I know this is now a moot issue and this thread is dead, but I'll add in my 2 cents anyways. It appears things are even more dire than you've said, since believe it or not things got worse, not better, in the final version vis a vie this issue, the mandate.

I imagine it went something like this, when it moved to the Senate, someone very liberal wanted to get rid of the mandate, they couldn't, since as Publius points out, it is nefariously at the heart of the entire law, though it has been talked about as a side issue. Not being able to strike it they tried to soften it. Added in provisions, you couldn't go to jail, it wouldn't kick in until 2014 and since it was (and is an IRS issue) wouldn't affect you until 2015 at the earliest. There were also other provisions, with caps for the amount of the fine, something like $750 a year. The idea of healthcare has been to classify it in terms of gold, silver and bronze plans. So the $750 figure wasn't just pulled from someone's ass but rather a figure based upon the lowest level of min. care provided from the lowest level of bronze care.

Now my guess is, at some point, they hewed far closer to the house plan, and they completely stripped the mandate. Then either it was a sticking point and got traded for something like someone wanting restrictions on abortions or it somehow or another became a political football and it was given up. So they changed the name of it, from individual mandate to "shared responsibility" and added it back in, but this time with virtually no provisions. So that it was prolly tacked on at the end, but ironically is even more conservative than the original senate version, which at least had mention of the poverty line.

The provision about the fact that you can't go to jail for the fines has been stripped. As has any talk of a poverty line or a cap. It starts at 2.5 percent of your yearly income, and it is still an IRS issue, meaning they will take that off of any refund you would have been getting.

The logic being if you have a refund you should have made an allowance for health care and the gov is being an unwilling task master to make you do what you should have had the common sense to do. But it is essentially a flat tax that will hurt those making very little much worse. A "welfare" mom with 5 kids who can't afford to insure them, feels guilty about it, but now loses the monthly bus fare money she used to take them to the free clinic. And that 2.5 percent is multiplied, so for her it would be 12.5 percent of her income.

Oh well, the fight is over. What's done is done.

Whatever you do, don't click this link (studies show you're more likely if you shouldn't)

by tiggerporn on 03/24/2010 02:53:57 PM EST