Days of Change

Day 1240 – Mandate

This must be a difficult aspect for the White House because when I looked for it on Politico, it seems to have been rewritten.

The bad news is that the Congress, the courts and the president all have the ability to create laws. The good news is that sometimes one of them gets it right. We’re not sure what the Supreme Court will do, but we do have an insight into what the White House plans for Obamacare. The actual quote is not missing, but Politico mentions that the administration relies on the insurance mandate to fund the ban on preexisting conditions. IF that’s true it means that the health insurers have made it clear in some kind of secret talks that the mandate is the deal breaker for them. Remove it and they will fight like hell to take down Obamacare, something they have restrained from so far.

The mandate is basically insane. It says that whether you can afford it or not, you are legally obligated to buy health insurance. If you don’t, those refunds you get from the IRS for being poor will become tax bills going to the insurance companies. Ironically, the administration has argued that without the mandate, people will just buy insurance when they are sick, since preexisting conditions can’t be considered. Since insurance for an individual can run into thousands of dollars a year, a $1500 mandate fine might be a cheap option as well.

I happen to think the Democrats are pulling a fast one on the insurance companies, but they may think they have enough clout to change things if it stops going their way. If the mandate is struck down and the regulations remain, things will go against them very quickly. Don’t make a deal with the devil, he’s been soing it since the beginning of time. It’s up to you to figure out which one that is.