Friday July 3, 2009, 11:17 am
:( Sounds like another fabulous plan to fleece amaerica... :( Thanks Tom

Friday July 3, 2009, 11:21 am
If so called "socialism medicine" is good enough for all of our Congress and their 30,000 employees, why then is it not good for the rest of the country? Once again, Congress gives goodies to itself that the average American is not allowed, even health care. Of all the Congressional bad mouthing about universal health care, I have not seen any of them turn down their own benefits.

Friday July 3, 2009, 11:23 am
A little more pre$$Ure and we'll get rid of that provision ... keep the pressure on folks, WALMART has already caved ... Republican Senators Grassley and DeMint have been forced to admit that government health care works and the public option won't break the bank, in fact, it's cheaper than anyone imagined!

Friday July 3, 2009, 12:16 pm
Folks,

This is another reason why we need to demand that Congress would create a Health Care System exactly like the one that they benefit from. We need to send a strong message that we will not longer be paying their Premiums and that what they pay will help to pay for Coverage for the Working Poor.

We should also tell them that they will no longer give themselves a Pay Raise. Imagine, for the Elderly living on Social Security and Disabled Americans receiving SSI, there may not be a Cost of Living Adjustment for the next two years. Why should Congress get a raise if no one else does?

And now they have the audacity to say that individuals who do not have Health Insurance will be fined more than a thousand dollars? It is high time for a huge Recall Movement. We need Representatives who care about the American People and not their own wallets!

Friday July 3, 2009, 3:16 pm
Excellent commentary, Fred. "Audacity" is the exactly the word for even considering handing a fine to people who will most likely be choosing between eating or paying rent.

As a Single Payer advocate, I see Obama's "public option" as flawed. Whatever amount these pampered & compromised politicians are likely to pronounce as "affordable" probably won't be. Particularly since most of them are indebted to the health insurance industry for millions in campaign funds. It's not in their interests for a "public option" to work, so I doubt it will. Meanwhile, they're "covered", and have a great income on top of it.

I agree, Blue - keep up the pressure.

Friday July 3, 2009, 3:29 pm
Massachusetts already has this model, I believe it was started under Nick Romney...you know that Republican that LOST. I guess, some ideas never get lost. Hey, thanks Dems...so glad you support the Republican idea...not.

Friday July 3, 2009, 4:34 pm

Fred, you said, "Imagine, for the Elderly living on Social Security and Disabled Americans receiving SSI, there may not be a Cost of Living Adjustment for the next two years."

It's much worse than that. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already cut SSI payments twice this year, with a third cut on its way. So far, California SSI recipients have seen their monthly checks shrink from $907 in January to $850 in July, a 6.3% negative "Cost of Living Adjustment" so far this year. SSI is the sole source of income for more than 1.2 million elderly, blind and disabled persons, who must rely on the SSI grant for all their living expenses.

Another $20 cut is scheduled for September, leaving the total 2009 SSI/SSP monthly grant level reduced from $907 to $830. That's an 8.4% reduction of $77/month, or $924/year, for the poorest of the poor in California, so the Governator won't have to tax the richest of the rich, his cigar chomping campaign-donating buddies in the oil and tobacco industries.

Schwarzenegger is actually imposing an 8.4% "poor tax" on the elderly, blind and disabled while claiming that it's all to avoid raising taxes. Hello? And the cuts, as ordered by Schwarzenegger, are permanent. To add insult to injury, He is cutting dental care out of MediCal benefits and cutting funding to In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) for senior citizens, increasing their expenses while reducing their income. The IHSS program pays for aides to help elderly and disabled people with personal care and chores, enabling them to remain in their own homes instead of nursing homes.

You start throwing medically-frail elderly, blind and disabled people onto the streets and watch the death toll among the homeless rise. Those who receive SSI are not eligible for food stamps. In pre-Nazi Germany, they also decided that the disabled were just too big a burden: they had a van they sent around, a gas chamber on wheels, and they gassed many of their own citizens just because they were that most horrible of all sins: nonproductive. Do we really want to emulate that? Wasn't Arnold's father a Nazi? As the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Friday July 3, 2009, 6:46 pm
More on topic...

In my opinion, this bill was written by the big insurance companies who are drooling at the thought of another 50 million customers being forced to buy their defective products under penalty of law. When rich corporations like insurance company AIG couldn't pay their claims, they got a $120 billion bailout. When Joe Sixpack can't pay his insurance premium, he'll get fined $1000.

The article says, "The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years." Was this the "bait" the insurance lobby threw to the politicians to get them to do their bidding? How clever. Once more, the insurance companies figure out a way to bribe the government with the people's money, just like how they pay their lobbyists out of the inflated premiums their customers pay.

This ill-conceived law will add to the suffering of people who lose their jobs, let their payments lapse while they search for new work, then have a medical emergency and are caught without insurance. It will further criminalize being poor in this country. How pathetic.

Many young and healthy people will realize that they will save money by waiting until they have an emergency, then paying the fine, gamboling on not needing medical care for years if they are careful. Many others will slip through the cracks and will be afraid to seek treatment until they are so sick that their illness has become much more expensive to treat than if they had preventative medical care. Many chronically ill, elderly and disabled people will die as a result of this law, relieving the insurance companies of the high cost of caring for them.

With so much money at stake, will doctors and hospitals be required to police their patients, demanding proof of insurance and two pieces of ID before they can be treated? Will this generate a whole new market in fake ID and insurance certificates? Will people have to be fingerprinted so Big Brother knows every time they see a physician, go to the hospital or fill a prescription? Can implanted microchips be far behind?

There is no fine for not having auto insurance if you don't drive. There should be no fine for not having health insurance if you don't get sick. Nobody should be forced to buy anything from a for profit company. This can all be avoided with universal single payer insurance that every industrialized country in the world has except Americans.

Friday July 3, 2009, 8:06 pm
heaven help us all

Friday July 3, 2009, 11:10 pm
If you cannot afford Health Care then how are you supposed to afford the fine????!!!!

Is it Prison for the poor now?

Friday July 3, 2009, 11:55 pm
Our gov is co owners of Monsanto and their food is meant to make us sick. Our rights are diminishing befre our eyes and Big Pharma and Big Insurance are the only ones who win in this game. It is time to take back our country.

Saturday July 4, 2009, 1:18 am
A piece of the puzzle...

Saturday July 4, 2009, 8:18 am
We all need to keep up the pressure, the phone calls, emails, petitions and then to get our networks involved, family, acquaintances, coworkers, and friends. The pressure is obviously working if Obama is asking us to back off :)

Saturday July 4, 2009, 10:59 am
I agree with Tom "more on Topic". The insurance companies offer deplorable coverages and make millions on the poor people of America!! Fines? Unbelievable!!
Sad:(
Tx Tom dear.

Saturday July 4, 2009, 11:46 am
this is unbelievable ,if you could afford health care you'd have it if you can't how can you pay a fine?

Saturday July 4, 2009, 11:49 am
You've got the poweer to CHANGE anything you don't want in that $enate bill ... be sure to use it:

Write to the President, every day:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Click Here For Contacting Congress State by State.

Look up your members of Congress and call them now:http://my.barackobama.com/callcongress

Saturday July 4, 2009, 2:50 pm
Tom I'd give you another star, but it will not let me do so this week.

Years ago people laughed at me when I said, if this keeps going they are going to take the Elderly and Disabled out to fields and shoot them all. I know everyone thought I was speaking foolishness, but I didn't see it that way, I have been sincere in this thought from all that has already happened. Ok so maybe not out in a field, maybe like Hilter round them up and bring them to gas chambers.
This is frightful.

Sunday July 5, 2009, 8:10 am
By the way, that's not a 1000 dollar fine, it's a 1000 dollar fine EACH YEAR! Simply discusting what OUR employees - tha gov'ment DECIDE to do to US, without remorse. VOTE 'EM OUT!

Sunday July 5, 2009, 10:23 am
The same people that cannot afford health care can not afford the fine! There seems to be so many holes in this heath care reform!! 36 million dollars in fines from the broke? It sounds pretty stupid!

Sunday July 5, 2009, 10:28 am

WATCH Republican Chuck Grassley: If You Want Good Health Insurance, Work For The Government
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has a brilliant plan for fixing the health care system: If you want quality coverage, "go work for the Federal government." Government health care WORKS very well!!!!

Sunday July 5, 2009, 2:59 pm
Brought to you by the same people that took care of Katrina victims. Socialized medicine is maybe good idea BUT the people that want to bring it to you here in the US are wicked crooks and liars. Caution. and more caution.
NOTHING they do is for the benefit of the people, have you not figured this out?
Be on so careful what you wish for...