Comments on: Baucus Health Plan: Good start, but major change needed

By: Ross Wolf

Ross Wolf — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:27:23 +0000

Will IRS Lien Your Property/Salary to collect penalties if you do not buy Health Insurance? Under this Health Plan, it appears IRS would be the agency that determines who has acceptable health insurance. Sen. Baucus Health Bill mandates health insurance companies provide medical coverage for Citizens with preexisting conditions, but fails to clarify if insurance has to be affordable. The Baucus proposal calls for charging individuals and families large Opt-Out penalties that do not buy health insurance, unless they are poor: but the proposal does not clarify who is poor: Would millions of Americans that own homes or derive their living income from an investment, but have no money to buy health insurance, qualify as poor? If No, those Americans would be charged penalties for opting-out because they could not afford health insurance. Gov. forcing people to buy health insurance or pay penalties would cause financial hardships, perhaps even foreclosures.

By: The Progressive Pulse – Health insurance costs under Baucus bill

The Progressive Pulse – Health insurance costs under Baucus bill — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:24:18 +0000

[...] we have noted, the initial health care proposal released by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus does not [...]

By: Louie

Louie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:02:15 +0000

is 2013 the start date for BaucusCare?

By: The Progressive Pulse – Baucus Health Plan: Good start, but major …

The Progressive Pulse – Baucus Health Plan: Good start, but major … — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:43:56 +0000

[...] Original post: The Progressive Pulse – Baucus Health Plan: Good start, but major … [...]

By: DR

DR — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:22:53 +0000

I still have no idea what I would be getting for my $400 a month, which my family of 3 making close to $48k a year would have to pay. What would the co-pays and deductible be? Would that include dental and eye? Chiropractic? The Devil is really in the details when it comes to healthcare and without knowing what would be covered under the bill it is really hard to compare. Currently through my work I pay about half what I would under the plan (obviously my work is picking up a chunk) but will my work decide to stop the healthcare plan? Then what?

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:02:49 +0000

Good unless you are a laid-off fifty to sixty year old with a spouse. Only the richest of rich can afford to pay $5000 to $7000 a MONTH for health care once they come off Cobra. The Baucus plan allows insurance companies to charge the elderly 5X (five times) the normal policy rate. And even more depending on where you live in the country.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:33:57 +0000

Adam, I completely agree with the points that you made. Unfortunately, the Republicans are doing everything that they can to refuse to come up with a decent compromise that will actually help families. If we can’t have a single payer then at the least they should take all of the proposals and find a compromise that works for everyone regardless of health or income situation. The increase in Medicaid caps will help some people but there are far too many families that will still find the costs of qualifying for Medicaid and the costs of private insurance too steep. We have sacrificed everything we can to maintain qualification for our children with special health care needs and this leaves us no disposable income for purchase of private insurance. We should not be forced into poverty nor have to sacrifice so much because we have multiple children with special health care needs.

By: Adam Searing

Adam Searing — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:23:59 +0000

I thought I was clear in the post, but let me just be crystal clear! The Baucus plan isn’t worth supporting unless it makes health insurance hugely more affordable for families and it takes steps to give the insurance companies some real competition through a public plan.

You just can’t write off the entire thing though – it does spend $800 billion or so, gets lots of families into Medicaid, bans nasty insurance company practices, and has a great section on requiring hospitals to do much, much more to justify their nonprofit status – ie not billing people big $$ who just can’t pay.

These are all good things. Take them, combine them with what’s in the House bill, and a few things in the other Senate bill, and it might not be pretty, but we might have plan that we can all live with.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:15:37 +0000

oh well guess us peeps scrambling for individual coverage will have to be content with $5000 deductible plans paired with a Health Savings Account. At least I didnt gigged on pre-existing conditions when I applied with Big Blue this go around.

Still got my yellow and black sign I picked up at the rally a few weeks ago saying “Insurance Company Profits Are Bad For My Health”.

Doesnt look like we are any closer to taking the profit out of medical services thanks to the spineless Democrats who have totally capitulated.

Thanks for nothing Obama1

By: James

James — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:04:44 +0000

Good start?

I guess if you consider loading a thousand extra tons of dead weight into your airplane before you start to taxi down the runway a “good start” … then this certainly qualifies.