The big buzz word being used to sell America on the idea of socialized medicine is “choice”. But – surprise, surprise – the Senate’s release today of certain components of its plans to “reform” health care for Americans doesn’t include it.
How do I force thee? Let me count the ways:
- Americans who make the personal choice to not purchase “affordable” medical coverage
- Could be hit with fines of more than $1,000
- Employees must buy medical coverage from their employer (if offered)
- Families would be financially penalized more than individuals (that’s called “shared responsibility”)
- The IRS would be responsible for collecting the fines
- Hardship exemptions would be allowed
- Employers must provide health insurance
- Must cover 60% of the total cost per employee
- Will be fined $750 for each employee not covered
- Exempt if employing less than 25 people
- Eligible for a government subsidy to provide employee health insurance
All of this is bad enough, but of course the devil’s in the details and it’s in those details we begin to see how the administration is going to twist the screws to secure their ultimately fascist aims. A health insurance premium that costs an employee more than 12.5 percent of his or her adjusted gross income would be considered unaffordable. The bill would then let these employees drop their employer coverage to seek cheaper alternatives elsewhere.
I’ll give you three guesses where that “cheaper alternative” will be found and the first two guesses don’t count.
Workforce.com reports:
A majority of employees already work for employers that pay 50 percent or more of their health care premium costs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2008 survey on health benefits. In 2008, the average covered worker paid 16 percent of the premium and families paid 27 percent, though those numbers vary sharply according to an employer’s size, employee salary and whether an employee is part of a labor union.
The latest draft from the Senate health committee does not specify what minimum employer coverage must look like, except that mini-medical plans would not qualify nor would plans with high out-of-pocket maximums. The out-of-pocket limit would be defined by Section 223 of the Internal Revenue Code used to determine what qualifies as a high-deductible plan.
That code specifies that, for 2010, a health plan’s out-of-pocket maximums (including deductibles, co-payments and other costs other than premiums) could not exceed of $5,950 for individuals or $11,900 for families.
The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services would add more details to the kinds of health coverage that meet the proposed employer mandate.
This doesn’t even begin to address the costs to American taxpayers or how we’ll be expected to pay for it (but talk abounds about reductions to Medicare and Medicaid and taxing all types of insurance policies). The finance committees in both the House and the Senate are working on their own (more expensive) versions but the initial numbers aren’t at all encouraging. Estimates right now from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) for the Senate health committee’s version alone stand at $611.4 billion over 10 years; that’s just a few Starbucks lattes shy of $51,000 for each of the 12 million who will gain coverage. Senator Dodd says he’s only counting legal residents but tack on the secret that Senator Menendez and La Raza don’t want you to know about adding 22+ million illegal immigrants and at that conservative CBO estimate per person, we’re looking at more like $1,120,900,000,000 right out the gate (yes, Virgina, that’s over a trillion dollars).
Right now, I don’t know what the answer is to “health care for everyone” except a strong, free market economy where people are working and removing the 22+ million drain on health care services provided to illegal immigrants (criminals). But I do know that what is being planned – taking away Americans freedom to choose – ain’t it.