According to reports about  Sen. Max Baucus’ latest plan for health reform, fines would be imposed on those individuals and families who do not buy health insurance–$950 for individuals and up to $3800 for families.  Senator Baucus, what kind of reform is this?   Talk about wasting resources.  How will the plan be monitored and enforced?  Maybe the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration can add insurance surveillance  to their duties.  As you are screened at airports, you have to show your insurance card.  Will Senator Baucus create the insurance police or just ask the OIG to create a new department?  Will neighbors be asked to report on neighbors and become insurance spies with some incentive program for reporting?  What happens  if you pay the fine and still don’t buy insurance?  Will you just pass GO and head directly to jail?

I can’t understand such a proposal.   Is Baucus worried about not throwing enough business to his backers–the insurance companies?  Reform should be so good that everyone wants “in.”   Something tells me that Baucus is not offering much if he has to fine the non-participants.   Sounds like our current system where people, mostly for financial reasons, do not buy insurance.   Today, many people say, “OK, I’ll pay the medical bills for my post-college age kid because health insurance premiums are either too high or don’t provide decent coverage.”

In Baucus’ plan, we see he penalizes the victim–adding insult to injury to those people who cannot afford insurance–even with a government subsidy, which will amount to peanuts.  So we make the non-insured pay a fine–and then what?   Do they still go the emergency room of an academic health center hospital to get care?  Will Senator Baucus pay for that?

Tags: health insurance industry, Health Reform, Senator Max Baucus, uninsured

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Health Reform, Policy, health economics, health insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.