With all the agreement on mandating that everyone buys health insurance, particularly those who are young and don't need it very often, I'm worried no one is talking about how much we'll have to pay for this. So this jumped out at me about the Snowe trigger:
She would have nonprofit agencies offer health insurance only if private insurers could not cover 95 percent of the people in their regions with plans costing no more than about 15 percent of the person's or household's annual income.
FIFTEEN PERCENT! That's a car payment for most people. You've heard the phrase "Your money or your life?" now it's "Your car or your health care?"
But they already chose for you. There's no mandate for your car payment.
From Automotive.com:
A good rule of thumb is roughly 20 percent of your net income can be used for a car payment.
These Senators have no idea how an average person lives. Fifteen percent!
UPDATE: Some more details from the NY Times:
The public insurance plan would be offered in any state where fewer than 95 percent of the residents had access to affordable coverage.
Congress would define "affordable" with a sliding scale based on income. Under a proposal being considered by the Finance Committee, Medicaid would be extended to anyone with income less than 133 percent of the poverty level ($29,327 for a family of four).
For people with incomes just above that level, insurance would be considered affordable if they could find a policy with premiums equal to no more than, say, 3 percent or 4 percent of their income. For people with incomes exceeding three times the poverty level ($66,150 for a family of four), insurance might be deemed unaffordable if the premiums were more than, say, 12.5 percent to 15 percent of their income.
This chart is not directly related, but it's useful:
Are you enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid?
Yes, no change (78 million)
If not, do you have employer provided insurance?
Yes, no change but new consumer protections (122 million)
If not, is your income below three time the federal poverty level?
Yes, subsidized insurance or possible public option (72 million)
If not, unsubsidized insurance or possible public option (28 million)
Guess those 28 million are basically out of luck.
FYI, the CBO has a good break down of HR 3200 here. It includes this:
H.R. 3200 includes an individual mandate to have health insurance, with penalties for noncompliance. Individuals would be required to maintain acceptable coverage, defined as coverage under a qualified health benefits plan (QHBP), an employment-based plan, a grandfathered nongroup plan, Part A of Medicare, Medicaid, military coverage (including Tricare), Veteran’s health care program, and coverage as determined by the Secretary in coordination with the Commissioner. Individuals who did not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for themselves and their children would be required to pay an additional tax, prorated for the time the individual (or family) does not have coverage, equal to the lesser of (1) 2.5 % of the taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income10 (MAGI) over the amount of income required to file a tax return, or (2) the national average premium for applicable single or family coverage.
Some individuals would be provided with subsidies to help pay for the costs of their premiums and cost-sharing. (A complete description of who is eligible and the amount of subsidies is found in the section on premium and cost-sharing credits).
And this:
Federal poverty
level (FPL)
Premium payment limit
(as a percent of income)
133% or less 1.5%
150% 3.0%
200% 5.0%
250% 7.0%
300% 9.0%
350% 10.0%
400% 11.0%
So basically if you make more than twice the poverty level and do not have insurance now, you will be paying multiple thousands of dollars a year either to buy your own insurance or pay the new 2.5% tax penalty. This is actually not that far off from the Snowe trigger, unless I am missing something here.
I just don't think this will be very popular. People who can't afford insurance now are just going to end up getting a 2.5% income tax hike, and no insurance to show for it. They are gonna blame us.