<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>Mandated health insurance does not go into affect until January 1, 2014.</div><div><br></div><div>Courtesy of <a href="http://HealthCare.gov">HealthCare.gov</a> at:</div><div><br></div><a href="http://www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/">http://www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/</a><div> <div>-----------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div class="col_body" style="padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; margin-right: 5px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, san-serif; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); font-size: 16px; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); line-height: 16px; "><p class="smaller" style="font-size: 0.8125em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-weight: normal; ">INCREASING ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE CARE</p><h3 style="margin-top: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.3em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1em; font-size: 1.1em; font-weight: normal; display: block; ">Promoting Individual Responsibility</h3><p class="date" style="font-size: 0.8125em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 8px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: dotted; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); ">Effective January 1, 2014</p><p class="date" style="font-size: 0.8125em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 8px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: dotted; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); ">Under the new law, most individuals who can afford it will be required to obtain basic health insurance coverage or pay a fee to help offset the costs of caring for uninsured Americans. If affordable coverage is not available to an individual, he or she will be eligible for an exemption.</p><p style="font-size: 0.8125em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/i/individualresponsibility.html" class="APEdocument APEinternal" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); ">Learn more about individual responsibility and the law</a></p></div><div><br></div><div>-----------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div>You realty ought to check things out once in a while.<br><br><div>Seeya round town, Moscow.</div><div><br></div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"If not us, who?</div><div>If not now, when?"</div><div><br></div><div>- Unknown</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div><br>On Jul 11, 2012, at 4:25, Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005@yahoo.com> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:tahoma, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="RIGHT: auto"><span style="RIGHT: auto">Has your health insurance premiums dropped? Has you health improved? If not, then obviously mandated health insurance is a scam because it didn't do as promised</span><span style="RIGHT: auto">. </span></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><span style="RIGHT: auto"></span><span style="RIGHT: auto"></span> </div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><span style="RIGHT: auto">Donovan J. Arnold</span></div>
<div style="RIGHT: auto"><br></div>
<div style="FONT-FAMILY: tahoma, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<div style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<div dir="ltr"><font size="2" face="Arial">
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: 0; MARGIN: 5px 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 0px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 0px" class="hr" contenteditable="false" readonly="true"></div><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</span></b> Nicholas Gier <ngier006@gmail.com><br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</span></b> vision2020 <vision2020@moscow.com> <br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, July 10, 2012 11:23 AM<br><b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</span></b> [Vision2020] The Many Ironies of Health Care Reform: Sad, Wicked, Amazing, Delicious, Socratic, Dramatic, and Cosmic<br></font></div><br>
<div id="yiv1252273207">Hail to the Vision!
<div><br></div>
<div>This is my radio commentary/column for this week. To read about Socratic, dramatic, and cosmic irony you will have to consult the full version attached.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>May the Force Always be with Universal Health Care for All Americans,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Nick</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal" align="center"><b><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">THE MANY IRONIES OF <span id="misspell-1" class="mark">HEALTHCARE</span> REFORM</span></b></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal" align="center"><br></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal" align="center"><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Using tax penalties, as we did [in Massachusetts], encourages "free riders" to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others.</span></i><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></i></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal" align="center"><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><br></span></i></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal" align="center"><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> Here is where the federal government can do something<br clear="all">we could not: Take steps to stop or slow medical inflation.<br clear="all"></span></i><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">—</span></i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Mitt Romney, <i>USA Today</i>, July 30, 2009</span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></span></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><br></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> There are many types of irony: sad, wicked, amazing, and delicious. The tasty ones are those that make you smile and smack your lips as you savor the incongruities of improbable events. </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> Let us begin with the most scrumptious ones. The individual mandate—the principle that all Americans should be required to buy health insurance—was originally proposed by conservatives at the American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> In the 1990s conservatives used at least two principles in their argument for the individual mandate: (1) the obvious truth that the larger the insurance pool the smaller the risk; and (2) the idea of personal responsibility. Following Republican principles (including states’ rights), no one will pay a penalty if everyone takes responsibility for her/his own health care in the free-market state insurance exchanges. </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> Critics of the Affordable Care Act confuse the tax for noncompliance with the new taxes that are designed to pay for providing about 30 million Americans with health insurance.</span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (<span id="misspell-2" class="mark">CBO</span>) estimates that 4 million Americans will refuse to buy insurance, and at $95 per individual the total would be $380 million in 2014. The non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that even with the new taxes <span id="misspell-3" class="mark">Obamacare</span> will provide a deficit reduction of $437.8 billion by 2019.<span style="COLOR: #444444"></span></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Conservatives are now accusing Democrats of lying about the mandate and taxes, but that makes Romney also a liar when he said that those who did not comply with <span id="misspell-4" class="mark">Romneycare</span> would only pay a penalty, one which is actually much higher than that in the Affordable Care Act.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The most delectable ironies abound in the history of <span id="misspell-5" class="mark">Romneycare</span>. Bay State Democrats, just as Obama was in his debates with Hillary Clinton, were against the mandate, but Romney vigorously supported the idea and won in the end. He now insists that he never raised taxes while he was governor, but he did impose the mandate tax and added fees <span id="misspell-6" class="mark">totalling</span> $502 million in lieu of taxes. </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">It is sad irony that the Mormon Romney, whose coreligionists are famous for their honesty and probity, not only speaks falsehoods, but repeats them even after they have been publicly corrected. </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">On <span id="misspell-7" class="mark">healthcare</span> Romney repeats a falsehood that many Republicans spout: “<span id="misspell-8" class="mark">Obamacare</span> means that up to 20 million Americans<b> </b>will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep.” </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Also false are Romney’s claims that the Affordable Care Act “cuts Medicare by $500,000 billion,” that</span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; COLOR: #444444; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">“e</span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span id="misspell-9" class="mark">nding</span> <span id="misspell-10" class="mark">Obamacare</span> saves $95 billion,” and that “Obama is ending Medicare as we know it.” Romney supports the Ryan budget that truly does end Medicare. The <span id="misspell-11" class="mark">CBO</span> has calculated that</span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> repealing the Affordable Care Act will add $210 billion to the deficit over ten years, and that it
contains (not cuts) Medicare costs. </span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></span></div>
<h1 style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 1.6pt"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal">It is also ironic that many of those who oppose <span id="misspell-12" class="mark">Obamacare</span> want a much more efficient single payer system instead. In February of 2009 a <i>New York Times/CBS</i> poll showed 59 percent agreed with the statement that “</span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; COLOR: #001b2a; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal">the government should provide national health insurance.” </span></h1>
<h1 style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 1.6pt"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; COLOR: #001b2a; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal">Those who said that Uncle Sam should cover all medical problems made up 49% of the respondents. </span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal">Except for the mandate, nearly every other part of the Affordable Care Act has overwhelming support, including the insurances exchanges.<var id="yui-ie-cursor"></var></span></h1>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 3.55pt 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">In an op-ed in <i>USA Today</i> (7/30/09) Romney ironically conceded that only the federal government was in a position to control our soaring medicals costs. This of course contradicts his current position that the states should decide everything on their own. </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 3.55pt 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">After analyzing Romney’s column, Ryan Grimm (<i><span id="misspell-13" class="mark">Huffington</span> Post </i>3/4/12) concludes that the 2010 Democratic Congress did everything that Romney asked for: sufficient time and reflection, a Senate bipartisan effort, provisions for cost containment, deficit reduction (verified by the <span id="misspell-14" class="mark">CBO</span>), and rejecting the public option. That is yet another delicious irony.<i> </i></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class="yiv1252273207MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div></div></div><br>=======================================================<br>List services made available by First Step Internet,<br>serving the communities of the <span id="misspell-16" class="mark">Palouse</span> since 1994.<br> <a href="http://www.fsr.net/" target="_blank">http://www.fsr.net/</a><br> <span id="misspell-17" class="mark">mailto</span>:<a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com" ymailto="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>=======================================================<br><br></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>=======================================================</span><br><span> List services made available by First Step Internet,</span><br><span> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.</span><br><span> http://www.fsr.net</span><br><span> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</span><br><span>=======================================================</span></div></blockquote></div></body></html>