4 Million Americans To Be Fined Unless They Get Health Coverage When Obama’s Plan Kicks In

By on April 23, 2010 in News 13

From Nick Pell’s article “Hate To Say I Told Ya So” from the Black Sun Gazette:

And that’s not just a cliche. I hate being right about this shit. Believe me, nothing would make me happier than feeling like I could cheerlead for the Democrats or some broad-based left formation. It would certainly make my life a lot easier and I might be able to declare a “victory” from time to time. The sad fact is that the Democrats and the left groups who apologize for them are not merely misguided souls on the same team as me. Nor are they merely deceivers who mislead the working class. Rather, they are active participants in attacking the working class, their living standards and working conditions.

Case in point: Not only will the health care bill leave four million people uninsured — to say nothing of the people paying too much for sub-standard coverage — it will fine them for the privilege. So not only are Americans now a captive audience of insurance conglomerates that would sell their organs if a profit could be turned on them, those who can’t afford to provide further profits for insurance companies will be fined.

Read More at the Black Sun Gazette

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  • http://twitter.com/swadeshine Wade A. Inganamort

    After the unpaid fines for being poor kick in, just wait for the “Jail the Poor” campaign. Good times.

  • voxmagi

    Well, at least you arent alone on the bandwagon for “It's a Trap!” I told my friends that a successful Chicago politician is fundamentally incapable of acting against the interests of large businesses. Admittedly, I am still less miserable than I was a couple years ago, since the scam artist propped up by megacorporations to move their agendas forward is at least capable of speech in public and doesn't look like a bewildered hillbilly on the world stage, but thats about all i hoped to get out of the election.

    For those who imagined the advent of Utopia…well…I can't even imagine how they manage to delude themselves anymore.

  • http://twitter.com/rBecky rBecky

    There's 50 million uninsured Americans. So let's complain that 4 million might still be uninsured! Complaining is better than working, amirite! Yeah!!!

    • http://www.blacksungazette.com Nick P.

      Cheerleading for the Democrats is way better than pointing out the role they actually serve, amirite?

      Also, these people are going to be FINED for not having insurance. Can anyone name another law that requires me to tithe a certain percentage of my income to insurance companies?

      In cheerleading for this law not only are you cheerleading for the administration, you're effectively acting as a propagandist and advertiser for the insurance and pharmaceutical cartels that supported this law. Since you seem to be an incredibly dense person, I will put it in plain English: The law isn't “better than nothing” it's actually WORSE than the current system.

      But whatever. Bury your head in the sand and continue to cheerlead for the slightly less right-wing party. After all, they give you lots of reasons to continue supporting them, right?

      • http://twitter.com/rBecky rBecky

        You tithe most of your income taxes to private defense companies! Let's KEEP it that way! Awesome!

        • Hadrian999

          sadly this is the only difference between the parties,
          whose pocket they are in and which stores their mindless lackeys buy their uniform.

        • Polymorpheous

          actually most of your income taxes pay for the interest on our outstanding debt.

          oh and BTW, Obama's 2011 defense budget is $741.2 billion.

      • voxmagi

        nailed it…the worst part of the DNC is that when its constituents DONT hold their feet to the fire and force them to push for policy with teeth…you get this…this flaccid, pathetic giveaway to insurance agencies, who will now provide a special level of even crappier insurance for millions of Americans, and still skip out on hard luck cases with serious illness, while bludgeoning the rest of us into signing up for insufficient coverage.

        Once upon a time, we couldn't afford it. Now at long last we can pay for it AND not afford it at the same time. Yay. Feel my underwhelmed joy.

    • sallyho

      Yes. Let's complain! Face the fact that medicine is part of a world cultural commons! It should be free and available to all citizens just like… the rest of the industrialized world. Single payor=socialism… Paying-to-get-to-the-front-of-the-line=anti-humanism.

      So yes. Complain. Protest. Riot. How the hell else are we, the people, going to be heard…? Check your Good-Morning-America TV again. Nobody at the top is listening…yet.

  • mcgibbo

    Why does he mention the working class when the article he cites says the middle class will pay?
    “Americans who don't get qualified health insurance will be required to pay penalties starting in 2014, unless they are exempt because of low income, religious beliefs, or because they are members of American Indian tribes. The penalties will be fully phased in by 2016.

    About 21 million nonelderly residents will be uninsured in 2016, according to projections by the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation. Most of those people will be exempt from the penalties.”
    religious beliefs? wtf? is that something to do with Quakers? I'm not American so I don't know the full story.

  • RONIN

    As I understand it, taxpayers have to subsidize people who receive healthcare, but don't have health insurance. So the idea is that these fines will give people an intensive to not “game the system,” as I believe were Obama's words.

    Now it seems, to me, that this assumes guilt without the burden of proof (if I'm using that term correctly).

    Why not impose fines solely on those who get treated without coverage, so that people are actually getting punished for something that they do, and not something that someone else has done in the past.

    Perhaps there's something I'm missing.

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