Would DU Accept A 2.5% Tax Increase Across The Board For Single Payer? [View All]

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The house bill that passed last week would cover 96% of the uninsured according to the CBO. It would also make healthcare for the poor virtually free and it would set up some kind of public option (no matter how weak that public option happens to be at this time). In addition to this it would prevent insurance companies from dropping coverage, denying care based on pre-existing conditions, and making the insurance companies bound by anti-trust laws.

The only cost for all of this is a 2.5% tax increase on a small percentage of the population that doesn't want to buy any kind of insurance and doesn't qualify for a government subsidy. That small percentage of the population just happens to include me as my yearly income falls just outside of the limit of the affordibility credit (just missed it by a hair). I have a good job and I consider myself in the middle class (though Im probably below the offical definition of middle class). My employer provides no health insurance and I don't have private coverage as I am still fairly young and dont feel the cost is justified. So I will be one of the people that will be hit with this 2.5% tax if I dont end up getting insurace. But that 2.5% I will have to pay will end up providing healthcare to 96% of the current uninsured population. For me personally, that's a trade off I'm willing to make. I don't know about you guys. And I wonder if DU would be calling this 2.5% tax increase "criminalization of the poor" if that tax increase was applied toward a single payer system.