Health bill included big Republican idea: individual mandate

[kpete]

Source: McClatchy

Health bill included big Republican idea: individual mandate

By John Dorschner | Miami Herald

The lawsuit against the health care overhaul filed Tuesday by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is focused on a provision that has long been advocated by conservatives, big business and the insurance industry.

The lawsuit by McCollum, a candidate for governor, and 12 other attorneys general, focuses on the provision that virtually all Americans will need to have health insurance by 2014 or face penalties.

The lawsuit calls this an "unprecedented encroachment on the liberty of individuals." It states the Constitution doesn't authorize such a mandate, the proposed tax penalty is unlawful and is an "unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of the states."

"The truth is this is a Republican idea," said Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association. She said she first heard the concept of the "individual mandate" in a Miami speech in the early 1990s by Sen. John McCain, a conservative Republican from Arizona, to counter the "Hillarycare" the Clintons were proposing.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/23/90948/that-health-mandate-gop-is-suing.html#ixzz0j6tqH627


Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/23/90948/that-health-mandate-gop-is-suing.html

[Oregone]

1. Dupe

The whole plan goes back as far as Nixon too....I mean the whole shebang.

The Democrats brought an old rejected Republican idea into law

[DJ13]

2. "The truth is this is a Republican idea,"

The truth is that they never followed through on it, so now its a Democratic idea.

[dkf]

3. Democrats are implementing republican policy

We are now center right. There is no room for the center left much less the true left.

[ixion]

6. that's the sad truth

:(

[kestrel91316]

10. One of MY options under this mandate is to buy into a nonprofit plan

such as Kaiser, now that they can't shut me out for imagined PEC's (that don't exist) by refusing to process my application.

As long as nonprofit plans are an affordable part of the mix, I am ok with a mandate.

[frazzled]

4. Yeah, Republicans like Paul Krugman and the country of Switzerland

[dkf]

5. I thought Krugman supports single payer or public option?

I would not trust any economist who thinks health insurance is more efficient than single payer.

[Hello_Kitty]

8. Paul Krugman is a former Reagan adviser who hearts "free trade". eom

[LeftHander]

7. I posted a question as to where this provision came from...

Of course it sunk like a stone in this Troll littered forum.

It smelled Republican all along.

[followthemoney]

9. So, if only we could have all voted for Republicans years ago...

this bill could have been passed long ago.

The biggest mistake Democrats make is resisting 'good' Republican ideas just to win elections and then passing them, belatedly, into law.

Look how long it has taken to do what 'needs' to be done in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and Obama is pushing for war against Iran and may get it soon. Without the resistance from Democrats the war in Iran could have been started and been over with by now, just like in Iraq.

[Echo In Light]

11. Sucks on toast