Owcharenko and others hammered on Chief Justice John Robert’s pronouncement that the health care law’s fee on those who choose not to buy insurance is a new “tax” — not simply a “penalty,” as Obama’s supporters call it — and that it will hurt small businesses and add to the unemployment rate.
“Employers could lay off full-time workers and just hire part-time workers to avoid the $2,000 per worker penalty for not providing health insurance approved by the government,” said Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Manhattan Institute.
Grace-Marie Turner, president of the free-market health care think tank The Galen Institute, asserted that 80 percent of physicians are considering leaving their practices because of the cost they would have to bear with the expansion of one of the largest entitlement programs in the U.S.: Medicare.
The panelists were passionate that health insurance must be run like all other types of insurance Americans buy.
“When someone loses their job, you don’t hear them say, ‘Oh no I’m going to lose my car because now I won’t have car insurance’ or ‘I’m going to lose my house because I don’t have homeowners insurance now,’” said Furchtgott-Roth.
They said medical insurance should be something Americans can carry with them throughout their life, changing it whenever they want and having full control over their health care.
“You should be able to plug it in wherever you go, like your 401K, taking it from job to job,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Network.
At the end of the anti-Obamacare event, Holtz-Eakin offered advice to end the debate: “Whatever happens, this has to be a bipartisan reform or we will be having panels like this every four years.”
