Who is admired by Fidel Castro?

[Jester]

So you think the language is that there is a tax on the failure to buy health insurance.

Yes.

That mandate requires people to have health insurance, unless they are below a certain income threshold ($9,350 for singles, $18,700 for couples in 2009). Those who don’t get coverage will be subject to a tax of 2.5 percent of their adjusted income beyond that threshold, up to the cost of the average national premium.

If I am understanding it correctly, that means something like this, assuming the baseline individual plan is 5,000 per year.

<$9,350 = $0
$15,000 = $141
$30,000 = $516
$50,000 = $1016
$100,000 = $2266
$200,000 = $4766
And beyond $220,000 or so, you might as well just buy the stupid plan.

That actually looks reasonably progressive. But the penalties are not stiff enough at the bottom end to really encourage the purchase of insurance - it seems likely they'll just end up as a large tax increase on the poor, who will remain uninsured, defeating the whole point. All the while managing to preserve a captive market for predatory HMOs, insurance companies, and big pharma. Faaantastic.

Maybe we could just put a tax on the failure of people to earn an income as well.

Ah, yes, the ever popular "regressive tax", that taxes people in *inverse* proportion to their income. At least you'd create an incentive to earn more!

-Jester