Penalty For No Health Insurance? It Makes Me Sick

[Crapshoot]

All this is about the Government securing future earnings for there corporate buddies and there own personal investments, There greed is going to destroy our great country and there will be a upraising over this. I for one am tired of this debate. First and foremost we as Americans need to stop eating food that makes us sick and then taking a med to try to feel better. Eat less exercise more. Our health care is self inflicted and a conditioning of our minds to go see a Dr. after they see a stupid ass commercial for the latest pill. I am tired of hearing that obesity is a illness no what is sick is that a human being does not have the will power to step away from the Golden Corral buffet line! We are the fattest country on earth, we are the biggest consumers of energy on earth. we are the biggest consumers of health care on earth.

Look if a 50 year old man is so fat he needs a scooter to get around then. I have to say he put himself there. Instead taxing us to pay health care lets have a fat tax yeah that's rite a FAT tax. anything over 20% BMI you pay. I shouldn't have to pay for some twinky eater that can't get off his lazy backside and walk around a bit. The health care system is a scam.

Oh yeah and do not say how lucky I am for good health it is a choice guys.

You know what it's like AIDS we spend all this money on AIDS and the research here is one don't have have unprotected sex and don't use IV drugs and bingo aids goes down in our country, but they crach head wants his fix so he does it anyway. Well then there is the consequences for your actions. You die a nasty death.

I had the exact same attitude as this poster when I was a 111 lb. scarecrow at Parris Island. Now that I am a 190 lb. short 50-year old that has always led an active life, I no longer agree. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I am more physically active than many folks that are 30-50 lbs. lighter than myself.
As the reader may surmise from my posts, I hate generalizations.

He really does......

[casingpoint]

our government needs to finally realize that they are not supposed to be the fix-all for every social ill that plagues this country

You just poked one big hole in Ted Kennedy's "And The Dream Lives On."

If the government can mandate individual citizens buy health insurance, it can mandate they take care of themselves, and how. The first without the second is completely illogical. But politically expedient.

He (Obama) must -- or so he thinks -- say so much about so many things; perhaps he cannot keep track of the multiplying contradictions in his endless utterances. But they -- and the tire tariffs -- are related to the sagging support for his health-care program.

--George F. Will, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03007.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[stevie_d_64]

I just fired-off a short e-mail to Senator Cornyn and asked him not to let any form of this healthcare bill be approved as it usurps the balance of power between Congress, the Judiciary and the Executive Branch (and puts it squarely in the Executive).

We should all follow your lead!!!

Don't worry about sending anything to KBH...She's got enough problems, and she has bit off more than she can chew this time...

[Liberty]

All this is about the Government securing future earnings for there corporate buddies and there own personal investments, There greed is going to destroy our great country and there will be a upraising over this. I for one am tired of this debate. First and foremost we as Americans need to stop eating food that makes us sick and then taking a med to try to feel better. Eat less exercise more. Our health care is self inflicted and a conditioning of our minds to go see a Dr. after they see a stupid ass commercial for the latest pill. I am tired of hearing that obesity is a illness no what is sick is that a human being does not have the will power to step away from the Golden Corral buffet line! We are the fattest country on earth, we are the biggest consumers of energy on earth. we are the biggest consumers of health care on earth.

Look if a 50 year old man is so fat he needs a scooter to get around then. I have to say he put himself there. Instead taxing us to pay health care lets have a fat tax yeah that's rite a FAT tax. anything over 20% BMI you pay. I shouldn't have to pay for some twinky eater that can't get off his lazy backside and walk around a bit. The health care system is a scam.

Oh yeah and do not say how lucky I am for good health it is a choice guys.

You know what it's like AIDS we spend all this money on AIDS and the research here is one don't have have unprotected sex and don't use IV drugs and bingo aids goes down in our country, but they crach head wants his fix so he does it anyway. Well then there is the consequences for your actions. You die a nasty death.

[The Annoyed Man]

Oh yeah and do not say how lucky I am for good health it is a choice guys.

You know almost nothing. Have you ever watched a hemophiliac child — that's an INHERITED disease — die of AIDS acquired from receiving tainted clotting factor? I have. I'm sure that wasn't a choice!

My dad — an intelligent and vital man and a decorated war hero of Iwo Jima who was WIA for his country — died a terrible death of pancreatic cancer, a disease which any anyone would know is not the result of lifestyle choices.

I have fought a weight problem for the past 10 years, brought on by a thyroid condition called Graves Disease — an AUTO-IMMUNE disorder in which one's body suddenly begins manufacturing antibodies which attack one's own thyroid gland. The result most often, and with me, is a raging hyper-thyroidism which has to be treated with radioactive ablation. I am now dependent for the rest of my life on a little thyroid pill. The pills are never really a good substitute for a normally functioning thyroid, and so, despite regular exercise and dieting, I am pretty overweight.

Now THAT'S out of the way...

I posted this elsewhere, but it is just as relevant in this thread:

Y'all are gonna love this:

Flout the mandate penalty? Face the IRS
Politico.com
September 24, 2009
By Carrie Budoff Brown

Americans who fail to pay the penalty for not buying insurance would face legal action from the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The remarks Thursday from the committee's chief of staff, Thomas Barthold, seems to further weaken President Barack Obama's contention last week that the individual mandate penalty, which could go as high as $1,900, is not a tax increase.

Under questioning from Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Barthold said the IRS would "take you to court and undertake normal collection proceedings."

Ensign pursued the line of questioning because he said a lot of Americans don't believe the Constitution allows the government to mandate the purchase of insurance.

"We could be subjecting those very people who conscientiously, because they believe in the U.S. Constitution, we could be subjecting them to fines or the interpretation of a judge, all the way up to imprisonment," Ensign said. "That seems to me to be a problem."

Ensign's argument , however, wasn't persuasive to the committee -- which rejected an amendment from Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) to eliminate the individual mandate.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was the only Republican to vote with Democrats to preserve the mandate.

Ensign receives handwritten confirmation
Politico.com
September 25, 2009
By Carrie Budoff Brown

This doesn't happen often enough.

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.

We are in deep, deep trouble here. For those of you who can't get the PDF of the note to load, here is a slightly reduced copy of it below:


If anybody here voted for "Hope and Change," I hope you're happy with what you got.

[The Annoyed Man]

If a financially capable citizen refuses to by policy and is assessed the penalty, will the federal government have recourse to their personal income and assets to collect?

Yes, the bill currently proposed by the House would give the Federal government direct access to everyone's bank account. In addition, it makes the IRS the enforcer of the law.

Source?

See my above post. It's there. In writing. Is that good enough?

[mr.72]

TAM, thanks for writing what I was thinking.

[aardwolf]

Oh yeah and do not say how lucky I am for good health it is a choice guys.

You know what it's like AIDS we spend all this money on AIDS and the research here is one don't have have unprotected sex and don't use IV drugs and bingo aids goes down in our country, but they crach head wants his fix so he does it anyway. Well then there is the consequences for your actions. You die a nasty death.

Same as people who drive badly and have car wrecks?

What about going stupid places or doing stupid things and getting shot or stabbed for their trouble?

Let's not forget H1N1. Easily preventable with correct precautions.

Same with pregnancy.

[pdubyoo]

TAM, thanks for writing what I was thinking.

Once again TAM...very well said!

My wife suffers from a thyroid disorder as well, and the doc told her that it has absolutely nothing to do with her diet or any other lifestyle choices. To that point, both my father and my wife's father suffer from diabetes. Both have been thin men their whole lives, and have made very good diet choices to boot, including gardening most of their own vegetables. They've both been very active (and still are) and have worked hard all their lives. Lazy is certainly not a word that could be used to describe them. Anyway, my wife and I both eat a respectable diebetic diet in an effort to avoid what has happened to both our fathers. And, she still has a thyroid problem. She's a very hard working lady, and runs circles around me daily. She, like you, is reliant on a little white pill to keep her functioning.

[Liberty]

Seems to me the smoking old fat guys typically just drop dead and don't run up anywhere near the medical bills the tufu eating heath club members do. Personally I believe we need to start taxing athletes. Is it me or aren't these guys always geting hurt and having surgerys? Especially football players!!

Don't see that many smoking fat people at the old age home either. home either ...

Fighting the battle of the bulge is rough, and making me cranky..
I think I'm gonna get me a twinky.

[KD5NRH]

IMO, this pretty well sums it up:
http://mossinterest.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... peech.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[snorri]

By all accounts, the health care package before Congress contains a provision requiring individuals to purchase health insurance. A penalty of over $3,000 is proposed on people who fail to do so, with an excluder for low income folks.

We were discussing this and someone brought up the question of people who, for religious reasons, don't use secular healing. Would they be required to purchase insurance? How about people who use traditional medicine instead of modern medicine for cultural reasons? Would they have to purchase Western medical insurance, or could they purchase insurance that covers TCM (or whatever) instead? What about people who don't like going to doctors? Where do we draw the line?

[stevie_d_64]

By all accounts, the health care package before Congress contains a provision requiring individuals to purchase health insurance. A penalty of over $3,000 is proposed on people who fail to do so, with an excluder for low income folks.

We were discussing this and someone brought up the question of people who, for religious reasons, don't use secular healing. Would they be required to purchase insurance? How about people who use traditional medicine instead of modern medicine for cultural reasons? Would they have to purchase Western medical insurance, or could they purchase insurance that covers TCM (or whatever) instead? What about people who don't like going to doctors? Where do we draw the line?

That is actually a very good point...Those that do not access or desire to have access to healthcare providers for religious beliefs...That could actually be quite a number of people that do this...

[gwholt1]

KD5NRH, thanks for the link. I don't think there is a better rebutal to the question before the congress now, how very appropriate to so many questions in our time.
Garry

[Kythas]

FYI - here's a flowchart drawn up by Senate Republicans showing how to tell if you're able to keep your doctor under the Senate plan:

http://jec.senate.gov/republicans/publi ... t92209.pdf