HERE ARE a few other stinkers in
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Joint Tax Committee, "Americans who do not maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay the bill's new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5 percent of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years." So, if you don't buy health insurance, you could go to jail. What's next? A forced march for those who decline flu shots?
Buried in the bill is a "tort bomb," says The Wall Street Journal. The legislation provides incentives for states that pass "alternative medical liability laws," which provide for equitable resolution of malpractice complaints and reasonable malpractice insurance rates. The kicker? These incentives are not available to any state with a cap on damages or attorneys' fees in tort claims. Virginia, you're out.
The chief actuary for The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a report on Saturday which indicates that the bill, which slashes $500 billion from Medicare spending to pay for health care reform, will sharply reduce benefits for many senior citizens, and could jeopardize access to health care by making it too expensive for many hospitals and nursing homes to take Medicare patients.
Camille Paglia, hardly a right-winger, writes about the Pelosi bill in Salon: "[T]his rigid, intrusive, and grotesquely expensive bill is a nightmare. Holy Hygeia, why can't my fellow Democrats see that the creation of another huge, inefficient bureaucracy would slow and disrupt the delivery of basic healthcare and subject us all to a labyrinthine mass of incompetent, unaccountable petty dictators?"
Why, indeed.