FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Health care reform is now the law of the land... and part of that law is that everyone has to have insurance. Those who don't could be fined.
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The law creates penalties in the tax code as an incentive to buy insurance...
For example, by 2014 - an adult who doesn't have insurance would have to pay $95 or one-percent of their income... whichever is more.
In 2016, that penalty increases to almost $700 per person... and about $2,000 per household, or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is more.
The penalty is only enacted if you go more than three months a year without health insurance; and it doesn't apply to everyone.
Some people are exempt - including those at the lowest income levels, people in prison or objecting on religious grounds, or members of Native American tribes.
Massachusetts has had a similar penalty system tied to its health insurance system for a few years. In 2008 - the state fined about 1.5 percent of all taxpayers.
Critics, including some Republicans, say this system means the Internal Revenue System will need to hire many new agents, and that the IRS will be "more deeply involved in our lives than ever before."
But Democrats say the IRS has been able to implement other new taxes without major problems; and President Obama insists that the only way to make insurers cover everyone is for everyone to be required to buy health insurance.
Here’s my question to you: Should the government be able to force you to have insurance?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Michael in Dallas, Texas writes:
The government forces me to give it part of my income. It tells me how fast to drive. It forces everyone who needs a license to work to prove that we are good enough. In some areas of this country, government tells us how and where we can build a house, how well we must tend the lawn and even what colors we might paint it. We are forced to have liability insurance to drive and government allows mortgage lenders to force us to have home owner’s insurance. As government ends up picking up the tab for those without health insurance and need for care, why shouldn’t it be allowed to require health insurance?
Barbara writes:
I'm failing to find the logic in being required to buy insurance when I can't afford the premiums. And if I could, I likely wouldn't be able to afford to use it with the co-pays and deductibles. There is something not right about being required to buy something I can't afford to use. Or am I missing something here?
Rob writes:
All communist states can demand anything from their citizens. You must be confusing us with another democratic country to ask such a question, comrade.
Terry writes:
Governments sometime need to act in the common good. Health care insurance is a necessity to safe-guard against unanticipated financial risk or ruin. Most states require auto insurance and I don't hear Americans complaining that they need to carry public liability or face penalty and/or an inability to register a vehicle.
Sean in Maine writes:
Nothing like government using the I.R.S. to force you to fork over your money to a giant insurance corporation. No matter who wins elections, or what progress we seem to make, Corporate America ALWAYS wins. Unbelievable.