Young People: You Will Pay For The Health Care Bill

[Brother Adam]

It is so important for our young Catholics to be involved in the political process.

[url="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/05/health-care-countdown-young-people-bear-brunt-insurance-mandate/"]Fox News[/url]

Young adults are in for a wake-up call if health care reform passes.

[b]For the first time ever, the federal government is going to require that everybody obtain health insurance coverage[/b]. For those who have insurance through their employers, the so-called individual mandate may have very little impact. But for young adults, many of whom are not currently covered, the health care bill will add a new and costly expense to their budgets.

"The Census Bureau tells us there are 18 million people between the ages of 18 and 35 who are uninsured -- roughly half of the uninsured population are younger people in that age group," said Anne Kim, with the non-profit think tank Third Way. [color="#FF0000"][Because we are healthy and usually don't need anything beyond catastrophic coverage.][/color]

The individual mandate has teeth to it, and anyone who refuses to get coverage will be [b]fined[/b] under the health care package. [color="#FF0000"][That is right, the government is going to fine you for not purchasing a product that you do not want. The US Revolution began with taxation without representation. The words of John Adams ring clear "Why would I want to trade 1 tyrant 2,000 miles away for 1000 tyrants 2 miles away. It seems we have done exactly that.][/color]

In the Senate bill, the fines start low at $95 a year in 2014, and they eventually rise to between [b]$750 and $2,250[/b], depending on the income of the person being fined. In the House bill, the fine is calculated as 2.5 percent of the income of the person being penalized.

Jim Capretta, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said the fines are "relatively low" when compared to the costs of coverage that people are being told to assume.

[b]"Some of the costs of an individual coverage or a family policy could be as high as $10,000 or $14,000 in a few years' time," he said. "And so there's thousands of dollars of premiums at stake and the fine is maybe only $750." [/b] [color="#FF0000"][In other words you already can't afford health insurance, you won't be able to afford health insurance in the future, and the government will fine you for it.][/color]

[u][b]The federal government wants to require young, healthy people to buy insurance because if they don't, premiums for everyone else will go up. Insurance companies need low-maintenance, young customers on their rolls so they can raise money to cover benefits for less-healthy people the health care bill will require them to insure. [/b][/u] [color="#FF0000"][EXACTLY! The previous generation is used to entitlement. They can't get their money from their hard working parents so now they are taxing their offspring. Ultimately you are not paying for your health insurance, but Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid's health insurance.][/color]

"If you don't have a mandate that gets in the young people who are cheaper, you're going to see average premiums rise," said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy with Third Way. "There's no way around that."

[b]But both houses passed two other reforms that create an incentive not to buy insurance. [/b]

First, the bills allow patients to basically purchase insurance whenever they want.

"You can literally buy an insurance policy in the ambulance on the way to the hospital," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "You could imagine a situation in which you would pay the fines, stay out of the insurance pool, and at the moment when you need it, you go out and buy it."

The other disincentive is that both houses change how much older customers can be charged relative to younger customers. Analysts agree this will drive up the cost for young people, though it's not clear by how much.

"If you charge people a fair price, then a 50-to-60-year-old should pay about six times as much as a 20-year-old," said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis. But he noted that the Senate bill says older people can be charged only three times as much; the House bill says they can be charged two times as much. "So we're going to [b]penalize low-income young people in order to lower the premiums for older wealthier people[/b]." [color="#FF0000"][low-income young people = most of the new young faithful Catholic Church employees.][/color]

[b]"Young people are going to bear a disproportionate cost in this reform," Holtz-Eakin said. [/b]

The Senate tries to make it easier on the young by offering them a bare-bones insurance plan that would be less expensive than all the others. This is perhaps the keystone for the entire reform effort, because if young healthy people don't get into the insurance pool, everything else -- especially cost containment -- could fall apart.

[Varg]

No I won't

[ThePenciledOne]

Cool.

I am so glad.

[Varg]

Add this to fixing global warming and getting bullied by media and young people have a pretty tough time

Edited January 5, 2010 by Varg

[Winchester]

Hope! Change!

[homeschoolmom]

Hey Adam-- I don't think it does anyone any good to pit one generation against another here. I'm of a different generation than you (the one I believe you refer to as the "previous generation used to entitlements" whatever that means) and I am no fan of the health care bills being shoved on us. I am in no way in favor of mandating people to buy a product-- it's unconstitutional. When you pit classes against each other or generations against each other or races or whatever, it is counter-productive.

[Brother Adam]

I am making a generalization about baby boomers / 65+ and most importantly at the political class who are mostly in that age bracket. It is not always counter productive to identify a trend. For instance, my generation is typically far less educated, knows less history, and has little sense of logic. That doesn't mean everyone in my generation is, but as a whole, it remains true.

Edited January 5, 2010 by Brother Adam

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Winchester' date='05 January 2010 - 03:27 PM' timestamp='1262730451' post='2030397']
Hope! Change!
[/quote]
Yes . . . nickles and dimes.

[King's Rook's Pawn]

For a year, the "progressives" have been telling us this effort was intended to break the power of the private health insurance industry. The end result is a bill to conscript every man, woman, and child into becoming a customer of the private health insurance industry. Interesting how these things tend to work out...

[add]

[quote name='King's Rook's Pawn' date='05 January 2010 - 07:00 PM' timestamp='1262732415' post='2030420']
For a year, the "progressives" have been telling us this effort was intended to break the power of the private health insurance industry. The end result is a bill to conscript every man, woman, and child into becoming a customer of the private health insurance industry. Interesting how these things tend to work out...
[/quote]

Under the present (old) health system billions of dollars and countless clinical trials have produced huge advances in the treatment/fight against cancer; I fear that under the new universal health care system medical progress will stifle advancements, to the detriment of us all.

Edited January 5, 2010 by apparently

[dominicansoul]

it's fair...it was the young uneducated know nothings who voted for obama in the first place just because they thought he was cool...

[Thy Geekdom Come]

I actually agree with Glenn Beck on this one. The liberals are intentionally trying to collapse the US economy so they can build their own version of "paradise" from the rubble.

I've never wanted Texas to leave the union more than I do now. I'd move there immediately. I mean, we'd pack up that night and be on our way.

[Winchester]

[quote name='dominicansoul' date='06 January 2010 - 09:19 AM' timestamp='1262787554' post='2030840']
it's fair...it was the young uneducated know nothings who voted for obama in the first place just because they thought he was cool...
[/quote]
This is why we need rule by an aristocracy.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Winchester' date='06 January 2010 - 09:41 AM' timestamp='1262788867' post='2030845']
This is why we need rule by an aristocracy.
[/quote]
What we need is a dictator, and I mean that in then Latin sense of the word. In ancient Rome, when there was collapse or chaos, a dictator would be chosen to rule with absolute power for 6 months (only that long). Cincinnatus, a farmer, was chosen on one occasion and acclaimed as a national hero when he fixed the government and returned to his farm when he was done without taking anything for himself. That's what we need...an honest guy to give all the authority to so he can reboot the government.

[Brother Adam]

Yes, but then look what happened, you end up with Gaius Julius Caesar. Some people don't give up power easily. Although it would be interesting to watch the senate stab the dictator to death on C-SPAN.