Obamacare: The House will vote on delaying the individual mandate next week
Barack Obama has already delayed the employer mandate in order to give companies more time to adjust to the new law but he has been unwilling to provide ordinary Americans the same luxury for some strange reason even though people have had a hard time signing up for Obamacare.
Next week the House is scheduled to vote on delaying the individual mandate:
In the latest salvo against President Obama’s health care law, the House of Representatives plans next week to vote on a bill to delay the individual mandate for a year.
Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., introduced the bill, the Simple Fairness Act, on Friday.
Under the health care law, Americans who don’t purchase government-approved insurance policies face a fine of $95, or 1 percent of taxable income, for 2014. In 2015, the fine is scheduled to increase to $325, or 2 percent of taxable income.
The new bill would effectively push back that implementation timeline for a year, by setting the fine at $0 for 2014 and then reducing the 2015 fine to $95 (the current 2014 level).
“The President recently issued another delay to unilaterally change his own law, a delay that protected businesses from the employer mandate tax,” Jenkins, who serves as vice chair of the House Republican Conference, said in an emailed statement. “It is not fair to give relief to businesses with big checkbooks, yet not help hard working families with relief from these unaffordable mandates.”
The only part of that statement I disagree with is the unaffordability of the mandate; $95 taken out of a person’s tax return is not what I would consider to be unaffordable, what is unaffordable is the rising cost of healthcare due to some of the coverage insurance companies are being forced to provide, but that is not the point. The point is, besides the fact that the government should not be able to force people to buy healthcare insurance in the first place, that people should not be punished for not signing up for Obamacare when they have tried and failed because of the inadequacies of the Federal government.
I believe this measure will pass the House but its prospects in the Senate are interesting and not quite as easily predictable. If Harry Reid decides to hold a vote on this measure, and I am not sure he will, it will be interesting to see how Democrats in vulnerable districts decide to vote. These Democrats have been trying to distance themselves from the law and this would provide them with the perfect opportunity to distance themselves from a president who is growing more unpopular by the day.
Will they side with the American people by giving them the same break the middle class warrior gave to businesses or will they side with Barack Obama?
America's Watchtower 
Reblogged this on Sally's Political Page.
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Thank you, this one is going to be interesting.
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Your welcome, Steve.
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Reblogged this on Brittius.com.
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Thank you.
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You’re welcome.
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I’m not sure how this will play out. First there are some individuals who don’t want to buy health insurance and would be OK with the delay. These are mostly young healthy people. These are the ones the insurance companies need to sign up in order to turn a profit. The second group are the sick individuals who need a health insurance plan. Because the individual mandate is delayed their health insurance payments will need to be jacked up to cover cost. These are the people who HR and the Dem. party are calling liars.
The third problem is now that the individual mandate has another year the health insurance companies will want a handout from the US government to meet their revenue shortfalls.
The Rep have to be aware of the blowback of delaying the individual mandate and offer a state based approach that helps individuals who need medical insurance/care. There are some states that offer a special pool of money for individuals that need health care. As we know the Rep are terrible on messaging.
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It is going to be interesting to say the least, but by gut feeling is that Harry Reid will not bring this to the floor for a vote.
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Delay for a year? Let’s not get caught up in these kinds of details. You said it, the government should not be forcing people to buy insurance.
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Unfortunately the Supreme Court did not agree! UGH!
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