I received the following mass emailing from Jane Hamscher of Firedoglake. How bad is the current bill?
Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations — whether you want to or not.
If you refuse to buy the insurance, you'll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS
After being forced to pay thousands in premiums for junk insurance, you can still be on the hook for up to $11,900 a year in out-of-pocket medical expenses.
Massive restriction on a woman’s right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.
Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays.
Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won't see any benefits — like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions — until 2014 when the program begins.
Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others.
Grants monopolies to to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.
No reimportation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years.
The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of 4 will rise an average of $1000 a year — meaning in 10 years, you family’s insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.
I could go on, but it should be clear: this is not reform. This is a con job.
The most pressing alleged purposes of health care reform were A) to make health care universally available and B) to control skyrocketing costs of health care. I haven't actually read the Senate bill, but Hamsher’s interpretation accords with various accounts of it that I have read. The current Senate bill does a tepid job of addressing expanding coverage. As far as controlling the costs of health care, it’s hard to see how it does anything at all.
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