What happens if I do not meet the mandate?
If you don’t have health insurance by Dec. 31, 2007, you will lose your personal income tax exemption for 2007. That exemption gives you a Massachusetts tax savings of approximately $219.
In 2008, the cost of the penalty goes up. The fine will equal half of the cost of the lowest-priced Health Connector-certified plan for each month that you don’t have coverage
Waivers will be available for those who cannot afford a plan that meets the rules. Check back for updates.
How is the mandate enforced? The Massachusetts Department of Revenue will enforce the individual mandate through the tax process.
There, does that do it for you genius?
Do you likewise think mandatory auto insurance is "liberal" --- and rail against the Governor of any state with such a mandate.
(which by the way costs up to $2,000 a year for car insurance as opposed to the minimum $150 for catastrophic health coverage)
And if you DO accept mandated auto insurance, what does that say about your logic?
How’s this for a retort, even though it is not directly related?
49 of the 50 states in America use tax dollars to pay for abortions, according to the ACLU, most of them governed by conservative Republican Governors.
If Romney bashers want to paint Romney as an uber liberal for his $50 co pay, or whatever it was that the courts ordered put in Mass health coverage, then are all these REPUBLICAN Governors also uber liberals.
http://www.aclu.org/reproductiverights/lowincome/16393res20040721.html
From the ACLU website....
“Currently ... seventeen states fund abortions for low-income women on the same or similar terms as other pregnancy-related and general health services.
(See map.) Four of these states provide funding voluntarily (HI, MD, NY,1 and WA); in thirteen, courts interpreting their state constitutions have declared broad and independent protection for reproductive choice and have ordered nondiscriminatory public funding of abortion (AK, AZ, CA, CT, IL, MA, MN, MT, NJ, NM, OR, VT, and WV).2
“Thirty-two of the remaining states pay for abortions for low-income women in cases of life-endangering circumstances, rape, or incest, as mandated by federal Medicaid law.3
(A handful of these states pay as well in cases of fetal impairment or when the pregnancy threatens “severe” health problems, but none provides reimbursement for all medically necessary abortions for low-income women.)
Finally, one state (SD) fails even to comply with the Hyde Amendment, instead providing coverage only for lifesaving abortions.