[Sixstrings]

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."

The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup.
link

I have a strange feeling that the uninsured are going to end up worse than before, forced to buy a crappy plan under penalty of fines or jail

[Pretorian]

so i wonder how they will be checking presence of insurance-- cops will stop people on the street or something

[Sixstrings]

so i wonder how they will be checking presence of insurance-- cops will stop people on the street or something

I would guess it will work the same way it does in Massachusetts -- if you have no registered healthcare, a penalty is added to your income tax. In the federal case, the fine looks to be $1,900. As we all know, you cannot ever escape a debt owed to the federal government.. so every year you don't have healthcare, a $1,900 tax will be assessed, and this amount will just keep racking up with penalties on late payment.
Maybe nobody will really go to jail, but the government will get its money from you one way or the other.. just like student loans and back taxes, these healthcare fines will be deducted from your social security check if that's what it comes to.

[Daniel_Plainview]

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty,

The Federal Govt is beyond hope.

[DomusAlbion]

The idea behind everybody paying for insurance is to spread the risk by increasing the pool of payers. A big problem with the current system is that young people choose to go without insurance, even catastrophic insurance.
If they were to pay into the system then the rates for all would drop.

However, to threaten jail seems counter intuitive and down right stupid, but then the idea was proposed by the congress, so I suppose "stupid is as stupid does"
Just levy the fee through all employers then if you work, you're covered.

Don't work? Starve to death.

[sittinguy]

I guess we can rename the Fema camps, the health insurance debtors camps. I pay $100 a week for mine now for my family. $36 a week sounds fine to me. Don't get me wrong. I completely hate this plan, but anything to get to the collapse faster is OK with me.

[smallpoxgirl]

Honestly, putting that kind of penalty into the bill sounds like a plan to see that it never passes.

[DomusAlbion]

I completely hate this plan, but anything to get to the collapse faster is OK with me.

So things after the collapse will be so much better? Right.I say let's try to hold it together as long as we can. Sure it's all gonna fall but the results are frightening.

[Sixstrings]

Well, let's all just stop worrying about it. I'm sure the insurance lobbyists are writing the best bill they can, and will do right by us. And the blue dog democrats, they have our best interests at heart.

[vision-master]

I lot of young ppl are gonna be pissed. My nephew is self-employed, 35 years old and has been to cheap to purchase health insurance. He's never had insurance in his adult life.

[DomusAlbion]

I lot of young ppl are gonna be pissed. My nephew is self-employed, 35 years old and has been to cheap to purchase health insurance. He's never had insurance in his adult life.

These are the majority of the guys who are causing the problem. Sure they're healthy and don't need a doctor, so why pay health insurance? Then they get in that little car/boating/work accident they incur tens of thousands of healthcare costs. They can't work, they can't pay. They're broke and the rest of us end up paying the bill. That's not fair to the majority. If we all contribute the per person insurance costs will go down.

[mos6507]

I would guess it will work the same way it does in Massachusetts -- if you have no registered healthcare, a penalty is added to your income tax.

I am a registered democrat and overall pretty liberal, but this idea is so ass-backwards and braindead I don't know where to start. I was already caught up in all this just because I switched states. At no point did I not have health insurance but since I didn't move on tax day I hit into some stupid technicality.

[Blacksmith]

In Alberta, Canada the cost of health insurance used to be collected from you, but since so many people were not paying their premiums, the government just tacked the cost unto your income tax which you employer had to deduct from your salary.
An asside, the cost does not get cheaper because everybody pays, what does change is the quality of the service.

Another aside, is medical care not free when your a guest of the state?

[Pretorian]

I lot of young ppl are gonna be pissed. My nephew is self-employed, 35 years old and has been to cheap to purchase health insurance. He's never had insurance in his adult life.

These are the majority of the guys who are causing the problem. Sure they're healthy and don't need a doctor, so why pay health insurance? Then they get in that little car/boating/work accident they incur tens of thousands of healthcare costs.

Young healthy people who use own immunity system as a health insurance arent the ones who are banking on the healthcare system. Old and sick ones who are accurate with their insurance payments are. Besides, his chances get into that accident are much lower than his chance of paying tens of thousands dollars into insurance company without ever seeing a penny back. The general idea of insurance-- i. e that healthy people pay for sick people's healthcare -- is an asbomination.

[DomusAlbion]

The general idea of insurance-- i. e that healthy people pay for sick people's healthcare -- is an asbomination (sic).

Think of it as paying forward for when you're old and sick.

At the least the young should (and will be soon) paying for catastrophic insurance. Young, healthy people are being struck down by severe illnesses all the time. And falling off their bikes, being hit by cars, falling out of dorm rooms from too much drink. They use the system, they should help pay for it. Instead they want to buy their iPods, Gameboys, wiis, vacations to Cancun (where they contract syphilis), or get tattoos (and contract Hepatitis)

[3aidlillahi]

The general idea of insurance-- i. e that healthy people pay for sick people's healthcare -- is an asbomination (sic).

Think of it as paying forward for when you're old and sick. At the least the young should (and will be soon) paying for catastrophic insurance. Young, healthy people are being struck down by severe illnesses all the time. And falling off their bikes, being hit by cars, falling out of dorm rooms from too much drink. They use the system, they should help pay for it. Instead they want to buy their iPods, Gameboys, wiis, vacations to Cancun (where they contract syphilis), or get tattoos (and contract Hepatitis)

The young would be happy to buy insurance. On one condition - the older generations pay for the debt which they created rather than passing it to the future generations. But as the system stands right now, I don't think that the youth should have to (nor even could) pay for the boomer's and their children's massive debt and pay for their medical bills as well.

How exactly are we supposed to pay for insurance by the way? The older generations' greed caused the implosion of the economy and now more than 50% of the youth can't find work.

[DomusAlbion]

Here's the bottom line young whiners. You will pay if/when this horrible bill is passed by the federal legislature.

As for my family. We have excellent health coverage through my wife’s work. We're both "Baby Boomers" and we don't plan to retire until we're in our 80's so it's doubtful that we'll be using government paid healthcare for some time. On top of that I've vowed to self terminate if I become too ill. There's no point in dragging out misery.

So don't worry you won't have to carry me on your weak little backs, poor babies.

[Ferretlover]

I have a strange feeling that the uninsured are going to end up worse than before, forced to buy a crappy plan under penalty of fines or jail

I don't see this goiing through--unless there's some other activities planned that need this for a foundation.
Just where are people, especially those with no jobs, going to come up with the money?
At least people with no homes are mobile and may take some time to be caught checked.
And, with the prisons all over crowded, where are these people going to be housed for their sentences? Oh, wait, Gitmo will be opening up soon...

[Nefarious]

"Sir you have been found not to have health insurance.I sentence you to be incarcerated for one year, where you will be confined with thieves, murderers,rapist, and others of your ilk. You are a scourge to this society. May you use this time wisely to reflect upon your crimes and come out a rehabilitated and productive member of society ."

[vision-master]

The young would be happy to buy insurance. On one condition - the older generations pay for the debt which they created rather than passing it to the future generations. But as the system stands right now, I don't think that the youth should have to (nor even could) pay for the boomer's and their children's massive debt and pay for their medical bills as well.
How exactly are we supposed to pay for insurance by the way? The older generations' greed caused the implosion of the economy and now more than 50% of the youth can't find work.

Who paid for your insurance while in collage?