From Citizenlink.org...
Marriage Penalty Hidden in Health Care Reform
"...For instance, in the House version, an unmarried couple each making $30,000 a year would pay $1,320 combined each year for private health insurance. If that couple chose to marry, their premium would jump to $12,000 a year, a difference of $10,680...."The Senate bill stipulates that two unmarried people, 52 years of age, with private insurance and a combined income of $60,000, $30,000 each, will pay a combined cost of $2,483 for medical insurance," Quist wrote. "Should they marry, however, they will pay a combined cost of $11,666 for insurance — a penalty of $9,183 for getting married."
From CNSNews.com....
Senate Health Care Bill Would Force Some Middle Class Families to Pay $15,200 Yearly Insurance Fee, According to CBO Analysis
"...A family of four—two parents and two children—earning $88,200 would be at 400 percent of the poverty level this year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A family of four earning $88,201, therefore, would not be eligible for a federal subsidy to buy insurance under the Senate health-care bill. If the mother and father in such a family could not get employer-based health insurance—because their employers decided not to buy their workers insurance—the family would be required by law to purchase a policy with its own money that would cost an estimated $15,200 per year, according to the CBO...."
From NCPA...
COVERAGE MANDATES: "WE'LL TELL YOU WHAT YOU NEED
Insurance coverage mandates refer to the restrictions each state sets on which type of policy can be sold legally within that market. For example, fourteen states now require all insurance plans sold to cover infertility treatments, regardless of the patient's need or desire for these services. Other states ban the sale of insurance plans unless they include coverage for massage therapy, obesity surgery, pastoral care, and wigs.
Needle-phobic consumers cannot buy plans without acupuncture coverage, and teetotalers must pay for plans that include inpatient drug rehabilitation, says Dr. Linda Halderman, a General Surgeon and policy adviser in the California State Senate.
What effect do mandates have on the cost of health insurance?
- According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, just 12 of the most common insurance mandates currently in place raise premium rates by as much as 30 percent.
- The State of California forces over 50 such mandates on the employer-provided (group) insurance market, but not on individual plans; consequently, it costs three times more for California employers to offer insurance than if a plan is privately purchased.
In those states, insurance is not insurance at all -- it is expensive, prepaid health care. In other words, when Hummers and Ferraris are the only vehicles sold, people on Toyota budgets can't afford transportation, says Halderman.
Source: Linda Halderman, "Senate's Solution: Consumer Choice Is Dead on Arrival," American Thinkers, December 16, 2009.
For text:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/senates_solution_consumer_choi.html
For NCPA Brief Analysis:
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba237
For more on Health Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16
