Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Is Unprecedented and ...

09.12.09

This declaration from a 1994 Congressional Budget Office Memorandum remains fast today. Yet, all of the leading House and Senate health-worry reform bills being debated in Congress require Americans to either definite or purchase health insurance with a particular threshold of coverage, estimated by CBO to outlay up to $15,000 per year for a typical family. [2] This special mandate to enter into a contract with a private health insurance assembly is enforced through civil and criminal tax penalties in section 501 of the Dwelling-place bill [3] and with a freestanding mandate and equally questionable formal tax penalties in sections 501 and 513 of the pending Senate bill. [4]

The specifically of this compulsory contract, coupled with the arbitrary price ratios and controls, is to make many people to buy artificially high-priced policies to maintain coverage for others as well as an industry saddled with other government costs and regulations. Congress lawfully could rule a general tax to pay for these subsidies or it could create a tax credit for those who buy health insurance, but that would be missing Congress to "pay for" or budget for the subsidies in a conventional manner. The sponsors of the common bills are attempting, through the personal mandate, to keep the transfers clearly off budget or--through the gimmick of unconstitutional taxes or penalties they dub "shared reliability payments"--make these transfers appear to be revenue-enhancing.

Source: Heritage.org