The individual mandate in the Baucus health care plan would impose punitively high,
regressive taxes on low-income and moderate-income working families. Its penalties
and additional taxes on business would discourage companies from hiring or continuing
to employ low-income and moderate-income workers. The plan would substantially raise
health insurance premiums. Yet the plan would still leave millions of Americans without
access to affordable health insurance. Adding to their misfortune, it would then punish
them with a tax penalty precisely because they are uninsured.