Book 'em, Dano

I know that collectivists on the left have been on a little hopey changey euphoria kick since Nancy Pelosi rammed her criminal bill through the House in the middle of the night Saturday, but I wonder how many of them have actually read it? Or (since 2000+ pages IS a bit long), even part of it? It is absolutely beyond me how anyone, ANYONE, could read this abortion of a bill and not recoil in terror at what it actually says. I could list dozens of examples, but tonight I'm gonna stick with just one.

Read this letter from the JCT (Joint Committee on Taxation). Now ponder exactly what it says there. If any American citizen or legal resident of the U.S. fails to purchase a qualified health insurance plan, they will be taxed, fined up to a quarter of a million dollars or imprisoned for five years. First of all, that's not just a mandate to get health insurance, oh no. it mandates that every American be covered by a qualified plan. What makes a plan "qualified?" I dunno. Neither does anyone else. That's to be determined by a panel of unelected government bureaucrats*. This is exactly what they did in Massachusetts, and the result has been a disaster. Every medical special interest group immediately poured millions of dollars into lobbying to get their particular specialty mandated, and the state has been nothing if not obliging. Bleeding heart economic illiterates have rushed in to make sure that the "greedy" insurance companies couldn't do things like cap costs or charge deductibles deemed "excessive". The state obliged. "Well, we can't have people being excluded from coverage for any reason" liberals wailed. So ordered, said the state. And so on. Folks, these things cost money. What has been created is an ungodly price spiral. Many insurance carriers left the state. Those that stayed have had to raise prices several times. Massachusetts now has the highest health insurance rates in the country, and all of the private carriers left have notified the state insurance commissioner that rates will be going up 29-50% next year. The average family in the Massachusetts is now paying upwards of $20,000/year for their coverage**.

So what's the significance of this? Aside from meaning that health insurance is going to get a lot more expensive, this puts paid completely to the canard that the President has been incessantly chanting for the last 6-8 months" "If you like the coverage you have, you can keep it.". No, you can't. That's a lie. A flat out, bald faced, so-full-of-shit-that-your-eyes-are-turning-brown, lie, Mr. President. The bill plainly says, and the JCT memo linked above confirms, that citizens and legal aliens (but not illegal aliens, notice that? Other portions of the bill give illegals access to medicare or qualified health plans, but the penalties and fines don't apply to them. To quote Artie Johnson as Wolfgang the German Soldier, "Verrry interesting") will be forced to purchase a health plan that covers exactly what the government wants covered, and if your current plan, the plan that "you like", doesn't qualify, you'll have to switch to one that does or face the consequences.

Which brings me to my second point. Note the consequences: taxes, fines and jail time. That's right people, if for any reason you don't purchase a qualifying plan, than it's off to the gulag for you! Are you a committed Catholic who won't buy a qualified plan because it mandates abortion coverage and that's against your moral code? Jail time! A Scientologist who just can't support psychiatric treatments being mandated? Off you go! Maybe you just can't afford the plan, even with all the subsidies sure to be offered? Throw 'em in the clink! As unthinkable as these scenarios may seem, THAT'S WHAT THE BILL ACTUALLY SAYS. It's....mindboggling, and frankly it's anathema to everything that this country has stood for for the last 233 years. The Federal government says buy this or go to jail. That's as American as borscht.




*That would be one of them tahr "death panels". Think that name's a political conceit, a ploy of Sarah Palin's to grab headlines for herself? I don't. I would bet that Jayden Capewell would disagree with you...except he was allowed to die, in the hospital, because he didn't meet the guidelines for treatment established by the Orwellian named NICE organization. OK, that's in the UK, that would never happen here, you say. Think not? Barbara Wagener thought not too. Then she was told that her state run insurance plan wouldn't cover the drugs needed to treat the cancer she was fighting....but would happily pay for her assisted suicide. I know the term "death panel" is offensive to some. I can understand that. Unfortunately, it does have one thing going for it: It's accurate.

**Massachusetts has even moved to stifle the market response to their draconian mandated coverage. One company (Full disclosure: The insurance company in question is one of the ones that I personally represent, although not in Massachusetts) went to the Insurance Commissioner of Massachusetts and said "Look, these mandated plans are getting very expensive. We'd like to sell a simpler plan, a more basic major medical plan, that doesn't meet your mandates. We'll tell people that, and even get each and every one of them who applies to sign a disclaimer stating that they A) understand that our plans do NOT meet your mandated coverage level and B) that they will thus still be liable for the fine levied on people not carrying qualifying plans ($75/month)." The Insurance Commissioner agreed, approved the plans for the state, and these plans started selling like wildfire, because they cost maybe half of what the mandated plans cost. Even with the $900/year fine, people were able to insure themselves adequately and save a huge amount of money. The Attorney General of Mass. went nuts. What? Choice? This company was offering the citizens actual choices in their health insurance? That just couldn't be allowed, oh, no, no, no, and so the AG's office started a huge 3 cornered legal fight between itself, the insurance company in question and the Insurance Commissioner's office, eventually driving that company out of the state, and depriving consumers the right to purchase a product that THEY preferred to one that the state mandated. Unbelievable.