Quote:
Originally Posted by HPLovecraft
So if you can't pay, what happens? How large is the fine? Do you keep getting fined until you can afford it, or what? Thrown in jail? Thrown into the Deathcamps?
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I don't know the details, but it is a system based on what Massachusetts has, and having lived in MA, I can tell you how it works there. I actually just filed my MA tax return a couple of weeks ago, so I remember this pretty well.
1. Lower income persons receive subsidized health insurance.
2. When you file taxes, you must show that you were insured for the entire year. If you a) were uninsured AND b) made enough money that you could have afforded health insurance (as per an income test--I'm not sure what the threshold is) you are assessed a penalty which is added to your tax due. The penalty is about 300 dollars--significant, but much lower than the annual cost of health insurance, honestly. You can avoid the penalty one of three ways:
a. You were a part-year resident.
b. You have religious reasons for not obtaining health insurance. (I'm not making that up. I have no earthly idea what that could mean.)
c. Your income is beneath a certain threshold. (I wasn't anywhere near it, so I'm not sure what it is)
3. Employers are also required to contribute part of the cost of health insurance, if the company has more than 10 employees. This is pretty complicated, but in effect an employer meets the test if about a quarter of their employees are insured.
4. Family plans are required to offer coverage to children.
It's not a terrible system, for all the hand-wringing and pants-pissing that conservatives do over the "penalty." Obviously a single-payer system would be better.