The Most Nightmarish Health Care Reform Bill Ever

[Joanne98]

Yesterday, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) finally released a proposal for his committee's health care reform bill -- the framework for the eventual Senate Finance Committee legislation.

Predictably, the Baucus Plan is totally nightmarish. Naked on the subway while being accosted by prostitutes that resemble Chuck Grassley nightmarish. I've been writing about the terrible possibility of such a bill for several weeks, but now it's actually beginning to take shape.

But first, because he's not the most famous or likely political villain, here's some background.

Baucus controls the Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over any legislation that revolves around Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and health care in general. So the senator, as chairman, enjoys a remarkable degree of power considering that he only represents 960,000 people in Montana, one of the most sparsely populated states in the Union. And I'm fairly certain that if polled most Americans would say that Max Baucus is the guy who played Thurston Howell on Gilligan's Island.

While the Baucus Plan would impose the usual syllabus of regulations on the health insurance industry, it also includes an individual mandate, making it compulsory for everyone to buy a health insurance plan. I get the idea: mandates are an important step to controlling costs and achieving a universal health care, but mandates should be accompanied by a public health insurance option in order to serve as an "option of good conscience" -- an escape hatch for those of us who have moral objections to being forced under penalty of law to finance the corrupt insurance cartels.

And the Baucus Plan doesn't offer a public insurance option.

So you're basically screwed if you have moral objections to being forced by the government to hand over a chunk of your monthly income to the same corporate criminals who heretofore have engaged in practices that can accurately be defined as death panel-ish: canceling the policies as soon as you get sick, denying claims, refusing to pay for life-saving procedures, or, as we read about this week, randomly hiking the premiums for 114,000 Michigan residents by around 30 percent effective immediately. If you happen to object to financing such corporate practices (past or present), there's no public option waiting for you in the Baucus Plan.

Instead, you would have to buy a private insurance policy or be penalized by the federal government like so:


Penalties for failing to get insurance would start at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families. Households making more than three times the federal poverty level -- about $66,000 for a family of four -- would face the maximum fines. For families, it would be $3,800, and for individuals, $950.

Let me repeat this another way. Max Baucus wants to force us to hand over billions of dollars in free cash to the private health insurance cartels and if we refuse, we'll be fined thousands of dollars if we object to paying these mafia-style tributes to Baucus' dons.

The public option, however, would create an escape hatch for those of us who find such a law to be unconscionable. (The public option would also significantly reduce the overall cost of health care reform and it would foster a more competitive atmosphere in which people with private insurance policies would benefit. See also my list of 10 things about the public option.)

Instead of being coerced under penalty of law to pay our monthly premiums to Aetna, CIGNA, Wellpoint or UnitedHealth, those of us without an employer-based policy could buy affordable, portable and reliable insurance offered by We The People. An inexpensive policy based on a Medicare framework that doesn't finance CEO bonuses and multi-million dollar golden parachutes. A policy whereby 96 cents of every dollar pays for actual medical care rather than junkets, lobbying and other varieties of corporate masturbation we've been unwittingly financing for too long.

Continued>>>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/the-most-nightmarish-heal_b_281214.html

[Faygo Kid]

1. Also 5-1 age rating. Good luck, those over 50 but too young for Medicare.

5-1 is an insult. The bill stinks.

[Emit]

4. Faygo Kid, can you explain the ratio or rating thing ( 5-1)?

I read an excerpt of Baucus' proposal last night and I saw that noted in regards to age, smokers, etc.

[Faryn Balyncd]

7. Yes, exactly what is a "5-1 Age Rating"?

[Faygo Kid]

10. It has to do with how much more insurers can charge older folks than younger ones.

Sorry it took so long to respond; at work today.

This proposal would allow insurers to charge older Americans up to five times or more premium rates charged to younger adults. That's ridiculous. AARP says this (whatever you think of them, they are right here): "We question why age rating, especially as high as 5 to 1, is necessary when virtually all health reform proposals under consideration include risk adjustment to compensate for higher costs of enrollees who are sicker or older. Independent actuaries confirm that appropriate risk adjustment should mitigate the need for age rating."

Basically, 5-1 would mean unaffordable insurance for people 50-60 years old, yet more profits (and less risk, from older adults being insured) to insurance companies. Would probably be well over $1,000 a month for somebody who is 60. 1 to 1 is likely not realistic, but AARP is pushing for 2 to 1. Works for me. But we may not get even that.

At any rate, 5-1 is a worst case scenario, and here's Baucus putting it in his bill. The heck with that.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. I would support this bill - IF ALL REPUBLICANS VOTED FOR IT AND HANDFUL OF DEMS

I'm referring to the blue dogs, etc.

Let THEM get hoisted by their petard over this bullshit.

...But the twisted, sick, perverted REALITY is that after this "grand compromise" NO *REPUBLICANS* would TOUCH this thing with a rubber dick ANYWAY.

So fuck 'em. Fuck it all.

The public option IS the compromise, and IMO, only if it IS a gateway to single payer.

[n2doc]

8. Except- Obama would have to sign it

And he would be the one to get all the blame.

[FormerDittoHead]

9. Good point. So much for my fantasy. n/t

[orpupilofnature57]

3. You've nailed it , Health Care vs Parachute fare.

The mal intent condescends out of their eyeballs.

[valerief]

5. And I'm sure Max Fauckus doesn't require ins cos to deliver to us.

They can probably still keep us dangling until we die from the wait.

[Turborama]

6. K &R #5 I'm a big fan of Bob's

It's well worth reading the whole piece.

Thanks for sharing. :hi:

[Nederland]

11. Thanks

Naked on the subway while being accosted by prostitutes that resemble Chuck Grassley nightmarish

I could have lived a long and happy life without that image in my brain. :)

Thanks for the laugh.