LAC News
Updated! Feeling Fine or Facing Fines?
By By Ken Ervin
September 2009

This health care thing just goes from bad to worse.  According to the Associated Press, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) is floating a new health care plan that would fine Americans up to $3,800 for failing to buy health insurance.  Lemme see … Baucus … Baucus … Oh yeah.  He’s the senator who, according to OpenSecrets.org, has accepted over four million dollars in contributions from the health care and insurance industries over the course of his career.  Hmmmm.  And he wants to fine me $3,800 if I don’t buy health care from his campaign supporters?  Well, at least there’s no conflict of interest here.

And the Washington Examiner’s Chief Political Correspondent, Byron York, recently took note of something utterly frightening.  Apparently, the IRS will play enforcer for President Obama and the Democrats’ health care plan and will decide if your insurance coverage is “acceptable” or not.  If it’s not acceptable, you could face substantial fines and punishment.

Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, has been concerned about this for weeks, and actually raised this concern in a list of questions for constituents to ask their congressmen at town hall meetings.  This one scares me:

“If every person in America is required to have health insurance or else they get fined, what happens if they can’t pay the fine? Will bureaucrats have the power to decide what happens to them?  If a family cannot afford the government insurance or the fine, can a government agent — like the IRS — garnish their wages, put a lien on their house, and even throw them in jail? If not, where in the bill does it protect individuals from government abuses?”

And that’s just another reason to oppose the government takeover of health care.

Update (9/28/2009): Kudos to Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada), whose questions at the markup of the health care bill produced this smoking gun, a handwritten note on Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) letterhead from JCT Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming some pretty stiff penalties for those who refuse to buy health insurance.  The note reads: 

“Sec. 7203 of the Code provides that if there is a willful failure to file, pay, maintain appropriate records and the like that the taxpayer may be charged with a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to $25,000 and not more than one year in jail.”

According to Politico, Ensign’s questioning also revealed, through Barthold’s admission, that the IRS will “take you to court and undertake normal collection proceedings.”