In a world where Conservatives appear to be rightly called out for being against anything that makes the President look good it comes as no surprise that some of the most out spoken critics of the ACA's individual mandate introduced it to the Senate.
I am not just talking about Mitt Romney. I am talking about the United States Senate. I do not know to what extent this has been diaried. But I only learned of this recently. If it's repealed perhaps we should just introduce the 1993 bill.
So if this bill is over-turned and your GOP buddies celebrate. Remind them, it was their idea. And ponder is the SCOTUS doing something the Health Insurers don't like? If so what's left? Is it truly a defeat? Don't give up.
GOP's Individual mandate health care bill
The individual mandate was created by the Republican Party back in 1993 as a response to President Clinton’s attempt to overhaul the existing healthcare system. The Clinton administration’s healthcare plan included a provision that employers would be required to provide healthcare for all their employees. Inversely, the GOP position was that it was not employers who bore that burden; rather it should be individuals who must bear that responsibility.
As a result the Republican Health Care bill of 1993 [Senate Bill S.1770], written by GOP Senator John Chafee of Rhode Island, included a provision for an “Individual Mandate” – a requirement that individuals must purchase health insurance. Interestingly enough, nearly half the Republican Caucus in the Senate agree with this bill creating the “individual mandate” and the 20 co-sponsors included GOP Senators Ben-Nett, Bond, Brown, Cohen, Danforth, Dole, Domenici, Durenberger, Faircloth, Gorton, Grassley, Hatfield, Kassebaum, Lugar, Specter, Stevens and Warner
On September 15, 1993, the National Journal reported that the Republican
“Senate plan would create an individual mandate for health insurance similar to one that now exists for auto insurance”.
Two days later on Sept. 17th, the Associate Press reported that Congressional Republicans
“pushed their own proposal, which would require individuals to purchase insurance”.
Republican Sen. John Chaffee, the author of the Republican Health Bill stated on Sept. 7, 1993 that
“I and the majority of Republicans… strongly believe the route to go is an individual mandate”.
Sept. 24, 1993 on CNN’s Crossfire, Republican Sen. Don Nickles stated
“We do have an individual mandate. We do say that everybody in America has to provide for themselves”.
Sen. Bob Dole stated before the National Governor’s Association on Feb. 1, 1994:
“Well, we have an individual mandate in our plan. We have an individual mandate as opposed to the employer mandate”. Republican think tank, the Heritage Foundation, published a healthcare plan which also included that very same “individual mandate”.
GOP Senator and cosponsor of the bill Sen. Grassley supported the “individual mandate” in June of 2009 on Fox News where he compared it to the automobile insurance requirement and stated:
“I believe that there is a bi-partisan consensus to have ‘individual mandates’”. So what seems to have happened is that Republicans created the “individual healthcare mandate” as part of their “small government agenda” in 1993 and were still supporting it long after Obama became president. Then once the Obama administration agreed and adopted the “individual mandate” the concept suddenly became tyranny, unconstitutional and part of the “liberal socialist agenda”.
The bill they introduced:
S.1770 -- Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993 (Placed on Calendar Senate - PCS)
SEC. 1001. ACCESS FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL.
Each individual who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States is provided access to health insurance coverage under a qualified health plan under this title.
SEC. 1501. REQUIREMENT OF COVERAGE.
(a) IN GENERAL- Effective January 1, 2005, each individual who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States shall be covered under--
(1) a qualified health plan, or
(2) an equivalent health care program (as defined in section 1601(7)).
(b) EXCEPTION- Subsection (a) shall not apply in the case of an individual who is opposed for religious reasons to health plan coverage, including an individual who declines health plan coverage due to a reliance on healing using spiritual means through prayer alone.
What if you did not? A penalty. . .
`
SEC. 5000A. FAILURE OF INDIVIDUALS WITH RESPECT TO HEALTH INSURANCE.
`(a) GENERAL RULE- There is hereby imposed a tax on the failure of any individual to comply with the requirements of section 1501 of the Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993.
`(b) AMOUNT OF TAX- The amount of tax imposed by subsection (a) with respect to any calendar year shall be equal to 120 percent of the applicable dollar limit for such year for such individual (within the meaning of section 91(b)(2) and determined on an annual basis).
`(c) LIMITATION ON TAX-
`(1) TAX NOT TO APPLY WHERE FAILURES CORRECTED WITHIN 30 DAYS- No tax shall be imposed by subsection (a) with respect to any failure if--
`(A) such failure was due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect, and
`(B) such failure is corrected during the 30-day period (or such period as the Secretary may determine appropriate) beginning on the 1st date any of the individuals on whom the tax is imposed knew, or exercising reasonable diligence would have known, that such failure existed.
`(2) WAIVER BY SECRETARY- In the case of a failure which is due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect, the Secretary may waive part or all of the tax imposed by subsection (a) to the extent that the payment of such tax would be excessive relative to the failure involved.
`(3) LOW-ASSISTANCE EXEMPTION- No tax shall be imposed by subsection (a) on any individual who would have received a voucher for the calendar year under section 1003, but for a decrease in the phase-in eligibility percentage provided under subsection (d)(5)(B) thereof.'.
(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT- The table of sections for such chapter 47 is amended by adding at the end the following new item:
`Sec. 5000A. Failure of individuals with respect to health insurance.'.
(3) EFFECTIVE DATE- The amendments made by this section shall take effect on January 1, 2005.
The Sponsors of that Bill:
Sen Bennett, Robert F. [UT] - 11/22/1993
Sen Bond, Christopher S. [MO] - 11/22/1993
Sen Boren, David L. [OK] - 5/17/1994
Sen Cohen, William S. [ME] - 11/22/1993
Sen Danforth, John C. [MO] - 11/22/1993
Sen Dole, Robert J. [KS] - 11/22/1993
Sen Domenici, Pete V. [NM] - 11/22/1993
Sen Durenberger, Dave [MN] - 11/22/1993
Sen Faircloth, Lauch [NC] - 11/22/1993
Sen Gorton, Slade [WA] - 11/22/1993
Sen Grassley, Chuck [IA] - 11/22/1993
Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] - 11/22/1993
Sen Hatfield, Mark O. [OR] - 11/22/1993
Sen Kassebaum, Nancy Landon [KS] - 11/22/1993
Sen Kerrey, J. Robert [NE] - 5/17/1994
Sen Lugar, Richard G. [IN] - 11/22/1993
Sen Simpson, Alan K. [WY] - 11/22/1993
Sen Specter, Arlen [PA] - 11/22/1993
Sen Stevens, Ted [AK] - 11/22/1993
Sen Warner, John [VA] - 11/22/1993
Sen Brown, Hank [CO] - 11/22/1993(withdrawn - 10/4/1994)
Didn't Chuck Grassley say something about "Death Panels" and Obama care
HMM...
“In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life,” Grassley said Wednesday during a town hall in Winterset, Iowa. “You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma.”
What about Orrin Hatch?
He only decided to write an op-ed piece
Health care reform: Repeal disastrous Affordable Care Act
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
"Efforts by the White House and its Capitol Hill allies to pass this law were an affront to our nation’s system of government," Hatch wrote in tandem with Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. "Laws that affect one-sixth of the nation’s economy should not be made behind closed doors, and certainly not on a purely partisan basis. Yet the president’s health law passed with only Democratic support."
I wonder what their Over-lords in the Health-Care industry think of their grand-standing against a law that they wanted?