Oh No We Won't!

"Punishing families who can't afford health care to begin with just doesn't make sense." - Obama

Ahh, the good ol' days. Back when our (then soon-to-be) President opposed fines to force individuals to buy health insurance. At the time (during the primaries), he proposed mandatory insurance only for children (and chastised Hillary for her mandatory coverage plan).

What goes around comes around, I guess. Hillary isn't rebuking, but apparently since a horse by any other name is still a horse, the same must also be true for an ass (the progressive form of donkey – no harm done).

So we're back to penalizing families who can't afford health care? Or not? Maybe we are? But definitely not on Tuesdays. Would somebody just make up Obama's mind for him?

Hopefully after tonight's speech, Obama will be singing along with JT:

Don't want to think about it
Don't want to talk about it
I'm just so sick about it
Can't believe it's ending this way – Justin Timberlake

I think we're all pretty sick about it by now.

Apparently the idea behind the penalty is that those who can afford insurance but don't buy it are imposing costs on the entire health system. Under the proposal, nearly 12 million people who currently have no insurance could be subject to such fines.

Government loves your money. And red tape.

The complex plan would make dozens of changes in the health care system, many of them controversial. For example, it includes new annual fees on insurers ($6 billion), drug companies ($2.3 billion), medical device manufacturers ($4 billion) and clinical labs ($750 million). The fees would be levied on individual companies based on market share. Insurers also face an excise tax of 35% for any health plan worth more than $8,000 a year for individuals and $21,000 a year for families.

Well that makes sense – we are, after all, trying to reduce costs. So why not just include new fees to be passed on to the patient (consumer)?

It sounds as if we've gone from trying to reduce costs to trying to pay for the "reform". Who cares what happens down the road to the actual costs.

The proposal also requires insurers to take all applicants, regardless of health or age. However, smokers could be charged higher premiums and a 60-year-old could be charged five times as much for a policy as a 20-year-old. But this is in the name of fairness.

In addition, the plan wants to impose payment rate reductions in Medicare and Medicaid which will save between $400 and $500 billion over ten years.

But don't you worry about rationing or reductions in quality of care.

Too bad they won't just let the market work without restraint. A free medical market would bring lower prices and better services. The price of insurance would come down with the price of care and government could go find another tree to pee on.