Interesting place to put the money. One would think it should go to the hospital in payment of the bill. Or is this policy going to apply to all uninsured persons whether they pay their hospital bills or not?
Can't you just hear the liberal outcry over this? "Romney's against the poor! Health care is a RIGHT!"
I know many people who have no health insurance, yet have the best cars, travel all the time, you get the idea.
I don't begrudge them their pleasures, but why should I have to pay when they incur bills they can't pay out of pocket?
And of course, up here in Massachusetts, the answer the State pushes is: MassHealth, aka welfare. I've been hearing advertising lately on AM radio for food stamps. Really upbeat ads that make welfare seem like no big deal....everyone's doing it! Advertising welfare. Only in Massachusetts.
It must be nice to be in charge of billions of dollars of philanthropy money. You can bet that if Hillary had proposed the same thing, this woman would be fawning all over her. I doubt that the creators of the Commonwealth Fund would be impressed with the socialists who control it now.
Why not just give 100% to the government and let them take care of everything? I did not read the rest of this article, are the illegals exempt from this? Should we just give Mass. to Canada?
The concept of Liberty is foreign to some people.
Next, you will face penalties and/or jail time for not making your bed, failing to take out the trash, and leaving the seat up. This is yet another power grab by insurance companies hand-in-glove with nanny staters, pure and simple.
A bloated bureaucracy gets the money any way you cut it. I say keep government out of anything, whenever possible.
Some of these people honestly cant afford insurance and food too. You cant get blood out of a turnip.
The poorest of the poor qualify for Medicaid. I come across people all the time who essentially "roll the dice" by not carrrying any insurance, even though they can afford it. They are usually young and appear healthy, so they choose not to spend any money on monthly premiums that they believe are unnecessary. The problem is that when these people DO get sick, they often can't afford their hospital and physician bills. It's not uncommon for patients to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital bills which will never be collected. Who pays those bills? The state/municipality picks up some of it, but most of it is passed on to you and I in the form on higher insurance premiums, (since hospitals charge significantly more than the actual costs of services in order to recoup the cost of treating uninsured patients).
It's essentially the same things as requiring drivers to have liability insurance, and I fully support this move.
By the way, for people who don't get insurance from their work, their is no reason not to have a new Health Savings Account. It's essentially an IRA that's used for health care costs. You have to have a high deductible insurance policy, which are available for under $500/month for a family of 4. (My family's premium is $408/month, with a 55 yo husband and 52 yo wife and two college students).
California is also considering a similar proposal:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1340285/posts
Oh this is good, let's start a NEW trend of Governmental Confiscation of personal income.
This country needs far more than an enama I think, it needs a real solid house cleaning!
Most illegal aliens will be unaffected by such steps.
Fascist.
Make insurance illegal. (And watch health care prices collapse.)
ML/NJ
I don't have health insurance. I belong to a PPO Network. How does this bill affect those that joined a network? The network is not insurance.
LOL!! So the feminists might actually get bit by the monster that they have helped to create.
IS HE A COMMUNIST?
How about just refusing treatment?
It's a tough lesson, but some are examples and some learn fom examples.
But not if you are an illegal alien.
I agree: the thing that I find silly about this proposal is that they aren't garnishing wages to pay the med bills. Forcing people to pay health insurance seems downright un-American, too me. But it would be perfectly appropriate to collect on the actual med charges. Do that, and suddenly people will find a way to buy some kind of insurance - the ones who really can afford it, anyway.
This is idiotic and very un-conservative. I know many people who lack insurance, and negotiate fees with their doctors for cash.
If they refuse, the state could recoup the medical costs in several ways
. . .it would seem it only applies to those who do not pay their bills.