Nix on that. This does do a bit to help with people being unable to afford health insurance. Off the top of my head I believe it's something like, the most you can be required to pay in premiums is 9% of your salary (don't remember if that's for everyone or just people making up to 400% of the poverty level). People making 133% of the poverty level will be eligible for medicare (ha!) and people making more will be able to buy insurance from gov't subsidized insurance groups. It also mandates that insurance companies spend 85% of what they collect in premiums on medical care; in theory this would potentially cut down on what was charged, but I don't know if it'll work out that way.So people will be required to purchase insurance. Maybe it's just me, but if people could purchase insurance they would.
If the average single person plan is between 10-12K /year with a family plan up to 15K per year, keeping my tax return isn't going to purchase insurance for my family.
as much as I advocate that since medicine benefits society, society should bear the burdon if it, today with this plan passed, I am happy that I have an out. (residency in a country other than the United States of spiraling into the gutter with a gov. handout to already the most profitable industry in the place)
best of luck to you all
Doesn't in anyway solve the problem of health insurance of course, or the much broader problems that face healthcare.