Am I going to be forced to purchase health insurance?

[Subdivisions]

By forced, I mean, is there going to be a penalty fine if I don't? I'm so confused by all the discussion and debate around the healthcare issue that I can't seem to focus in on a clear understanding of any mandate that may be in this bill.

[emulatorloo]

1. If you can't afford it you will not have to purchase it. n/t

[FSogol]

2. Yes, Armed thugs under the direction of High Priestess Nancy Pelosi

will come to your basement and give you a swirly until your buy insurance. :eyes:

[el_bryanto]

3. How are you supposed to buy insurance with your head in the toilet?

Does having your head in the toilet count as a pre-existing condition?

Bryant

[wolfgangmo]

20. If me and my wife have had an car accident disqualifies us for insurance,

then surely swirlies disqualifies someone.

Crap, there goes half my graduating class in high school. Oh wait. I went to high school in Canada, so they ARE covered.

[Subdivisions]

5. What the fuck is your problem? Are you insinuating that I'm a freeper? Has it

gotten to the point where asking a simple fucking question gets one branded as a basement-dwelling Pelosi-hater?

[FSogol]

6. I'm just joking around, fly-off-the-handle-guy. I was making fun of a

RW scare tactic. Where exactly did I brand you as a freeper/basement dweller/ Pelosi hater or say anything about you at all?

[Subdivisions]

7. Well, it's kinda hard to tell unless one knows you're joking. I've read your

post 4 or 5 times now and I still can't see how I could tell it was a joke. Maybe a sarcasm tag would have helped.

[FSogol]

8. Perhaps. BTW, response #4 to your OP is the correct one. n/t

[Subdivisions]

14. Thank you. My apologies for "flying off the handle". n/t

[FSogol]

15. No problem, just assumed you were having a bad day. n/t

[Subdivisions]

16. Actually, it's starting off a good day. Sun is shining (a recently rare

occurence here in N. Texas), the air is good and cool, and my coffee is hot. =)

[blondeatlast]

9. Well, I laughed at the joke even without sarcasm tag. Anyone who's heard the RW

spin should have gotten the joke but maybe you don't watch TV, surf the net, or read newspapers.

(btw: my post is also a /jk)

[Subdivisions]

11. Well, I'm not through my first cup of coffee. Therefore, brain farts are allowed. n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

13. You're not goose-stepping!

Now, GET IN LINE! :-) For the record, I think MILLIONS of people are asking the same question.

[Warpy]

4. There's a reason for that

Congress is dithering and the health insurance giants are using the time to mount one of the craziest disinformation campaigns I've ever seen.

The truth is that universal health insurance would have to carry some sort of a mandate because there are always people out there who are too cheap to pay and too stupid to realize they're also going to get injured or sick some day.

What the insurance giants are doing is parading this as a mandate for their dubious services, their fondest wet dream. With their exemption from antitrust laws relieving them of much regulation including price regulation, it's a license to steal and they know it. The flip side of this is the alarmism they're spreading about being forced to buy a government plan and (wink wink) you know how terrible they always are.

I think their crowing is premature, to say the very least. So is the alarmism.

The truth is that neither they nor we know what form the final bill will take since neither house has passed one and the two bills will have to be reconciled into a final form for Obama's signature.

[blondeatlast]

12. Your post should be required reading for, well, just about everybody.

The disinformation that feeds into the media bias that revs up the soft panic among the people who haven't got time to sift through the crap--that's exactly how it's supposed to work, and the OP reflects how effective it is.

[surrealAmerican]

18. Well said.

The only point I would take exception to is your characterization of the healthy people who choose not to carry insurance. It's not necessarily because they are cheap or stupid (although some surely are). They are gambling on not needing medical care because they have what they may consider more pressing needs for their money. Some percentage of them will lose that gamble.

[Warpy]

21. That's the problem, really

especially with young, healthy people who are allowed to opt out for higher pay. They all have something better to do with their money since they're just starting out, wages aren't much, and they might be starting their families.

As I understand it, the public plan premiums will be a sliding scale according to income with a maximum percentage of income at a reasonable level for high earners.

Mandating everybody into an overpriced "pool" of private insurers is insane, though. The sky really is the limit for those bloodsuckers.

[stray cat]

10. You might - the bill isn't decided yet. However, free health care is unlikely

unless you fall into a low income group where the rest of us will pay for it for you.

[flaminbats]

17. Am I going to be forced to pay into Medicare?

I shouldn't be forced to do that until I'm old, disabled, and bitter. :nopity::hurts::nopity:

[blondeatlast]

19. ...

:thumbsup: