No less a conservative than former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist supports the individual mandate. And I love this supposed concern for the poor who “can’t afford” healthcare. If you were really concerned about what people can and can’t afford, wouldn’t that be an argument for pushing the Medicaid requirement to something higher than 133% of poverty?

Do you know what the number one cause of bankruptcy is in this country? Medical expenses. One of the most significant priorities of this proposal is to make sure that as many people as possible have a means to acquire healthcare coverage. It is being done through multiple actions, raising the Medicaid eligibility level, requiring employers to provide coverage…those that are remaining are those who are self-employed or work for very small firms and they will have a choice of plans, or can choose to have no plan and help pick up the cost to the overall system of that choice. This is a sound approach that makes sense.

The senate bill would require individuals to purchase health insurance, with a fine for noncompliance of $95 in the first year that would escalate to $750 by 2016. Parents would be responsible for providing coverage for their children up to 18 years old. Those eligible for Medicaid services must be (with this legislation’s provisions) making less than 133% of the poverty level. How do you expect the individual that does not qualify for Medicaid services, but is still poor to afford health care? Although $95.00 is not a massive sum of money, it may be the difference of groceries for a week for a family of four.

I will not debate reform is needed to the health care system but I would prefer a more feasible solution.

Thanks for stopping by…passion is fine for as far as it goes, but passion alone doesn’t win the day.

As to your point:

a) Artur Davis agrees with you on the burden to small businesses in the House bill and prefers the Senate version. The Senate provisions would not take effect until January 2014. The Senate mandate only kicks in for employers with more than 50 employees (straining the definition of “small”) and calls for a straight $750 fee per employee. Hardly a fee that will break the bank for any business.
b) Even in the House version the provisions would not take effect until January 2013. The House bill has no mandate for employers who have a payroll of less than half a million dollars. Those who are above half a million would be expected to pick up two-thirds of the premium cost of family coverage or three-fourths of individual coverage (or pay a tax of 8% of their payroll).

The current proposed health care reform is not a reform our country and specifically our state can afford. Although it would be nice in an ideal world for everyone to have health care coverage, businesses cannot afford to provide health care coverage in the current economic state. When forced by government to provide health care benefits to employees, employers will resort to reducing their workforce or closing their doors. For a multitude of reasons the current prosposed legislation on health care reform is not sensible for America.

With respect to the “illegals” issue, I thought that issue had already been resolved (remember Joe Wilson?). From everything I’ve seen, this bill doesn’t even address the undocumented, so I’m not sure how this bill is a “move forward on their agenda to grant citizenship” to the undocumented. Whatever agenda some may have regarding amnesty or citizenship, this bill is a HEALTHCARE bill, not an immigration bill. Nothing I’ve seen suggests that this bill will “increase taxes on the middle class in America [to] provide health care to millions of illegals.”

As I understand it, this bill proposes regulation and oversight of the health insurance industry to reduce costs, an issue that people of all political pursuasions can agree needs to be addressed. We can certainly argue over how this bill reduces costs, but with all due respect to Rep. Wren, this just sounds like worn out scare tactics. If I am missing something, I hope someone will point me to an authority that supports Rep. Wren’s propositions.