Right wing websites spread Obamacare jail time rumor

When you look at the excerpt article of the bill in the mediamatters link, it demonstrates just how complicated the Pelosi House bill is. 

Pelosi fumbled also in her answer.  This made it easy for opponents to attack this bill without much of a challenge. 

This bill, if it passes in its present form, will be a hayday for lawyers for years to come.

My understanding, from Pelosi's version of the bill: 

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses.  Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.”

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/comply-america-pelosi-care-or-jail

For WILLFUL non payment of TAXES levied. Yes the tax penalty can incur as a result of not holding insurance, but you could not have insurance and pay the tax. It is a tax provsion

Most, if not all, politicians don't answer a direct question with a direct response. Thanks for posting.

Read the bill:*snip... paste*c Section 7201 - felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.c "Section 7203 - misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.I realize that it's a popular mythology that Fox lies, but the reality is not the same as the myth.

Well,  W Bush has things in the Patriot Act that made people's hair stand on end.  They do not ever give the extreme sentence, few go to jail,  so it's no big deal. There are many things on the books that we can be jailed for, and we aren't.  If Pelosi is so scary, let's begin to dissect laws put on the books by former Presidents and then you'll really lose sleep.  Yes ,  "and/or imprisonment for up to a year" : Do you know how many laws on the books say that?  There are tons.   Many of them began with Reagen and got worse with W Bush.  

Excellent point smk. 

Like rng pointed out, it is a willful nonpayment of tax. Instead of decrying the result of not buying insurance, let's look at the reasoning behind the tax.  If a person choses not to buy insurance, who will be paying or absorbing the costs when they find themselves in the hospital from an accident or serious illness? 

 Five-day hospitalizations have been the norm for more than a decade. What has changed is the fact that the average per day charge has nearly doubled going from $2,164 a day in 1995 to $4,450 in 2008.  This averages to approximately $23,000.00 per hospital stay.  And this is not for a catastrophic illness like cancer or heart disease.  Those can add up to hundreds of thousands dollars.  How many people can pay this out of pocket?  What are their alternatives? If they go into bankruptcy, the health care system has to absorb those costs, and who do you think ends up paying for it?  The insured.  

This is why everyone needs to be in the system.  In order to do that, there must be affordable premiums.  The public option can be the health insurance provider of last resort for those who cannot get insurance through their employer and otherwise would opt to not have insurance.  

Brava to Ms. A 211423!!! :)   I second ALL of the above recommended! ;)

Thank you smk! : )

Let me remind you folks that I didn't open my mouth so that I could have a discussion on single payer health care with a bunch of Marxists. I wouldn't waste my time tilting at that windmill.I opened my mouth SPECIFICALLY because of the title of this thread:Right wing websites spread Obamacare jail time rumor And of course the first response is:More Fox News propaganda? I wonder what Mr Murdoch would think! For ... shame!Well, guess what?. It wasn't a rumor and it wasn't Fox News Propaganda. It was COLD, HARD FACT.You were wrong, FOX was right, and that's the end of the story.Now if you want to sit around and pat yourselves on the back over your support of Pelosi's 2000 page monstrosity, go right ahead. I mean, CONGRESS can't be bothered to read their own legislation, so it's hardly fair to expect YOU lot to read it.

Wow.......I am a Marxist.  LOL

Do you know what a Marxist is? And would that be dialectical materialism or primitive communism and class struggle that would end Capitalism, and the working class would triumph. Or does the revolution occur at a certain stage of industrial society with the emergence of a dictatorship of the proletariat and result in the withering away of the state in favor of a communal relationships?   

At least we gave you an avenue to vent your emotions Eric Scher because you don't know what a Marxist is.

Bravo,  RNG. 

Let me remind you folks that I didn't open my mouth so that I could have a discussion on single payer health care with a bunch of Marxists. I wouldn't waste my time tilting at that windmill.I opened my mouth SPECIFICALLY because of the title of this thread:Right wing websites spread Obamacare jail time rumor 

 And please,  Eric,   watch who you call a "Marxist".  I respect your opinion,  but let's stick to the facts:  I do not like Marxism,  and I adhere to a democratic regulated free enterprise,  with brakes on rampant Capitalism.  I am not even a die-hard liberal or Democrat;  I am a philosophical and epistemic Libertarian.  I hold radically conservative views on many issues,  so don't tell me who I am.  "Right wing websites spread Obamacare jail time rumor"  is fitting and proper.  I did not say anything untoward, and have worked as a journalist and a press agent for many years.  Jail time is proper for many things,  those which George W Bush and Ronald Reagen believed, as well as Pelosi and Obama.  The 'false rumor' part is pretending this is some unique, singular event, as though this threat of jail has not sat over us with the Patriot Act and every other thing.  We may go to jail, yes,  now let us see what we can do to avoid it, instead of acting like hysterical, paranoid lunatics.  The state is always over us:  It was with Reagen,  it will always be so.  Read Hobbes' Leviathan, and do not bring out that 'Marxist' word,  because I am not a Marxist, and will not be called one.  

We posted at once,  A!!!  Yes, being called a 'Marxist' when one has presented philosophical papers refuting Marxism is just not what I am in the mood for tonight.  

It's okay smk.  Put down the cigarette.  Eric is just in a huff because now he won't have the rest of us to pay for his hospital bills when he decides not to buy health insurance. 

Hey, if you espouse Marxist ideas, then you're a Marxist.Beyond that, I'm not interested in buying what you're selling.I DO owe everyone an apology for the multi-posts thought. Sorry.

He's using Republican talking points. PERIOD. Hell be FINE once he actually is a user of the system as has been the experience with health reform in other countries. I suspect that conceptualizing the reform prior to implementation TAXES many of the opposers. I don't think any of them will end up in JAIL despite what FOX tries to tell them You MARX (sic) my words

I think I got them all in there

Hey, if you espouse Marxist ideas

Since when does knowledge of a topic, be it Marxism or anything else, equate to adopting it?  If you want to talk about some other topics of political thought, lead on McDuff!