Re: Mass. lawmakers OK bill requiring health insurance for all residents
- From: Zombywoof <Zomby-Woof@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 22:48:03 -0400
On 5 Apr 2006 22:17:30 -0700, "OneTiredGrandma"
<OneTiredGrandma@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Nah, the government can circumvent the constitution of a daily basis
I heard this on the news today. I'm very curious to see how this state
accomplishes this. The govenor said they would be keeping tax refunds
of those who don't comply. This seems unconstitutional at the very
least. I have always had health insurance, mainly because it was
available through my employer. then had insurance through COBRA, and
now Medicare. This, like so many other gov't mandates, will hurt
middle America.
by making dumbass laws such as this. Sure there will be plenty of
people dancing in the streets, but they aren't the ones having their
pockets picked.
What will happen, and they are already predicting that costs will
triple in the first three years is that it will start out at $295 a
year and work its way to $295 a month.
Taxachusetts already has a major problem with people electing not to
live there even if they are employed there. By-in-large it has one of
the largest overall tax bites of all of the states while its
governmental services are no better, and its roads in some cases far
worse.
This is my opinion only.....no attacks necessary. :)
Juba wrote:
"The plan hinges in part on two key sections: the $295-per-employee
business assessment and a so-called "individual mandate," requiring
every resident who can afford it to obtain health insurance or face
increasing tax penalties."
By Steve LeBlanc
ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 5, 2006
BOSTON - Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill yesterday that would
make Massachusetts the first state to require that all its residents
have some form of health insurance.
The plan - approved just 24 hours after the final details were
released - would use a combination of financial incentives and penalties
to dramatically expand access to health care over the next three years
and extend coverage to the state's estimated 500,000 uninsured.
If all goes as planned, poor people will be offered free or heavily
subsidized coverage; those who can afford insurance but refuse to get it
will face increasing tax penalties until they obtain coverage; and those
already insured will see a modest drop in their premiums.
The measure does not call for new taxes but would require businesses
with more than 10 workers that do not offer insurance to pay a $295
annual fee per employee.
The cost was put at $316 million in the first year, and more than $1
billion by the third year, with much of that money coming from federal
reimbursements and existing state spending, officials said.
The House approved the bill on a 154-2 vote. The Senate endorsed it
37-0.
A final procedural vote is needed in both chambers of the
Democratic-controlled legislature before the bill can head to the desk
of Gov. Mitt Romney, a potential Republican candidate for president in
2008.
Romney, who had expressed support for the measure, said yesterday that
he would sign it.
"It's only fitting that Massachusetts would set forward and produce the
most comprehensive, all-encompassing health care reform bill in the
country," said House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, a Democrat. "Do we know
whether this is perfect or not? No, because it's never been done
before."
The only other state to come close to the Massachusetts plan is Maine,
which passed a law in 2003 to dramatically expand health care. That plan
relies largely on voluntary compliance.
"What Massachusetts is doing, who they are covering, how they're
crafting it, especially the individual requirement, that's all unique,"
said Laura Tobler, a health policy analyst for the National Conference
of State Legislatures.
The plan hinges in part on two key sections: the $295-per-employee
business assessment and a so-called "individual mandate," requiring
every resident who can afford it to obtain health insurance or face
increasing tax penalties.
Liberals typically support employer mandates, while conservatives
generally back individual responsibility.
"The novelty of what's happened in this building is that instead of
saying, 'Let's do neither,' leaders are saying, 'Let's do both,' said
John McDonough of Health Care for All. "This will have a ripple effect
across the country."
The state's poorest - single adults making $9,500 or less a year - will
have access to health coverage with no premiums or deductibles.
Those living at up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or about
$48,000 for a family of three, will be able to get health coverage on a
sliding scale, also with no deductibles.
Individuals deemed able but unwilling to purchase health care could face
fines of more than $1,000 a year by the state if they don't get
insurance.
--
Juba
www.masterjuba.com
--
For choosing to fight, one gets the horrors or war, stress, and possibly
death.
For choosing not to fight, one gets subjugation, humiliation, and
possibly death.
Choose your fights carefully.
.
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