Government Run Health Care or Jail?

According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, an individual who fails to pay the penalty for not buying health insurance will face action from the Internal Revenue Service. On top of the penalty for not buying insurance, which could be as much as $1,900 (but it's not a tax), violators could face a $25,000 fine and one year behind bars. From Politico.com.

Under questioning from Sen. John Ensign(R-Nev.), Barthold said the IRS would "take you to court and undertake normal collection proceedings."

Ensign pursued the line of questioning because he said a lot of Americans don't believe the Constitution allows the government to mandate the purchase of insurance.

"We could be subjecting those very people who conscientiously, because they believe in the U.S. Constitution, we could be subjecting them to fines or the interpretation of a judge, all the way up to imprisonment," Ensign said. "That seems to me to be a problem."

Ensign's argument, however, wasn't persuasive to the committee -- which rejected an amendment from Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) to eliminate the individual mandate.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was the only Republican to vote with Democrats to preserve the mandate.

So, if you do not have a health care plan, the government is going to make you buy one, whether you want to or not. If you do not buy a heath care plan, the government will fine you up to $1,900. Not just any plan mind you, you have to buy a government approved plan. If you already have a health insurance plan, but it is not a government approved plan, you will have to purchase an approved plan or be fined. So much for "if you like your health care plan you can keep it". Liars!

In either case, if you do not do as the government commands, you will be fined, and if you refuse to pay the fine, the government will charge you with a misdemeanor and penalize you further with more fines and possible jail time. What started out as a means to help the 49 million uninsured in America has taken on a life of it's own, and is now mutated into a way for the federal government to inject itself into the lives of every American with respect to health care.

Americans will no longer have the right;

• to choose to buy health insurance or not.
• to choose the health care plan that we think is best for our needs.
• keep the plans and doctors that we already have.
• reap the rewards of youth or healthy living by virtue of the fact that payments for coverage will be far more than the actual services received.
• to choose high deductible coverage even if we can afford it.

Of course, if you choose not to give up these rights, you can go to jail, where you will have free room and board, free health care, and free cable TV, all on the tax payers dime.