So, I was just fretting over the economy over a cup of coffee and a piece of whole wheat toast drizzled with honey. Suddenly, it occurred to me that what we really need right now is to increase the cost of hiring workers. Because with a real unemployment rate of over 15%, the economy should definitely create barriers to hiring.
It turns out that Max Baucus has got our backs!
By requiring insurers to cover all comers on the same terms and that the healthy and the sick pay the same amount for their coverage, the bill would raise costs for many of those who are now insured. The requirement that all Americans buy insurance approved by the government or pay a hefty fine, moreover, would create new captive customers for coverage and constrain the range of options available to them–a recipe for higher prices. It would also shift some costs from older to younger people, encouraging (and in many cases requiring) everyone to buy more comprehensive policies than they might otherwise want and eliminating many of the low-cost catastrophic care plans popular with younger Americans. Insurance will be more expensive, which in turn will depress wages since the cost of insurance will continue to come out of many Americans’ take-home pay.
The bill would also create a new tax on hiring in the form of the employer coverage mandate, and this and the variety of other new taxes and penalties on insurers, drug makers, and health care providers would be passed right along to consumers. It would also make a mockery of President Obama’s pledge not to raise middle class taxes.
I think the President has already done that himself.
A lot of this is about forcing the poor to buy more coverage than they really need. It’s awful, awful. And it “pays for itself” via unfunded mandates on the states.
Fight the Baucus bill.
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