Saturday, June 30, 2012

Historic health care mandate prevails - RomneyCare goes national


Healthcare for all, accountability with no "free riding"-- once upon a time, this was a good Republican idea.  Don't you just love politics?  Pacificans will definitely benefit.
President applauds the Supreme Court decision

"The Supreme Court on June 28, 2012, upheld the individual health-insurance mandate that is at the heart of President Obama’s landmark health-care law, saying the mandate is permissible under Congress’s taxing authority. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday joined the Supreme Court’s liberals to save the heart of President Obama’s landmark health-care law, agreeing that the requirement for nearly all Americans to secure insurance is permissible under Congress’s taxing authority. The court’s 5 to 4 ruling was a stunning legal conclusion to a battle that has consumed American politics for two years. Roberts’s compromise offered a dramatic victory for Obama and Democrats’ decades-long effort to enact a health-care law and a bitter defeat for Republicans and tea party activists, who had uniformly opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act."  The Washington Post/Robert Barnes, 6/28/12."Health-Care Reform and the Supreme Court."   Read Article.


Really, how about giving it a rest RomneyCare?
"The problem for Romney is that there are no fundamental differences between the two laws. Both programs create exchanges where private insurers compete. Both require individuals to purchase insurance. And both subsidize those who can’t afford it. It’s a relatively new way of extending coverage. Massachusetts was the first place it was adopted, and the Affordable Care Act was the second. The two laws are, in the words of Jonathan Gruber, who helped design both the Romney and Obama plans, “the same fu*#ing bill.” To find any differences between the two, you must look to the margins."  The Daily Beast/Josh Dzieza, 3/6/12.  "Romneycare and Obamacare differ only in inconsequential ways." Read Article.


Related - John "Hussein" Roberts from Andy Borowitz. "Controversy swirled around John Roberts today as billionaire Donald Trump claimed that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court had a fraudulent birth certificate. Mr. Trump said that these are the findings of a team of personal investigators he retained just after ten o’clock yesterday morning. According to these investigators, Justice Roberts, who claims to have grown up in Indiana, was actually born in a mud hut in a tiny rural village in Kenya." The Borowitz Report,  "Trump says John Roberts' Birth Certificate is Fake. Traces Chief Justice's Birth to Village in Kenya."   Read more. 


Reference - HealthCare.gov, "Affordable Health Care Act/ key features."

Posted by Kathy Meeh

11 comments:

Kathy Meeh said...

Kumbaya Todd. We can agree on some important issues.

Anonymous said...

Three cheers for Justice Roberts.

todd bray said...

Actually Kathy, we don't.

Kathy Meeh said...

"we don't" agree. Todd, 1:01 pm.

Good enough Todd. However, with no further explanation from you, its hard to know what you are saying in such an absolute statement.

Health care that covers everyone in America and reduces the current patchwork system is a community improvement. How that is accomplished with efficiency on a public-private basis is relative from my view.

True, I doubt your ideology includes "let them die in the streets", but I may be wrong and may have misjudged your humanity. If so I apologize.

Anonymous said...

So how happy will everyone be when they sell a home and see a tax on the transaction to cover Obamacare?
What does selling a house have to do with paying for socialized medicine?

Kathy Meeh said...

"..how happy will everyone be when they sell a home and see a tax on the transaction" Anonymous 4:29 pm.

First of all, congratulations on being one of the top 3% income earners in America. And, second of all thank you for paying a 3.8% transaction tax on investment income above $500,000 actual profit per couple (or $250,000 per individual). Snopes.com.

Of course you will enjoy the current capital gains exclusion up to that amount, but those of us in the 97% are sorry to hear about your hardship.

Anonymous said...

Shameless greed and unbelieveable stupidity by the ever more privileged few have brought down more than one country. This one is not immune.

Lois said...

http://nation.foxnews.com/nancy-pelosi/2012/07/01/pelosi-healthcare-mandate-not-tax-it-s-penalty-comes-under-tax-code

http://news.investors.com/article/616549/201206281902/supreme-court-confirms-obamacare-massive-tax-burden.htm?p=full

And the IRS is is charge of collecting. Isn't that special?

Lord have mercy on the United States of America.

Lois said...

The Romney health plan was initiated by the State - not the Federal Government on all the states. Tell me why Pelosi has lots of her friends in the union who have been given and exclusion.

http://www.humanevents.com/2009/06/22/union-members-exempt-from-new-health-benefits-tax/

Why? and if it is good enough for us, why isn't it good enough for our senators and representatives?

Anonymous said...

Kathy, these environmental radicals care more about habitat and frogs than people. That's how they be.

Kathy Meeh said...

"the Romney health plan was initiated by the State - not the Federal Government on all the states." Lois Rogan, 7/1/12, 10:11 pm.

Yes Lois, Massachusetts RomneyCare was the prototype for national ObamaCare. Jonathan Gruber, the health economist who was involved in crafting both plans (article 2 above), put it this way: “the same fu*#ing bill. To find any differences between the two, you must look to the margins." Current national medical plans include medicare, medicaid (medical in California).

Affordable HealthCare is expected to fold 30 million uninsured people into the healthcare system when the full act is implemented in 2014. The federal government will pay states overhead for the first 3 years. The states will pay 10% there following. The system is seeking efficiencies. Jonathan Gruber was interviewed on CSPAN this afternoon (7/1). He has written a book about the process, what works and doesn't work, the obstacles and the goals, etc.

As for union or corporate waivers the National Journal, 3/7/11 explains that. "Typically, the waivers go to firms that offer “mini-med” plans with a lower annual coverage limit and cannot meet the new annual floor of $750,000 for 2011. They are meant as a stopgap measure until new state-run insurance exchanges are opened in 2014." SEIU Union has responded to such "favoritism claims" as a smear, and SEIU indicates "1,415 applicants have been granted waivers as of April 25, 2011."