Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Governor Schwarzenegger Considers Health Insurance Penalty
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger drafted a healthcare proposal that would require all residents to purchase health insurance. His proposal would increase government subsidies and expand health insurance programs. Now, Schwarzenegger is thinking about adding penalties for residents who don’t buy health insurance.
Under the proposed law, residents who don’t purchase health insurance will be automatically enrolled in a plan and fined a penalty until they pay for the premiums themselves.
Governor Schwarzenegger is considering the penalty to help enforce the health insurance mandate. To track down residents without health plans, he’s looking into models used by the Department of Motor Vehicles to find drivers without auto insurance, and the state tracking system that finds people who aren’t paying their child support.
Schwarzenegger is citing research from the think tank New America Foundation to model his plan, reports the Los Angeles Times.
“Most people are going to have insurance if the program is well designed and well constructed,“ said Peter Harbage, who is the senior program associate at the New America Foundation. “And then you’re going to have some people who are bad actors, and that’s where you need some sort of tracking system.”
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