Topic: Health — Insurance
Subject: Economics and public finance
Date: 2008-05-21 00:00:00

Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2008 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a refundable tax credit for health insurance coverage. Amends the Public Health Service Act to apply the laws of a health insurance issuer's primary state to individual health insurance coverage offered by the issuer in a secondary state. Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to set forth rules governing association health plans. Establishes the Health Care Services Commission to enhance health care services and access to them, and the Office of the Forum for Quality and Effectiveness in Health Care. Terminates the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Independent Health Record Trust Act of 2008 - Directs the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe standards for independent health record trusts (IHRTs) in a nationwide health information technology network. Revises title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to: (2) require states to elect either a block grant for acute care services or implement a refundable tax credit for the Medicaid population for such services; (2) phase-out disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments; and (3) establish a block grant to states for long-term care services. Abolishes SSA title XXI (State Children's Health Insurance Program) (SCHIP), effective January 1, 2010. Amends SSA title XVIII (Medicare) to create a program for new beneficiaries beginning in 2019, increasing the Medicare eligibility age to 65, and making an income-related reduction in the part D (Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit Program) premium subsidy. Social Security Personal Savings Guarantee and Prosperity Act of 2008 - Amends SSA title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) to establish a Personal Social Security Savings Program, under which participating individuals will have their Social Security contributions directed to personal Social Security savings accounts. Establishes a Self-Liquidating Social Security Transition Fund. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exempt certain account investments from taxation. Provides for the creation of a Social Security Lockbox Budget. Revises part A benefits. Provides for phase-in of normal retirement age to 67 by 2021. Taxpayer Choice Act of 2008 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) repeal the alternative minimum tax on individual taxpayers after 2006; and (2) allow taxpayers to elect an alternative income tax system without tax credits. Makes permanent the capital gains and dividends rate reductions enacted by the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Excludes from gross income net capital gains, qualified dividends, and interest.Repeals estate and gift taxes. Competitive American Business Tax - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) repeal the corporate income tax; and (2) impose a tax on the sale of property in the United States, the performance of services in the United States, and the importing of property into the United States by a taxable person in a transaction engaged in by a corporation or any other person (other than a corporation) in connection with a business. Allows as a credit against such tax any tax paid by sellers to the taxpayer of property and services which the taxpayer uses in the business to which the transaction relates. Exempts certain organizations and transactions from such new tax. Budget Control Act of 2008 - Establishes a mechanism for issuance by the President and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of spending reduction orders. Exempts Social Security benefits and obligated balances from such orders. Provides for suspension of such mechanism in the event of war or low-growth. Authorizes the majority leader of either House of Congress to introduce a joint resolution to direct the President to modify a final spending reduction order or provide an alternative to eliminate the spending excess for a fiscal year. Amends the Congressional Budget Act to make it out of order for the House or Senate to consider any legislation that would cause: (1) an excess spending amount; or (2) aggregate federal revenue levels exceeding a specified percentage of revenue relative to the Gross Domestic Product, unless so determined by a vote of at least three-fifths of the Members voting, a quorum being present.