Q: Starting next year, everyone will be required to get health insurance or they will face a fine. How much is the penalty?
A: Starting in 2014, if you do not have health coverage, you will be penalized when you file your tax return the following year. For an individual, the fee is a minimum of $95, or 1 percent of adjusted income -- whichever is greater. For a family, the minimum penalty can't be more than $285 -- but it can go as high as 1 percent of adjusted family income.
Within two years, there's quite a jump. In 2016, the penalty is $695 for every adult, and the minimum penalty for a family is capped at $2,085. However, it can be as high as 2.5 percent of the family income -- whichever is greater.
So, we don't know what coverage will cost, but the penalty for not having it will be $95 the first year, or possibly not. With a max penalty for a family $285, or possibly not.
Thanks MSNBC, it is crystal clear, now.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Somewhere, there's a large Plinko board that describes it all.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Don't have the money to buy health care? That's okay, there's a fine you can pay instead! Can't afford the fine? Well now it's a tax violation, so you better afford the fine or go to jail!
Now don't you feel better?
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
"I've never seen a time-- can you remember a time in your lifetime when a major political party was just sitting around, begging for America to fail?"
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
After missing the midnight Eastern deadline to avert the shutdown, Republicans and Democrats in the House continued a bitter blame game, each side shifting responsibility to the other in efforts to redirect a possible public backlash.
...
A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed about one-quarter of Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown, 14 percent would blame Obama and 5 percent would blame Democrats in Congress, while 44 percent said everyone would be to blame.
Every single member of Congress deserves assassination at this point.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
met with messages citing high traffic and advising, “Please wait here until we send you to the login page” or “The system is down at the moment.” A state-run exchange in Maryland also posted a message saying it was “experiencing connectivity issues” and asking visitors to try again later. Other states reported scattered problems.
Shit, are they trying to get health care or play EA's Sim City?
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Obama says that if the shutdown continues, it will make it more difficult to recruit talented people for government jobs.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
The conservative debate over the individual mandate is one largely of semantics. It assumes that if the government mandates something, that it is overreaching its power and inching the country closer to socialism.
Many times when this same argument is invoked there is validity in it, but this time it’s different. That's because only other option as it currently stands is the abusive system that we have been dealing with — one of runaway insurance and medical costs, coupled with a growing sector of uninsured individuals.
As Whole Foods Founder John Mackey infamously commented to NPR in January, the reality of the law can actually be characterized as closer to fascism than socialism itself.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Unofficial list of shit shut down and kind of how. Thank god the TSA is still 80-something% there. Wouldn't want those irreplaceable, talented individuals to be out of work.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
I have heard that the shutdown has "shut down" several government websites---the servers are still running, mind, they just serve a page that says "website shut down."
Not sure if this is true or not. But it's totally believable. Because the whole point of the shutdown is to show how awful the Rethuglicans are.
"It's time for Republicans to stop throwing one crazy idea after another at the wall in hopes that something will stick," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Sounds like Harry's pissed other people are trying to elbow him out of his biz.
Let's go default!
a default on the national debt, which will arrive Oct. 17 unless Congress acts to authorize increased borrowing
On Capitol Hill, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said the shuttering of the government "seriously damages our ability to protect the safety and security of this nation and its citizens."
I refer everyone to the list I posted earlier regarding what orgs got what cuts. You'll note the vast majority of security agencies, etc., are carrying on.
As the debate played out, it also threatened to overshadow the somewhat rocky implementation of health care exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.
If I were a cynical man, I'd start connecting some dots in a comedic "Wag the Dog" conspiracy theory kind of way.
Edited By Malcolm on 1380730227
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."