Merged: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

MrJayremmie · Mar 27, 2010

New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

WASHINGTON – Republicans were for President Barack Obama's requirement that Americans get health insurance before they were against it.

The obligation in the new health care law is a Republican idea that's been around at least two decades. It was once trumpeted as an alternative to Bill and Hillary Clinton's failed health care overhaul in the 1990s. These days, Republicans call it government overreach.

Mitt Romney, weighing another run for the GOP presidential nomination, signed such a requirement into law at the state level as Massachusetts governor in 2006. At the time, Romney defended it as "a personal responsibility principle" and Massachusetts' newest GOP senator, Scott Brown, backed it. Romney now says Obama's plan is a federal takeover that bears little resemblance to what he did as governor and should be repealed.

Republicans say Obama and the Democrats co-opted their original concept, minus a mechanism they proposed for controlling costs. More than a dozen GOP attorneys general are determined to challenge the requirement in federal court as unconstitutional.

Starting in 2014, the new law will require nearly all Americans to have health insurance through an employer, a government program or by buying it directly. That year, new insurance markets will open for business, health plans will be required to accept all applicants and tax credits will start flowing to millions of people, helping them pay the premiums.

Those who continue to go without coverage will have to pay a penalty to the IRS, except in cases of financial hardship. Fines vary by income and family size. For example, a single person making $45,000 would pay an extra $1,125 in taxes when the penalty is fully phased in, in 2016.

Conservatives today say that's unacceptable. Not long ago, many of them saw a national mandate as a free-market route to guarantee coverage for all Americans — the answer to liberal ambitions for a government-run entitlement like Medicare. Most experts agree some kind of requirement is needed in a reformed system because health insurance doesn't work if people can put off joining the risk pool until they get sick.

In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon favored a mandate that employers provide insurance. In the 1990s, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, embraced an individual requirement. Not anymore.

"The idea of an individual mandate as an alternative to single-payer was a Republican idea," said health economist Mark Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. In 1991, he published a paper that explained how a mandate could be combined with tax credits — two ideas that are now part of Obama's law. Pauly's paper was well-received — by the George H.W. Bush administration.

"It could have been the basis for a bipartisan compromise, but it wasn't," said Pauly. "Because the Democrats were in favor, the Republicans more or less had to be against it."

Obama rejected a key part of Pauly's proposal: doing away with the tax-free status of employer-sponsored health care and replacing it with a standard tax credit for all Americans. Labor strongly opposes that approach because union members usually have better-than-average coverage and suddenly would have to pay taxes on it. But many economists believe it's a rational solution to America's health care dilemma since it would raise enough money to cover the uninsured and nudge people with coverage into cost-conscious plans.

Romney's success in Massachusetts with a bipartisan health plan that featured a mandate put the idea on the table for the 2008 presidential candidates.

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who failed in the 1990s to require employers to offer coverage, embraced the individual requirement, an idea advocated by her Republican opponents in the earlier health care debate.

"Hillary Clinton believed strongly in universal coverage," said Neera Tanden, her top health care adviser in the 2008 Democratic campaign. "I said to her, 'You are not going to be able to say it's universal coverage unless you have a mandate.' She said, 'I don't want to run unless it's universal coverage.'"

Obama was not prepared to go that far. His health care proposal in the campaign required coverage for children, not adults. Clinton hammered him because his plan didn't guarantee coverage for all. He shot back that health insurance is too expensive to force people to buy it.

Obama remained cool to an individual requirement even once in office. But Tanden, who went on to serve in the Obama administration, said the first sign of a shift came in a letter to congressional leaders last summer in which Obama said he'd be open to the idea if it included a hardship waiver. Obama openly endorsed a mandate in his speech to a joint session of Congress in September.

It remains one of the most unpopular parts of his plan. Even the insurance industry is unhappy. Although the federal government will be requiring Americans to buy their products — and providing subsidies worth billions — insurers don't think the penalties are high enough.

Tanden, now at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, says she's confident the mandate will work. In Massachusetts, coverage has gone up and only a tiny fraction of residents have been hit with fines.

Brown, whose election to replace the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy almost led to the collapse of Obama's plan, said his opposition to the new law is over tax increases, Medicare cuts and federal overreach on a matter that should be left up to states. Not so much the requirement, which he voted for as a state lawmaker.

"In Massachusetts, it helped us deal with the very real problem of uncompensated care," Brown said.
Click to expand...

Wasn't this bill as a whole very similar to what the GOP proposed during Clinton's push for health care? Is it just that they didn't want the left to get a political victory? I think so...

GriLtCheeZ · Mar 27, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

MrJayremmie said: ↑

New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

Wasn't this bill as a whole very similar to what the GOP proposed during Clinton's push for health care? Is it just that they didn't want the left to get a political victory? I think so...
Click to expand...

Yes.

After the last two election routes, the GOP has decided to tear down the Democratic party instead of rebuilding their own. We'll see after the next election or two if their strategy pays off. I think the Republicans will fail, and the Democrats will be in power for a long time.

MARIS61 · Mar 27, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

More proof the Repugnants are the Party of No, and nothing more.

Natebishop3 · Mar 27, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

Who gives a shit which party thought of it. It's still a bad idea.

Besides, there really isn't much difference between the two parties anymore. They both want more government in one way or another, which is why I'm not a member of either party.

Sug · Mar 27, 2010

Republicans Were For Obama's Health Insurance Rule Before They Were Against It

Pretty funny.

The Socialists are coming The Socialists are coming and they are using our ideas against us! wait what? FUCK! now what? Oh I know let's make it seem like our ideas are the end of the United States

WASHINGTON — Republicans were for President Barack Obama's requirement that Americans get health insurance before they were against it.

The obligation in the new health care law is a Republican idea that's been around at least two decades. It was once trumpeted as an alternative to Bill and Hillary Clinton's failed health care overhaul in the 1990s. These days, Republicans call it government overreach.

Mitt Romney, weighing another run for the GOP presidential nomination, signed such a requirement into law at the state level as Massachusetts governor in 2006. At the time, Romney defended it as "a personal responsibility principle" and Massachusetts' newest GOP senator, Scott Brown, backed it. Romney now says Obama's plan is a federal takeover that bears little resemblance to what he did as governor and should be repealed.

Republicans say Obama and the Democrats co-opted their original concept, minus a mechanism they proposed for controlling costs. More than a dozen GOP attorneys general are determined to challenge the requirement in federal court as unconstitutional.

Starting in 2014, the new law will require nearly all Americans to have health insurance through an employer, a government program or by buying it directly. That year, new insurance markets will open for business, health plans will be required to accept all applicants and tax credits will start flowing to millions of people, helping them pay the premiums.

Those who continue to go without coverage will have to pay a penalty to the IRS, except in cases of financial hardship. Fines vary by income and family size. For example, a single person making $45,000 would pay an extra $1,125 in taxes when the penalty is fully phased in, in 2016.

Conservatives today say that's unacceptable. Not long ago, many of them saw a national mandate as a free-market route to guarantee coverage for all Americans – the answer to liberal ambitions for a government-run entitlement like Medicare. Most experts agree some kind of requirement is needed in a reformed system because health insurance doesn't work if people can put off joining the risk pool until they get sick.

In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon favored a mandate that employers provide insurance. In the 1990s, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, embraced an individual requirement. Not anymore.

"The idea of an individual mandate as an alternative to single-payer was a Republican idea," said health economist Mark Pauly of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. In 1991, he published a paper that explained how a mandate could be combined with tax credits – two ideas that are now part of Obama's law. Pauly's paper was well-received – by the George H.W. Bush administration.

"It could have been the basis for a bipartisan compromise, but it wasn't," said Pauly. "Because the Democrats were in favor, the Republicans more or less had to be against it."

Obama rejected a key part of Pauly's proposal: doing away with the tax-free status of employer-sponsored health care and replacing it with a standard tax credit for all Americans. Labor strongly opposes that approach because union members usually have better-than-average coverage and suddenly would have to pay taxes on it. But many economists believe it's a rational solution to America's health care dilemma since it would raise enough money to cover the uninsured and nudge people with coverage into cost-conscious plans.

Romney's success in Massachusetts with a bipartisan health plan that featured a mandate put the idea on the table for the 2008 presidential candidates.

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who failed in the 1990s to require employers to offer coverage, embraced the individual requirement, an idea advocated by her Republican opponents in the earlier health care debate.

"Hillary Clinton believed strongly in universal coverage," said Neera Tanden, her top health care adviser in the 2008 Democratic campaign. "I said to her, 'You are not going to be able to say it's universal coverage unless you have a mandate.' She said, 'I don't want to run unless it's universal coverage.'"

Obama was not prepared to go that far. His health care proposal in the campaign required coverage for children, not adults. Clinton hammered him because his plan didn't guarantee coverage for all. He shot back that health insurance is too expensive to force people to buy it.

Obama remained cool to an individual requirement even once in office. But Tanden, who went on to serve in the Obama administration, said the first sign of a shift came in a letter to congressional leaders last summer in which Obama said he'd be open to the idea if it included a hardship waiver. Obama openly endorsed a mandate in his speech to a joint session of Congress in September.

It remains one of the most unpopular parts of his plan. Even the insurance industry is unhappy. Although the federal government will be requiring Americans to buy their products – and providing subsidies worth billions – insurers don't think the penalties are high enough.

Tanden, now at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, says she's confident the mandate will work. In Massachusetts, coverage has gone up and only a tiny fraction of residents have been hit with fines.

Brown, whose election to replace the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy almost led to the collapse of Obama's plan, said his opposition to the new law is over tax increases, Medicare cuts and federal overreach on a matter that should be left up to states. Not so much the requirement, which he voted for as a state lawmaker.

"In Massachusetts, it helped us deal with the very real problem of uncompensated care," Brown said.
Click to expand...

Sug · Mar 27, 2010

Re: Republicans Were For Obama's Health Insurance Rule Before They Were Against It

oops move to OT please.

MrJayremmie · Mar 27, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

Who gives a shit which party thought of it. It's still a bad idea.
Click to expand...

So they thought of it, and now they say it is unconstitutional. That isn't a big deal? I think it is. I wonder how many of these Republicans that are so dead set against this bill would have voted for a similar one under Clinton. And if that happened, I wonder how many republican voters would somehow change their mind and say "What a great thing we just did!".

1) Shows that what they were proposing is unconstitutional (according to them). Yet still proposing it shows lack of either constitutional knowledge or complete lack of respect for the constitution.
2) Shows that they are flip floppers

Unless they were just opposing health care for political gain and don't give a shit about what is best for America. But Republicans would never do that. They wouldn't force every Republican congressman to vote against health care and secretly e-mail each other that this will be Obama's waterloo.

Seems like the Republicans would vote NO on health care no matter what was in the bill, either under Clinton or Obama (democrats).

bluefrog · Mar 27, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

Baracuda said: ↑

Yes.

After the last two election routes, the GOP has decided to tear down the Democratic party instead of rebuilding their own. We'll see after the next election or two if their strategy pays off. I think the Republicans will fail, and the Democrats will be in power for a long time.
Click to expand...

I thought the GOP should have made a stronger case for their alternative. They were so busy putting out their sound bites about opposing the Democrat version that no one knew what the Republicans stood for.

The bill isn't perfect. I would have liked to have some tort reform and more competition between insurance companies. It's a start

MrJayremmie · Mar 28, 2010

[video=youtube;NGsZw-ixOjQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGsZw-ixOjQ[/video]

Here is Rachel MadCow actually doing a good job on Republican flip flops.

BLAZER PROPHET · Mar 28, 2010

Again, it's all Bush's fault.

ehizzy3 · Mar 28, 2010

where is the link

MrJayremmie · Mar 28, 2010

http://www.baynews9.com/content/9/2...nce requirement ... was GOP idea &cid=rss

sorry there a ton of them out there I just picked the first that popped up. There are probably better sources for this article. I used it off the main Yahoo! page.

rocketeer · Mar 28, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

MrJayremmie said: ↑

So they thought of it, and now they say it is unconstitutional. That isn't a big deal? I think it is. I wonder how many of these Republicans that are so dead set against this bill would have voted for a similar one under Clinton. And if that happened, I wonder how many republican voters would somehow change their mind and say "What a great thing we just did!".

1) Shows that what they were proposing is unconstitutional (according to them). Yet still proposing it shows lack of either constitutional knowledge or complete lack of respect for the constitution.
2) Shows that they are flip floppers

Unless they were just opposing health care for political gain and don't give a shit about what is best for America. But Republicans would never do that. They wouldn't force every Republican congressman to vote against health care and secretly e-mail each other that this will be Obama's waterloo.

Seems like the Republicans would vote NO on health care no matter what was in the bill, either under Clinton or Obama (democrats).
Click to expand...

from the link

Republicans say Obama and the Democrats co-opted their original concept, minus a mechanism they proposed for controlling costs.
Click to expand...

so doesn't that make it different? couldn't that be something considered to be fairly significant?

maxiep · Mar 28, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

Baracuda said: ↑

Yes.

After the last two election routes, the GOP has decided to tear down the Democratic party instead of rebuilding their own. We'll see after the next election or two if their strategy pays off. I think the Republicans will fail, and the Democrats will be in power for a long time.
Click to expand...

Don't kid yourself; the Republicans are having their party torn down around them. The morons who spent like Democrats are getting booted from power and the spirit of limited government is hopefully being reborn.

Nate4Prez · Mar 28, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

maxiep said: ↑

Don't kid yourself; the Republicans are having their party torn down around them. The morons who spent like Democrats are getting booted from power and the spirit of limited government is hopefully being reborn.
Click to expand...

Don't kid yourself; it's not.

barfo · Mar 28, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

maxiep said: ↑

Don't kid yourself; the Republicans are having their party torn down around them.
Click to expand...

I'm with ya so far...

The morons who spent like Democrats are getting booted from power and the spirit of limited government is hopefully being reborn.
Click to expand...

Maybe, but as far as I can see it's the same old, same old. Nobody who threatens to take the reins of the party is actually a limited government advocate.

barfo

maxiep · Mar 29, 2010

Re: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

barfo said: ↑

Maybe, but as far as I can see it's the same old, same old. Nobody who threatens to take the reins of the party is actually a limited government advocate.

barfo
Click to expand...

Yep, it was a statement of wishful thinking.

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Merged: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

MrJayremmie Well-Known Member

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ehizzy3 RIP mgb

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Merged: New health insurance requirement ... was GOP idea

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MrJayremmie Well-Known Member

GriLtCheeZ "Well, I'm not lookin' for trouble."

MARIS61 Real American

Natebishop3 Don't tread on me!

Sug Well-Known Member

Sug Well-Known Member

MrJayremmie Well-Known Member

bluefrog Go Blazers, GO!

MrJayremmie Well-Known Member

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ehizzy3 RIP mgb

MrJayremmie Well-Known Member

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