New Fee on Health Insurance Companies Is Proposed to Help Expand Coverage (Baucus plan)

[brooklynite]

Source: NY Times

appearing in tomorrow's edition...

WASHINGTON — In a last effort to give the Senate a bipartisan health care bill, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee circulated a comprehensive proposal on Sunday to overhaul the health care system and proposed a new fee on insurance companies to help pay for coverage of the uninsured.

The proposal is the culmination of more than a year of work by the chairman, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana. A similar fee was proposed by several liberal Democrats in July. In making it part of his proposal, Mr. Baucus may help cover the costs of the bill but also risks alienating Republicans whom he is trying to win over. Mr. Baucus is struggling to forge a bipartisan consensus among 6 of the 23 senators on his committee before President Obama puts new pressure on lawmakers in an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening.

The proposal by Mr. Baucus does not include a public option, or a government-run insurance plan, to compete with private insurers, as many Democrats want.

...snip...

It remains to be seen how Mr. Baucus’s plan might mesh with any proposals Mr. Obama lays out as he tries to pump up support for health care legislation, his top domestic priority.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/health/policy/07health.html

---

Taxing Insurance Companies to give money to people to give to Insurance Companies...

[dflprincess]

1. A fee that, I'm sure, will be passed onto those who have

been "mandated" to buy their lousy products and do not qualify for subsidies.

[PSPS]

2. Your comment is about right

This amounts to insurance companies bumping their premiums to pay this "fee" which is laundered through the US treasury and comes right back to them. So, a big win-win for the health insurance racket. In fact, since this just "helps pay," that means the money will come back to them many fold, thanks to even more money from the US treasury. I'll bet the insurance CEO's are already shopping for their next new island/yacht/mansion/offshore account, financed with this disgusting windfall courtesy of the taxpayer.

[eagertolearn]

6. I think they've been bumping their premiums up for the last several years to help with changes.

We have to have a way to make insurance afordable for everyone for those who don't have it and for those who do have it. A tax is not going to solve these problems. I'm not impressed with this Baucus guy. We already know he has been bought.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. how about just shutting them down?

this is a stupid idea - like any other insurance company the fee will push up premiums.

[CLANG]

8. These people are adults and they don't know the first thing about human nature

Or maybe they are just greedy.... hhmmmmm:shrug:

[tooeyeten]

4. Baucus is bought and paid for by insurance companies

He's not interested in reform or change or helping anyone else but himself.

[Iowa]

5. So, now that Max Baucus has produced the corporate welfare plan we expected of him...

...it's time to sweep the piece of shit he has produced into the trash and begin the process of health care reform. Because so far no real work has been done.

[excess_3]

7. time for a leadership challenge .nt

[glinda]

9. We always end up picking up the fees on everything. Is this a joke?

[New Dawn]

10. Forcing people to buy a product from a private company is fascist economics.

[ipaint]

11. Health care cost are going to double by 2015.

A public option won't be in place to drive costs down.

We can no longer afford to have health ins. companies. They cost too much.

There is no other way.

[Davis_X_Machina]

12. This particular funding mechanism....

...is an idea of Sen. Kerry's. Based on Bill Bradley's 1988 plan. Been around a long time, and known to be acceptable to Sen. "You need me to carry a cloture vote" Snowe.

[bain_sidhe]

13. Fine. Whatever. Just get the damn thing out of committee

so that we can start the *real* work.