The article points out an administrative mess that may not be able to efficiently collect penalties – certainly possible. But I think Limbaugh oversimplifies the very real problem of “owing” the IRS money; in low gear that machine can roll right over you.
I imagine for the new system to really work, we’d have to reverse the Emergency Medical Treatment act http://www.ascensionhealth.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=146&Itemid=172 , signed by Reagan, which amounts to an ultimate taxpayer funded medical plan. Uncompensated emergency room care is used by millions of poor people in this country, and this is what people who don’t sign up will use. Also, they would need to change the rules of medical debt so that it is like education loan debt that follows you to old age. Sure, the ability to declare bankruptcy explains why US has a more vigorous economy than many other states, but that’s not the point. I remember when I visited germany in the 90s, a grad student from east Germany who had been a communist started talking about how americans take their old people to the woods to die when they can’t support them any more. It was hard to explain that this isn’t quite true, yet there are definitely some similar hardship stories where poor people get into desperate situations.
Defense.gov News Photo 110426-A-7597S-183: U.S. Special Operations service members with Special Operations Task Force South board two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters following a clearing operation in Panjwa'i district in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, on April 25, 2011. Source: Wikimedia.
Time to volunteer for that one-way trip to mars.
This says we may not need to worry about Obamacare penalties:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/does-the-obamacare-penalty-actually-have-teeth–144740030.html
@ prov6yahoo
The article points out an administrative mess that may not be able to efficiently collect penalties – certainly possible. But I think Limbaugh oversimplifies the very real problem of “owing” the IRS money; in low gear that machine can roll right over you.
I imagine for the new system to really work, we’d have to reverse the Emergency Medical Treatment act http://www.ascensionhealth.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=146&Itemid=172 , signed by Reagan, which amounts to an ultimate taxpayer funded medical plan. Uncompensated emergency room care is used by millions of poor people in this country, and this is what people who don’t sign up will use. Also, they would need to change the rules of medical debt so that it is like education loan debt that follows you to old age. Sure, the ability to declare bankruptcy explains why US has a more vigorous economy than many other states, but that’s not the point. I remember when I visited germany in the 90s, a grad student from east Germany who had been a communist started talking about how americans take their old people to the woods to die when they can’t support them any more. It was hard to explain that this isn’t quite true, yet there are definitely some similar hardship stories where poor people get into desperate situations.