Tracking Down and Coercing the “Bad Actors”

In California, the nation’s largest state, both Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrat-controlled legislature have proposed universal coverage and draconian schemes for enforcing the government mandates.

“The Schwarzenegger administration considers putting teeth in its plan to require coverage for all,” reported the Los Angeles Times (April 11, 2007). “People who refuse to obtain health insurance could be tracked down by the state or a private contractor, enrolled in a plan and fined until they pay their premiums…” (Emphasis added.) Schwarzenegger has also proposed attaching the wages of people who don’t buy health insurance and increasing the amount that the uninsured owe in state income taxes. “The proposal to locate people without insurance would use state or private databases and target those who lacked coverage for 60 days or more,” notes the Times.

Peter Harbage, a senior program associate with the New America Foundation, commented, “…[Y]ou’re going to have some people who are bad actors, and that’s where you need some sort of tracking system.” (According to the Times, “Schwarzenegger has cited the foundation’s research in helping to frame his plan.”)

In Massachusetts, according to the state government, “Beginning July 1, 2007, all Massachusetts residents 18 years of age and over are required to carry the minimum level of health insurance....Enforcement will be accomplished through an individual’s state tax return. Financial penalties will be imposed on uninsured individuals up to 50 percent of the cost of a health insurance plan”—a plan, that is, that will be chosen from a limited range of options approved by state bureaucrats.

According to the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons’ May 2006 newsletter, “All [Massachusetts] residents would have to indicate on their state income tax returns, under oath, whether they had creditable coverage for the entire 12 months. If they say they didn’t, or if the commissioner determines that they actually didn’t, any tax refund would be withheld, and if that is insufficient, all available enforcement procedures will be used to collect.”

Twila Brase, president of the Citizens’ Council on Healthcare (CCHC), commented on April 10, 2006, “If [Massachusetts] Governor Romney signs this bill into law [which he did on April 12, 2006], a huge health-care bureaucracy will descend on the people of Massachusetts… [A]n intrusive and prescriptive bureaucracy will be authorized to ration health care and make decisions about who gets what health care when. Health-care decisions will be taken out of the hands of patients and doctors as the agendas of special interests, not the needs of patients, take precedence. The legislation is extremely intrusive. State agencies will be monitoring insurance status, checking income status, and tracking the medical care of the Massachusetts people.” The CCHC published “Massachusetts ‘Universal Coverage’ Legislation Mimics Government Bureaucracy and Bureaucratic Controls of ‘HillaryCare,’” available as a six-page PDF document (www.cchconline.org/pdfs/Romney_Healthcare_Chart.pdf).