Posted on 04/11/2007 9:43:06 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — People who refuse to obtain health insurance could be tracked down by the state or a private contractor, enrolled in a plan and fined until they pay their premiums under one proposal Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is considering as part of his vision for covering all Californians.
The proposal, which administration aides said was one of many the governor was considering, was presented at a meeting Tuesday with representatives from insurers, hospitals, doctors, business groups and consumer advocates.
It drew immediate criticism from critics of the central tenet of Schwarzenegger's healthcare approach, which is to require all Californians to obtain insurance.
Although the governor's office has been emphasizing the efforts it would make to help people find insurance voluntarily — including subsidies to the poor and outreach through schools, state agencies and healthcare providers — the outlines of the enforcement proposal inflamed some of those the administration has been courting for support.
Beth Capell, a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union's California organization, said the fines might be unfairly levied on people caught without health insurance because of circumstances beyond their control. Those included people in between jobs and those starting employment in companies that did not provide healthcare for the first months of work.
"We're going to punish them if they don't go out and buy health insurance on their own — health insurance that they can't afford at the moment that they are least able to afford it," Capell said.
Other proposals, which Schwarzenegger included in the first draft of his healthcare plan, are to attach the wages of people who don't buy insurance and to increase the amount they owe in state income taxes.
Kim Belshé, secretary of the state Health and Human Services Agency, emphasized that "nothing is set in stone." ...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Double the regular fine? Doubleplusgood!!
The answer is individual responsibility for health. At least 50% of all people in hospitals at a given time are there due to self-inflicted problems: cigarette cancer, obesity, alcohol, illegal drugs, poor food choices, and so on. People expect to get medical care and “co-pay” $20 (for example), while they think nothing of spending $350 for new brakes on the car, or $200 for entertainment. Individuals expect the taxpayers will foot the bill for expensive medical care after they spend a lifetime smoking, drinking alcohol, eating bad food and neve exercising. The other major problem, besides lack of individual responsibility, is too much government involvement in medicine, which drives up prices and slows down innovation.
I wish the reactionary right in our state would stop being so danged gullible. They are who fell for the Recall hook, line and sinker. They are the same people who fall for the likes of Perot, Keyes, Tancredo, Klayman, and every other fringe con artist who comes along singing a siren song of faux conservatism. Now we are worse off than if we had just let Davis finish his term.
They think that car insurance is the successful model for health insurance. Aside from the huge overcharging in car insurance for most people, the idea is a joke because health ‘insurance’ is really paying for health care - not health ‘emergencies’ which is what car insurance covers. Car insurance doesn’t pay for oil changes, gas fill ups or new tires. If health ‘insurance’ were actual insurance and not just a service plan, ‘insurance’ could be dealth with affordably.
Your point is? Live a miserably healthy life and die?
Just take me behind the barn and shoot me..........,
After moving to Colorado, I was able to get individual insurance with no problem.
Oh yeah and its much better for the nanny state to tell you to get insurance (even if you cant afford it) and tell you how to live and what to eat and put in your body?
No thanks..
Besides, how come years and YEARS of smokers never “drove up the price” of health care before? Not buying that one.
Not one single person ever born avoided experiencing some kind of health crisis, even if that crisis was something that caused instant death. Any health crisis short of instant death requires medical treatment.
Are you saying that the only people who "deserve" medical treatment are those who live an approved version of a healthy life style? Just goes to show that totalitarian impulses are not exclusively of the Left.
Really? I voted for McClintock and AGAINST the recall.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Those with self-inflicted liver disease, self-inflicted lung cancer, self-inflicted diabetes, self-inflicted heart disease, AIDS from gay sex, et cetera, are driving up medical expenses, including my cost of insurance. Obviously, we all die of something eventually, and many could not have prevented the disease they currently have. But millions of people could have prevented their costly disease if they had been more responsible.
Driving is optional. Paying required premiums may force people to do without healthcare because after paying the premiums they won’t be able to pay the copays, deductibles, labs and meds.
Right now, due to Medicare part D, I can’t afford some of the medications I need...the money is going for premiums. None of the programs I could afford covered all my meds.
Funny you should mention 1200 bucks a month because that is what I would have to pay if I had insurance due to my “pre-existing” health problems. They have to sell to me but they don’t have to sell to me at a price I can afford. So, I can expect the “health police” to come for me if I can’t buy insurance. This guy is a first class communist. He needs to go back to Austria, I don’t want him here. All the fools who voted for him and didn’t vote for McClintock raise their hands! No? I didn’t think you would admit it and if you do you will make all kinds of excuses for this asshat liberal in R clothing.
You know what? We all could prevent any diseases we have and prevent death by simply not being born. We have no more self inflicted health problems per million then existed 150, or more, years ago.
Also, WTF does your statement have to do with people being forced to buy health insurance? Nothing what so ever. Forcing people to buy auto insurance is unconstitutional as far as I am concerned and forcing them to buy health insurance is a major disaster and entirely dictatorial.
If you really want to know the reason health care cost so much turn your attention to Medicare and Medicaid type insurance. They are direcetly reponsible for the increase in health care. Do a little research and please don't ask me to do it for you. Health costs started to rise dramatically when Medicare was introduced, believe it or not.
So, what do people without insurance do, pay in cash, at the door? If a someone runs a light in a car crash and leaves you crippled? Bummer no one has insurance, hope you carry lots of cash, just in case.
Do all state employees in California get free insurance? It isn’t that way in most states. I am a state employee in another state and my state only pays half of the total health insurance premiums for each state employee. For family coverage, my half that I have to pay is $420 per month, and I just got a letter from the insurance company that has contracted with the state telling me my premium is about to go up approximately 50%. The insurance isn’t even that great. There’s no dental coverage or anything like that. Our tiny annual cost of living increases in our salaries don’t even keep up with all the insurance premium increases. It’s getting ridiculous.
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