I am an architect, I am unemployed, I will NOT buy mandated private health insurance...

[never cry wolf]

I had my own firm, but we concentrated in the industrial field... Industry died in 2007... I tried to keep things going and went deep in debt... I am a damn good architect, but not so good at business, my bad... my wife had pneunonia.. pneumococcal pneumonia, the shit that killed jim Henson... Almosst killed my wife, she was in ICU for 31 days.... hospital and rehab for another month... at that time $250,000, about 10 years ago....

I was not able to qualify for health insurance since and I'll be damn'd to give them more money!

On Edit: My point is that I will refuse to give money to the insurance companies!

[beachmom]

1. If you are unemployed you will receive subsidies to pay for health insurance.

If you have a car, I assume you have car insurance? That is also mandated and there are NO subsidies for that.

[earth mom]

4. WRONG-there is no mandate to own a car. nt

[shireen]

5. comparing car ownership and healthcare?!

If absolutely necessary, a person can live without a car.
If critically ill with no health insurance, you die.
Fair comparison?

[tonysam]

12. Most people aren't critically ill. Besides if you don't have a car,

chances are you can't work and you don't eat.

People sure don't understand most people can't be without cars. Public transportation is a JOKE in almost ALL areas of the United States.

[Hannah Bell]

14. everyone will be critically ill at some point.

you can work without a car. i did it for 20 years.

[reggie the dog]

15. Are you crazy?

easily millions of people in the New York City area work and have no car.

[arcadian]

30. Poor comparison.

There are millions of people without cars in New York, LA, SF, all the major cities.

[Citizen Kang]

16. Comparing Car Insurance to Health Insurance

Driving is a privilege not a right. Health care is a right, not a privilege. I know many people who don't own cars, live in a city with mass transportation and therefore are not mandated to have car insurance. Just being alive makes you mandated to have health insurance under this bill. It is unconstitutional.

[Tansy_Gold]

8. I hate that analogy

Depending on where you live, you CAN get by without a car. It's a choice one makes.

You can't choose to live without a body, one that is prone to sickness and injury. Nor do you get to choose the body you live with, whether it comes with "options" you'd rather not have.

Even so, I don't think many of us would balk at the notion of "mandated" insurance if it weren't a huge gift to the private insurance companies. Paying into a common fund -- like Medicare -- that has as its sole purpose the delivery of guaranteed health care to those who need it would be welcomed; playing at the insurance casino where every game is rigged in favor of the house and the house skims 30% off the top isn't so welcome.

I do contract work for several major auto and casualty insurers, and they're not without fault when it comes to paying claims and/or cancelling policies and/or raising rates. But they don't come close to the scumsuckers in the health insurance racket.



TG2012

[tonysam]

11. Not really. The vast majority of the country cannot be without cars

It IS an appropriate analogy.

Many people can and do go without health care, and for many, many years, and without insurance.

[Tansy_Gold]

13. Almost any urban area has either some form of mass transit

or has facilities within walking/biking distance. Many people who have cars don't really "need" them; they just choose to have them. And granted, our culture has elevated the automobile to "necessity" status, but it really isn't and could be made less so.

And I said nothing about doing without health care, which is not the same as health insurance. One can pay for insurance and never use it, unless of course health CARE will be mandated, too. It's the thing being insured that's not up to choice.



I criticized Olbermann when he made the same comparison, and considering he doesn't drive, he ought to know better.



TG2012

[Berry Cool]

18. Bullshit. I'm 48 years old, have never owned a car

and was gainfully employed for most of my adult life (before my recent unemployment). Good jobs, too. Always had jobs I could get to via public transportation, walking or both.

You do NOT "need" a car. Only Americans seem to be foolish enough to think that lack of personal transportation = inability to hold down a job = death. The rest of the world thinks we are damn fools for acting as if a car is a necessity of life.

[lapfog_1]

9. Good grief.

Driving is an option, are you telling me that living is now optional? If I don't want to buy health insurance I should just off myself?

Not to mention that car insurance can be very very small, mine is about $100 every 6 months, because I don't drive that much and have a perfect driving record, and the car is not insured really, just my liability.

It's a very good risk for the insurance company since I've never had an accident in 35 years of driving where a claim was filed. And only a few tickets, none in the last 5 years.

How does that compare to health insurance?

[Journeyman]

10. When does someone who had their own business become unemployed? . . .

Never Cry Wolf didn't have unemployment insurance, hasn't collected any unemployment benefits, and didn't qualify for Cobra insurance. He did have the pleasure of paying double what you pay for Social Security, but that's just one of the perks of being self-employed -- you get to pick up both your share and the employer's share for your Social Security. Of course, there were no matching funds for a 401K, just what he put in to whatever he could afford.

But, good to know, you equate his wife with maintenance on a Chevy. Of course, maybe he can divorce his car, take public transit, and have a fraction of what he'll need to buy mandated insurance.

[ipaint]

2. And if you can't afford your portion of the costs either now or in the future

as ins. prices continue to rise you will be fined each year you can't pay. Even if you can scrape together your portion you will not be able to get care because co-pays and deductibles are out of reach.

[elocs]

3. Since at this point in time nothing has passed it is a moot point.

That you are unemployed and the bill passes I would assume there would be some kind of consideration for that. At least you understand the concept of choices and consequences.

So, if people can afford to buy health insurance and choose not to do so, then when they are in need of health care it is ok for them to come and feed off the public trough where those who truly have nothing are forced to go?

[truedelphi]

6. Oh please - this wonderful bill only demands 167 billion in penalties!

Do you really think this household in opposition can pay every penny of those on our own!

We need your compliance to help us get down below the 166,995,000,000 mark!

[pleah]

7. This bill will do nothing to help people like me.

We have insurance, but, if we were to get sick we would lose everything. We can't afford to pay the deductables. Plus, the employer based insurance costs a ton of money, taken directly out of the paycheck.

[Mithreal]

17. We need to consider upping our game against the greediest and most amoral

corporations and their enabling elected representatives.

We're a long way from exhausting nonviolent civil disobedience, so anyone out there who feels young needs to learn how to organize and set aside whatever fear he or she has and get to studying and doing. DFA is still a good start.

If not you, then who?

[Unvanguard]

19. Do you refuse to pay taxes too, when you object to some of the recipients?

People in society do not have unlimited property rights. Isn't that the basis of most progressive economic thinking?

[Posteritatis]

26. Mandatory government fees != mandatory private-business fees. (nt)

[Unvanguard]

28. In this case, they amount to the same thing.

For instance, the rules making employer health insurance plans tax-deductible--ironically, something many opponents of the Senate bill want to maintain--in effect mandate that labor compensation funds go to health insurance instead of direct wages/salary, on pain of paying a penalty (the tax costs that would have otherwise been deducted).

Moving in the other direction, the penalty is effectively a universal increase in the income tax, and the purchase of health insurance is a way to get that increase deducted from one's taxes.

[Unvanguard]

29. Duplicate. n/t

[treestar]

20. Then you will not have insurance

If you get sick, pay your medical bills out of pocket.

[Fumesucker]

21. Eh, he doesn't have insurance now..

What part of that didn't you understand?

[treestar]

23. He refuses to buy it due to the mandate

So he still won't have it. And will have to pay his bills out of pocket.

[Fumesucker]

27. He doesn't have any money, his business went bust..

No money means no insurance.. Mandates or not.

Are you OK with people being turned away at the ER?

[KG]

22. this country needs health care, not health insurance.

why is it so hard for so many to think outside the 'health insurance' box? fuck insurance companies.

[proudohioan]

25. AGREED!!!!!

[smirkymonkey]

31. Thank You!

[truedelphi]

32. What you say needs to be said again and again. n/t

[Vinca]

24. Elizabeth Cohen on CNN just did a little feel good piece about

what is in the health care bill. One of her examples was someone she called "Heart Attack Harry" who will now be able to get coverage despite a pre-existing condition. In her example, Harry makes $43,000 a year and qualifies for a $700 subsidy (whoop-di-fucking-doo). She said although it wasn't much, Harry would now be able to get a policy for $4,000. HUH?????? Maybe if Harry gets in a time machine and goes back a decade.