House Committee on Ways & Means – Republican — This kind of solves the problem if you think of it. Jails have health care.
Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp R-MI released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation JCT confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill H.R. 3962, as amended could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax generally 2.5% of income, are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.
Found by Matt Duvall.
How much per year per person will we be paying the insurance companies?
Jail sounds pretty good. Warm food, shelter and health care!
Beats the crap out of fighting the government and banks.
The way around this is to join an established religious sect where you will be protected by the “Religious Conscience Exemption”
Part VII, Subpart A, Sec. 59B(c)(5) (on pages 170-171 of the House Draft)
“Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual (and any qualifying child residing with such individual) for any period if such individual has in effect an exemption which certifies that such individual is a member of a recognized religious sect or division thereof described in section 1402(g)(1) and an adherent of established tenets or teachings of such sect or division as described in such section.”
We would get $127 million in unfunded mandates by Pelosi’s bill.
Please folks, do not over react. It is American Dollars were are talking about here, not real money.
Lets see,
If you are POOR as a ROCk in winter,
Cant afford RENT, and Ins. is just an added BILL.
Which would you pay first??
Will there be a “public option”?
Will the insurance companies still be for-profit organizations?
Just wondering.
This shit will never happen. If this bill passes the American people will riot once all this bullshit starts playing out. Ill bet that most of it will be thrown out by the Supreme Court. You cant force people to buy a service. Where does it say that in the constitution?
The fact that I have to wonder means that the House is talking about the wrong “healthcare” things, will miss the point, go down the wrong road & piss away billions doing it.
Commercial “for-profit” health insurance sucks. Y/N
There is a section in the health care bill that allocates 280 million for students in vet school in loans and forgivness of student debt, when did this have anything to do with health care reform?
Listen, if you don’t pay your taxes you go to jail, that’s all this is. Nobody is being forced to buy insurance, if you decide not to buy medical insurance you will pay an additional tax to cover your burden on the system. The bill says 2.5 percent of your annual salary on average so 1500 bucks a year from someone who makes 60k. There is an exemption for people below a specific income range.
Agree with #8. You don’t have to enter into a contract with anyone you don’t feel like. Law school 101.
For decades it’s been the health insurance companies’ rationale for their “just say no” MO.
Commercial health insurance companies had their chance & they blew it.
Contracts are fine for business transactions, moving tons of goods around & the like, but they’ll screw you if (when) you get sick.
“The bill says 2.5 percent of your annual salary” will be a tax for not purchasing your own health insurance.
As long as that penalty goes right into the “public option” insurance pool, I won’t have a problem with it.
And do not take your eye off the Democrats next health care related bill:
National Health Care Compliance Act of 2010
^failure to quit smoking after a heart attack 30 days in solitary
^failure to take prescribed medications $2000.00 fine and 30 days in local lockup
^failure to exercise when ordered $1000.00 fine
This bill also includes the requirement that all Physicians report suspected drug abuse to the DEA and Pregnancies to the CDC.
#6- read the letter. There is a hardship exemption.
republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedFiles/JCTletter110509.pdf
#3 is right- just pick the right religion and get an exemption. I have a hunch that a qualifying religion will be one that declines all medical care, i.e. Christian Scientist, so you could be literally making the bet of your life.
Li- AFAIK the Swiss health insurance system has mandated insurance, sold by private companies. I think most Swiss would deny that their system is anything like Mussolini’s Fascism.
Well now, this will almost guarantee
the republicans will sign on to the bill.. [sic]
-s
#18 Ah, but in the Swiss system the insurance companies are tightly regulated, not-for-profit charities. If we were to have a system such as this, I would be all for it. However, what we are being handed is nothing less than the fleecing of the public in order to support the profits of a series of incompetent, heartless fat cats, and I cannot support that, especially since it seems that a large portion of the population is going to fall through the cracks despite the (apparently infinite) largess of the FEDS towards our corporate culture. I would love to have either a private not-for-profit system like the Swiss, or a single payer system like the Japanese. But what we are getting now is the worst of both worlds; Governmental unaccountability combined with for profit Corporate greed.
Just how many restrictions do liberal believe will be necessary to create their fantasy utopia?
Just enough to kill of 95% of the world’s population, which is what I believe their goal is. They want 100,000,000 million on the planet period, total. That’s a third of just what the US pop is, guess where you fit in that?
Whatever……………………………….
Traaxx
The Malthusians that want that major population reduction are not liberals or conservatives. They are in both ‘parties’. Dick Cheney and Prince Philip are in complete agreement that you are a useless eater, generally speaking.
Obama campaigned for president on the basis he was against a personal mandate and against government health care.
I am hoping this “thing” doesn’t pass.
This bill really smells from what I can tell.
The personal mandate smells.
The idea of the government being “in the health insurance” business smells as well.
I was hoping for a series of incremental reforms that would effectively make it far easier for almost everyone to get insurance at affordable prices and end corporate cartels.
But that isn’t what this bill is at all. 🙁
#25 Well, he campaigned on change too, and has given us nothing except the same old failures. In many ways I am more disappointed in Obama at this point than I was in Bush II at the end of his administration. I mean, Bush is a barely literate dry-drunk cheerleader, and he couldn’t help but to be a puppet of the special interests. Indeed, he seemed groomed for this very role; a national cheerleader, with no real power over anything more important than the brush on his ranch. But Obama? Debate champion, Harvard Law Review’s first black president, and author of a deeply personal and confessional autobiography? I had hoped that he would be able to think for himself without Wall Street holding his hand and pulling his strings. I was wrong.
Woe to us all.
This is EXACTLY like how it is now with car insurance in California. If you’re a driver you MUST have car insurance or you’ll be fined or put in jail (or be a rich bastard).
But you’re not forced to buy car insurance, if you don’t drive. But you can’t choose to NOT be ALIVE so you don’t have to be forced to buy health insurance.
But this part of the bill isn’t new, this was put into the bill a few months ago by Sen. Baucus.
#20
Actually, yes, go to jail. If you do not work, you cannot be charged with failing to pay taxes. However, if you do not work, you are still mandated to purchase health insurance. Saying it is “unlikely” is not the same as saying isn’t going to happen. Most people do not go to jail for misdemeanors but you can for up to six months and it does happen.
#28
I wish people would stop comparing the health care situation to that of auto insurance. Driving is a **privilege**. You **choose* whether you wish to have that privilege and if so, then you must get insurance to cover damages for the people you hit not yourself. That is no where near the same as this health insurance requirement.
Thomas #29 and #30
RTFA. If you don’t want health insurance you can pay the tax (2.5% of your annual salary). Nobody will be forced to buy health insurance. There is also an exemption and subsidies for those who can’t afford it.
If you even read the article attached to this post you’d know that much. The jail terms mentioned are for those who refuse to pay their taxes, the codes mentioned are already on the books.
#31, Is that how you justify it? Because it’s called a “tax” it is therefore not a forced purchase of insurance?
What if a small business owner decided he wasn’t going to provide insurance for his people anymore nor pay the insurance fee to the government? Would the government come in, shut down his business by putting him in jail, and put all his people out of work? Would they and their families then be able to get “free” health care from the government because they no longer had jobs?
You people have no clue what you are doing here. This is going to do nothing but increase the cost of insurance more than it is now. And you are going to be paying for it because I will not take a cut in profits to compensate — I’m going to raise my rates which then get passed on to you. Groceries are going to cost more because the grocer has a higher bill. Unemployment will remain high because companies won’t want the extra burden of hiring people due to the added overhead.
If the Senate passes this shit, it will be the end of the US economy. There is no way to avoid it.
So much for “taxes on those making less than $250,000 will not go up.”
#32, Loser,
What if a small business owner decided he wasn’t going to provide insurance for his people anymore nor pay the insurance fee to the government?
They would send a letter informing him his taxes were overdue.
Would the government come in, shut down his business by putting him in jail, and put all his people out of work?
Who knows. That is a Justice Department decision. The business could be ceased by the government if the owner still refused to pay the taxes. If the owner still refused to pay his taxes he could be fined and or JAILED.
Would the government put the people out of work? No. The tax evader would be the one doing that. The business would most likely be sold for unpaid taxes and since a going concern is worth more, the Government would most likely appoint an interim administrator.
Blaming the government for the owner’s crimes is foolish. Typical greedy, selfish, inconsiderate tactics of Liebertarians though. Blame others for their refusal to pay their share of the public obligation.
Would they and their families then be able to get “free” health care from the government because they no longer had jobs?
Unemployed generally qualify for Medicaid.
You people have no clue what you are doing here.
No, once again you demonstrate your ignorance. We the people want health care reform.
I will not take a cut in profits to compensate — I’m going to raise my rates which then get passed on to you.
None of the current health care bills apply to Sim City or any other Fantasy World. In the real world, posers don’t count.
If the Senate passes this shit, it will be the end of the US economy. There is no way to avoid it.
The exact same complaint heard when Social Security, all of Roosevelt’s aid packages, Medicare, Nixon’s resignation, and the invasion of Iraq happened. We are still here.
You give yourself away as a poser simply because you are always saying it can’t be done instead of suggesting how it can be done. The difference between running your own business and still living off of your mother. Working for a living and being a dreamer.
#32 LibertyLover
I’m not justifying anything. You will not be forced to buy insurance, because you won’t have insurance if opt out and pay the tax.
For someone who makes 60K the additional tax would be about $1,500 dollars a year. Not a small amount of money but considerably less than an insurance policy which would cost from 3K to 10K for the same individual.
Some small businesses are exempt, but even if they weren’t, it would be no different than it is today with social security and medicare etc. If you choose not to pay your taxes you can lose your business and face jail time. Most of the time you only have to pay what you owe plus fines.
I am concerned about insurance prices going up, but mostly because of the damage done by lobyists to the public option.
One of the biggest reasons insurance is so expensive is because the insured are paying for the uninsured. Hospitals pass these cost of treating uninsured patients to insured ones. The idea is that if everyone is insured the average cost of medical treatment will decrease.
I am a small business owner, I have 7 employees and I provide health insurance, it currently costs us 90k a year to cover our employees. I provide insurance because I believe that healthy employees are productive ones. People who can’t afford preventative medicine or take care of their families health concerns cannot work effectively. People who are in-firmed cannot work, if they are bankrupted from medical treatment costs they can’t buy products, which is what or economy is based on.