Well, I just got my “second reminder” about my “shared responsibility” payment – which I have not paid and do not intend to pay. The letter states that ” . . .if you don’t pay $701.69 by August 30, 2018, the amount of interest you owe will increase.”
Italics added.
Very interesting, this business about “owing” interest on a debt I never incurred.
Some people I have never met in a far-away place decided I must send money to a privately owned, for-profit business for services I am uninterested in purchasing. Put simply, in plain language, a private business has somehow managed to get the federal government to act as its collections agency – and not for any debt contracted by people such as myself but to force them to buy services they have no interest in buying.
Even those who believe taxation is legitimate rather than the euphemized/legalized theft it seems to be to me ought to be at least slightly unsettled by this “shared responsibility” thing, which isn’t about funding the government.
It is about funding the insurance mafia.
The thing is halting, when you ponder it for even a moment. If Blue Cross – and so on – can use the government to force people to buy their product, I see no logical reason why General Motors, for instance, cannot also use the government to force people to buy a new car every so often.
The same arguments can be used. Is it not true that people who drive older cars, without all the latest saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety features, are at least potentially threatening the social body with higher costs, because their older, less saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafe cars are more likely to crash and if they do crash, the driver stands a greater chance of being injured and injured more severely?
Isn’t it wrong that people who do buy new cars are, in effect, paying more because not everyone is buying new cars, thereby more equally and fairly distributing the cost?
The fact that you keep your older car well-maintained and are a safe driver – no accidents in years, no claims filed against you, ever – seems to me to cut no more logical ice than the argument that I maintain my body, am in excellent health, have no chronic health issues and have not incurred even 10 cents’ worth of costs for my “care” on anyone.
In both case, the counterargument is – you might.
And therefore, you must.
Pay up, that is.
For services you not only didn’t contract for but which you haven’t even used. It’s a double gyp – like being forced to pay for a hotel suite in a city you never set foot in – and then punished for not paying “your” mini-bar bill.
The good news is that – for the moment – the hounds are fairly toothless. All the feds can do on behalf of their employers – the insurance mafia, I mean – is threaten collections.
They cannot actually collect.
Well, they can withhold. If you “owe” a “shared responsibility” payment, they can apply what you “owe” against any “refund” due you from your actual taxes – the euphemized theft which goes to fund whatever the government does, along with the legions of government workers who ride us like lampreys do sharks.
But they cannot – for now – seize what you “owe” from your bank account or place a lien on your property to compel you to hand over what you “owe” that way.
The worry, though, is that this will change.
It is true that the current Decider decided to rescind the “individual mandate” – the gun jabbed in our ribs by the insurance mafia, compelling us to hand over money for services we don’t want and haven’t used – effective next year. But the mandate is still in force this year – and all the years prior.
Thus, if you declined to hand over your protection money to the mafia this year or last year or any of the years prior to 2019, you will “owe” a “shared responsibility” payment and it will remain on the books, accruing interest.
When a new Decider is (s)elected by a minority of the population (only about half the voting-eligible population actually votes in a presidential election and the winner is chosen by about half of that half, or about 26 percent of “the people”) he or she may simply decide to reinstate the “individual mandate” and change the law such that the Luca Brasi arm of the insurance mafia – the Eye Are Ess – acquires more than the power to merely withhold.
If that happens – and it is not unlikely to happen – millions of “shared responsibility” refuseniks could suddenly be facing financial ruin as the accumulated fines plus interest suddenly become “due” and collectible.
And if that does happen, maybe – just maybe – some of them will decide to fight back and perhaps with more than words.
. . .
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That even Trump couldn’t get rid of this racket tells me how deeply it’s entrenched.
I run mine own gauntlet just with my “Gubmint”-provided health care, both as a Federal employee AND a Vet…it’s always a tug-of-war between Kaiser and the VA as to who is “primary” (e.g., picks up the tab), thanks to self-serving differences of medical opinion as to what’s service-connected or not. One thing that folks considering either the military or Federal civil service should remember is that they will make all manner of “promises”, but ultimately they depend upon the willingness of the Congress to keep paying. And for all the monies spent on the VA (you’d be astonished at how much was spent to remodel the VA hospital at the former Mather AFB, near Sacramento, CA, with a great deal of THAT being so-called “BRAC” funding (Base Realignment And Closure), as the old Air Force hospital there was woefully dilapidated and needed millions to be brought up to code…no major health provider in the area, be it Sutter, Kaiser, or what’s now Dignity Health (the old “Catholic Health Care West”) would touch that facility, even if offered up for the symbolic sale price of $10 (the legal minimum to transfer a parcel in CA). It’s not unlke what’s the ‘real’ cost of mine personal health care…how much better would it be if it were simply paid to me, and I decided how to best spend it, since I should know my health needs better than others? Likewise, Eric, you shouldn’t be forced into buying health care, but that was always the “secret” to this scam…FORCE those that decided to “wing it” into the system, on the hopes that they’d pay more than they used…”health care” as a social benefit, like most anything else the libtards push, has been sold to the Democrat voters on the basis that they will get SOMETHING for NOTHING on their part, and the “rich”, or at least someone else, like “racist white guys”, will pay. Indeed, libtards measure their ‘social conscience’ by how generous they are with OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.
They sort of already have forced us to buy a GM car with the bailouts 10 years ago of the Big Three (yes, Ford took a huge loan from Uncle also, just not as big as GM or Chrysler). All taxpayers got the privilege of supporting a poorly run company but didn’t even get a vehicle in exchange for our payment, just like you’re not going to get healthcare in exchange for your Obamacare premiums, or at best not very decent healthcare.
His Orangeness has also decided to force Americans to buy other products that are higher priced, inferior, undesired, or worse simply because they are American Made, through the magic of tariffs. This includes threatened tariffs on imports, the vast majority of which are superior to anything an American car company manufactures, which is why Americans want to purchase them in the first place.
We’re forced to buy defense against non-existent threats (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc.). We’re forced to buy education even if it’s substandard and amounts to poor quality propagandization. We’re forced to invest in retirement (Social inSecurity), bridges to nowhere, banking services (the bailouts), etc., etc.
As has been said, government is the great myth by which some people live at the expense of others. It’s all about who controls and who is being controlled. You and I aren’t in the club.
+1 SojournerMoon, did you read Fred Reed last week? I agree there is no cure.
https://fredoneverything.org/decline-in-the-fall-or-late-summer-anyway-by-fred-gibbon/
This is not going to end well.
Hi Pris!
I know Fred; he is Good People. Great writer, too. I agree with him – and you – that America is at the Heliogabulus Stage and there is no stopping the declinum et fallum. The question is, what comes in its wake? It could be better – Russia provides an example. It is certainly better there now than it was when it was the Soviet Union. Yes, there is much corruption and the government is authoritarian – but the average person has a lot more freedom and at least the country isn’t run by diseased freaks as it is here.
Hi SJ,
This is a sound point. I’d add, moreover, that post-bailout GM became more obsessed with genitalia, skin color and sexual habits than designing and selling cars. The company today is a matriarchy run by the vile Mary Barra. It is like having Jane Fonda in charge except less pretty (in her prime).
Not “Fonda” Hanoi Jane, for damned sure…
She may have once had good looks, but her hypocritical and self-serving soul is as ugly as it ever gets.
i’m with you ready kilo…HIS WIFE?! in the neck is my thought exactly. mccain NEVER saw a war he couldn’t be fully behind. his war hero blather has been seriously debunked. i feel sorry for his family…that he would persist in his power hungry seat and not go home when told he had inoperable and chronic cancer is a testament to his misplaced loyalty.
he peddled country before self and truly believed it…as did hitler, mao, and all other statists. i am not glad he’s dead but am surely glad he is gone.
The IRS has informed accountants that it will accept tax returns with the question unanswered of whether the filer has “insurance,” as the government has redefined the word. This was also the case in April 2018. This was the result of an executive order by President Trump to the IRS to do what they can to relieve the burdens on taxpayers that result from Obamacare. Too late for you for the last year, but you can leave it unanswered in April 2019. I was aware of this, but my accountant did not mention it, so I had to raise the issue.
Fighting back with more than words will be the only solution.
Hi Jim,
Well, it may come to that. I won’t pay. I am not saying this as a Tough Guy. I am not a Tough Guy. But I will not pay and if they come to my place try to make me pay, they will have to take me.
Maybe this will make you feel a little better, eric.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-25/john-mccain-dead-81
Hi Ed,
It is said that it’s bad form to exult in anyone’s death. This is obvious nonsense, of course. And no one really practices it. They do practice hypocrisy. If it is politically correct, they will exult. For example, the death of the tall geek who supposedly attacked our freedoms on that fall day almost 20 years ago. McCain, on the other hand, actually did attack them – and on many days, both before and after that evil day. And I hated him for it.
And am glad he is gone.
Me-Too! Could be the start of a movement
From TFA: “Meanwhile, McCain associates have been quietly spreading the word that they want a “McCain person” to eventually fill his Senate seat – “a roster that includes his wife, Cindy.”
WTF! 350 million people in this country and they’re talking about replacing him with his widow? Fuck these assholes. Fuck them all in the neck! The only reason he held the seat for so long was because he held the seat for so long he had seniority over everyone else.
(Sorry Eric, I know you want civil discourse, but I’m just so sick of all this crap)
Hi RK,
No need to apologize; it’s understandable… and I have more on deck.
Before the old turd went tits up, I used to say that John McCain was living proof of the existence of electoral fraud in Arizona. I doubt that anyone, anywhere has managed to give a warmed over shit that John McCain is dead. They’ll probably end up cremating him after the ground rejects his body once the cameras are off at his state funeral.
Hey Ed…decaf
He’s gone…now we mourn the man (warhawk doesn’t.mean complete asshole) and celebrate his current lack of influence
Onward!
You mourn him, Mikey. Why should I mourn him when I’m celebrating his death? From many accounts he was a complete asshole, so why would you think I’m confusing one description for the other? He was more a warmonger than a warhawk.
He was only given the GOP nomination to run for president because it was the democrats’ turn to have an imbecile in office. He was supposed to lose, but seemed to think that he was really running to win.
The arrogant old asshole actually thought he had a prayer. What an imbecile, but evil people usually are stupid. He was chosen to run because he was so widely despised that even the GOP kool-ade drinkers would mostly stay home.
As they say in Texas, He’s a memory. Forget him.
Earlier in the week I had a conversation with a friend who’s watching a lot of Elizabeth Warren and some Bernie Standers BS. The topic of health care came up. I asked why it is OK for me to have a choice of 20 different coffee makers in Wallmart, and if I don’t like their selection I’m free to go over to Target or even Amazon and choose from 50 more, but I get one choice when it comes to health care. He immediately brought up some talking point about how single-payer would actually be cheaper than what we have today. I mentioned that the demand for health care has skyrocketed since Obamacare, since more people have insurance and therefore are much more likely to use it, and who did the study, and when, and were they assuming that nothing else would change?
Silence.
John Stossel just posted a video this week about the full-on assault on the Internets from Bernie supporters. They are getting the message out. What are we doing? Continuing the debate about angles on the head of a pin? I like Tom Woods and the Mises.org and Lew Rockwell and all, but we’re using pea shooters against howitzers. It’s bad enough that the term libertarian keeps getting co-opted by people who have no idea what it means (and should just go start their own party if they don’t like the mainstream), we’re also up against thousands of well-organized, connected people who are able to play the network effict to a tea who are extremely good at trolling.
I think we need to go down to their level, at least a little bit. When someone starts trolling, call into question their intelligence. Forget about reason, just call them idiots, morons or unintelligent fools. They all seem to value their education so why not call them out over their debtload. Or their ability to do basic math. Or understand human nature. It’s a rich playing field and no reason to believe they can outgun us.
Cheaper with Obamacare? Really? I had an arthroscopic knee surgery at the free-market Surgery Center of Oklahoma and paid $3,740, including the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, and the facility. The surgeon was the team doctor of an NBA team. They do not take insurance at all. I am a family practice doctor, and I do not take any insurance. Last year, my average for treating a type 2 diabetic for the entire year was $227, including lab fees. Free markets are the way to make health care affordable. There is an imaging center in Cincinnatti that charges $395 for any mri, with or without contrast, including the reading fee. They do not take insurance. Obamacare just pushes prices up while shifting cost between us. These free market practices lower costs, to around 20% of what they would be in a facility that is geared around insurance.
Jim, I’ve been looking at SC Ok for a minor procedure I need. Would like to chat offline with you personally- is there any way I can contact you? E-partisan at excessively warm mail dot com.
That dash after the E should be an underscore…
Ernie, I am afraid I am being a little obtuse about your email address. I tried to put my email into this comment in a straight forward way, but it was blocked as it “may be spam.” I do not understand the “excessively warm” part of your address.
Of course. Hot is excessively warm. I sure was obtuse.
Update: I just rechecked, and the place in Cincinnatti, advancedpatientimaging.com, now charges $495 for any mri.
Health Insurance providers stock prices have skyrocketed 500-800% since the passage of the ACA. Wall Street approves of it, even if the end consumer doesn’t.
Of course WS approves. The entire design of the ACA was to find more wealth to pay the high prices and set a floor so they could be increased further.
That has been the reality of every major piece of medical care intervention after the early ones circa 1910 and shortly there after started pushing prices higher.
The whole world is a police state now, but some countries are more free than other nations.
You could find countries with the least tyranny by looking at the Index of Economic Freedom.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/asia-top-economic-freedom-us-020913615.html
Another way to find free countries is to look at the number of prisoners in a country. While every country is a police state today, some countries are too poor to jail criminals. You would have more
freedom in a place where the government doesn’t enforce the law often or imprison people.
http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Prisoners-per-1000
https://tinychan.org/