“Looking forward to the hippie hobo bongo player paying $2,000 in taxes every year for health care he probably rarely uses...”
If the hippie hobo bongo player takes care never to have a federal tax refund, he can get away with never paying this tax. And when diagnosed with cancer, he can immediately sign up for health insurance, as the law prohibits any private insurer from turning him down. Ain’t life sweet?
Short of just not filing, if he deigns exemptions to come out to zero tax, Bobocare puts him at -$2,000.
So more likely, yeah, he never files, until as you mention, he gets cancer from smoking (everything). Bobocare signs him up, but his next visit in his hospital bed is from the IRS...