Posted on 09/18/2009 3:06:20 PM PDT by ReporterGal
Health care bill squeezes the middle class By Juanita Thouin
At a press conference held after his town hall meeting in Murfreesboro last month, Congressman Bart Gordon was asked if he could say with certainty that, under H.R. 3200, citizens with pre-existing health conditions and income above a certain poverty level would have their health insurance premiums capped.
Gordon responded, “I cannot.”
H.R. 3200 is the health care reform bill now under consideration in the House of Representatives. It contains no language stipulating premium caps for families earning more than 400 percent above the federal poverty level.
This means that for a two-person family living in one of the 48 contiguous states and earning more than $58,280, the public option offers no guaranteed limits for the cost of health insurance. For a family of four, that income figure is $88,200.
http://www.rutherfordreader.com/fullpaper.asp?navtype=ChangePage&pagenum=03
(Excerpt) Read more at rutherfordreader.com ...
The Progressives, Communists, Socialists etc. are pushin too hard!
I’ve been pointin this out in debates with reform advocates for months now.
There will be no cap for premiums period, not only for pre-existing conditions. So, once you’re mandated to purchase health insurance, why wouldn’t the insurance companies raise their premium rates?
Why wouldn’t they especially raise their rates for pre-existing conditions so high that it would force these people to go on the public plan, where, if their premiums are capped, their costs would be born by everyone?
Even in the public plan, premiums will not be capped if a person makes more than 400% above federal poverty level.
The only option for these middle class citizens will be to pay the penalty tax of 2.5% of income. Then self pay all medical expenses and hope and pray they don’t get really sick.
Many will wind up loosing their homes to pay medical bills. Or dying early because they can’t afford to treat cancer, heart disease or kidney failure.
Oh, worse than I thought even.
Do you happen to know which section of the bill says that about the public plan not capping premiums for pre-exising conditions?
Look on pages 132-137 of HR 3200, paying particular attention to the chart on page 137. Then go to this site http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtml to look up federal poverty levels for 2009. From there you can do the math to determine the exact figures.
If you send me a private post, I’ll send you my seven pages of research.
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