Healthcare For All !!

Look, I've been working since I was 12. I want affordable health insurance. I'm not asking for that trillion dollars, or free health insurance, or free health care.

Don't you realize that up until this bill, health insurers were exempt from antitrust laws? Isn't that a big old clue that they have a lot more power with the lawmakers than the consumers do?

I'm not arguing that some reform isn't needed. But this bill carries with it far more than a few reforms. It's not even a reform bill per se, it's a massive tax and spend bill.

Alpha Crab's comment about this bill only taxing some very small percentage of the population is flat out wrong. This bill taxes everybody in all sorts of ways, in an effort to subsidize healthcare payments to private insurers and providers. That's not reform, that's a government give away.

As far as taxes go - there are new taxes in the house bill that will effect everyone. Employer requirements and taxes for coverage, an individual mandate, new restrictions on HSAs, caps on FSAs, a new 45% marginal rate for high incomes, increased taxes on the purchase of medical devices, new taxes on current private plans that meet certain criteria, and a massive expansion of Medicaid, which will force states to raise taxes to pay for it. The list goes on. Trust me, this not going to effect just the uber-rich, we will all have to pay for it.

I'm not arguing that some reform isn't needed. But this bill carries with it far more than a few reforms. It's not even a reform bill per se, it's a massive tax and spend bill.

Alpha Crab's comment about this bill only taxing some very small percentage of the population is flat out wrong. This bill taxes everybody in all sorts of ways, in an effort to subsidize healthcare payments to private insurers and providers. That's not reform, that's a government give away.

As far as taxes go - there are new taxes in the house bill that will effect everyone. Employer requirements and taxes for coverage, an individual mandate, new restrictions on HSAs, caps on FSAs, a new 45% marginal rate for high incomes, increased taxes on the purchase of medical devices, new taxes on current private plans that meet certain criteria, and a massive expansion of Medicaid, which will force states to raise taxes to pay for it. The list goes on. Trust me, this not going to effect just the uber-rich, we will all have to pay for it.

I am only about 10% of the way through my reading on this bill; I appreciate your specific concerns and will be looking for them.

Oh no, Linnie, the Prize was a bit premature I do believe--I do not hink he has earned that quite yet.

The rest of the World may think so, but I do not. The Prize was really awarded to Obama by the World simply for NOT being Mr. Bush.

So, then was it the Inauguration? Our ceremony of swearing in of the President of the United States of America touches me every time regardless of party. I was excited last year knowing we would have either black man or a woman running on one ticket.....that makes me proud of America.

The world didn't award the Prize. Just one little group of people in one small town in one of the wealthiest countries in the world (per capita).......one word: oil. What will happen to Norway and other oil rich countries when the US and China become less dependent on: A-them; and, B-oil. I wonder!