Edwards Might Garnish Wages, Withhold Tax Refunds To Enforce Health Insurance Mandate

Kaiser Network ^ | Nov. 30, 2007 | Kaiser

[FocusNexus]

Presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) on Thursday in an interview said that, under his health care plan, U.S. residents who can afford to pay for health insurance could have their wages garnished or tax refunds withheld in the event that they do not obtain coverage, the Des Moines Register reports. The proposal would require all residents to obtain health insurance, with federal subsidies available to lower-income residents.

Edwards also said that the proposal would enroll uninsured residents in health plans when they use the health care system or public services. He said, "So if you don't have health coverage, and you go to the emergency room, you get enrolled. If you are a five- or six-year-old and you go to kindergarten or sign up for school, you get enrolled, if you're not on a health care plan. If you go to the library, you get picked up."

He added, "When somebody chooses not to be in our health care system, then what they're choosing is that the rest of America is going to pay for their health care" (Leys, Des Moines Register, 11/30).

In related news, the Register on Friday examined how voters "must decide ... if there are two John Edwardses" because, during his 2004 presidential campaign, he advocated a "gradual approach to health reform" but today he "embraces universal health care." According to the Register, his current health care proposal is "choreographed to endear him with his party's left in 2008."

[moonman]

Latest amount of money extorted by trial lawyers and lawsuits I read (2007) amounts to less than 2% of total healthcare costs.

[ROTB]

Wow. A whole new “pro choice” movement could spring out of this.

[MrB]

It’s not about socializing medicine, it’s about controlling people’s lives.

[Beagle8U]

If you don’t have ins, but you do have money/assets, you will still have to pay your medical bills.

If you don’t have anything they give them free ins anyway.

Buy forcing everyone to get ins the RATS plan is just to make more people pay for welfare for their voters.

[Rita Hayworth]

A minimum health care plan would cost me $389 a month. That is with a $5000 deductible and no prescription coverage.

I used $65 in medical services in the past 20 years. ( I had bronchitis last year. Went to a doctor, finally for an antibiotic that cost me $4 at Walmart. )

So why should I pay $93,360 for something I never use.

And yes, I can easily pay for my own hospitalization if something catastrophic happened.

[Old Professer]

Works just like car insuranace; since driving is a privilege granted by the state, the state, to serve the greater good, can force you to buy insurance to be allowed to drive.

Now just insert living and live in place of driving and drive and there you are.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

So that would be, “living is a privilege granted by the state.” I don’t care for that idea, and somehow I think the Founders wouldn’t either.

[Old Professer]

Tell it to Schiavo.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

I hadn’t thought of her, but that does put a different perspective on the situation.

[Secret Agent Man]

I would love to take one of the lib’s most sacred mantras and shove it down their throats. The only problem is that we’d sound as stupid as them, so we’d have to use it in regular speaking tones, in level-headed discussion and debate, rather than screaming like idiots and marching like whiny lib protestors.

[Campion]

Latest amount of money extorted by trial lawyers and lawsuits I read (2007) amounts to less than 2% of total healthcare costs.

You're completely missing the point, which is that loads of money is spent to ward off the possibility of having to defend against those suits.

Keep in mind that the suits are defended by malpractice insurance companies. The amount of money which might be awarded by a jury if the plaintiff wins is a pittance compared to the amount spent to defend against all suits, which in turn is a pittance compared to the amount spent to keep the suit from being filed in the first place.

I'm married to a doctor, and I work in the health care industry. What are your credentials?

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Edwards Might Garnish Wages, Withhold Tax Refunds To Enforce Health Insurance Mandate.....Good luck Jackass! You touch my wages and I breaka you face!!!

[massgopguy]

The contracts clause says that the government cannot coerce individuals into entering a contract which is what an insurance policy is.

[socialismisinsidious]

Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care PING LIST

FReepmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this ping list.

[socialismisinsidious]

No but it isn’t hard to figure out what the unintended consequences will be. Many will drop their insurance and become uninsured so that they can get the "free" government thing. The cost of insurance will rise b/c less will be buying it and then more will opt out for the government thing. Taxes will skyrocket in order to cover the costs of the government thing. Access will decrease b/c providers will be hamstrung by bureaucracies, regulations and payments which don’t cover costs. Also many providers will quit, walk away from their profession b/c none got into medicine to be enslaved by a bunch CongressCritters. After about 10 years it would be wise not to get sick.

[socialismisinsidious]

Even more impressive....borrow a book from a public library, you get enrolled. But don’t worry b/c “it’s for the children”.

[socialismisinsidious]

Well the solution is to open medicine up to the free market. Have people buy catastrophic insurance and pay for, out of their own pockets, the non-emergant stuff (you know like they pay for their cable t.v., new cars, gymnastic lessons, dinners out etc..) Get the government out of it; what we have learned from other countries and from this country is that government bureaucracies end up causing more of the very thing they are trying to fix.

You haven't been listening if you haven't heard people complain about our "national health care"..patients and providers.

Putting all that aside, let's say that socialized health care worked and was the best dang system on the planet. I have to ask: What right do you have to enslave an entire profession? What right do you have to take a man's business and turn it over to the government? What right to you have to continue to pile on my back, continue to take from me in order to pay for a government system? The problem is that you wouldn't be buying into a government system you would be expecting someone else to pay for your health care b/c someone else paying for your health care is the nature of the beast.

[darkangel82]

Edwards is an extreme narcissist/borderline sociopath.

[NeoCaveman]

When I see the words “Edwards” and “mandate” in the same sentence, I chuckle.

[pray4liberty]

I see right through this article. Edwards is taking the health-care heat for Hillary. Those two are in cahoots.