"individual mandate" for healthcare would be a massive giftbag for insurance companies

[Slimprofits]

It will create at least 25 million new customers and probably deliver all 39 million current Medicaid recipients within the 47 million uninsured.

By the way, this isn't socialism, it's economic fascism.

Yet every new report in the msm makes it appear as if Obama and other top Dems are fighting with the insurance companies.

The whole top down media control strategy is so tight you can barely convince anyone otherwise.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08...der-the-radar/

Individual Mandate Flies Under the Radar

Looking back at the August town hall protests, the issues that burned the brightest were frequently not real issues at all (SHOCKING!!!!). Angry demonstrators railed against Canadian-style, single-payer socialized medicine, which has not been proposed; "death panels" that would pull the plug on Granny, which aren't happening; and illegal immigrants receiving health benefits, which is specifically prohibited in all of the legislation that has been proposed.

But left nearly unexplored by angry activists was a measure of sweeping consequence that is almost guaranteed to become law if Democrats pass even a scaled-back version of health care reform: a requirement that every American carry an approved form of health insurance by 2013 or pay a penalty to the IRS.

[Slimprofits]

Re: "individual mandate" for healthcare would be a massive giftbag for insurance companies

The individual mandate is the common thread in all of the health care reform proposals.

http://www.randcompare.org/publicati...ured_americans

New analysis from the RAND Corporation shows that a mandate requiring individuals to obtain health insurance - an option in various current legislative proposals - would increase the number of Americans with coverage by 9 million to 34 million, while a mandate requiring employers to offer insurance would boost the figure by 1.8 million to 3.4 million.

The findings are from a micro-simulation model created as a part of RAND COMPARE, an ongoing, independent effort to provide objective information about healthcare reform. The latest analysis, released today at www.randcompare.org/analysis/, examines policy options designed to expand coverage to the uninsured.

[..]

She said the individual mandate is the one policy option that addresses the different characteristics of the uninsured. It will affect both the 44 percent of people who already have an offer of health insurance through their employer or Medicaid, but have not taken it, as well as the remaining group that would have to seek out insurance.

The white paper did not specify the size of penalty that would be imposed on people who do not comply with the mandate to purchase insurance. Researchers examined the effect of penalties set at 25 percent, 50 percent, and 75 percent of the premium an individual would have to pay for a policy from an insurance exchange. Assuming a moderate employer mandate, increasing the penalty from 25 percent to 75 percent of the premium an individual would pay on the national insurance exchange would reduce the number of uninsured by 32.5 million - a 71 percent reduction. By contrast, a penalty of 25 percent would reduce the number of uninsured by 20.8 million, a 46 percent reduction.