The Government Needs to Force Over 11 Million More Americans into ObamaCare to Make it Work
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
In the real world, a business providing a good or service cannot force a consumer to buy its product. However, government bureaucrats don’t operate in the real world- they operate in Washington, DC.
The 2012 Supreme Court decision to uphold Obamacare’s individual mandate allowed the government to continue coercing healthy Americans into the program. But what happens when the threat of a financial penalty still doesn’t get enough healthy Americans to offset the costs of high-risk enrollees?
Simple. The government plans to raise the penalty when open enrollment begins for the third time in November, and make Americans an offer they can’t refuse.
President Obama will need to more than double the number of Americans enrolled in Obamacare exchange plans to reach 21 million next year, the target set in budget projections, in what is shaping up as the next major test for the health care law. As of June, the Department of Health and Human Services counted 9.9 million customers who have bought plans through the federal HealthCare.gov portal and a handful of state-run exchanges.
… Open enrollment for the third go-around of Obamacare’s exchanges begins Nov. 1, and the administration is counting on winning over millions of customers who didn’t sign up the first two years but who could be pressured by the increasing pain of the “individual mandate” tax assessed on those who forgo health insurance.
…The tax during the first year was $95 or 1 percent of income above the filing threshold — a relatively minor bite. This year, the penalty will be $325 or 2 percent of income, and by 2016 it will be $695 or 2.5 percent of income.
This is yet another example of the shakedown tactics that define Obama’s Chicago-style of governing. In the Obama White House, it’s do as I say, or I will end what you do. Don’t want to stop mining coal? We will regulate your industry until the plant goes bankrupt. Don’t want to enroll in Obamacare? We will tax you into submission. You got a problem with that? We will have the IRS revoke or delay your non-profit status.
Remind me again- is this the Land of the Free we are talking about, or a scene from The Godfather?
