges insurance companies into bankruptcy through over burdensome compliance and excessive coverage with capped premiums,
• demands federal audits for any businesses that self-insure,
• makes the “public option” easy and automatic,
• requires all Medicare recipients provide all financial records and gives the federal government access to those accounts.

Really.

— Hat tip to Tim Clack II for asking for the .pdf’s of these bills tonight and sparking my desire to share this information.