Tuesday, April 1, 2008

DC Considering Universal Health Care Plan

By Marc Kilmer

Categories: Individual Mandates

DC City Council member David Catania (formerly a Republican, now an Independent) has proposed a plan whereby the DC government (in conjunction with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield) would provide subsidized health care for all residents under 200% of the federal poverty level and wouuld mandate that all others have insurance. Taxes, of course, would need to be increased:

The District's subsidies are estimated to amount to $21 million and will be paid in part through a 2 percent premium tax on some Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and an increase in premium taxes for commercial health insurers, from 1.7 percent to 2 percent.
The program also proposes an increase in the tobacco excise tax, from $1 to $2 a pack of cigarettes.

So basically health insurance would be made more expensive than it already is in DC to pay for the program. Given the track record of DC's government for supporting some very misguided legislation, I fear that no one will see the irony in this.