It's Not An Option
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Congress: It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For Failure


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

From the beginning, opponents of the public option plan have warned that if the government gets into the business of offering subsidized health insurance coverage, the private insurance market will wither. Drawn by a public option that will be 30% to 40% cheaper than their current premiums because taxpayers will be funding it, employers will gladly scrap their private plans and go with Washington's coverage.

The nonpartisan Lewin Group estimated in April that 120 million or more Americans could lose their group coverage at work and end up in such a program. That would leave private carriers with 50 million or fewer customers. This could cause the market to, as Lewin Vice President John Sheils put it, "fizzle out altogether."

What wasn't known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.

The legislation is also likely to finish off health savings accounts, a goal that Democrats have had for years. They want to crush that alternative because nothing gives individuals more control over their medical care, and the government less, than HSAs.

With HSAs out of the way, a key obstacle to the left's expansion of the welfare state will be removed.

The public option won't be an option for many, but rather a mandate for buying government care. A free people should be outraged at this advance of soft tyranny.

Washington does not have the constitutional or moral authority to outlaw private markets in which parties voluntarily participate. It shouldn't be killing business opportunities, or limiting choices, or legislating major changes in Americans' lives.

It took just 16 pages of reading to find this naked attempt by the political powers to increase their reach. It's scary to think how many more breaches of liberty we'll come across in the final 1,002.

__________________
No Agenda Show with John C Dvorak and Adam Curry! In the morning!
Click on it^

I weep for our future.

More kneeJerking by the right.

[quote=Markz;103714]More kneeJerking by the right.[/quote]
Maybe that's why the right is so worried about public run HC? they think their knee injuries, caused by the constant jerking, will no longer be treated with lots of oxycotin.

[quote=Markz;103714]More kneeJerking by the right.[/quote]

How is the [B]Fact[B] that private insurance will be illegal is a knee jerk reaction? If you want Government Health care move to Canada.

__________________
No Agenda Show with John C Dvorak and Adam Curry! In the morning!
Click on it^

I weep for our future.

[quote=blyons200;103721]How is the [B]Fact[B] that private insurance will be illegal is a knee jerk reaction? If you want Government Health care move to Canada.[/quote]

There is more to this bill than that. Unlike you I refuse to believe snippet news and would rather deal with and base my opinion on the whole rather than a fragment that is being used to scare the shit out of people.

[URL="http://www.nowpublic.com/world/bill-does-not-make-private-health-insurance-illegal"]Bill does NOT make Private Health Insurance Illegal! | NowPublic News Coverage[/URL]
[quote]Please take note of how all the articles don't tell you that the bill is online as H.R. 3200 and the line they quote is in Sec. 102 of the bill.

They quote H.R. 3200 Sec. 102 (a) (1) (A) - "IN GENERAL- Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1."
Which, taken alone, could be scary and might support their claim. However, taking note that Sec. 102 (a) is "Grandfathered Health Insurance Coverage Defined", [B]it kind of throws their whole claim right out the window of credibility.[/B]
[/quote]
[URL="http://mediamatters.org/research/200907170005"]Conservative media run with false IBD claim that health bill outlaws private coverage | Media Matters for America[/URL]


[quote]Following conservative radio host [URL="http://mediamatters.org/limbaughwire/2009/07/16#0018"]Rush Limbaugh[/URL] and the [URL="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fmrc.org%2Fpress%2Freleases%2F2009%2F20090716011846.aspx"]Media Research Center[/URL], Fox News host Sean Hannity and Fox Business' David Asman [B]echoed false claims in a July 15 [URL="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ibdeditorials.com%2FIBDArticles.aspx%3Fid%3D332548165656854"]editorial[/URL] by [I]Investor's Business Daily[/I], which stated that the House health care reform bill includes "a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal" and that the "provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage." In fact, the bill does no such thing.[/B]

..
In fact, as [I]Media Matters for America [/I]has [URL="http://mediamatters.org/research/200907160040"]noted[/URL], [B]the provision to which the editorial referred establishes the conditions under which existing private plans would be exempted from the requirement that they participate in the [URL="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fwaysandmeans.house.gov%2Fmedia%2Fpdf%2F111%2Fexchange.pdf"]Health Insurance Exchange[/URL]. Individual health insurance plans that do not meet the "grandfather" conditions would still be available for purchase, but only through the Exchange and subject to those regulations.[/B]
..

According to the House Ways and Means Committee's [URL="http://mediamatters.org/rd?to=http%3A%2F%2Fenergycommerce.house.gov%2FPress_111%2F20090714%2Fhr3200_summary.pdf"]summary[/URL] of the bill, the Health Insurance Exchange [B]"creates a transparent and functional marketplace for individuals and small employers to comparison shop among private and public insurers.[/B]"[/quote]

The insurance companies are pushing HARD on this one. And their little pitbulls like Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh are more than happy to comply. Those 3 are 3 of the worst humans on earth. They have no consideration for anyone other than themselves.

the louder the insurance companies, parmecuticals and the [B]G[/B]reed[B]O[/B]ver[B]P[/B]eople kooks fight this , the more I like the plan.

[url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/may/19/your-guide-distortions-health-care/]PolitiFact | Your guide to distortions on health care[/url]

In fact, as Media Matters for America has noted, the provision to which the editorial referred establishes the conditions under which existing private plans would be exempted from the requirement that they participate in the Health Insurance Exchange. Individual health insurance plans that do not meet the "grandfather" conditions would still be available for purchase, but only through the Exchange and subject to those regulations.


So according to the above, how does that not make private insurance illegal? Yes, if you already have a plan you can keep it (if you can still afford it); but you can't buy a new private plan after the bill becomes law, unless you do it through the exchange, in which the policy is no longer private(the kind of coverage you want), because it conforms to the government mandated rules on their health coverage. So the way I see it, private health insurance will be illegal if this passes.

Either way, this health bill sucks, Government is trillions in debt, and this will just add trillions more of debt. Social Security isn't even solvent, and we wanna add healthcare to the mix. Christ man, like I said before, you can't save everyone.

:no:

BTW, I will fight this health insurance thing tooth and nail. No matter what you say you can't change my mind that this is a HORRIBLE idea that will bankrupt us even faster than we're already going bankrupt.

__________________
No Agenda Show with John C Dvorak and Adam Curry! In the morning!
Click on it^

I weep for our future.