Obama Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Senator Grassley Worried About Taxes
A mandate that forces Americans to buy health insurance from private companies is the same as mandating someone to buy a plasma TV from Sony. Understandably we need everyone to be covered so the cost of treating the sick is spread over as many people as possible, but from private companies! The mandated people will go broke. If they can’t afford coverage now how are they going to afford coverage under this plan?
These people will be subject to the same yearly double digit increases in premiums along with the increasing deductibles and co-payments the rest of us are faced with. Essentially, they become another profit center for insurance companies to take advantage of.
I know how the mandate thing works and I know insurance companies can weed out those more likely to file claims and profit from younger subscribers who are not. Older people with families will be forced to buy into a plan with the highest deductible possible just to be able to get a policy with a lower premium, one they can afford. That forces them to pay out of their own pocket a yearly amount that will probably exceed a couple of thousand dollars. Younger subscribers can go for a higher deductible lower premium policy because they probably won’t have any medical expenses at all.
And the winner is…envelope please…the health insurance companies!!! Magnificent, congratulations you’ve just won the top prize.
Reform was meant for you and me but surprise! We are being victimized again. If you are going to force people to buy insurance let them into Medicare. It ain’t cheap but at least they won’t be getting robbed.
I pulled the excerpts below from the GOP official website:
http://www.gop.com
OBAMA IGNORES FACT THAT HIS PLAN INCREASES MIDDLE CLASS TAXES
Obama Claims Individual Mandate To Buy Insurance Is Not Tax Increase. STEPHANOPOULOS: “Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?” … OBAMA: “No. That’s not true, George … For us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.” (ABC News’ “This Week,” 9/20/09)
But Joint Committee On Taxation Says Individual Mandate Is Tax That Will Hit Middle-Class Americans. JCT’S THOMAS BARTHOLD: “Senator Grassley, the penalty proposed in the Chairman’s mark, is as you observed, it’s structured as a penalty excise tax, we have other penalty excise taxes in the internal revenue code … We have not done a combined distribution analyses across income to specifically answer your question but to the extent that yes we think that some people would be subject to the penalty excise tax when everything shakes out we would expect that some would have incomes less than $200,000 dollars.” (George Stephanopoulos, “Mandate Or Tax? Grassley V. Baucus,” ABC News’s “George’s Bottom Line” Blog, 9/22/09)
Notice senator Grassley being concerned about the tax aspect of the bill. This kind of thinking drives me mad!! Why is a tax a problem when the yearly double digit increases in insurance premiums along with higher deductibles and co-payments not a problem? Those yearly increases measure over a thousand dollars for people with a family. What the hell is wrong with that guy?
I know, taxes are a code word that clicks with his conservative base. I guess every time he says increased taxes he gets a hundred bonus votes.
Healthcare reform as it is now configured should not be allowed to pass. It is just about worse than doing nothing. Reform without any prospect for reducing costs just locks in the problems for years to come even if it forces everyone to buy coverage.
It was a gallant effort, but it compromised with the forces that are the problem ensuring that they will continue being a problem and intensify the crisis. Let it go Obama, we know who the culprits are and we won’t blame you.
If this issue is not dealt with properly the whole country is going down. The forces of good tried to make a deal with the forces of greed. Greed doesn’t care if the country goes down as long as it gets paid in advance. That’s what’s happening here. Now we have to look after our best interests and let those who are more concerned with profits be the ones who get knocked to the canvas.
Obama, you have all the votes you need to ram through an effective reform package that you can write yourself. You got all the muscle you need. Next time around bring Luca Braza with you to the negotiating table. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. Tell the opponents of reform that either their brains or their signature is going to be on that legislation.
Greed is concerned with this year’s bottom line: you need to be concerned with the future of the country. Some things don’t lend themselves to negotiation.
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Bravo, su pensamiento simplemente excelente