Laying the groundwork for the hoped for Republican Resurgence of 2010.
“This bill is a stunning assault on liberty,” said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona.
The scary part is, he is right. Forcing Americans to buy a product ….without giving them an Option IS an assault on liberty, a stunning assault, and unprecedented assault. It is a totally new concept and one that marks a VERY disturbing crossing of the lines between government and the Corporations.
There has never before been a law that mandates that Americans have to buy a product from a Corporation.
Is there anyone who can look at this sentence:
You MUST buy this product, or the government will fine you.
And not be at least mildly alarmed?
Can anyone look at that sentence and NOT see a real (as opposed to their standard manufactured ones) winning issue for Republicans to run on that WILL outrage a major portion of the American Populace? Can anyone here not see this as THE linchpin of a Republican “Anti Big Government” campaign strategy?
Yet the idea that in order to lower costs and provide Universal Coverage while eliminating recission and pre-existing conditions loopholes is nearly impossible to argue with. Therefor their must be a mandate.
That leaves only one way to short circuit not only a REALLY bad idea…forcing people to buy a product for the first time in history…but a winning political issue for Republicans.
If you are going to have a mandate, you must also offer a choice. A way to opt out….an…Option. An Option for the Public. A Public Option!
An inclusive, non-triggered Public Option. An Option not open to just the desperate and highest risk (and thus most expensive) patients/consumers/voters…but to everyone.
Or at the very least to Conscientious Objectors who don’t want to be forced to support the very industry that caused the Health Care Crisis to begin with.
The Corporate Option, a HCR Bill with only a Ghettoized Public Option whose main function is to force the government to pay for the “5% who can’t get insurance” (in other words, the most expensive patients) and thus even further increase InsCo profits is a windfall boondoggle. A windfall boondoggle not just for the InsCo’s….but for the Republicans as well.
Not only is the Public Option a damn good idea all on it’s own to force costs down and provide a non-reversible, non-loophole containing, non lobbyist written form of market driven regulation of Insurance Corporations…
It is also the only way to make sure that the Republicans can’t turn HCR to their political benefit.
And shut John Kyl up!
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I’m not saying you don’t have a point. Im also not saying i don’t agree with you. I’d just like to point out that in my state, like most, i have to show proof of insurance to get a drivers license. Im just saying.
Personally, I would separate the two issues.
We absolutely need the public option to provide an alternative to the monopoly held by the Insurance Company profiteers. In fact, the proposed public option is so limited (not available unless you are either unemployed or are self-employed) that it hardly does even that. But even a weak public option is at least a toe hold, and maybe it can be expanded in later years.
But the whole “mandate” thing is just bad policy. I agree with what Obama said during the campaign itself, which is that “people don’t have insurance not because they don’t want it, but because it costs too much”. The focus should be 100% on lowering the cost of the premiums and not mandating poor people, people who are laid off, etc. to waste their last bit of savings on health care, when they need that money to buy food and pay for their housing.
Mandates hurt people. Furthermore these so-called “affordable” plans that are offered to people when they are unemployed are setup to have a $2000 deductible. So think about it, a person with no job and no money is now required by the IRS to spend $5000 on a damn Insurance policy (the premium price) — which, with the deductible — means that they have to spend an extra $7000 out of pocket when they’re already broke before they see a nickle worth of Health Care Coverage. If they don’t come up with the $7000 then the IRS fines them and eventually brings criminal charges. This is absolute nuts. It’s tyranny.
The Mandates suck.
This does not help the problem.
Just take the enormous profits and middle-man markups away, and make the cost really affordable (with no “deductibles”).
with my Babes Club… my friend in Canada said: “What’s a mandate?”
d’oh.
Here in Ted’s very state insurance is mandatory. The mechanism for compliance lies in that April 15 tax return.
Why not just stop filing returns! Yes the IRS will come after you eventually. Think about that, eventually. In light of the great swine flu roundup it might be a good bet. Hey, I’m going to a detention center anyway so what the fuck.
Yes, Johnny, you get the cu-pie doll.
we don’t need a mandate.
The reason the insurance companies require a mandate to provide universal coverage is because their insurance is so crappy and expensive that people need to be forced into buying it.
If you had a robust PO akin to what a single payer model looks like…
then the coverage would be so good and the price so affordable that there would be very few who wouldn’t sign up voluntarily, especially if you were also offering income subsidies.
And even for the few who choose not to take advantage of this great deal, the cost to the system as whole would be little more than a rounding error.
So no, we don’t need a government mandate under any circumstances.
the Republican Party should all speak with one voice — no mandates! — and the prospect of a dramatic Republican victory in both houses of Congress should be made plainly apparent to Baucus and Conrad.