Obamacare’s individual mandate is the lynchpin of the act. The provision that forces all citizens to buy health insurance — regardless of age, medical history or obvious death wish — is so important Chief Justice John Roberts prostituted his position on the court to uphold its obvious illegality.
The individual mandate was touted as the mechanism that would cause 20 million or so uninsured to finally get health insurance and stop burdening leftist consciences.
Without the individual mandate forcing the young and healthy to buy insurance so their premiums can subsidize the old and sick, the system falls apart. The revenue from health care frequent flyers is simply not enough to begin to cover the cost they impose on the system.
Just as socialism forces the hardworking to support the lazy, socialized medicine uses the premiums of the healthy to pay for the sick.
The theory was, if you can dignify this collection of wishful thinking and compulsion with that term, a large fine for not having insurance would be enough to coerce the uninsured into the system, thereby spreading the cost over a much larger revenue base.
That made sense until we remember one of the reasons the uninsured don’t have health insurance is because it costs too much. Obama’s responded was to subsidize insurance premiums by charging the middle class more and using tax dollars to make up the difference. That pushed opting out higher up the income ladder as middle class families found themselves paying too much for what they were getting.
Six years after passage, the country still has about 20 million uninsured and the companies that were so eager to embrace this captive market are losing their scrubs.
And it’s about to get much worse.
Time magazine reports families with no insurance are facing penalties of $324 per adult and $162.50 per child or 2 percent of household income, whichever is greater. Next year the penalty is worse: $695 per adult, $347.50 per child or 2.5 percent of income.
The “cheapest” family Obamacare plan costs $12,420 per year with a $6,000 deductible. That’s why individuals and families are opting out and we still have millions of uninsured. As Time complains, “That’s a raw deal, especially as the Affordable Care Act has done nothing to lower insurance costs like its supporters claimed.”
And this is where socialized justice causes everything to fall apart. These fines will never be paid and there will be no penalty for not having insurance in the future — other than a long wait in the emergency room.
Obama’s Injustice Department ruled it’s not fair to impose debt on lower–income people and force them into “cycles of poverty that can be nearly impossible to escape.” That’s why Ferguson, Mo., was required to stop fining low–income residents for breaking the law.
This Ferguson Fine Effect is now spreading to the rest of the nation.
The Atlantic reports Injustice Dept. functionaries have written a letter to state judges warning that “jailing people because they can’t pay fines; making fines a prerequisite for a judicial hearing; and using bail or bond practices that leave poor people in jail only because they can’t afford to pay for their release” violates due process.
This overlooks the fact that it costs absolutely nothing to obey the law, regardless of income level.
If the feds are now making obeying state misdemeanors optional for people under a certain income cutoff, how can the IRS be expected to impose fines, garnish wages and/or jail those who fail to buy an Obamacare policy?
It’s simply not going to happen.
We will have a two–tier justice system and a two–tier healthcare system. Families of four, making a reported income of less than $24,300 a year, will find themselves in libertarian paradise. No law short of a felony will apply to them. There will be the inconvenience of pausing long enough to sign the ticket or, if your officer is a real fascist, a trip to the station for fingerprints and booking.
But that’s it. The feds say you can’t be denied bail and can’t be put in jail if you don’t pay the fine. Talk about getting government off your back!
Even with subsidies Obamacare policies cost more than free, while uptight doctors require things like “appointments” and “co–pays.” Emergency rooms are open 24 hours a day and you can wander in anytime. And if your reason is serious enough, say a gunshot, you go to the head of the line!
It’s the “soft bigotry of low expectations” spread from the classroom, where the hapless Bush administration first identified it, to the courtroom where this unspoken support of collapsing standards will affect us all.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher (for the League of American Voters), and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.