Preview of the Baucus Plan

My bet is the Republicans won't even accept this drastically watered down plan (which would send the left into fits - all the worst parts of health care reform in the shape of taxes, with none of the healthcare industry oligarchy busting teeth to bring down costs). I think they no longer care about governing and are simply digging in for the 2010 elections and to heck with the country.

Hopefully they'll prove me wrong.

Fining people for not having health insurance will not fly. Not in America! It must remain the individual's right to decide for themselves, whether to purchase health care or not.

Having any group exempt (Native Americans are Americans too), including objectors on a religious basis, would also not be acceptable.

We have to stop treating certain groups differently. We must treat all equally, including benefits, and requirements.

Having the government say one thing, and do another, is not acceptable. When they say "for all Americans" that means the benefits and obligations apply to all Americans......not to everyone except special groups.

Well, it's a start! But I'm betting the Republicans won't sign on. I see no reason why it can't start before 2013, people need insurance NOW. A new plan should be ready to go on January 1, 2010! Plus, I don't believe that the insurance companies will bring prices down without a public option.

Maybe we should cut the salary of our elected officials to 1/2 because they are only delivering 1/2 result. Fair days work for a fair days pay!

what exactly is a "cadillac" plan? i pay over $12,000.00 a year in premiums and out of pockets and deductibles push my costs to around $20,000.00 a year. am i to understand that i'll be hammered with an additional tax because my wife's pre-existing conditions make our policy so expensive? why are congressional types so obsessed with income and out of pocket expenses rather than wealth. as if it means i'm rich or getting to much for my money just because i pay an arm and a leg for coverage? will they account for the fact that i spend about 15-20% of my income on health care? and why do they focus on people earning $250,000.00 a year while paying no attention to the trust-fund rich who are worth tens of millions but might only make $200,000.00 a year in income? as if a family of 4 making $250,000.00 a year, with a mortgage, car payments, student loans, etc. is "richer" than some kennedy or bush type who has 20 million in assets but only draws a salary of $249,000.00 a year.

Republicans will not agree to the taxes and many Democrats will not like the lack of the public option.
Older people and others who have valuable medical insurance policies, so-called Cadillac plan(for strokes, cancer, hearth disease, etc.) shouldn't have to pay extra taxes just because they are thinking of possibilities. The only thing here that smacks of reform is in not allowing insurance companies to penalize people for pre-existing conditions. All this time and travail to bring forth a .....whatever!

No Tort reform?
No competition across state lines?

The baucus bill is a pile of poop. Might as well use it for toilet paper. I would rather he change his colors. He's not a democrat. I don't mind paying for the public option but being forced to buy health insurance from private industry is extortion. That bill is DOA and a waste of time. It wouldn't even make it through the senate. He needs to resign from that committee. If that bill did go anywhere watchout because they haven't seen protest yet!

Maybe we should cut the salary of our elected officials to 1/2 because they are only delivering 1/2 result. Fair days work for a fair days pay!
Posted by: michelle

I for that and mandatory income and asset disclosures.

Fines for not having insurance?? Insurance is the biggest legal rip-off there is already. It's incredibly wrong to force people to have it, unless they have a majority say in how it works. Financing insurance by charging the companies??? Who do you think is really going to pay for that???

WOW !!! IT IS BEYOND ANY RULES OF SANE PUBLIC SERVICE !!!
I KNOW WHO THIS ELECTED OFFICIAL IS; BUT I TRY TO KEEP MY COMMENTS FROM GETTING ME BANNED FROM BLOGGING.

Fines for not buying private insurance. That's Extortion! No doubts. It's one thing if there is a public plan that regulates pricing. It's another to be forced to buy private insurance or face fines. You just handed private insurance a blank check. Had to be a republican that wrote that one. Kind of like romney's loser health insurance plan. Actually it's not health insurance , it's a wealth insurance plan. The author of that one should hold their head in shame.

I'm still trying to figure out what the shell game is with different bills. Don't remember that in Civics Class.

The more I think about this proposal, the more I consider it un-American, shameful, and disgusting.

This just might be a catalyst for unrest in this country, if passed. If there's one thing we don't need, is for the government to create a riot situation, in trying to pass something that Americans will not accept.

Just what we needed - More Republican drivel!

Why does it have to be so complicated? Fines if you don't buy private insurance? Ugh! What's wrong with a simple single-payer plan funded through everyone's taxes? If insurance companies lose business or even go out of business, then too bad. They have had years and years to do a good job and all they've managed to do is gouge us.

Just as Jim Cramer says, "Government of, by, and for the corporation." The insurance company executives must be apoplectic with ecstasy. So much for the rest of us. Hmm, how much exactly did Baucus receive in campaign contributions from the insurance lobby?

Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Waxman and any member of the House or Senate who vote for this bill with a government option should be mandated to enroll as their only health care option.

And we won't have the Treasury department sharing our tax information with the new medical bureacracy, right?

Smoke and mirrors & DELAY, that's all this plan is. If the insurance companies WANTED to CHANGE, they would have changed by now!!! They knew they WERE DROPPING CUSTOMERS AND DENYING CLAIMS ALL THE WHILE, THEIR PROFIT-MARGINS WERE SOARING HIGH!! I mean what is the DEAL? Let's go on an actual track record to determine trust! We've already given the insurance companies a chance to prove their trustworthiness, and guess what?? THEY BLEW IT!! So I think it's time to GIVE THE OTHER GUY A CHANCE @ THE WHEEL!!! LET'S JUST FACE IT, WE'VE GIVEN THE RIGHT A CHANCE FOR THEIR MODEL TO WORK, AND IT OVERALL IT'S SUCKED THUS FAR!!!

Too much is being taken for granted about these "non-profit cooperaatives" that are being funded by taxpayer money. These are supposed to create competition, but how can for-profit companies compete with non-profit, taxpayer-subsidized plans without getting subsidized themselves? These plans are simply another way to get taxpayers to fund insurance. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Sound familiar?

So, if I cannot afford insurance, and I mean that I say I cannot afford it, not by this moron Baucus' opinion of whether or not I can afford it, then I am going to get fined money that I cannot afford to pay because I cannot afford to buy insurance.

And then what, when I can't afford to pay the fine, is the Obama administration going to put me in prison? Or if not, then what is the end resolution?

Part of this plan that he does not detail here is that 60 year olds will pay up to five times more than 20 year olds for their insurance. How many 60 year olds do you know that have 5 times the earning capacity of a 20 year old. Just how is this Baucus plan supposed to benefit anyone?

The government will manage to screw up health care the same way they have screwed up everything else in this country.

What ever happened to FREEDOM of CHOICE in this country. I do not agree the with Public Option or fining someone for not having health insurance.

Where, in any of this, is regulation, oversight, cost control, etc? Until the overweaning greed of the healthcare insurers and/or providers is stemmed, none of the health care reforms prosposed has any meaning. Why does a cranial CAT scan cost some $2000 when the technology is over 20 years old? Where are the economies of scale? Plain old greed.

Through the bums out! The politicians of both parties only legislate what the lobyist pay for. The sad state of our health care system and this watered down bill are an example. If members of Congress only got Medicare, could not recieve payments for anything other than a salary and direct expenses, with salary limited to the 150% of the average income for citizens the money grubing bunch of them would run like rats from a sinking ship. Public office should be a place of service. Not a place to get rich at the expense of average Americans.