Charles Dickens Would Be So Proud
Jun 22nd, 2005 at 12:31 pm by Susie
And maybe we can bring back workhouses, too:
Massachusetts residents who choose not to obtain health insurance would face tax penalties and even the garnishing of their wages under a proposal Governor Mitt Romney unveiled yesterday.
Romney says the ”individual mandate” he is proposing, part of his broader plan to cover the roughly 500,000 people who are uninsured, would not cost the state any money. But some healthcare specialists say the approach might cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than state taxpayers currently provide for government health coverage.
Romney’s plan would require all residents in Massachusetts to have some form of health insurance or agree to pay their medical bills out of their own pockets. No other state has such a requirement, and if Romney manages to make it law, it would be a compelling accomplishment he could point to if he runs for president.
Currently, people without health insurance often go to hospitals and receive care they never pay for, because the hospital and the state pick up the tab. Under Romney’s proposal, uninsured Massachusetts residents would be asked to enroll in a plan when they seek care.
But it’s okay, really. He claims his other programs will make health insurance “affordable” for everyone. So it’ll all be fine. Honest. Because he’s a Republican and he wouldn’t lie to us. Okay, there was that thing about pretending to be pro-choice when he ran for governor and then changing once he was in, but really, who would quibble over a little thing like that?
Not to mention claiming to be a Utah resident so he could get a tax break on his house in Park City only to realize, gosh darn, he really was a Massachusetts resident. Or being for civil unions but against them. But forget all that, he has great hair.
Romney gives a bad name to us Utahans and Mormons, as does Orrin Hatch. Thank Heavens for Harry Reid!
As compelling as No Child Left Behind?
My poor misunderstood guv.
He must need more wives.
oh ok. let’s not have taxpayers pay for anything they don’t directly use. it’s their money after all. my taxes paying for her emergency room visit? i don’t think so. paying for a road across the city? not. a bomber that will only be used to protect some other country? i think not. you’re on your own ladies and gentlemen.
oh ok. let’s not have taxpayers pay for anything they don’t directly use. it’s their money after all. my taxes paying for her emergency room visit? i don’t think so. paying for a road across the city? not. a bomber that will only be used to protect some other country? i think not. you’re on your own ladies and gentlemen.
who is ‘her’?
I don’t get it. How is someone who can’t afford to pay medical bills supposed to pay for health insurance?
I disagree with you guys on this. At least a Republican is actually addressing the health insurance issue. That’s different.
And given how expensive health insurance is, Romney will have to do something to subsidize it or make it affordable.
On the other hand, this *IS* Mitt Romney. This might just be a ruse to bar the poor from obtaining any and all emergency room care. We’ll have to wait to see what unfolds.
The problem is that it’s so difficult to trust *anything* the Republicans do these days. My BS-o-meter’s needle has been in the red zone for years, and they’ve broken my trust so often that I don’t know what they can do to get it back. If this works out … I just don’t see it working out.
“Are there no prisons? And the workhouses, are they still in operation?”