The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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December 18, 2009

Your View: Health plan would be disaster for marriage (4)

Neal Breitbarth, Fairmont



The health care plan that Rep. Tim Walz supports contains a huge penalty on marriage. The penalty is in the premiums paid for mandatory health insurance.

The way it works is, two people living together, both earning $30,000 each for a combined household income of $60,000, will pay $1,320 combined for their health insurance. Now if that couple gets married, they will pay $12,000. A married couple, making the same money as an unmarried couple, will pay nearly ten times as much for the same coverage. If a married couple makes less than $58,000, their premium will be $1,320. This will have a couple of disastrous effects on marriage. Why get married or why not get a divorce? Both would be huge money savings. If you are married, and want to stay that way, why increase your income?

I learned this information from Allen Quist, who recently announced he is running for Congress here in the 1st District. This is another of many reasons why this bill is bad for our country. Wouldn�t it be nice if our current representative studied the issues this well?

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