Senate bill fines people refusing health coverage
 

WASHINGTON ? Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals.

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I don't get the US sometimes. If people are forced to pay anyway, why not just tax them and have public health care?

It is an interesting idea. I can see both sides of the argument. For one a person shouldn't be forced to buy something, but on the other hand if they refuse to get it then get sick and don't pay the bill, guess who picks up the tab so in effect their refusal to get health insurance is now forcing everyone else to pay their bill.

If you tax them for health care, the money needs to pay for health care. If you fine them, you can use the money to pay for new bombers.

:upsidedow

I don't know this for sure, but I think the type of people they are targeting would be people who might get the healthcare really cheaply or would get big tax credits to help them pay for it then they don't buy it so they can pocket that money.

An exampl might be a company I used to work for. They gave each employee $100 per paycheck ($200 a month) to buy their insurance. There were several plans that you could choose from and the cost ranged depending on the coverage and number of people in your family. If you refused it, you just got the cash. There were several people I worked with that were covered under their spouse's insurance so the just pocketed the extra $200 a month.

I think this idea is to help avoid that type of thing happening. Still you make a good point. It seems our government has to go about everything the hard way. They could just give the person insurance and keep the cost of it out of their tax returns or something like that.

I'm pretty sure there's an income test on this. My thinking is they don't want people that CAN actually afford health insurance to expect the taxpyers to pay their medical expenses. And we shouldn't have to.

Yes then you get all the republitards spewing about socialism and such. Republicans are probably for this since it means more business for the insurance companies that typcially line the pockets of the GOP.

Yeah the article mentions that there will be aid and things for people with lower incomes. I would assume you just have to prove you are poor and they will give it to you for free, but if you are making 50K a year and just don't want to pay for it then they will get after you about it.

fuck, why not huh. we get fined if we dont have auto insurance, so why not health insurance.

where does the money go? probably to help build new offices for senators