After digging some I have found a statement from Congressman Donnelly as to his reasoning.
This one is straight out of Mr. Obama's play book:
If you have health coverage and like it, the new bill will not force you to change your plan or your doctor. The goal is to protect the doctor-patient relationship and the doctor's decision-making ability, which is critical to effective health care. For those who do not have coverage, the bill creates a national marketplace of competing insurance plans, offering minimum benefits, as well as a limited public plan for the uninsured and small businesses. Since 2000, premiums have more than doubled, including for most small businesses. These rising premiums have become one of the largest cost concerns for our small businesses, and the goal of this bill is to foster greater competition among insurers and lower premiums.Problem is with that if your employer decides to pay the taxes imposed by this bill, (much less expensive and will not have to undergo re-approval of the Health Choices Commissioner), instead of maintaining their employee healthcare plan, ( IF it was approved by the Health Choices Commissioner), then even if you love your healthcare plan it will be gone and you will be forced to find another.
With the limitations placed on the approval of plans and if it is what the Health Choices Commissioner thru review thinks is best for you...well chances are your only option will be, WONDER OF WONDERS, the government public option.
Want to foster competition among insurers? LET THEM COMPETE. The tightening of the rules do not force competition. allowing them to compete head to head does. i.e. across state line
This bill DOES NOT improve or maintain the doctor-patient relationship and the doctor's decision-making ability. It gives it over to the TOTAL CONTROL of the the Health Choices Commissioner.
To me this Health Choices Commissioner is sounding too much like a mix of Heinrich Himmler, Richard Darré with a touch of Mengele thrown in for "fun"
This new all-powerful “health choices commissioner” would be entrusted with more power than most superheroes. The laundry list of that special power is proof that it’s a government takeover of health care.
This presidential appointee will both control the new government-run insurance plan AND decide how private insurance companies are to operate, by creating the standards for their coverage and enforcing compliance. Likewise, employer-run health plans would answer to super-czar.
In other words, this health czar will control both the government plan and all of its competition. So much for claims about a level playing field!
Rather than having Medicare dictate payment amounts to doctors and hospitals (as Pelosi originally intended), her new 1,990-page bill says the czar will “negotiate” rates. That will take an an awful lot of staff. America has 788,000 active doctors and 5,708 hospitals.
But that’s not all. The new czar would also:
- Oversee the millions of Americans who would qualify for insurance subsidies
- Audit the country’s 1,300-plus health insurers
- Have power to collect whatever data the office deems necessary, which could involve review of medical records
- Assess fines
- Define our terms for us. This commissioner/czar would dictate all the definitions used in health insurance policies. After all, if you control the language, you control the debate
- Appoint a national health ombudsman to examine consumer complaints, but only in “a linguistically appropriate manner”
“The House health care reform bill would establish a new entity called the Health Choices Administration, headed by a presidential appointee to be called the Health Choices Commissioner. Sounds wonderful, right? A government official whose only job is to make sure you have health care choices, right?
“No. If you read the bill, . . . it turns out that the Health Choices Commissioner’s job is, essentially, to make your health choices for you.”
The new super-bureaucrats may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But they can put a lot of tall barriers between each of us and our doctors.
As to not forget ...
No insurance? Fine and jail time.
H.R. 3962 contains:Section 59B. TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.
‘‘(a) TAX IMPOSED.—In the case of any individual who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of—
(1) the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross in come for the taxable year, over
(2) the amount of gross income specified in section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer."
‘‘(b) LIMITATIONS.—
‘(1) TAX LIMITED TO AVERAGE PREMIUM.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The tax imposed under subsection (a) with respect to any tax payer for any taxable year shall not exceed the applicable national average premium for such taxable year.
Still in doubt? Take a read of the reply that Congressman Dave Camp (R-MI) received from the Joint Committee on Taxation. My ONLY piece of mind is that it is enforced thru the Internal Revenue Code. That's one piece of unconstitutional BS enforcing another.
In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”
Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:
“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]
- - - - - - - - - -“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]
- - - - - - - - - -
“Criminal penalties
Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:
• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]
When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.
“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates. Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.
According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.
Once more:
Because I don't buy insurance, but choose to pay for my own health care from my earnings, I will be punished by being forced to buy or pay a fine that I can't afford?The cheapest plan available to me per HR 3962 is $442 a month. What? I can't afford that along with my living expenses.
I don't buy insurance, so I'm fined 2.5% of my income, that's $1125. What? On top of my current income taxes. I can't afford that either.
So my only other option is to what? Go to jail for 5 years and pay $250,000. Again, What?
I don't pay for insurance for my employee so 8% payroll tax. What? So I guess I'll cut his hours or let him go.
This bill will cripple the economy, the private sector, less jobs.
This bill is crippling my Liberty and my Pursuit of Happiness.
This bill is un - Constitutional!!!
I've gone far afield from my opening. but I needed to vent these truths, and make no mistake, THEY ARE TRUTHS. Please people read...dig ...study for yourselves and do not take just my word.
Sunshine Superman:
Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying:
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