By Lorne Dey
As a writer for the US~Observer,
I’m accustomed to finding injustice within government and the
legal-justice system but one injustice among many from the so-called
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act otherwise know as Obamacare
is particularly shameful.
I’m talking about the
fines that people will have to pay for NOT signing up for having their
money taken and receiving little if anything good in return from Obamacare.
Many people who don’t have healthcare now don’t because
either they don’t want it or can’t afford it.
For those who currently want
healthcare but can’t afford it now, they really won’t be
able to afford Obama’s “Affordable Care Act” which
is anything but affordable with rates for healthy individuals allegedly
doubling or even tripling according to a July 2013 article in Forbes
by Avik Roy. Estimates like this are typical from those analyzing the
higher costs associated with the boondoggle. But when people don’t
sign up for it because they can’t afford it, they’ll be
fined. According to the Internal Revenue Service who will be enforcing
the mandate, fines in 2014 will be $95 per person or 1% of household
income, whichever is greater. In 2016 the fines will increase and start
at $695 per person, or 2.5% for, according to Henry Blodget of Business
Insider, households making between $9,500 and $37,000 a year, then go
up from there for households with greater incomes.
Imagine fining someone for
something they are physically unable to do. And therein lies the most
egregious injustice of Obamacare.
For those who don’t
want Obamacare or any other health insurance, one can hardly blame them.
Back in 2000, the
Journal of the American Medical Association reported that doctors
are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. The study upon which
the article was based found that many deaths in hospitals for patients
under doctor “care” were a result of: unnecessary surgeries,
infections, medication and other medical errors, and “non-error,
negative effects of drugs”.
As of 2011, the statistic
hasn’t changed much with nearly 784,000 deaths in that year attributed
to doctor screw-ups or 24.5 times more than all gun-related deaths combined.
It’s a small wonder why some people choose to opt out of healthcare
coverage altogether and there is every reason to believe that things
will be far worse under Obamacare.
Also, just because some opt
out of health insurance, it doesn’t mean they can’t afford
to pay for it – with some choosing to pay out of pocket or carry
catastrophic coverage instead.
In 2009 when Obama was busy
misrepresenting the alleged 46 million people who did not have healthcare
coverage in the nation, he conveniently left out the fact that approximately
17.6 million of the 46 mil made enough money to be able to afford it
but for various reasons like those mentioned above, simply chose not
to buy it – which was and still should be the right of every American.
It is a travesty of justice
to fine people for something they don’t want or can’t afford
and shouldn’t have to pay for to begin with, but when you allow
socialism/communism to slither into power, this is what you get.