Posted on 01/13/2014 12:49:46 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
The Obama administration is trying to persuade millions of uninterested, or perhaps reluctant, Americans to purchase health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges. But the heart of Obamacare is coercion. If Americans fail do what the law's Democratic authors believe is best, the federal government will punish them, through the progressively higher penalties of the individual mandate, until it hurts more not to buy coverage than it does to give up and purchase it.
But what if many of those Americans rebel? Even if they know having health insurance is better than not having it, what if they refuse to be forced to buy the kind of coverage dictated by the government -- which may not really meet their needs -- at prices they don't want to pay? What then?
"I don't think Obamacare can survive without people wanting to buy it," Robert Laszewski, the respected health care analyst whose writings on Obamacare have become essential in recent months, told me in an email exchange recently. "How the hell are you going to enforce a mandate to buy something that people don't think is valuable enough to buy? If the uninsured don't start to see value in Obamacare and buy it, is the Democratic solution to fine the heck out of them until it hurts so much they have to buy it? Great political strategy!"
Of course, that's exactly what the strategy is. Democrats designed the penalty for not having "minimum essential coverage" to start low and increase rapidly. For this year, according to a chart prepared by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the penalty is $95 per adult and $47.50 per child. But the penalty cannot rise above $285, or one percent of family income, whichever is higher. (Obamacare uses a measurement called Modified Adjusted Gross Income to determine penalties -- a measure that is usually higher than the Adjusted Gross Income many taxpayers are familiar with.)
In the second year, the penalty will rise dramatically, to $325 per adult and $162.50 per child, or two percent of family income, whichever is higher. The year after, the penalty will take another big jump, to $695 per adult and $347.50 per child, or 2.5 percent of family income. The only limit on the penalty is that it cannot be higher than the national average premium for a Bronze Plan purchased on the Obamacare exchanges. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that could be as much as $5,000 in 2016. And after that initial increase in the penalty, future penalties will rise according to the cost of living.
But Democrats in Congress feared public reaction to actually forcing Americans to write a check to the government to cover the penalty. So instead, the Internal Revenue Service, which is charged with enforcing Obamacare, will subtract the penalty from the tax refunds of those Americans who incur the penalty, provided they are due a refund. Otherwise, the IRS will not have a way to collect the money.
"In the first year, the mandate is useless," said Laszewski. "One percent isn't strong enough. The IRS can't really collect it anyway from anyone who wants to flaunt it. Then we get to the second and third year. Two percent in 2015 and 2.5 percent in 2016. Now we have real money. The IRS still can't collect it, but lots of people will still be troubled by it because they won't like getting nasty letters from the IRS."
As Laszewski sees it, the mandate could become extremely unpopular -- it's already by far the least popular part of Obamacare -- if policies are not what the public wants to buy. Who would want to be forced to buy something he or she doesn't want? That something is not insurance itself -- it is insurance that is ill-fitting and overpriced. "The problem is that the government will be hard pressed to collect a fine on something lots of people don't believe has value," Laszewski said. "This is when it will become a huge political albatross. At the core Obamacare is not sustainable, and the mandate/fine is not politically sustainable, if there are lots of middle class people who see Obamacare as a poor value."
I got in touch with Laszewski after reading an interview he did with the Washington Post's Ezra Klein in which Laszewski explained that if Obamacare had been designed by businesspeople, it might have had more features to appeal to customers. But it was designed by lawmakers and lobbyists and is something quite different. "The problem with Obamacare is it’s product driven and not market driven," Laszewski told Klein. "They didn’t ask the customer what they wanted. And I think that’s the fundamental problem with Obamacare. It meets the needs of very poor people because you’re giving them health insurance for free. But it doesn’t really meet the needs of healthy people and middle-class people."
Of course, the individual mandate forces people to buy coverage whether it meets their needs or not. And Laszewski sees a real possibility that it won't work. If enough dissatisfied Americans simply don't buy the product, he said, that would create political momentum "to get rid of the mandate/fine -- which is effectively the same thing as getting rid of Obamacare." And if that happens, the American health system will be in entirely uncharted territory.
Sometimes it doesn’t even take years of time and economic collapse.
Jesus Christ rode into town one day to a hero’s welcome. Five days later He was nailed to a board.
Twitter @AmericanSpring2014
Ain't that the truth! But maybe we should instead take pity. That's all the little man has, it's how he gets his jollies.
You're right, though. If this nation crumbles, expatriates are going to really get it in the old wazoo. For one thing his Social Security payments might be decreased, or, heck, even disappear. Then, what is he going to do? Crawl back here and look for work, that's what.
Very well said ‘Poss!!! The chicken sh%t coward acts like his little place is the place to be, like none of us here in America isn’t living in their dream homes and locations. Let’s see how the little man begs for muzzie mercy when bound hand and foot their dull blade is pulled across his neck. Bet America would look mighty fine then huh? Then there are those living abroad who think just because there is no overt hostilities towards Americans in those places....(For now!), Fine, live where you want I think but when the SHTF those ‘friendlies’ are gonna go bat sh$t crazy on Americans who they are gonna blame for all of the hell breaking out. Yep, we are all the dummies for staying in America and trying to ‘right our ship’ in and any way we each might. For staying in the America uncountable numbers of our military have given their lives for. Yep, we are just all not thinking clearly I guess. So the little man can go on trashing our great county and mocking the American people....we know just what he is.
There you go again...intentionally missing the point. We don't "hate" you for anything. We laugh at you and chide you for being a coward and deserting your nation when she needs you most, but we don't "hate" you. I'd even be willing to excuse your chicken nature altogether, if you didn't make a habit of bashing America for her problems, and deriding those of us who refuse to desert our nation as idiots.
I'm pretty sure that between the typhoon, the Muslim uprisings, and the Chicoms breathing down the neck of your Turd World "paradise", you're in a lot more pain than any of us manger dawgs. Life isn't perfect in your former nation, but I'd rather be here than anywhere else on Earth...problems and all. I truly hope you are genuinely happy there, sipping your Mai Tais and Monday morning quarterbacking our nation's problems. The happier you are there, the less likely your cowardly, yellow a** is to come back here. We have enough cowards to deal with as it is, so you'd only get in the way.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Yeah, it's prudent to be in a Turd World nation where citizens and residents don't have the right to keep and bear arms, which has a comparatively large and uppity Muslim population, and which the Chicoms have their sights set on.
No way would I ever want to be in my home nation, where people speak my language, share my heritage, and think like I do. Why would I ever want to be where I have the means and the God-given right to take the Republic back from the tyrants who want to destroy it?
I'd much rather be unarmed and helpless when the world economy goes south, and the uppity natives come for a little payback from the American invaders, which they regard as the epitome of evil, and blame for all the world's ills.
I'd much rather have my head sawed off with a dull, rusty machete in a Turd World banana grove, than die with honor, and for a purpose, on my home ground, as my forefathers did to secure my birthright.
/sarc
That's the way I see it, anyway. Don't let the door hit your a** on the way out.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I think lawyers would have a field day with all of this.
No kidding! I haven’t had time to catch up on this thread but I will say, in my mind, that child is already ‘fatherless’, the dolt spends tons of time on here. When my kids where little, the computer never even got turned on!
It’s comical these days, the gloating is so over the top and his attempts to paint it as ‘they are jealous’ is so juvenile!
What a life this one leads, such an inspiration! NOT!
“It’s comical these days, the gloating is so over the top and his attempts to paint it as ‘they are jealous’ is so juvenile!”
All American Girl, I can boil it down for you as to which country is the best in which to live.
I’ve been to many countries and the choice where to live should be based on a “scientific” evaluation of toilet paper. At one time, I had a collection of toilet paper from all those countries. The worse toilet paper they have, the worse the country is. This is an infallible evaluation of countries. The best toilet paper in the world is in the United States. I won’t charge you for this scientific report.
“However, there are places in the world where that is not the case and Americans are not blamed for the government’s problems.”
________________________________________________________
Yes, I have yet to visit a country where Americans are not welcome. In the Philippines, westerners from Europe and America are as welcomed as anywhere in the world, and they are everywhere. My closest friends are from Cape Cod, Texas, CA, and PA. That does not include those that I see walking or biking down my beach road. Even the smallest villages have American and European expats. While expats are good for the economy, even the poorest, including me, are just as welcome.
Yes, poverty, as we view it, is rampant, but you see the people laughing, not crying. They are not waiting for the government to bail them out.
I have never visited a Muslim country, and never will. That is the only line that I would draw.
Those on here that castigate expats have probably never been to another country, unless while in the military.
While I am an American, going back to my great great great uncle of 1812, I will use my retirement years visiting other countries and cultures. My twin brothers, and my daughter, back in the US, do the same.
The dog’s in a manger on here are very vociferous in bashing me, saying that I am bashing America, and crowing about my happy life. I have never bashed America, and I have never advocated that one should get out. That depends on them and their current situation. I bash those that are running the show now, mainly Obozo. I, like others, feel that conditions in the US will get only worse, before, if ever, they get better. I do know that America will never return to being the country that I grew up in, even though I am on FR daily, since 1999. If I did not care, I would not be here.
Yes, I do post that I am happy. If that bothers them, so be it.
So your repetitive bleats about the "USSA" are actually compliments?
You’re building up a straw man and knocking it down.
There are countries that aren’t Muslim, the Chicoms aren’t targeting, and where gun ownership is legal.
Oh, and they speak multiple languages, including English.
You can choose to have no exit. Plenty of Jews stayed in Germany and Poland in the 1930s. Bully for you. A dead martyr in a lost cause is still dead.
Whether the U.S. can be saved remains to be seen. To deny that it’s in jeopardy of collapsing into anarchy or converting into a totalitarian state is to deny reality.
To have no escape plan is just as foolish as locking yourself into a burning house with no means to exit and inadequate resources to put out the fire.
It’s got nothing to do with “hate”. It’s about gloating, and tweaking, and acting like an ass to people.
And clearly he doesn’t get it, because he does it over and over again, on multiple threads, even after being warned about it by mods.
Ehh...
Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
...W. Scott
This thread is about the Philippines, so that's what I'm talking about. If you meant to refer to countries other than the Philippines, maybe you should be more clear next time.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Absolutely priceless! Send me the bill, this inside information is worth every cent :)
Hey chickensh%t, what the hell is your ‘USSA’ crap other than America bashing garbage? Stay over in your little turd world coward. We do not want you here.
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