Reform We Can All Believe In...

Remember, Democrats, if the bill passes on Sunday, you own this:

If Congress passes the Senate health-care plan, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, American families will be required by federal law to buy a federally approved health insurance plan that will cost a minimum of $12,000 per year--and, on average, will cost $15,000 per year -- whether their employer or the government helps them with the premium or not. 

Beginning in 2014, the Senate plan would require all individuals to buy health insurance. Anyone who does not obtain insurance through an employer would be forced to buy it out of their own pocket. Families of four that make up to 400 percent of poverty level--currently $88,200 per year--would receive a subsidy from the government to help pay for their premiums. That subsidy would attenuate as their income increased and would disappear when their income reached the 400 percent of poverty level. 
 
Families earning more than $88,200 a year (or whatever 400 percent of the poverty level equals in any given year) would be entirely on their own. Under the Senate bill, employers would not be required to purchase health insurance for their workers, and if they decided not to do so, the maximum penalty they would have to pay would be $750 per year for each worker they did not insure who subsequently received a federal subsidy to buy insurance. The $750 penalty on employers who decided not to insure their workers would be far less than they would pay in premiums for the $12,000 minimum required plan.
 
According to the CBO analysis, the insurance plans the Senate bill would require families to purchase would cost an average of $15,200 per year in 2016.

“Average premiums among all types of plans in 2016 would be about $5,800 for single policies and about $15,200 for family policies,” CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote in a letter  to Sen. Olympa Snowe (R-Maine).

But even the bare-bones, minimum coverage required by the individual mandate in the bill--known as the “Bronze” level insurance plans--would cost families an estimated $12,000 to $12,500 a year, Elmendorf told Snowe.

“Overall, CBO estimates that premiums for Bronze plans purchased individually in 2016 would probably average between $4,500 and $5,000 for single policies and between $12,000 and $12,500 for family policies,” he wrote.
 
At “bronze” level, an insurance plan covers only 60 percent of medical services. “Silver” level plans cover 70 percent, and “Gold” level plans cover 85 percent or more.
 
Elmendorf reiterated the average cost to anyone not covered under an employer policy in a letter to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.): “Average premiums per policy in the nongroup market in 2016 would be roughly $5,800 for single policies and $15,200 for family policies under the proposal, compared with roughly $5,500 for single policies and $13,100 for family policies under current law.
 
Premiums for specific individuals would differ somewhat on the basis of their age, average spending on health care in their area of the country, and the specific plan they chose, Elmendorf added.
 
Experts predict that more and more families will be forced off of employer insurance and have to buy their own coverage because employers will be faced with the choice of paying premiums of several thousands dollars per employee for group insurance or paying a fine of just $750 per employee for not providing coverage.

But not to worry, Democrats. Everybody knows the CBO is just shilling for the VRWC... as usual.

It's interesting to note that this sounds exactly like the sort of thing that would happen if you allowed a bunch of health insurance industry plutocrats to write a law to guarantee their profits.

Comments

[sparky]

your last sentence is rather spot on in the opinion of this horrid commie.

[just passin by]

So if I make 23k a year, then I have to pay 6k out of that for health insurance, 2k for FICA, 2k for SS-medicare-unemployment, and another 2k if I have the cheek to be self-employed.

It's nice they let me keep half my earnings...

Can I be fined at 750 a year, too?

Why am I paying for medicare if the geezers have to have health insurance? That would ALMOST pay for the fine right there.

[Eric Blair]

It will get repealed on that alone. If it passes.

[David]

It's not a sure thing to pass, at all, seeming Dem triumphalism nonetheless. It might, but it's not a sure thing.

My question is, if it passes, how pissed off will people be? Or will it be forgotten by November?

[Buck O'Fama]

I think the Demonrats' mask has fallen. The folks who thought they were a bunch of left-leaning centrists now are beginning to realize they are Allinsky-ite Marxists. Bill Clinton fooled a whole generation of voters who thought he was the face of the party. Obama has disabused a whole bunch of folks of the notion there is such a thing as a "moderate Democrat." Scott Brown was the canary in the coal mine for them. They didn't listen.

[Mike C.]

"My question is, if it passes, how pissed off will people be? Or will it be forgotten by November?"

Well, O has promised to get back to shoving Crap&Tax and/or Amnesty down out throats once Hell Care is done, so there will be plenty more for folks to be pissed-off about.

[aelfheld]

The federal poverty guidelines for 2009 put the income level at $10,830 for a single person.

If said single person earns $43,320 or more, he's required by law to fork out better than 10% of his income.

[Aside: anyone thinking that $4,500 - $5,000 per annum figure will be operative come 2016 needs to contact me for a sneak-preview of some prime Arizona coastline I've got for sale. Special prices for DtP readers. Even more special prices for DtP targets.]

Not to mention the increased taxes to pay for this monstrosity.

But, hey! It'll bring down the deficit. By bringing down the country.

[richard mcenroe]

"My question is, if it passes, how pissed off will people be? Or will it be forgotten by November?"

It ain't gonna be forgotten when they have to reach for the checkbook.

And hey, where are all Dennis' lefty-better trolls?

[Allen]

"federally approved health insurance plan..." Bwahahaha! That $5000 will be at least $7500 when they come up with an approved plan. Congress wouldn't ever determine what that is would they? Then they'll have to re-subsidize that. Then they'll say everyone needs the Silver plan, to be fair. Bending the cost curve, don't ya know?

If it is passed it will most certainly be "landmark" legislation. Of course landmark might mean something different to the voters than it does to Congress.

[kimberly]

Citizens forced to buy in at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels, and the ruling class given Platinum coverage? Better to mandate a Polonium Plan for everybody and just be done with it. Fairer, cheaper and quicker. Honest Russian sabotage.

[1389AD]

Thanks for posting this. Welcome to the "1389's Links" blogroll, which is posted at 1389 Blog and 1389 Message Blog.

Even if this obamination somehow does not pass, the damage to the US Constitution and to the body politic and to the economy is huge and irreparable.

We plan to emigrate soon, never to return.

[pellam]

Emigrate? That's too radical and impractical. Where in the Anglosphere is better than the USSA?

Now, my plan is to get ill with serial diseases to get my money's worth from the Federally mandated, inflated insurance premiums I'll have to pay against my will.

[just passin by]

Just quit your job and let Nanny Sam pay all your bills. That's only fair. Once EVERYBODY is on welfare, then nobody pays taxes anymore. That's fair.

[JeffS]

Or run for Congress, JPB. That's one sweet deal, with a whole bunch of perks.

[Jim Ryan]

I call it "Schlock Galt". That's when a middle class guy says fuck this, quits his job, gets a shrink out of the yellow pages, tells him he hears voices or whatever the shrink wants to hear to check of the box on the form, takes the form down to Social Security, gets on the goddam dole and from then on reads history, gets a math degree for kicks, fishes, runs marathons, watches old movies, and basically kicks back for the rest of his life.

With a part-time job under the table for goddam drinking money.

[Chris Rampley]

Jesus, Mr. Ryan, you're giving the game away...

[Dan from Madison]

Jim Ryan, interesting thoughts. Along those lines I was just discussing the other day with my wife the reasons why I am busting my ass running my own business - and along with this new dreaded health care legislation they are going to now put a surtax on any and all investment earnings. Why not just be a postman and go along for the ride? I mean, what the hell, 40 hours instead of my current 80, full bennys, etc...

[richard mcenroe]

Hey, Jim if you can get a prescription for pot for under ninety bucks in LA, you may have just created the Dennis the Peasant Lifestyle. Look out, Ace of Spades!

[Gal Spunes]

Question - what about the legal implications of dumping an employees healthcare coverage? I'd sue my employer for breach of contract if they tried pulling that shit. I suspect others would too.

Surely the threat of such damaging legal action would force employers to keep employees on their current healthcare plans, at great expense, driving up costs and crushing the economy.

We're rodeo-riding a dookie all the way - like Slim Pickens. YEE HAW