Posted on 07/02/2009 3:18:48 PM PDT by Libloather
Senate bill fines people refusing health coverage
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR – 58 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals.
In a revamped health care system envisioned by lawmakers, people would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now. The government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families, but those who still refuse to sign up would face penalties.
Called "shared responsibility payments," the fines would be set at least half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation.
In 2008, employer-provided coverage averaged $12,680 a year for a family plan, and $4,704 for individual coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's annual survey. Senate aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the cost of the federal plan would be lower but declined to provide specifics.
The legislation would exempt certain hardship cases from fines.
The new proposals were released as Congress neared the end of a weeklong July 4 break, with lawmakers expected to quickly take up health care legislation when they return to Washington. With deepening divisions along partisan and ideological lines, the complex legislation faces an uncertain future.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
in Romneycare in MA you have to list what the religion is, etc
How do Republicans run ads against an idea originated by a Republican?
You have to ask someone whose name implies that they loathe liberals why they don’t care for Romney?
Thank you Mitt “Mr. Healthcare Genius” Romney.
Has anyone got the bill number yet?
People who after serving one term, still get their entire salary as a pension, as well as the best medical care in the country. Just after serving one term. They are the people who decide.
Send me to jail; I won’t do it! (Or pay the tax..OOPS, I mean “fine”)!
Hate to say it, but the $600 billion Democrat health plan they just introduced, which includes the “public option” has a very good chance of becoming law this year.
Bump!
I think, while I can sympathize with your position, that you're missing the more important concept here - that the federal government is licensing to you permission to live. They like to say it's like mandatory auto insurance - government permits for driving is accepted, do you really want to give the government permission to license your ability to live?
That's the real problem here - government stepping into areas it was never intended to go. How on earth did our parents manage to pay for our medical bills when we were growing up? How did their parents manage the costs of broken bones and debilitating diseases.
We've removed free market from health care, and contrary to every conceivable economic theory in how to reduce costs, the federal answer is to hire more people to manage paperwork, under the theory that this will reduce costs.
Since labor costs are up, the only way to reduce the cost of health care is to reduce the quality and quantity of health care.
Another question that is hanging out there unanswered: Where the heck are all these doctors? In many urban areas, medical offices are at capacity. In rural areas, it's becoming increasingly impossible to find a general practitioner. General doctors are retiring faster than they are graduating, and the increasingly specialist nature of medicine will require ever increasing costs to maintain this very narrow focus.
For example, if you were an auto mechanic, and were really good at Range Rover undercarriages, and that's all you did, you'd probably charge more than anyone else as you need to make more money per visit than the auto shop next door that takes all makes and models. All fine and dandy for Range Rover owners, though, who have an option there, but for something, well, lower down on the economic scale, say a Pinto repairman, you'd still need to charge as much as the Range Rover specialist to stay in business.
The only answer to health care is to end HMOs and PPOs. Insurance is fine, if someone wants to buy it, but get all those layers upon layers of people out of the way, and tell them to go to medical school and become general practitioners, and the ‘medical crisis’ will be swiftly over with.
So those that opt in to the program will have to wait for months to get healthcare, only to be turned away because they are too old or whatever.
The other option is to pay a fine and have peace of mind that one will have to recuperate on their own without the government's help.
As I see it, the government knows that the medical insurance will be a flop so they're insuring that the program will not be a loss by fining the majority who will opt out.
It’s enough to make blood gush right out of your eyes.
If one can’t afford healthcare now, and we refuse to be subjected to their DICtates, where in the h*ll do they think that we have a thousand dollars for a fine sitting around.
Would someone please post the Bill number?
I’ve got several politicians to scream at and I want to have the right number to scream about.
I swear to God...
We need a hero.
I kind of like this new program. The more oppressive these thugs come off as the better it is for all of us in the future. There are as many Democrats who don’t want insurance as there are Republicans. All these mandates are eventually going to get to everyone.
“Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage”
As usual, they leave one of the key words undefined, leaving them to choose what it means.
ROFL
The democrats are total idiots! This will turn the vast majority of people against health care faster than anything else I could possibly think of.
I will now predict that health care will not happen, and depending on how hard they push this the democrats will lose big in 2010.
This can’t possibly be Constitutional. Not that that’s ever stopped them before...
Heh heh! Actually what we’re gonna need is someone who can work culinary wonder with all our canned & dehydrated food. I can see that living off the emergency supplies will get old real quickly.
Well, the car companies established “Acceptance Corporations” to enable car dealers to quickly fund
car loans. The car purchase remains a matter between the dealer, the car company finance arm, and the purchaser.
It seems to me that the AMA/state medical associations could also make it possible to purchase the services of
its members on a group plan basis. Of course, we also need
for a goodly number of malpractice lawsuits and ass-coverage
lab and diagnostics to dissapear as well. Thats where a
lot of the administrative overheard is in the plans.
I would trust the docs to decide what tests are reasonable
to administer to a patient, they are MDs after all sworn to
uphold their sacred oath. The only oath sacred to the plan
admins is the bottom line.
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