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There's a claim it would be cheaper by forcing those who don't need coverage or don't want it into the insurance pools. That lowers individual costs for some - only for those who want that coverage, not for everyone! - but does not lower overall national costs.



According to that letter the CBO wrote Evan Bayh, it doesn't make premiums cheaper for anybody. Premiums go up in the individual market, but because of all the income-based subsidies will mean more people will buy better coverage. Forcing people into the insurance pools isn't going to lower costs at all.

Then, you look at the CMS report. That bill will make what this country spends on health care increase even faster than it does under the current system. This country already spends twice as much as European nations on health care. Those guys are just as healthy and already have universal coverage. So, what do we do? Our liberals get all worked up trying to pass a bill that makes our health care costs go up faster!

There are income-based subsidies in the bill, which come in pretty good if you've got a couple of kids to claim on your taxes, and tax credits for small business that make health insurance more affordable for some.

But overall, this bill is just a bunch of band-aids on a broken system that's driving this country in the wrong direction. Yeah, some will be able to afford health care who couldn't thanks to the income tax tweaks. But, the country as a whole is just gonna get sucked further and further into this health care mess, spending more and more money on it. These new band-aids just hide the problem from more people. So, all the stupid liberals who think govt is this magical place that can just write a check and the problem goes away will have even less of an idea of how broken our system is.

I'm hoping the silver lining is that all these "govt is a panacea" idiots will have had their go at having government formally enter the insurance business. Now that it's failed, they'll finally realize it just won't pass? Democrats had 60 seats. It's not going to get better than that. The public option was the only cost control in this bill. So now, if liberals can finally get past that idea, maybe they'll be more prone towards supporting cost controls based on opening up the markets towards more direct competition, like the Healthy Americans Act?

I'm surprised so many conservatives are so strictly against mandating health insurance. I'm against it till you address cost controls and affordability. But, once you have the practical problems fixed... We get tax breaks for all kinds of crazy shit. Why can't you get a tax break for having health insurance?