That’s pretty much what I saw at DU too. Lots of comments against the mandate. And some comments against dropping the public option.
I saw one post over there that claimed that the penalty was so low that the mandate wouldn’t matter. That the penatly was 0.5% of income. So someone earning $20,000 would pay $100 in extra taxes for not having insurance.
I thought the penalty was 2.5%, but I’m not sure where I got that.
It is 2.5....
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/22/health.care.main/?hpt=T1
Excerpt:
Under the plan now headed to Obama, individuals are required to purchase health insurance coverage or face a fine of up to $750 or 2 percent of their income — whichever is greater. It includes a hardship exemption for poorer Americans.
The compromise package would drop the individual fine to $695 or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is greater. The fine on companies failing to provide coverage would jump to $2,000 per employee.