The People's Email Network Last 25 Messages Transmitted Log Go Back No punitive fines in health care bill ********** [045254:010910] P.L., Spencer, IA Help all Seniors, Small business Owners, and all others struggling to make ends meet. We need AFFORDABLE healthczre insurance. Pat, IA ********** [065513:120309] C.V., Mount Holly, NJ I'm a retiree now working as a school custodian. Can't get work done on my knee because insurance won't fund the downtime that comes with it (pre-existing condition). Tell that to H1N1, which won't cut anyone a break because I must hobble. Our enemies, great and small, salivate when they know America is hobbled by "insurers." ********** [143500:110209] A.T., Santa Barbara, CA Please do not punish the poor and middleclass with increased tax burden for health insurance. ********** [075421:110109] M.L., Reno, NV No fines, no taxes and no jail time. Health care comes from innovation, education and not from mandatory insurance. Fines are nothing short of criminal! This idea of punitive fines is comparable to sending poor people to debtor's prison. If you can't work, how are you going to get money to pay your debt? Likewise, if you can't afford to buy health care insurance, how are you goin gto pay a fine? What is going ON? This is not thinking! THis is regression, tyranny and unconstitutional. The government should concentrate on tort reform and allowing insurance from across state lines. That would go a long way to reducing costs! This is not what the founding fathers had in mind. This is for elitism and exploitation. Max Baucus should excuse himself from having anything to do with health care reform because of close ties to the industry. Any congressman with close ties to any part of health care industry or phamaceuticals should excuse themself! ********** [151323:103009] B.D., Keystone Heights, FL Do your duty and support universal single payer health care with no state opt outs PERIOD ********** [071900:102809] A.T., Santa Barbara, CA Now is the wrong time to increase middleclass tax burden. Balance cost with income tax break or drop insurance mandate ********** [225823:102209] J.B., Milan, NM I am out raged at this idea. I would help pay for single payer but not this. John "B. Thank You ********** [100346:102209] M.R., Albuquerque, NM Penalties are not necessary. The public option should be a default for those who do not specify a choice. I know that won't go over big with the Insurance Syndicate, but tough blue chips. Although the virtual bribing of our politicians by corporate campaign payola, directly and indirectly, gets all the attention for being an undue influence (the polite terminology for bribery), the REAL reason for the fierce resistance to changing the failed status quo is the fat financial portfolio enhancements from insurance stocks and bonds held by politicians, and greedy voters who value a dollar far more than human life. I.e., killing patients (and would-be-if-they-could-be patients, about 22,000 annually) for profit is extremely profitable. All you need is the triumph of the will and some complicit psychopaths. If not for corporate insurance grand larceny, some of these members of the new ownership class might actually have to work, and, I think we all concur, we can't have our hegemonic superiors, our beloved "owners" of our democracy-ending "ownership society", reduced to working and paying payroll taxes like common peasants. Payroll taxes were deliberately set ridiculously high in first place so as to avert such a catastrophe. At the very least, please support President Obama's pledge to include a public option, which will either allow companies that cannot compete to fail, or force them to succeed. We should show them the same mercy they showed millions of Americans forced into bankruptcy by their exorbitant rates, denials and restrictions of coverage, and predatory collection practices. ********** [095810:101209] L.R., Philadelphia, PA Health care insurance is NOT the same as car insurance, regardless of what you politicians keep reciting. If I can't afford car insurance I just don't drive. If I can't afford health insurance (and unless you have a single-payer public option, I won't be able to afford it) then what? You fine me??!? This is nothing short of CRIMINAL. If you want to be in the pocket of the health insurance industry don't bring the rest of us further down with you. We are not stupid - don't treat us that way. It is quite clear what is going on here - wait, this is America? ********** [085101:101209] A.T., Santa Barbara, CA No fines, no taxes, no jail time. Health Care comes form innovation, education and facilities - not mandatory insurance. ********** [085655:101109] o.b., Wilmer, TX I don't think this is what the founding fathers had in mind. It's time for this elitism and exploitation of the public to stop. Otherwise we may rebel. All mandatory insurance is wrong including liability insurance, and certainly health insurance. It's a matter of choice. I dont' care if it's law or not. When you attack me personally with unfair legislation, I will refuse to abide, and I will fight back to the death. So put that in your greedy neo conservative dialectic pipe and choke on it. Oscar Bush ********** [184425:100909] s.K., Cincinnati, OH Anyone that takes pack money from health insurance lobbyist should not have a vote in the health care bill. That would be a conflict of interest. I am a democrat and ashamed that Senator Baucus ( which is a democrat ) and any other Senator or House Rep. put the American poor 2nd to the health industry. The health industry is gouging the people as it is. How dare they demand $3,800 for a fine when poor people and working class can't afford it. Give us the " public option " or single payer. ********** [162548:100809] M.G., Alexandria, VA The Baucus Bill would throw everyone into the tender mercies of the health insurance cartel who would still be free to raise premiums and co-pays. This would be a huge revenue winfall for the very same thieves and murderers who are at the root of our healthcare crisis. ********** [072500:100809] A.T., Santa Barbara, CA Mandatory insurance tax punishes the poor. Poverty is not a crime. No fines, no taxes, no mandatory insurance. ********** [085500:100709] A.T., Santa Barbara, CA No fines, no taxes, no jail time. Health care comes from research, education and new facilities, not mandatory insurance. ********** [182456:100609] C.W., Mansfield Center, CT It is ludicrous to charge the population of the US for not buying corporate insurance for their healthcare. The greed of corporations (and some lawmakers!) knows no bounds. I'm not going to send any more money into the pockets of these insurance companies! ********** [075034:100509] K.H., West Grove, PA It is unfathomable that the change we were promised will come in the form of a huge giveaway to health insurance companies! No clear or immediate cost reduction measures are in the bill, yet we'll be fined and possibly jailed when we still can't afford to buy the expensive health insurance we couldn't afford before! We need humanitarian efforts to get a public policy available to all up and running withing the year. Hpw to pay? Tax the uberwealthy! ********** [130301:100409] l.m., Cheyenne, WY Baucus gets more money from the insurance companies than any one else. I don't think he's concerned about the average person. ********** [123420:100409] R.S., North Port, FL The debacle that has been this healthcare issue each time it has been brought to the fore, is ridiculous!! All of the politicians that debate this issue have complete healthcare coverage, while so many of their fellow Americans have none, or not enough to allow them to seek adequare care, forcing them to go to emergency rooms for care that they could receive in a doctor's office! There has always been such a major controversy about all of this and it is just absolutely disgusting to see the politicians denegrate each other to see which can receive the most news coverage, and not to be able to see clearly enough to set aside their political differences and earnestly work to give ALL Americans some type of insurance coverage! Once coverage is established, and in effect, then they can go back and hash out better ways to secure even better coverage for all, just not themselves. I have always thought that politicans were human beings, why become such nasty, mean spirited human beings after they are elected, by their fellow Americans, to public office!?! ********** [115357:100409] B.Q., Honolulu, HI No punitive fines. That is ridiculous. ********** [114019:100409] C.B., Woodacre, CA This idea of punitive fines for not buying health care insurance is comparable to sending poor people to debtor's prison. If you can't work, how are you going to get the money to pay your debt? Likewise, if you can't afford to buy health care insurance, how are you going to pay a fine because you don't have helath care insurance. What IS going on? This is not a thinking process, this is a regression to days of yore. ********** [142335:100209] A.W., Windham, ME My family and I do not have health insurance, further we are uninsurable by the standards put forth by corporate middlemen. It is sad that in this stage of my life I am simply asked to work til I drop in order to support a system where some make millions while others wither away from lack of medical care. And now we are to be punished for not being able to afford health care that more than likely wouldn't cover us? When did we become a corrupt third world country? ********** [090101:100209] A.T., Santa Barbara, CA Until Insurance mandate act can be proven beneficial, punitive taxes and jail time are unjustifiable. ********** [034515:100209] A.A., Valley Park, MO Single payer is the only way. ********** [164154:100109] V.P., Caribou, ME Do you not realize how many Americans are without health insurance and health care? They can barely get by let alone pay for health insurance or health care because the insurance companies are winning the war. They pay you to represent them so they can keep making all the money that should go to the people who do not have health insurance. Please listen to us...All of you have great health insurance and could afford to pay for your own even if you did not. How can you not see how many Americans are sick and dying because they do not have proper health care. These are hard working men and women who lose everything because they have no health insurance. I am ashamed of you who vote against the public option and for the insurance companies. They own you. ********** Go Back