The mandate is insufficient. The young male can pay $95 this year for the penalty, or simply not pay at all by making sure he doesn’t overpay from his paycheck and thus give the IRS a refund to dock.
And even if the mandate was sufficient it would be immoral to tell a young person that his first duty is to help provide insurance for sicker people rather than feeding himself.
And it’s immoral for many others to go hungry so they can pay a share of his million dollar hospital stay that he’s doesn’t have to pay a dime for.
Happened to me. 20 years of paying premiums and never saw a doctor except for DOT required physicals. Until this day.
We’re all in this together.
What runner pat said, and **adaher **is still with no support for his “no one signing up” affirmation.
Problem is, you’re paying that freight already because you’re subidizing most of his insurance costs.
In scenario A, the taxpayers pay $20,000 over 10 years for his insurance. He pays $10,000(numbers are approximate).
In scenario B, the taxpayers pay nothing, he pays nothing(if he knows how to get around the mandate).
Now maybe he will incur medical bills. The odds that a 20-year old will incur $20,000 or more in medical bills by the time he’s 30 are relatively low. Actually, very low, otherwise the math wouldn’t add up. He’s supposed to pay more so sick people can pay less.
As for how many have signed up, why won’t the government release those numbers?
Hmmm… because it’s shut down ?
Since your heroes forced a shutdown, who knows?
It’s only been three days, I don’t remember seeing a promise of hourly updates. People are still signing up and will be doing so through the entire enrollment period.
And that’s a fucking stupid thing to be complaining about.
If people liked what they saw, they wouldn’t be holding back from signing up. What, people don’t need insurance today, they can wait till next month or the month after?
What is actually happening is that a lot of young people are seeing that they’ll have $100-$200 less per month to spend on what they actually want to spend money on and are declining.
There is no way that everyone who wants to sign up can do so all at once. Some people will have their own reasons to wait a few days. If I were doing this, I would wait until the first rush is over and the sites are running smoothly again.
Are they holding back? As far as I know, they are signing up by the millions.
Yes. Obamacare insurance you sign up for today doesn’t start until January.
If the gov’t hasn’t released figures, how do you know they’re holding back?
Because otherwise they’d want us to know. Wonkblog wanted to interview people who had signed up, couldn’t find anyone.
Found one article on Wonkblog about the sign-ups, no mention of not finding anyone to interview. Do you really believe that out of 300 million, not one has signed up?
Of course not. I just think it’s a rare breed so far, and I don’t think participation is going to even come close to what they expect. It’s just not a good enough deal, and part of the reason for that is that they are requiring coverage for things people don’t need. That pushes up the cost. If they’d left those things out, they could have subsidized 100% of the cost for poorer young people.
What things are they covering that aren’t needed? And who are you to decide what others need or don’t need?
What, do the reports of delays and problems with access were a lie?
No, that is called “moving the goal posts” you claimed that people were not signing up, that is all, not just the young. And once again you do not know the numbers, it is still an argument from ignorance. And your quip here is blissfully ignoring the delays and troubles that are causing many to wait as the systems are overwhelmed, as pointed before, the delays are more likely to be forgotten later once the bugs are dealt with.
So, your gut tells you, basically ? Good to know. It does boast a great predictive track record, after all ;).
And you know what comes out of the gut? Yeah, that.
If you have purchased health coverage on the federal government’s new Obamacare marketplace, about a dozen or so reporters would like to speak with you. We promise we won’t take up too much of your time!
We just need to find you first.
The federal government has said that somewhere out in this vast country of 313 million people, where 48 million lack insurance coverage, someone has managed to sign up for health insurance on the federally-run marketplaces. As of yet, we haven’t tracked this person - or these people - down.
This is not for lack of effort. Reporters here at The Washington Post and at other publications have been on the hunt for this mythical creature.