This is getting nuttier by the day.
States have to pay for extended Medicaid — except Nebraska.
Seniors lose Medicare Advantage — except in Florida.
Cadillac health insurance plans face a 40% excise tax — unless the insured is in a union.
And now, everybody must buy healthcare insurance — unless they’re Amish — since the Amish have a religious objection to insurance.
Anybody know how to become Amish?
Hmmm. What if you’re just allergic to insurance?
* * * * *
Sourced from Watertown Daily Times: Amish families exempt from insurance mandate, Jan. 9, 2010
Federal health care reform will require most Americans — but not all — to carry health insurance or risk a fine. People with religious objections can opt out
For example, Amish families are free from that requirement.
They, as well as some other religious sects, are covered by a “religious conscience” exemption, which allows people with religious objections to insurance to opt out of the mandate. The provision is in both the House and Senate versions of the bill, making its appearance in the final version routine unless there are last-minute objections.
Amish people generally rely upon a community ethic that disdains government assistance. Families rely upon one another, and communities pitch in to help neighbors pay health care expenses.
Lawmakers reportedly included the provision at the urging of Amish constituents, although the legislation does not specify that community and the provision could apply to other groups as well, including Old Order Mennonites and perhaps Christian Scientists.
Congressional aides said the exemption is based on a carve-out the Amish have had from Social Security and Medicare taxes since the 1960s. Whether Amish businesses, however, would fall under the bill’s mandates is still an open question.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who was a key negotiator on the Senate bill, supports the religious exemption, and called the provision a “no brainer.”
Note: the Amish do buy vehicle insurance.
Hmmm. Must be for buggies since they don’t drive cars.
Source article:
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20100109/NEWS02/301099964
The Homa Files 
January 13, 2010 at 4:29 pm |
Great recap. Whether you agree conceptually with the idea of expanded healthcare/insurance or not, it’s hard to imagine anyone reading this set of wacky parameters and agreeing with the logic/framework. Congress should be ashamed of itself.
Interesting supplemental reading here: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/13/us/politics/AP-US-Kennedy-Successor-Delay.html
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’s top election official says it could take weeks to certify the results of the upcoming U.S. Senate special election. That delay could let President Barack Obama preserve a key 60th vote for his health care overhaul even if the Republican who has vowed to kill it wins Democrat Edward M. Kennedy’s former seat.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin, citing state law, says city and town clerks must wait at least 10 days for absentee ballots to arrive before they certify the results of the Jan. 19 election. They then have five more days to file the returns with his office.
Galvin bypassed the provision in 2007 so his fellow Democrats could gain a House vote they needed to override a veto of then-Republican President George W. Bush, but the secretary says U.S. Senate rules would preclude a similar rush today.
The potential delay has become a rallying point for the GOP, which argues Democrats have been twisting the rules to pass the health care bill despite public opposition. It’s also prompted criticism from government watchdogs.
”We believe that elections should be by the people and for the people, and when the people have spoken, the system ought not be politicized,” said Common Cause President Bob Edgar, a former member of Congress. ”If the Republican wins, the person should be seated immediately. If the Democrat wins, the person should be seated immediately.”
Now that interim replacement, Sen. Paul G. Kirk Jr., says he will vote for the bill if given the chance, even if Republican Scott Brown beats Democrat Martha Coakley in Tuesday’s special election to fill the seat permanently. Brown, a state senator, has pledged to vote against the bill; Coakley, the state attorney general, supports it.
January 16, 2010 at 11:15 am |
Thinking of becoming Amish…
So what’cha think, can I pull it off?? Check out this article So apparantly, if your religious views conflict with a socialized healthcare system, you can simply choose to ‘opt-out’? Wow, this is the best part of the bill I’ve s…