June 29, 2012

NYC Letter: A River In Egypt -- Team Barry On Obamacare

Day 1,252 of CHOPE
D-minus 204 Days

Mr. Obama signed Obamacare into law March 23, 2010 and he and the Democrats collectively crossed their fingers. Nobody knew what the law actually was -- what was in it or what wasn't. Nobody had read it. The only thing certain about the law was that it was unpopular (and this), and it would be challenged in the courts, which it was.

Obamacare bounced around in the courts (and here) till Team Barry decided it was better to know than not know what the BFD was and sooner was better than later. Obamacare jumped ahead to the Supreme Court for review. The SCOTUS justices heard oral arguments in March (and here), then huddled for three months, and finally Thursday ruled on the unpopular and controversial law.

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS
OBAMACARE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE

AS A TAX

June 28, 2012 (ABC News)

Uh-oh.

WHITE HOUSE: SORRY, ROBERTS, OBAMACARE MANDATE
IS A PENALTY, NOT A TAX

June 29, 2012 (ABC News) - The White House argued on Friday that the individual mandate at the heart of Obamacare is a penalty, not a tax, contradicting the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling a day earlier upholding the historic health care law. But if it is a tax, blame Mitt Romney, spokesman Jay Carney suggested. Mr. Carney:
It's a penalty, because you have a choice. You don't have a choice to pay your taxes, right?

Not even trying. Not even trying because Team Barry in the person of Mr. Carney believes you are this stupid. [Pause.] The Obamacare penalty is assessed for not doing what the government has demanded of you. You do have a choice to not pay your taxes and the government assesses you a penalty for that too, usually confiscation of all your worldly goods and jail time.

In any case, Carney said, the penalty "is modeled exactly on the penalty that exists in the health care reform that was promoted and signed into law by Governor Romney in Massachusetts."

Which has no relevance, which never made an appearance in the SCOTUS ruling. Team Barry wants to own Obamacare but not its Constitutional legitimation. Mr. Romney owns the tax and Team Barry owns the happy newly insured.

"You can call it what you want," Carney said, underlining Congressional Budget Office estimates that whatever you call it will affect only 1 percent of Americans. "It is not a broad-based tax."

So it is a tax.

"One percent of the population. One percent. You can call it what you want, but it is affecting 1 percent of the population. Because most people either have health insurance or people do the responsible thing and if they can afford health insurance they will purchase it," the spokesman said. "For those who can afford health insurance, but choose to remain uninsured, forcing the rest of us to pay for their care, a penalty is administered," Carney said.

This is rich coming from a deadbeat administration that fosters deadbeats.

CHOPE.

The pique of victory.

Posted by Damian at June 29, 2012 11:45 PM
Comments

People who do not carry health insurance do not necessarily force anyone else to pay for their care. They may very well be able to pay directly. When Mother Nature tried to whack me last year, my insurance paid the bill at 75% off the list price, the same amount that the ER/Hosp was willing to charge me if I paid in a week. And I would have (I happen to be old and spent many years living very frugally so I have a few dollars laying around). Even if I had required a loan or HE draw, I could have paid it.

My point is that Carney et al. are, as usual, full of the byproduct of equine digestion.

Posted by: TheOldMan at July 2, 2012 10:56 PM

TOM,

That is a point I make in posts here and here.

Team Barry is pretending that the uninsured but financially capable are busting health care providers' bottom lines. The uninsured but financially capable are billed and pay or settle or they are dunned and sued for collection. They are legally responsible for the costs of the services they received.

The people who are driving up ER costs has been and remains the non-paying poor and indigent. Obamacare does not assess either of these groups for noncompliance because it would be pointless.

New villains with wherewithal were needed to pay for Obamacare, to wit, middle-class "free riders", insurance companies, and big medicine from DNC central casting.

As you point out, pure horse hockey.

DGB

Posted by: Damian at July 3, 2012 05:58 PM