Nancy Pelosi's Obama care policy

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PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail
JCT Confirms Failure to Comply with Democrats’ Mandate Can Lead to 5 Years in Jail


Washington, Nov 6 -

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that 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% 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.

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”

Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:

“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]

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“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]

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“Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.

“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates. Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.

According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

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By DAVID ESPO (AP) – 16 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Amid intense lobbying by the Obama administration, House Democratic leaders struggled Friday for the final votes needed to pass sweeping health care legislation, working to ease concerns among Hispanic holdouts and abortion foes.

"We're very close" to having enough votes to prevail, said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, although he added a scheduled Saturday vote could slip by a day or two and sought to pin the blame on possible Republican delaying tactics.

"Nice try, Rep. Hoyer, but you can't blame Republicans when the fact is you just don't have the votes," shot back Antonia Ferrier, spokeswoman for the GOP leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio.

In a struggle that combined the fate of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority and a 2010 campaign issue, bipartisanship was not an option.

GOP leaders boasted that all 177 House Republicans stood ready to oppose the $1.2 trillion bill, which would create a new federally supervised insurance marketplace where the uninsured could purchase coverage.

Consumers would have the option of picking a government-run plan, the most hotly contested item in the legislation and the basis for the Republican claim that Democrats were planning a government takeover of the insurance industry.

Democrats said their bill was designed to spread coverage to millions who lack it, ban insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and restrain the growth of health care spending nationally. The Congressional Budget Office said that if enacted, the measure would extend coverage to 96 percent of all eligible Americans within 10 years.

Obama and his administration lobbied furiously for its passage.

Rep. Jason Altmire, a second-term Democrat from western Pennsylvania, said he received calls during the day from the president, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Their message was "this is a historic moment. You don't want to end up with nothing," he said.

Altmire added his callers emphasized the legislation would change once it left the House, "but if you kill it now it's over" for the foreseeable future. He said he remained undecided on his vote.

Several Democrats have already announced their opposition, most of them moderate to conservative members of the so-called Blue Dog Coalition.

Democrats hold 258 seats in the House and can afford 40 defections and still wind up with 218, a majority if all lawmakers vote.

The White House issued a statement of support for the measure, saying it "meets the president's criteria for health insurance reform: It assures that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care that is there when they need it and does so without adding a dime to the deficit."

Months after Obama urged lawmakers to remake the health care system, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the leadership struggled to resolve controversies over the bill's treatment of illegal immigrants and insurance coverage for abortion, issues that transcend health care and have long divided the Democratic cacus as they do the nation.

Abortion blended politics and religion.

Federal law currently prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortions except in the case of rape, incest of situations in which the life of the mother is in danger. That left unresolved whether individuals would be permitted to use their own funds to buy insurance coverage for the procedure in the federally backed insurance exchange envisioned under the legislation.

A compromise proposal backed by Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., would allow it, so long as abortions weren't paid for from federal funds used to subsidize insurance policies bought by lower-income individuals and families.

While that was enough to satisfy some, other abortion foes objected, backed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Democrats weighed possible concessions that could satisfy them without losing votes from abortion rights Democrats.

The controversy surrounding illegal immigrants remains "a work in progress," Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a New Yorker and chairwoman of the Hispanic Caucus, said after a mid-day meeting in Pelosi's office.

As drafted, the legislation permits illegal immigrants to purchase coverage with their own money inside the insurance exchange that would be created — a provision that the 23-member Hispanic Caucus wants retained in any final compromise that reaches Obama's desk.

One lawmaker who attended the sesssion, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, said members of the Hispanic Caucus sought and received assurances from Pelosi that she and the leadership would support them as the bill made its way through the House and ultimately to the president's desk. But this lawmaker said the speaker was not able to get a pledge in return that the Hispanics would all vote for the bill regardless of how their issue was ultimately settled.

Despite the uncertainty, Hispanic lawmakers generally have a strong incentive to support the legislation. According to the Census Bureau, nearly 31 percent of Hispanics are uninsured, roughly double the rate of 15 percent for the U.S. population as a whole.

The bill provides federal subsidies for consumers at lower incomes to to defray the cost of insurance. Most individuals would be required to buy coverage and large businesses would have to provide it to their employees.

The bill would be paid for by cuts in future payments to Medicare providers as well as a surcharge of 5.4 percent on income tax filers with income of $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for couples.

The bill also would provide for a large expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor, and eliminate a gap in drug coverage under Medicare.

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Ken Thomas and Erica Werner contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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The illegal immigration issue is emerging as the biggest threat to passing healthcare reform in the House.

Congressional Hispanics have threatened to vote against the bill because of a last-minute threat from within the Democratic Caucus to bolster the House bill’s immigration restrictions to match those included in the Senate Finance bill.

And they’re also fighting President Barack Obama, the original sponsor of the language prohibiting illegal immigrants from accessing the public health insurance exchange.

On Thursday afternoon, four leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) traveled to the White House to meet with Obama on behalf of the entire group.

Officially, the purpose of their meeting was to talk to the president about healthcare.

But CHC members, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the group’s message was clear: Drop your insistence on preventing illegal immigrants from accessing the public exchange, even if their only option is to pay for insurance plans entirely out of their own pockets.

A public exchange is a nationwide pool of health insurance providers that would facilitate access to coverage for individuals and employers.

Obama has promoted the concept as a key component of healthcare reform.

The House healthcare bill already bars illegal immigrants from enrolling in the public option and from receiving subsidies for health plans.

But if the final Senate healthcare bill contains the exchange-prohibition provision that’s in the Finance Committee bill, the provision could also be included in a conference report.

And CHC members have said publicly that they would have a very difficult time voting for any healthcare bill that contained such a provision.

“I am concerned about the manner in which the exchange has been characterized, and I understand the politics of it,” said CHC Vice Chairman Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas), “but it is very bad policy.”

Gonzalez was at the White House meeting along with CHC Chairwoman Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), the only Hispanic member of the Democratic leadership.

Vulnerable Democrats may push for language that would match the Senate provision on preventing illegal immigrants from accessing a public exchange.

And while there was no identifiable sponsor or group of members pushing for that last-minute change, a Democrat with direct knowledge of the process for guiding the healthcare bill through the Rules Committee described it as a distinct possibility.

If House leaders determined that they needed to insert the Senate immigration language in order to pass the healthcare bill, the Senate language would be included in a “self-executing” rule allowing for consideration of the healthcare bill containing the change.

Should that occur, members of the CHC have said they will vote against the rule. Assuming all Republicans vote no, a revolt of any more than 37 Democrats would torpedo the legislation. The CHC has 27 members.

But a significant number of Democrats — largely from conservative districts — may demand such a change if they believe Obama and Senate Democrats will stand firm on their support for stronger language than the current House language.

“I have to be able to reassure my constituents that those who are here illegally cannot avail themselves of the provisions provided in this healthcare bill,” said freshman Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.). “The Senate language may tighten that up a bit.”

Connolly said he wouldn’t necessarily need the Senate language to allay his concerns, but he said that he can’t make that determination until he sees the final language of the bill.

“You’ve got real competing interests among Democrats in the House over abortion and immigration, and I believe the immigration issue is the more significant of the two,” he said.