| "Comply or face zee consequences." Ja volt heir Romney!  U.S. Army Retired |
Posted on 01/01/2008 10:52:23 AM PST by afortiori
Penalties for Massachusetts residents who can afford health insurance but do not purchase it in 2008 could quadruple compared with the maximum penalty in 2007, according to draft regulations released by the Department of Revenue yesterday.
The maximum penalty for those who flout the law and do not buy health insurance would be $912 a year, compared to $219 in 2007.
The higher penalty is intended to get those who are on the fence to buy health insurance. For those wavering, it could make more sense to pay for insurance than to pay the penalty.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
But the penalty is delay-timed to hit in 2009.
Note, the 50 cent rise in the Mass Min Wage to $8.00 today is likely to push some over the $15,324 no-penalty threshold. Stay tuned.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/01/many_workers_hail_a_raise_as_minimum_wage_due_to_kick_in/
The higher penalty is intended to get those who are on the fence to buy health insurance. For those wavering, it could make more sense to pay for insurance than to pay the penalty.
A $912 penalty a year would still be a heckuva lot cheaper than buying insurance for most people. For me that is just 1 1/2 mnths cost of my insurance. I would pay the $912 a year in penalties, pay my doctor cash for each visit, and if I got really sick go to an emergency room where they can’t turn me away anyway.
Of course they didn’t think of that did they?
That is scary.
That is scary.
No its just big brother putting their hands into your wallet.
| "Comply or face zee consequences." Ja volt heir Romney! U.S. Army Retired |
| Romney...the gift that just keeps on giving...sorta like gonorrhea. U.S. Army Retired |
“Who’d you want me to vote for again, Mitt?”
Eventually someone will die in prison for not purchasing state mandated health insurance.
And when that day comes, we will have become the ethical equivalent of the former Soviet Union.
I have to laugh at this,,,,,if you can’t afford the bleepin’ insurance what makes these idiots think you can afford the penalties.......thanks Mitt.
the health care lobby is powerful.
Thank you for your service..........
For those with income/assets, the $912 penalty would be on top of the medical bills one would have to pay for self-insuring in the event of catastrophe.
It’s the prospect of a penalty plus medical bills that should push people of some means toward group coverage of some kind.
I guess Mitt Romney is okay with this.
So much for Republican governmental fiscal conservatism.
Happy New Year Massachusetts, birthplace of the American Revolution! The revolution which was inspired by a tax on their tea.
Taxpayers are the ones who now pay for “free” care for those without insurance. The idea is to have people pay for their own care, albeit by mandating the purchase of health insurance.
Unless society is willing to deny care to those who can’t/won’t for their own care, how else can you hold individuals responsible for providing for the cost of their own care?
“I guess Mitt Romney is okay with this.”
I’m guessing, but I think he’ll blame the Mass legislature for messing up his “free market” plan.
Just do what the government says and there won’t be any problem.
Screw the ‘government’! There is usally a loophole somewhere, you just have to be smart enough to find it.
Either that or revolution, actually I would prefer that.
Sounds like Mitt is responsible for the largest tax increase in Massachusetts history.
They don't give a rat's a*s - they will confiscate from your income - already set for it.
In the meantime, it's going to cost a lot of jobs, deep six many small businesses, and reduce many jobs to part time, under the compulsory radar jobs of 20 hours a week.
Small businesses with less than 10 employees are exempt - so the burden will fall entirely on the worker. But small businesses with, say, 20 -30 employees are already doing one of two things to survive: Splitting their companies in separate under-10-employees companies, on the book - or cutting/hiring folk at part-time, 20 hours a week.
The ramifications of this Communist mandate will be disastrous for all concerned - but won't be recognized in time to stop a lot of damage...if, indeed, the gov't would allow it to be corrected even then. Once they have a source of new revenue, they don't give it up.
Let ANY democrat or Romney in the WH and it will be made a mandate country-wide - and what will be the penalties for those who don't or can't comply? First, steal the money from your pay check - or, failing that, jail time - And you thought 'Debtors Prison' was outlawed...
Unless society is willing to deny care to those who can’t/won’t for their own care, how else can you hold individuals responsible for providing for the cost of their own care?
But you are not holding individuals responsible. You are implementing laws that apply to everyone. The totally healthy Christian Scientist who has never and never will see a doctor is subsidizing whoever is using the emergency room without insurance.
It is not a personal responsibility fix, it is a socialist fix.
"From each (and every) according to our plan, TO those who need it".
But it is slickly packaged to obfiscate the issue, just like it's famous supporter.
They can turn you away unless it is a medical emergency (strictly defined). They will do a triage and then may recommend a low-cost clinic if you can't afford the treatment. If you are a cash patient and sign the paperwork they will administer the treatment (unless you are already a deadbeat with that facility and it is not a medical emergency).
Well, is that the way it is supposed to work? lol Doesn’t work that way in California, just one visit to the er can tell you that.
You said: But you are not holding individuals responsible.
How can individuals be held responsible when a 1986 federal law mandates that everyone who shows up for care in an emergency room must be seen ?
Get rid of that law, and we wouldn’t need to care if anyone has insurance.
A mandate shouldn’t exceed a basic catastrophic plan.
We would feel more like voluntarily giving charity if it went to the truly hapless and helpless, and if our medics worked in a free enterprise system, instead of the current tangle of regulations, restrictions, and tax tunnels.
There shouldn’t be any mandates. A free republic has a free enterprise economy.
And all th while the elected thieves get theirs for free.
It is NOT free. You, I, and millions of others pay for it.
If you believe this is ok, mandating health insurance, then you are NOT a conservative and need to go to DU for your next post. No where in our constitution does it give the government the right to force people to buy insurance or anything else for that matter. This is totalitarian in the extreme and should be denounced by any right thinking conservative.
Tight wads like you who are worried about a few bucks out of tax revenues to pay for some peoples ER visits are willing to throw freedom down the tube in the hopes you will gain a tax cut. Good luck on that. How much money do you think we will actually "save"(individually or collectively) with mandated health insurance? You will never see a dime of it and government will keep right on spending and then morph the mandatory insurance into socialized medicine when the mandatory doesn't work. What a jerk, you and all the others like you who would see our freedom go down the toilet for a few bucks, especially when you will never see the bucks you imagine will be yours.
You want to save money on ER visits? Then do something about illegal aliens, they are the biggest users of ERs and the ones most likely not to pay a dime.
Absolutely correct.
Needs to be repeated over, and over, and over, .....
You have a point.
Yep
Penalities add up so fast they could break you.
WE NEED A CONSERVATIVE PRESIDENT.
I know a couple of people who are not working,,,,unemployment ran out and they are still unemployed, jobs aren't exactly a dime a dozen here in MA, however, these people who are unemployed only have very very limited funds for the time being,,,,I'm waiting to see what the State does about these people, who determines what one can afford especially not knowing what kind of bills a person has and IMO, the bills get paid first before health care, I personally went years and years without healthcare, luckily I am healthy,,,,,,,I too heard recently that bigger companies are splitting into smaller ones to avoid penalties, smart thinking businessmen! This is a bleepin' fiasco, you can't get blood from a rock....go ahead and penalize if a person doesn't have the money penalizing them isn't going to make a difference........
Whether the mandate is a good idea or not, people aren’t forced to buy insurance; they can opt to pay the penalty, much like the money the taxpayer is forced to pay for the uninsured care of others.
You said: “Tight wads like you who are worried about a few bucks out of tax revenues to pay for some peoples ER visits are willing to throw freedom down the tube in the hopes you will gain a tax cut.”
How is the penalty any more coercive than the tax revenues collected to pay for uninsured car? At least the penalty involves some individual choice and responsibility.
The only thing that isn’t compulsory in all this is the insurance, which seems to be your greatest concern.
If a person doesn’t have an income how are they supposed to pay for the insurance let alone for the stooooooopid penalties! You can’t get blood from a rock, and if a person can’t pay for either, then what,,,,throw them in jail? This is absurd IMO! The legislature is so sleazy in this state I’m positive they will tap into a person’s income tax return.........anything goes in this state.
vaudine
Unless you are an illegal, I imagine they will consider it your problem.
EXACTLY! And that is where another problem lies......ILLEGALS will not be part of this,,,,the rest of us will have to pay through the nose whether we have the money or not........
I’m guessing, but I think he’ll blame the Mass legislature for messing up his “free market” plan.
If Mitt Romney can not keep the Mass Legislature from passing such garbage, how can we hope that he can keep the Democrats in congress from grabbing an American citizen's property like that, or in any other weird backhanded way lobbyist, (some international, say - a tax for the UN), might propose?
Can you believe it.
Oh hell yea!
I know a case of a self-employed business man that was driven out of business due to some illegal machinations of a big wig who ran the department for the mega-business this businessman was doing business with - the big wig thought how nice it would be if HE had the business himself, and systematically put all the separate small business owners out of business.
This small business owner got a notice for the IRS that he owed $86,000 and needed to pay within the week to avoid the 100% penalty.
He went to town and gave them a check for $86,000 - making one small mistake: he didn't write on the check "paid in full"} = and the next week, he got another bill for $86,000. When he called to say he had paid, they said, Oh, they put that on the penalty fee and he still owed the 86K...
He had no more money - it keeps 'accruing' and is now over half a million. Where in the name of the Constitution, can that be legal? (His case is/has been multiplied by the thousands across this country. The IRS is nothing more than the Gestapo/KGB arm of the gov't )
So it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that this scenario will be mushroomed with this cockamamie Communist Plan.
The Commie mind-set (and we need to remember that Joe Lieberman was the last Democrat standing in Washington when he left the party - they are all hard-core, card carrying Socialists).
These people actually believe that they have the right to rule every aspect of our lives.
Time for a tea party - and an abolishment of the IRS - Bring on the FAIR TAX. It will clip the wings in DC big time.
I only meant that our elected thieves don’t pay for it themselves.
Like almost everything elected theives get it’s paid for by the voters who put them in office.
They decide what they want, cost is no object
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