The end result is exactly what the liberals want. Single-payer, government run health care. The same folks who provide safety for you on airlines; the same ones who signed off on Deep Horizon's skirting of existing safety requirements; the same ones who provide different interpretations of the same tax law, depending on who you talk to. Yeah, those people will make your health care decisions.

Unless of course, you're one of the 'elite'.

What GarandFan said.

I saw a little side-bar note a few weeks ago that the one of the proposed solutions to Greece's money problems was to privatize their health care.

I wonder if all of this may be ultimately advantageous to the conservative agenda in the long run. One of the great crimes of the 100 year progressive onslaught has been linking health insurance to employment. It's not a good system - for all the obvious reasons. Far better for people to arrange for their own insurance and then direct their own careers as they see fit. If the insurance-employment linkage is broken and ObamaCare is repealed, is this not what we will have?

Far better for people to arrange for their own insurance and then direct their own careers as they see fit.

Except for the tax structure--employers can provide health insurance (at reduced rates due to group coverage and volume buying, etc.) and deduct the premiums. Employees get coverage tax-free.

If you want to somehow eliminate insurance as an employment benefit, you have to make premiums paid by individuals tax deductible. In fact, since we seem to want more people insured, make the premiums tax credits.

The Federal Poverty level for 2009 was $10,830 for a single person, 14,570 for a couple and adds $3740 per child. That means that virtually everyone in my field with a college degree would be ineligible.

You have to remember that the cost of living in MA is really high and so therefore are the salaries. I was asked by one of the people in my lab if in Chicago they could get a comparable position for 30. I asked $30,000/year? Sure. No he said he meant $30/hour. I just laughed That's about 50% higher than the prevailing wage for that position in Chicago.

There are a lot of companies that will find it more cost effective to stop offering health benefits and their employees will not qualify for the state program. Those people will just get screwed.

As for people finding their own insurance the risk pools are too small and the costs are too high for most people. Most employers would pocket the majority of the cost savings for not offering health insurance and the government wants to confiscate the rest. The result is that the government has ensured that people will not be able to afford private insurance on their own and they have made it unaffordable for employers too.

Thank you, Mitt Romney.

"Thank you, Mitt Romney."

Which is the reason the GOP must find someone else to run in 2012.

The other thing to remember is that the fine goes to the state and the premiums go to the ins co. Every person that drops coverage means less $$ for the ins co to invest

"Since April 1"

How fitting considering the fool who proposed this.

The goal is to put private insurance companies out of business. They're off to a good start!

Someone help me stop laughing, Please!!!
BTW, where is jimx and why is he not here arguing that those biz folks should be shipped off to a gulag??

And the Law of Unexpected Consequences rears back its ugly head, and strikes deep.

Unexpectedly, of course.

employers can provide health insurance (at reduced rates due to group coverage and volume buying, etc.)

As an insurance agent that specializes in small business group insurance, I can assure you that group insurance is always more expensive than individual insurance for people in good health. It does, however, cover more because of state or federal mandates. Things like "mental health", acupuncture, pregnancy as a disease (in groups of 15 or more) and so on. Because many companies bill on a "composite rate" (averaging premium) it does shift the costs of employee contributions to te younger in favor of the older. It also provides for pre-existing coverage after a one year wait, however hat will raise the rates for everyone.