plus 1 more “Obama’s health insurance rule — it was a GOP idea - Joplin Globe”

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Obama’s health insurance rule — it was a GOP idea - Joplin Globe Posted: 27 Mar 2010 05:35 AM PDT Published March 27, 2010 08:41 am - Republicans were for President Barack Obama's requirement that Americans get health insurance before they were against it. Obama's health insurance rule — it was a GOP idea WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans were for President Barack Obama's requirement that Americans get health insurance before they were against it. The obligation in the new health care law is a Republican idea that's been around at least two decades. It was once trumpeted as an alternative to Bill and Hillary Clinton's failed health care overhaul in the 1990s. These days, Republicans call it government overreach. Mitt Romney, weighing another run for the GOP presidential nomination, signed such a requirement into law at the state level as Massachusetts governor in 2006. At the time, Romney defended it as "a personal responsibility principle" and Massachusetts' newest GOP senator, Scott Brown, backed it. Romney now says Obama's plan is a federal takeover that bears little resemblance to what he did as governor and should be repealed. Republicans say Obama and the Democrats co-opted their original concept, minus a mechanism they proposed for controlling costs. More than a dozen GOP attorneys general are determined to challenge the requirement in federal court as unconstitutional. Starting in 2014, the new law will require nearly all Americans to have health insurance through an employer, a government program or by buying it directly. That year, new insurance markets will open for business, health plans will be required to accept all applicants and tax credits will start flowing to millions of people, helping them pay the premiums. Those who continue to go without coverage will have to pay a penalty to the IRS, except in cases of financial hardship. Fines vary by income and family size. For example, a single person making $45,000 would pay an extra $1,125 in taxes when the penalty is fully phased in, in 2016. Conservatives today say that's unacceptable. Not long ago, many of them saw a national mandate as a free-market route to guarantee coverage for all Americans — the answer to liberal ambitions for a government-run entitlement like Medicare. Most experts agree some kind of requirement is needed in a reformed system because health insurance doesn't work if people can put off joining the risk pool until they get sick. In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon favored a mandate that employers provide insurance. In the 1990s, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, embraced an individual requirement. Not anymore. "The idea of an individual mandate as an alternative to single-payer was a Republican idea," said health economist Mark Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. In 1991, he published a paper that explained how a mandate could be combined with tax credits — two ideas that are now part of Obama's law. Pauly's paper was well-received — by the George H.W. Bush administration. "It could have been the basis for a bipartisan compromise, but it wasn't," said Pauly. "Because the Democrats were in favor, the Republicans more or less had to be against it." Obama rejected a key part of Pauly's proposal: doing away with the tax-free status of employer-sponsored health care and replacing it with a standard tax credit for all Americans. Labor strongly opposes that approach because union members usually have better-than-average coverage and suddenly would have to pay taxes on it. But many economists believe it's a rational solution to America's health care dilemma since it would raise enough money to cover the uninsured and nudge people with coverage into cost-conscious plans. Romney's success in Massachusetts with a bipartisan health plan that featured a mandate put the idea on the table for the 2008 presidential candidates. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who failed in the 1990s to require employers to offer coverage, embraced the individual requirement, an idea advocated by her Republican opponents in the earlier health care debate. "Hillary Clinton believed strongly in universal coverage," said Neera Tanden, her top health care adviser in the 2008 Democratic campaign. "I said to her, 'You are not going to be able to say it's universal coverage unless you have a mandate.' She said, 'I don't want to run unless it's universal coverage."' Obama was not prepared to go that far. His health care proposal in the campaign required coverage for children, not adults. Clinton hammered him because his plan didn't guarantee coverage for all. He shot back that health insurance is too expensive to force people to buy it. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

An Alternative to the Health Care Bill - Victoria Advocate Posted: 27 Mar 2010 01:10 AM PDT As a Democrat, I wrote a blog last summer about my ideas for the Heath Care Bill. I expressed that the bill, now law, is not the best way to go. On that blog, I expressed on what should be in the bill. 1) No mandates/ No mandatory insurance. 2) Expand Medicare to those of 45 and over. 3) Expand S-chip to every child or Destroy S-chip and create a baby bond saving account of $ 1,000 for each baby born. The child, when adult at 18 (or 23 if in college), would get the money. 4) Ban Pre-existing conditions and caps on insurance. 5) Cut 15-20% out of every governmental budget and use that money as a cushion for those between 18 and 45. Perhaps, create a mini-health care system for those in that age range. 6) No coverage on abortions with exceptions of rape or incest. 7) No coverage on cosmetic surgery, but coverage on I am a big supporter of the President, but I am against this law. The Law has a mandates and the spending of it is too quick and fast. It doesn't benefit the economy right now. Second, I detest the back room deals to get it passed. Print • Share Share this item Send this to a friend Grab the link Copy and paste the link: Blog about it Blog about this page. Close • 15 Comments Follow Writein Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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