This is one of the most morally and ethically vile things that anyone could ever say, because what it really means is that some people deserve good health care, and other people are disposable human garbage who do not. Families with more money are better than families with less money, who just ought to take the Repukes' advice and die quickly.
What is this horseshit about an "exchange" including four different levels, each of which costs more and covers more? That includes the so-called "public option" provisions. Every other goddam developed country in the world, whether they use the Bismarck model, the Beveridge model or the Douglas model requires a single standard of coverage for everyone, no exceptions. No age discrimination, or any other kind.
Still, all these countries have multi-tiered health care in practice simply because the affluent buy extra bells and whistles for themselves. That is actually fine by me, because that is the ONLY time when "choice" should come into play in the area of health care. It's like Bill Gates being able to have an expensive sprinkler and fire alarm system that I could never afford. I could care less as long as we both get the same fire engine in the event of fire. Our over-privileged representatives, including Obama, seem to think it's just fine that some should have access to modern hook and ladder trucks and the rest of us get the horse-drawn wagons of a century ago.
According to the calculator, I'd be forced to pay $450/monhth to get only 70% of my expenses taken care of with the Basic Plan. (That includes both the age discrimination and the offsetting subsidy I'd get.) Under HR 676, individuals would all pay $125/adult/month, and businesses would have a payroll tax of 8-10% above a certain (negotiable) threshold. Note that businesses that self-insure generally are paying more than that now. With the $325 extra a month, even someone on a modest retirement income like me could afford self-financed gold-plated health care extras if I wanted them.
How fucking sociopathic and stupid are our fellow citizens anyway? Would they really prefer a $450/month "premium" to a $125/month "tax"? I know that there are probably teabagger assholes out there who would cheerfully pay someone to saw off their dominant hand if the other half of the deal was that someone they hated got both hands sawn off, but how many of them could there actually be?
