House DemocRATS have rolled out a Mandatory Insurance Plan, which does not appear to have a public option. Oh, it does have an “exchange” with a public plan among the options, for those few who qualify to get into the “exchange” in the first place.
The legislation calls for a 5.4% tax increase on individuals making more than $1 million a year, with a gradual tax beginning at $280,000 for individuals. Employers who don’t provide coverage would be hit with a penalty equal to 8% of workers’ wages with an exemption for small businesses. Individuals who decline an offer of affordable coverage would pay 2.5% of their incomes as a penalty, up to the average cost of a health insurance plan.
The nicest thing I can say about it is that insurance companies aren’t wild about it either.
Here’s what happens when we have mandatory coverage: crap policies; real policies still unaffordable by anybody except large businesses that are insuring hundreds of people; denied and cancelled policies leaving people scrambling for coverage; insurance bureaucrats sentencing people to death; personal bankruptcy caused by medical debt.
Sure, something must be done, and done now. But this is the wrong thing to do. Think about it.
In Closing: businesses only pay taxes on profits; inflation and the fear thereof; 9th Circuit says pharmacists can have consciences, but pharmacies must fill prescriptions; job losses will trickle down through our economy in a bad way; how to disappear; Geeky Monticello; job offer scams (my tip, employers don’t ask you for money, they pay you money); whatchoo talkin bout Willis Tower?; immigration and crime; living on borrowed money; tax cuts don’t create jobs; and homeless in the suburbs.