Posted on 09/20/2009 7:54:37 AM PDT by tobyhill
President Barack Obama says requiring people to get health insurance and fining them if they don't would not amount to a backhanded tax increase. "I absolutely reject that notion," the president said.
Blanketing most of the Sunday TV news shows, Obama defended his proposed health care overhaul, including a key point of the various health care bills on Capitol Hill: mandating that people get health insurance to share the cost burden fairly among all. Those who failed to get coverage would face financial penalties.
Obama said other elements of the plan would make insurance affordable for people, from a new comparison-shopping "exchange" to tax credits.
Telling people to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase, Obama told ABC's "This Week."
"What it's saying is, is that we're not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore," said Obama. "Right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I have a modest proposal:
Let people go without insurance, but if they need uninsured care, they owe the government/IRS their back premiums with interest and some mild penalty. If you decide to go it alone, you don’t have to pay. If you get sick and pay the costs yourself, you don’t owe the government a thing.
To address price distortions in the medical market, no individual shall be charged more than some modest premium (25% — open to debate) than a big quantity buyer, like the government or a group insurance company.
If you are illegal, the Federal government bills your home country for your emergency care and ships you home.
That would be freedom of choice, it addresses the deadbeat/illegal issue, and it addresses price distortions.
The insurance which is required by the states is liability insurance for damage done to others, not insurance for ones self. That is completely optional.
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