The Friday Evening Dump

(one in a weekly series intended to shine some light on unsavory news being jettisoned from the White House and Capitol Hill right before the weekend)

Just remember: it’s not a tax.

WASHINGTON — Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled yesterday by leading Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

(italics, ours)

Further on in this article there is some juicy info that betrays the “public option” lie being touted by Obama-care proponents.

In 2008, employer-provided coverage averaged $12,680 a year for a family plan, and $4,704 for individual coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's annual survey. Senate aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly, said the cost of the federal plan would be lower but declined to provide specifics. The legislation would exempt certain hardship cases from fines. The fines would be collected through the income tax system.

Bounce that against this:

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions bill also calls for a government-run insurance option to compete with private plans as well as a $750-per-worker annual fee on larger companies that don't offer coverage to employees.

So, if you are one of these larger companies, what incentive do you have to provide health care for your workers? You don’t. If you are paying out an average of $4,700 per person and over 12 grand per family in medical coverage, you are going to drop that in a heartbeat to merely shell-out that $750 annual “fee” to the Feds.

The next time you here any non-sense regarding how Obama-care just wants to compete against private insurance and not displace it, remember the facts as laid-out above. With the government calling the shots of how this “public option” will be implemented, they can skew the playing field as they see fit, rendering the public option as anything but.