Should people go to jail for failure to buy health insurance?

haha Unfortunately, you’ve a point there willievok our country’s prisoners are treated way to well. I actually contemplated about doing something that’ll wind me in the slammer back when I was 17 a few years ago, just so I could get some health benefits and fix whatever may of been wrong with me. Now, with the new bill coming out, I wont have to worry about doing anything stupid. I just wont be ableto afford health insurance, so I’ll get put in the slammer and get it that way

Wow !!! America does have one screwed up health care system…. How can your government possibly think of sending people to jail if they do not take out health insurance, the concept is crazy..….Is this a revenue making idea by your government to try and pull your country out of the current recession?

Toadaly, if you could explain beliefly how your health system works, would be awesome as most of us (foreign members) have no idea…..This will give us an opportunity to see whether our own health system is in a better state then U.S.

Here in Oz, we have both public and private health insurances. The government encourages people to take out private health and if you do, they give you a tax rebate back and also, most doctors in private hospitals ‘work’ for these private health funds so members end up only paying a small gap and the government (Medicare) pays the remaining balance of any medical bills.

People who do not have private health insurance, needs to use the public system (fund and run by the government) and the rules are, ‘if your injury or illness is not considered terminal’ then you are placed on a waiting list. If someone needs a hip replacement for example, and it is non-urgent, then he or she could be waiting for 5 years (rough estimate) to get their new hip. Mind you, all the service provided to the patient whilst in a public hospital is all free.

Most people who are working tend to take out private funded health insurance, as why wait for surgery if you can have it done quicker and a patient can select their own doctors to perform the surgery.

Well, now they will have a better life away from all the criminals out on the streets and have healthcare along with food for free.

Why buy health insurance, when you can get treatment, while being an inmate. Save your money.

The US already has the highest percentage of population in jail of any country in the world (1%)…large corporations benefit the more people we put in jail because they ru private prisons at contract from the government.

So…if the government has a financial incentive to put people in jail…why wouldn’t they create extra reasons to put people in jail?

See the car insurance issue…yep, you can go to jail over that…this is a pretty logical extension of it, imho. No, it ‘s not right but, the corp’s have gut us plebians by the short and curlies, imho.

of course not, this legislation is going to be yet one more “straw on the proverbial camels back”

pretty soon the debtors prisons will be back and the prison ships anchored off the coast- unless we implement a number of our constitutional rights to oppose such things.

Agreed that the current health care reform bill is not the best way to do it. Problem is that the best way, single payer, is not possible in this political environment.

My understanding is that the Senate version of the bill penalizes people who have the means and the ability to buy health insurance but don’t. The penalty is much like the penalty for not paying your taxes. The provisions to jail people who refuse to buy health insurance has been stripped from the bill.

It comes down to is the bill better than nothing? Now that the Democrats no longer have a super-majority in the Senate (as if they ever really did considering how many conservative Democrats don’t want real health care reform) the plans will need to be scaled back. Considering how much the bill has been weakened to get all 60 votes starting over from the beginning with less ambitious reforms might not be such a bad idea.

I think the bill sucks. Having a mandate requiring people to buy private insurance is absolutely crazy. If there was a public option, I could understand a mandate. But this is nothing but a windfall for the health insurance industry. And now after todays SCOTUS ruling, they will have the politicians even deeper in their pockets.

As I see it now that the Democrats lost their super-majority they can use this as an opportunity to start over. It will be interpreted as a sign of weakness that President Obama could not get his highest priority legislation through and it will be interpreted as a victory for Republicans but in the end we just need a good bill.

How about limiting health reform to a few fundamental things. Keep insurance companies from excluding pre-existing conditions; keep them from dropping customers because they get sick; expand medicare to cover Americans who quit working before 65 and allow more of the working poor to qualify for medicaid. Pay for it with a tax on excessive profits by health insurance and pharmacutical companies.

* Toadaly, if you could explain beliefly how your health system works,

Right now, there is no universal healthcare in the US except for emergency care. Anyone can show up at any public hospital emergency room and be stabilized without regard to ability to pay…although you’ll still get a bill later on.

What I was talking about is the legislation being proposed in Congress, which I heard today is now dead…so maybe it’s a moot question.