Expanded Health Care Coverage? Rumors Are Greatly Exaggerated, Unless Paying Fines Is Now 'Health Care'
Jason LinkinsWell, for my next trick, I was going to demonstrate that the contention that the watered-down Senate health care compromise will nevertheless lead to a virtuous expansion of care for some 30 million Americans was pure bunkum... but I see that over at The Plum Line, Greg Sargent has already plucked that bunny carcass from the hat:
The assertion -- a reference to the individual mandate -- has been picked up widely and uncritically in the media. But it's now coming under fire from liberals who have all but given up on the bill. Democracy for America, the reconstituted political operation of Howard "kill the bill" Dean that's run by his brother, Jim Dean, just blasted an email to its list hitting the claim:
"Senate leaders are all over Washington claiming they finally have a healthcare reform bill they can pass, as long as they remove the public option. After all, they say that even without a public option, the bill still "covers" 30 million more Americans.
What they are actually talking about is something called the "individual mandate." That's a section of the law that requires every single American buy health insurance or break the law and face penalties and fines. So, the bill doesn't actually "cover" 30 million more Americans -- instead it makes them criminals if they don't buy insurance from the same companies that got us into this mess."
The White House is fully on board with selling this nonsense as some sort of impossible-to-pass-up opportunity for America. But for millions of Americans this "opportunity" will amount to nothing more than the opportunity to pay a significant fine for not signing up with a private insurance company.
Of course, if the Senate can come up with some way of paying a fine that also, say, heals the sick with magic, then this would truly be an awesome accomplishment. But since that's not the case, we're forced to embrace the stupidity of the federal government raising revenue off a policy that's not even serving people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/expanded-health-care-cove_n_394775.html
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