It’s a little late for compromise, Zero. You can’t try to cram your Socialist Dream through the Senate 60-40 and then ask the Republicans to trim a little to make it fit 59-41.
You have to go back to the drawing board.
Throw out the individual mandate. Throw out the pre-existing conditions. Throw out the Death Panels. Throw out the new taxes. Throw out the straight-jacketing of insurance policies.
Add in tort reform. Add in individual ownership of policies. Add in interstate competition. Add in tax breaks for individual purchases and medical savings accounts. Come up with market-based solutions.
Drive a stake through the heart of single payer. Give up on the fantasy of government nationalization of health care. Let the people be free.
Then we’ll talk...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
IMO, there has to be some provision made for pre-existing conditions. I do not think that someone should be able to purchase insurance to pay for the cancer they were just diagnosed with. However, what is that uninsured cancer patient to do, since they will NEVER be able to purchase any kind of health insurance again.
Maybe it should function like a life insurance policy’s suicide clause - your pre-existing condition isn’t covered for the first two years of continuous coverage, for instance. This would allow anyone to purchase insurance, while preventing people from only purchasing it when they need it.
It might also make sense to place these people into catastrophic-only policies for that first two year period, so that they only get coverage after they pay a high deductible first.
However it’s done, there has to be some way offered to the “uninsurable” to move them into the ranks of the insured.