Is Single Payer Also Bad Because It May Result In Going To Prison Due To Taxes?

[TomCADem]

I understand one of the arguments is that if you don't purchase health insurance, you get a tax, and if you don't pay that tax, you could theoretically get prosecuted for not paying taxes. There is nothing in the health care bill that actually imposes a prison sentence, and in fact there is language in some versions that specifically prohibit prison for failing to pay that tax. However, lets assume that you could go to prison for not paying taxes.

My question is whether this is also a reason to oppose single payer, which would largely be taxpayer funded. If, instead of premiums or deductibles, we pay taxes, and I refuse to pay my taxes, don't I still go to prison?

What I don't understand is folks using the prison talking point, then demanding single payer, which is even more dependent on taxes than the bills being considered.

Taxes may go up under single payer, BUT total costs should go down, since we are not paying premiums and co-pays. However, if the possibility of prison for not paying taxes is a deal breaker, then isn't single payer a bad idea according to that logic?

[glen123098]

1. Theres a big difference between single payer and this bill.

Single Payer systems generally have a progressive tax system, while fining people who can't afford healthcare is regressive. Thats why I support Single Payer and oppose this.

[TomCADem]

3. I Agree, But If Prison Due To Taxes Is A Deal Breaker, Isn't Single Payer Worse?

I personally support single payer, but the talking point I see is the Fox News yelling point that this bill will send you to prisom, because you may not pay taxes. I don't see the relationship, but if we accept this talking point, doesn't it apply with even more force to single payer?

I support single payer, but it is not because I am afraid that the current bill will result in me or someone else going to prison for not paying their taxes.

[kenny blankenship]

6. The Mandate takes your money which you earned to preserve your life & AWARDS it to a parasite

with no choice for you. Pay the Cartel whatever they demand or else THEN you have the govt. to worry about too - TAX PENALTY, HEARINGS, LAWYERS, MAYBE JAIL.

Go fuck yourself with your mandate.

[TomCADem]

10. Oddly,That's The Same Argument Used By Right to Lifers...

Why should their taxes be used to pay for insurance that can also be used to pay for abortions? Likewise, what about paying for a gas excise tax, which used to promote alternative energy. What if you do not believe in global warming?

[kenny blankenship]

12. If their objection was that the money meant to provide abortions was used to buy vacation homes

for insurance execs instead of providing a legal medical service, then maybe they'd have a point and maybe your comparison would be worth discussing.

But as it happens that's not what they say, and you are just as full of shit as they are. Why don't you content yourself with misrepresenting just one side of one argument-yours- instead of hopping around and dragging in others?

[TomCADem]

14. So, what if the single payer tax paid for a ...

...medical device that some foreign company was manufacturing at a much cheaper cost than a domestic company? According to your line of argument, the fact that somewhere in the money chain, that dollar is used for a purpose we disagree with, is a reason for opposing the use of taxes to fund health care.

[readmoreoften]

17. Taxes pay for the DMV but people who don't pay taxes don't go to prison when they pay a ticket.

Single-payer would be no different than paying for a war or the highway system. How would using it note that you're not paying your taxes?

[mmonk]

2. Single Payer would be done through payroll taxes

with matching employer taxes like FICA.

[TomCADem]

4. Which You Still Could Mis-report, Also If An Independent Contractor...

Then you would need to report income and pay taxes, perhaps through a 1099. Now, if you refuse to pay the taxes attributable to single payer, you are in the same pickle of possibly going to prison due to refusal to pay taxes.

[mmonk]

18. What is your point exactly?

[pitohui]

5. having roads and a fire dept. would be a bad idea under that argument

look, if you look hard enough, then everything leads to everything, i guess

if i can't pay my taxes and i lose my house and then i'm caught sleeping illegally in a park and get put in jail then is it the fault of the fire dept. who decided to raise the taxes on my house that started the whole shitball sequence of events?

if taxes are too high, and people can't pay, i don't see how that's the fault of health care -- it's the fault of years of deficits created by one george w. bush...

the whole booyah, we're gonna put people in jail to pay for health care is just scare tactics anyway, why do we humor liars? i think we make a mistake when we pretend that obvious astro-turfers are really "concerned citizens," it's time to call bullshit what it is

"the house of sand and fog" was a movie, not a description

[Oregone]

9. Some people can't understand the difference between a tax funded social service like the road dept..

And forcing people to, single-handedly as individuals, to pay for a specific section of a road all by themselves at market rates.

Its incomparable.

[laughingliberal]

7. Let's see...a tax that pays for me to actually get health care?

Or a fine for not giving 27% of my income to a criminal organization that will still see me pay $10,000 out of my own pocket in a year with a semi-serious illness? Hmmm

Oh, fiddle dee dee...I'll think about that tomorrow....

[TomCADem]

11. So, You Are Cool If The Proceeds Of The Tax...

Are used to pay for subsidies to lower income folks to purchase health care insurance. I'm cool with that, too.

[laughingliberal]

13. yep nt

[varelse]

8. Do we get to vote on the board memberships of the insurance companies

who will be spending our mandated premiums and tax penalties?

Didn't think so.

[PM Martin]

15. With single payer, payroll taxes are raised slightly

and the income tax is greatly increased on the wealthiest as well as market speculators.

You have to pay a modest fee for every service/prescription you take.

[juno jones]

16. I would gladly pay taxes for a government administered public

program that was universal in scope.

But I'm not really into making sure that insurance people can have private jets and tropical junkets on my health care dime.

That's pretty much how I see it.