Here's the link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/how_does_the_individual_mandat.html

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The Washington Post
Ezra Klein
How does the individual mandate work?

PowerStroker · UNSTOPPABLE!

RE: House Passes ObamaCare

SELLC · CERTIFIED POST WHORE

PowerStroker, you are dreaming if you think this law is not going to meet serious resistance once the American public starts getting slapped with fines. I myself think the best course of action for Republicans is to solidify the fact Obama was not qualified to run for President. That way we can undo EVERYTHING he has done with no resistance.

I am not willing to accept a bullshit law because the Democrats needed something to put on their mantle. A peice of shit on the mantle is still a peice of shit.

PowerStroker · UNSTOPPABLE!

NOBODY is going to get slapped with fines. All that is going to happen is that when the people who don't purchase healthcare file their income taxes, they will reaize they don't qualify for the $700 healthcare DEDUCTION.

SELLC · CERTIFIED POST WHORE

Oh I see... You read the healthcare law, so you must be able to quote the page and paragraph that addresses this "Fine/Deduction" right?

Could you please give it to us? Because I am officially calling BULLSHIT!

PowerStroker · UNSTOPPABLE!

Here's the link: http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/enforcing-the-individual-mandate/

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FactCheck.org

Enforcing the Individual Mandate
January 22, 2010
Q: How does health care legislation propose to enforce the individual mandate?

A: The Internal Revenue Service would verify whether individuals meet the requirement to have health insurance, and collect a tax if they dont.

FULL QUESTION

How is it stated in the different bills how the mandated insurance will be handled and checked to see if people have it or not? I have heard different versions, so I am wondering which is correct.

FULL ANSWER

One of the most controversial features of the health care overhaul legislation is the requirement that most individuals obtain acceptable health insurance coverage. Those who dont would have to pay a penalty (unless they are exempt). It would fall to the Internal Revenue Service to police the requirement.

Both the House and Senate bills contain a mandate and impose a penalty in the form of a tax on those who fail to comply, but the Senate bills tax would be lower in most cases. The House-passed bill (H.R. 3962) imposes a 2.5 percent tax, while the penalty in the Senate-passed bill (H.R. 3590) would phase up to a maximum of 2 percent. Furthermore, the Senate bills tax would be calculated based on taxable income, while the House bills tax would fall on modified adjusted gross income, which is higher. Taxable income excludes deductible expenses such as home mortgage interest and charitable donations. Both bills say that the tax penalty cant exceed the cost of the average national premium.

Both bills provide "hardship" exemptions from the mandate for individuals and families for whom health insurance would be unaffordable, and exemptions for those with religious objections.

It would be up to the IRS to verify that individuals are complying with the health insurance mandate, and to collect the tax penalty from them if they arent. Both the House and Senate bills contain sections that would amend the Internal Revenue Code and require either health insurance companies or employers to provide individuals with documents containing the specifics of their insurance coverage (e.g., name(s) on the insurance policy, period of insurance coverage, etc.). Individuals would then submit that information with their federal tax returns as proof of coverage. The IRS would be responsible for verifying that health insurance is acceptable.

Some believe that the health care bills put too much on the IRS plate. Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and John Cornyn of Texas issued a press release in December questioning whether the IRS, on top of its current responsibilities, will be able to handle its newly proposed ones, which include collecting an assortment of fees that employers and companies would have to pay under the legislation, distributing federal subsidies to small businesses and low-income individuals, and enforcing the insurance mandate.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the IRS, under the House and Senate bills, may need an additional $5 billion to $10 billion in funding over 10 years to implement the bills provisions. The IRS now receives about $12 billion per year in federal money for operating expenses.

DAngelo Gore

Sources
U.S. House. "H.R. 3962, Affordable Health Care for America Act." (as passed by the House on 7 Nov 2009.)

U.S. Senate. "H.R. 3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." (as passed by the Senate on 24 Dec 2009.)

U.S. Congress. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. House-Senate Comparison of Key Provisions. 29 Dec 2009, accessed 14 Jan 2010.

Kaiser Family Foundation. Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals. Accessed 14 Jan 2010.

Galewitz, Phil and Christopher Weaver. "IRS Faces Tough New Duties Under Health Overhaul." Kaiser Health News. 6 Jan 2010.

Office of Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. "Grassley, Cornyn Express Extreme Disappointment With IRS Oversight Board Response to Huge Challenge of IRS Administering of Health Care Reform." Press Release. 16 Dec 2009.

Albright, Aaron. House Committee on Education and Labor. E-mail sent to FactCheck.org. 21 Jan 2009.

Posted by DAngelo Gore on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Filed under Ask FactCheck · Tagged with health care, health insurance, individual mandate, IRS

-- Edited by PowerStroker on Saturday 9th of October 2010 12:50:11 AM

SELLC · CERTIFIED POST WHORE

Ah-Hem....

FactCheck.org, a "truth"-detecting site that is sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation, the same foundation that hired Obama and his terrorist pal William Ayers and gave them millions of dollars for a research project in Chicago. In other words, the least credible source!

This is not a credible source on this forum, and thus should be stricken from the record. Factcheck.org is a left leaning organazation. And you talk about Faux!

Please try again.

PowerStroker · UNSTOPPABLE!

Here's the link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/how_does_the_individual_mandat.html

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The Washington Post
Ezra Klein
How does the individual mandate work?

So long as legal challenges to the individual mandate are in the news, we might as well be clear about what the mandate is, and how it works.

The individual mandate is a requirement that all individuals who can afford health-care insurance purchase some minimally comprehensive policy. For the purposes of the law, "individuals who can afford health-care insurance" is defined as people for whom the minimum policy will not cost more than 8 percent of their monthly income, and who make more than the poverty line. So if coverage would cost more than 8 percent of your monthly income, or you're making very little, you're not on the hook to buy insurance (and, because of other provisions in the law, you're getting subsidies that make insurance virtually costless anyway).

Most people will never notice the mandate, as they get insurance through their employer and that's good enough for the government. But of those who aren't exempt and aren't insured, the choice will be this: Purchase insurance or pay a small fine. In 2016, the first year the fine is fully in place, it will be $695 a year or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is higher. That makes the mandate progressive.

And what happens if you don't buy insurance and you don't pay the penalty? Well, not much. The law specifically says that no criminal action or liens can be imposed on people who don't pay the fine. If this actually leads to a world in which large numbers of people don't buy insurance and tell the IRS to stuff it, you could see that change. But for now, the penalties are low and the enforcement is non-existent.

The theory behind the mandate is simple: It's there to protect against an insurance death spiral. Now that insurers can't discriminate based on preexisting conditions, it would be entirely possible for people to forgo insurance until, well, they develop a medical condition. In that world, the bulk of the people buying insurance on the exchanges are sick, and that makes the average premiums terrifically expensive. The mandate is there to bring healthy people into the pool, which keeps average costs down and also ensures that people aren't riding free on the system by letting society pay when they get hit by a bus.

The irony of the mandate is that it's been presented as a terribly onerous tax on decent, hardworking people who don't want to purchase insurance. In reality, it's the best deal in the bill: A cynical consumer would be smart to pay the modest penalty rather than pay thousands of dollars a year for insurance. In the current system, that's a bad idea because insurers won't let them buy insurance if they get sick later. In the reformed system, there's no consequence for that behavior. You could pay the penalty for five years and then buy insurance the day you felt a lump.

Luckily, consumers aren't usually that cynical, and the experience of places such as Massachusetts suggests that individual mandates encourage people to buy insurance even when it might make sense for people to simply pay the penalty. But for all the furor over the individual mandate, the danger in the bill is much more that it is too weak and too good a deal than that it is too strong and too punitive a tax.

By Ezra Klein | March 25, 2010; 11:55 AM ET
Categories: Explaining health-care reform

SELLC · CERTIFIED POST WHORE

PowerStroker wrote:
And what happens if you don't buy insurance and you don't pay the penalty? Well, not much. The law specifically says that no criminal action or liens can be imposed on people who don't pay the fine. If this actually leads to a world in which large numbers of people don't buy insurance and tell the IRS to stuff it, you could see that change. But for now, the penalties are low and the enforcement is non-existent.

Blow it out your ass Roman!

Here's the link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/how_does_the_individual_mandat.html_______________________________The Washington PostEzra KleinHow does the individual mandate work?

Here's the link: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/how_does_the_individual_mandat.html

_______________________________
The Washington Post
Ezra Klein
How does the individual mandate work?