It probably depends on what country in Asia you are from. Japan....sorry, no help for you. Laos, sure we can help you out! At least that was how it was at a college my friend attended.

I really need for health insurance to stop being tied to employment. As a bi-polar i need 4 pills a day but I am tied to my job for health insurance reasons. I'm not making enough, and I need to switch jobs but the ones I am best qualified for and are best for my future dont offer as good health insurance.

I dont want the public option either. I dont like the idea of the state choosing my psychiatrist or whether or not I "really" need those pills. What if there are budgetary cuts and I'm just not "qualified"?

A 2000 page Pelosi maelstrom has provisions like this in it? Surprising....

Let's set aside the politics of pandering in this bill. Let's set aside the exploding debt we already have and the actual unknown effect of this bill on the debt. Let's set aside a variety of concerns everyone should have regarding what is in this bill. Unemployment is high, continued bankruptcies, great public uncertainty in the economy, etc etc....and the answer is to raise taxes and mandate corporate spending? Regardless of when the bill will be implemented, you now just inserted more uncertainty within business. It's simply not a smart way to proceed at this particular moment in time.

I am hoping that the GOP will make good on its promise to filibuster this atrocity. I'd like to see Obama ousted, also, but I doubt that's going to happen.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

If it doesn't take affect until 2013, can't we repeal it after the 2012 elections? Assuming of course the dems don't win big again....

Not saying this bill isn't an abomination (not saying it is, either). But let's be clear that McCaughey has a long history of spreading misinformation about health care, dating back to spreading lies about the Clinton plan in the 90s.

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/02/lets_stop_this_before_it_goes_any_further.php

...when you file your taxes, you must include proof that you are in a qualified plan. If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt from this requirement.

Illegal immigrants file tax returns?

...they maintain the utter idiocy of having health care connected to employment.

The two most effective healthcare reforms that could be enacted would be to sever healthcare insurance from employment, opening it up to the free market, and to free healthcare insurance to be sold and administered nationally instead of state-by-state. Neither would involve adding more confiscatory taxes...oh, sorry, fees.

Whatever - let's keep it simple shall we? - this bill AIN'T about providing health care. It's about extending government control and taking more power, choices and individual freedoms away from Americans.

(If it really did have to do with affordable health care, I would assume this bill would include TORT REFORM and allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines, along with reappealing a lot of the bureaucracy that makes health care more expensive) AT A MINIMUM. Does this bill contain that? No, i expect not. It's because this is NOT ABOUT HEALTH CARE.

Misinformation or not (as you say), this is a leviathan that has NO PLACE here in the United States.

It violates the Constitution, free market principles, as well as the Hippocratic Oath doctors are sworn to uphold on behalf of their patients. (rationing boards are already in place -snuck in under TARP).

(I want a dart board and picture of Nancy Galore dressed as the Mad Hatter.)

rationing boards are already in place

Ah yes, the famous, mythical "death panels"!

It violates the Constitution

What's unconstitutional about it? Given the broad way that the interstate commerce clause is currently interpreted, this bill seems permissible under our current ICC jurisprudence.

It's constitutional because Pelosi says it is? do some research, the founding fathers were implicit that congress have enumerated powers, everything else was mandated to the several states and to the people. those that think congress can do whatever they please will make the best slaves, have fun.

By the way, while I'm against this health care reform bill, I'm even more against fighting something by telling lies about it.

One of the more absurd lies going on about this bill is that if you fail to have health insurance, you'll be fined 250,000 and sentenced to five years in jail.

Or the less absurd version above, Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) says that when you file your taxes, you must include proof that you are in a qualified plan. If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt from this requirement.

Instead of saying "Betsy McCaughey lays out the nightmare that is the Pelosi plan," it should read, "Betsy McCaughey lies about the nightmare that is the Pelosi plan."

The plan imposes an excise tax for failing to get health insurance. Like any other tax, if you fail to pay it, you can be sent to jail.

Except they don't call it a tax, excise or otherwise Patrick. They usually call it a "fine" and at a % of income no less. So if you can't afford a gov. approved plan you pay a fine.

While the 5 years of jail/250k deal is overblown (think the Federale warning screens on copying dvd/vhs) the fact that its the standard high end "fine" is pretty amusing.

This whole deal is nothing but a scam to raise more taxes and give the government more control.

the founding fathers were implicit that congress have enumerated powers

I know what I'm talking about, hence my reference to the interstate commerce clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). One of the powers was the power to regulate interstate commerce. That power has been interpreted in an extremely broad fashion by the Supreme Court. Lots of things one might think of as not affecting commerce - e.g., the Gun-Free schools act - have been found to be governable by Congress under the interstate commerce clause. I would assume that the courts similarly would find this bill a constitutional exercise of Congressional authority to regulate commerce.

Sio writes: Except they don't call it a tax, excise or otherwise Patrick. They usually call it a "fine" and at a % of income no less. So if you can't afford a gov. approved plan you pay a fine.

This is incorrect. Please stop perpetuating misinformation. I have no use for anyone who simply parrots what propangandists like Limbaugh, Coulter, Moore, etc. tell them and don't bother to find these things out for themselves. We have an internet now, and this information is readily available. There are no more excuses for ignorance.

The bill is right here, and it's on page 194, and it's very clearly called an excise tax. (By the way, folks, that link is a pdf. You want to look at it, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

It reads as follows:

16 Subtitle D—Shared Responsibility
17 PART I—INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY
18 SEC. 1301. EXCISE TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ESSEN-
19 TIAL HEALTH BENEFITS COVERAGE.

Apparently theres a provision to use federal funds to pay proffesional prayers

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-health-religion3-2009nov03,0,6879249,full.story

I don't care what color the nurse or doctor treating me is. I just care that they're competent.

I really need for health insurance to stop being tied to employment. As a bi-polar i need 4 pills a day but I am tied to my job for health insurance reasons. I'm not making enough, and I need to switch jobs but the ones I am best qualified for and are best for my future dont offer as good health insurance.

Has it occurred to you that if you make enough money you could simply PAY for your prescriptions? I do.

@Whatever - Let me lay this out for you in language even you can understand. If this bill passes in its present form, I will be forced to pay this 2.5% "Excise Tax" while being unable to legally purchase insurance.

That's correct. I have an individual policy. These policies are no longer allowed to be sold once this law is signed. And the bill has a nice provision in it that would make my policy go away the instant the bill is signed since it went in to effect this year.

Then, it says I can only buy an approved individual plan through the "exchange". But the "exchange" doesn't get set up until 2013.

Simpler still: The tax increases and fines and punishments go into effect now, but the government doesn't start offering their "exchange" or their "public option" until 2013.

And since there is no way in hell I'm paying a fine for not buying what cannot be sold, I'll be in prison.

Because I will be damned if I'm closing my business and going to work for someone else just to be in compliance with a law that Congress had no business passing in the first place.

Oh, and any reasonable reading of the decisions the SCOTUS has made regarding the Commerce Clause will show that the bulk of them are wrongly decided. But you try getting 9 people in serious-looking robes to admit that they fucked up.

Oh, and because the bill also puts in the mandatory minimum coverage at the federal level, any premium I might be able to get at some future time will be, at a minimum, twice what I am paying now. Most likely on the order of 5-10 times what I'm paying now. And that's on top of the increased taxes I'm going to get railed with.

I don't even make Obama's magic quarter million, and I'm looking at paying 50% of my annual income to the federal government within 10 years.

This by you is equitable?

Betsy McCaughey? Really? BETSY McCAUGHEY? You are REALLY that poorly informed, Ms. Alkon, that you regard as credible ANYTHING that comes from Betsy McCaughey?

I'll give you this - listen to her and you're gonna be terrified of that black man and his socialisty, nazi-like, death paneling health care plan!

Sweetheart, my bastardization of the line is "I see stupid people," and boy have I stumbled on a doozy here. To put it into terms you'll understand, you're kinda the equivalent of an opening night opera audience all of whom have cell phones ringing as the overture fades down and the curtain rises, with every last audience member pressing the button and saying, "Hallo? I'm at the opera!" in unison.

The stupid! It burns!

Deary (or is that Dreary?), use the magic Google. Input "Betsy McCaughey" and "debunked." If you have a couple extra hours, add "ethics" to your query. Spend a couple of days reading and learning. Then go back to square one and try to learn about the health care reform proposals on your own, without succumbing to the likes of Betsy McCaughey.

Sheesh.

Sincerely,
WI

PS: Wish I had time to similarly school you on Islam, but there's only so much stupid and ill-informed one person can be expected to wade through and combat in one day. Let's see if you exert an intelligent effort on this front, then I'll determine whether I have the strength to return another day.