It was nice of the Orange Man to rescind the punishment – the “shared responsibility payment” – applied by the IRS for failing to fork over money to the health insurance mafia, for “coverage” people didn’t want to buy or simply couldn’t afford to buy.
That latter part being the interesting part.
The federal government – which is now the Luca Brasi of the insurance mafia, making “collections” on its behalf – punishes people who can’t afford to buy the mafia’s services.
Which is of course just what the actual Luca Brasi did. He’d visit a grocery store whose owner had not sent along the envelope full of cash and bash the clerk’s nose in, smash the cash register and just take whatever he could snatch.
But the government forced Obamacare on the people of this country by claiming it would make paying the mafia more “affordable.”
Of course it did no such thing – because Obamacare is (among other things) a wealth transfer mechanism – and not just from us to the insurance mafia but also from those who don’t need health insurance to those who do.
There are people who are young and healthy, who haven’t got medical problems of any kind and aren’t likely to have them. People for whom regular payments to the insurance mafia make as much sense as making payments on a car they never drive. Hysteria has been confected to convince everyone that an imminent Medical Crisis hangs by a hair over the heads of everyone, but this is nonsense – and the mafia’s business model depends on it being nonsense.
If everyone or even almost everyone – or even half of everyone – had serious major recurrent medical problems and bills, then the insurance mafia would be out of business rather than doing very good business.
Its business depends on taking in (literally, in the case of the mafia) more than it (reluctantly) pays out.
That is the very basis of insurance – as a going concern. The financial premise is that most people don’t need it.
But the mafia wants – needs – everyone to think that it is lunacy to live without “coverage” – so as to keep everyone paying for “services” most don’t use.
Until Obamacare, however, the young and healthy – and savvy – could skip it, just as once-upon-a-time good drivers who avoided “accidents” – which rarely are – could also elect not to be “covered” for damages they never incurred.
They behaved responsibly, which included setting aside money that would otherwise have been wealth-transferred to others – and thus had it available for the just-in-case, which usually never came. And so, had savings – capital – to be used to build wealth. Which led to being able to afford many things, not just car repairs and medical treatment, without relying on insurance.
This could not be tolerated, of course. Independent decision making, prudent action; self-responsibility, financial independence, most of all. A pox – a law – against all of those things.
Thus, the accident-free driver was forced to finance the accident damage caused by others; their “pre-existing conditions” became his financial obligations. The cost of car insurance skyrocketed via what amounts to reversion to the mean, or least-common-denominatorism, enforced by Luca.
Similarly, the young and heathy are now mulcted to finance the chronic medical problems of the old and unhealthy.
With one big difference.
A person can still avoid the car insurance mafia by not driving. Ditch the car and Luca is legally powerless to filch your pockets – or to punish you for having empty pockets.
Obamacare sics Luca on you to pay the mafia – and if you don’t pay (or can’t pay) then Luca collects to pay the government.
You are threatened with what is styled a “shared responsibility payment,” but it’s a punitive tax (as all taxes are) paid to the government and has as much to do with “responsibility” as CNN has with neutral reporting.
It is exactly as it would be if the DMV sent thugs to your home to make you pay a fine for not having car insurance on the car you sold and don’t drive anymore.
But, I have glad tidings – for some, at least.
There is a way to avoid the “shared responsibility payment” – and avoid Obamacare (and thus, Luca).
All you have to do is not earn enough money.
There is a line item on the 1040 (see here) which allows an exemption if insurance coverage is “unaffordable” relative to your income. This is a boon to people who’ve already decided they’re tired of being mulcted and so reduced the amount of money they earn, in order to keep more of it.
Why earn $10 so that Uncle can seize $4 – and then force you (via Luca) to send another $2 to the insurance mafia?
It pays better to live on less, which I have managed to do – first out of necessity (divorce) and then because I realized how much more easy life can be. I now earn less – and so am taxed less.
Including the Obamacare “shared responsibility” tax, which I no longer “owe.”
Of course none of us owe the government – or the mafia thugs – a red cent. The use of that word in this context is vile almost beyond utterance. It is a moral inversion; rhetorical gas-lighting. A common burglar has more decency. He does not claim you “owe” him the contents of your safe.
Nor does he send you letters threatening to “fine” you if you don’t leave your window open for him next time.
. . .
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FYI: The IRS fee was removed when I filed my 2017 and 2018 taxes.
So you just had to state you had medical care of some kind, and the number of months you had it.
DO NOT tell the IRS you have those medical benefit tax statements (when they ask, just say No)
Before 2017 all you had to do was to file by paper via the postal service. That form also asked about a lot of details, but I would just fill out that I had medical insurance for 12 months and NO OTHER DETAILS.
Won’t Obamacare and WILL NEVER allow the oligarchs to make decisions for me.
You can do the same, and they will become useless.
My wife and I are part of a healthshare ministry. These organizations are grandfathered and so we are exempt from paying the tax. The healthshare largely excludes preexisting conditions which helps keep “premiums” down.
I got a real eye opener several years ago. A friend of mine and his family vacationed in Cancun, Mexico ( before the narcos took it over). His father being 80 at the time took a bad fall and injured his shoulder. He was rushed to the resort hospital. He was examined in the ER by normal physician, given an X-ray, then an MRI and kept overnight for observation. His total bill?? $1,800.00 !!! Now mind you, this was a very modern facility, staffed by the same trained physicians and nurses that we have here. If that doesn’t convince anyone that we are getting hosed here in America, nothing will!!
And the resort hospital was probably 2X or more the normal charges in the area.
If medical care had been left to the free market I am sure it would be very cheap today.
If I had medical insurance I’d probably be dead today.
Like you Eric I always took care of myself, saved and stayed healthy.
in 2009 I came down with cancer, I know it was from Agent Orange as all but one guy in my old outfit also came down with it. I was next to last, the other guy was diagnosed a year after I was.
The VA told me to pound sand (for which I thanked them later).
But with no insurance and no desire to pay retail for chemo I started reading.
I read, talked to people, read at least 1000 scientific papers before I embarked on my own natural therapy.
The original doctor told me if I took chemo I’d have maybe 5 years if not less than two. I didn’t believe him and anyway I wasn’t going bankrupt myself. I figured if it killed me my family would be secure from savings, a paid for house and life insurance.
Had I had insurance I’d have probably done the chemo – maybe, you never really know, but I didn’t get it.
So all I did was pour the vodka down the sewer, started eating organic, increased my workouts, did vitamins and herbs and here I sit 10 years later.
All my mates in my division are dead but one other guy who decided to live out the end having fun in Thailand. He is beating it too, I think just getting Roundup and GMO’s out of his diet probably did it.
The point – screw the mainstream medical establishment, Their treatments are toxic and none of them actually work. Chemo kills and in my case having no insurance saved my life.
The best thing you can do for yourself is to stay the hell away from doctors.
That would fit the theory that cancer is a natural thing that the body deals with every day and if you fix the issue it goes away.
Another thing I once read is there has never been a study regarding what makes chemo work. It does work, it kills the cancer then kills the patient or weakens the patient enough for something else to kill him. Chemo solutions also contain baking soda, which some believe is the actual active ingredient. But it’s harmless, can’t be patented, and is cheap. Which like vitamin C gets pushed into the corner as quackery. Is there something to it? We’ll never really know because the establishment makes sure it is all pushed to the kook fringe and won’t consider it except to make studies that are clearly sabotaged from the get go. It’s practically admitting the kooks are correct.
Hi Alex,
Cancer cells are unique in that they need lots of glucose to survive, other cells can survive on fat (ketones) or glucose. There is some evidence that a ketogenic diet may eliminate cancer. Of course, the mainstream medical community scorns this idea,
Cheers,
Jeremy
Thanks Jeremy, while not keto I do not take sugar in any form and carbs are limited.
I think this has a lot to do with my success, but not alone.
Jeremy, it was either last year or the year before the medical community in UK had to admit a woman had cured herself of cancer, supposedly, the first to do so. I seem to recall it was with diet. No doubt she cut out all forms of sugar.
Sometimes I’m actually happy that I cannot afford medical insurance. I’m about the only person my age I know that is not in the hands of the big pharma/gunvermin combo from hell. Just about all the older folks I know are having multiple prescription medications being shoved down their gullets and vaccinations injected into their veins. Instead I practice prevention and use herbal type supplements.
Jason, I also take vit’s and herbal remedies. Back in 15 a new, cheap brand of glyphosate hit the market. Everybody was using it and the smell was sickening. I had to run 14 hours everyday through the patch in west Tx. which also means running through cotton country. I thought the damned stuff was going to kill me every day. I had the headache from hell, a bad sinus type headache. I was desperate since I went through the entire year being dosed with it. The first time it rained I thought I’d get a break but just the opposite happened and the amount in the air multiplied, cooking out of the hot Tx. dirt.
In early 16 I was desperate with a non-stop headache so I did a bit of research and found the ACV(apple cider vinegar), honey and hot water headache recipe. Just smelling the fumes on the first batch I made helped to some extent and the first cup I drank reduced it a huge amount. I’ve taken a cup of it every day since then and don’t have nearly the headache problems I had before.
3 days ago I got my first dose of Roundup on the wind. I was immediately ready to move somewhere where it isn’t used. If I could sell out and move I would have long ago.
In ’04 I went to Mexico and stayed a while. It was friendly then, esp. small towns and had high speed wireless internet and wired internet every place I went, very remote places. I wanted to pack up and move and find a good spot in the boonies(no town living please). The wife wouldn’t hear of it. We’d never get to see my family she’d say. I had none to see but I proposed to her they could get on a plane and land within 100 miles of us just about anyplace we wanted to live.
I had used her old boyfriend as a sounding post to find out how to get a permanent place like he had there. You have to get someone you can trust since no furriners can own land in Mexico.
Had it not been for “my” family, the dogs and cats, I would have moved anyway.
Don’t know about living in the boonies there now. It would seem the former safe resort cities have become battlegrounds now. I don’t know what the remote country would be like except that no doubt the word would be out there that rich Norte Americanos were living out there. I was deemed rich since I drove a shiny pickup and had time and money to burn…..or at least that’s what everyone thought. I’d actually gone there to try and set up a deal to import malanga. Still wish we’d have gone and taken our animals with us.
Due to the food I got healthier and lighter every day I was there. My sick cousin got heavier and healthier every day he was there with me. We ate nothing but fresh food. The only bad thing we imbibed there was cerveza and cactus juice of one sort or another.
I find the biggest issue these days is stress caused by “female problems.” Facing that seething cauldron of erratic and random emotions day in and day out, never knowing what is going to trigger an eruption, definitely does a number on the blood pressure. (I take Hawthorne which helps keep BP under control.) Just got done being browbeaten out of the blue for imagined slights from decades ago.
I can really understand the MGTOW movement. At times I’m sorely tempted myself, though I’d be looking at a van down by the river scenario without the van. Sometimes it seems like it would be worth it.
Hi Jason,
In re: “Just got done being browbeaten out of the blue for imagined slights from decades ago.”
They say an elephant never forgets but they are wrong. Women never forget. Or rather, never get over what they won’t forget. This is perhaps one of the greatest single differences between the sexes. Most men will forgive mistakes made by their friends – and girlfriends/wives – assuming apologies and “don’t do it again” (and assuming it’s not done again). The mistake is forgotten. Let’s move on, don’t worry about it.
And mean it.
Women, on the other hand, seem unable to ever truly let go of something they feel aggrieved about, even if whatever it was happened a long time ago, apologies were made and whatever “it” was hasn’t been repeated since.
Very tiring. Also, hopeless – in terms of fixing it on those terms.
I learned something valuable in marriage therapy, which I now pass on in the hope it may help someone else:
If your estranged spouse is unwilling to agree that the past is over and cannot be changed and to never bring it up again or hold it against you in her (or his) heart – the marriage is over and there is no point to further therapy. If you do continue, it will just be bitch sessions about the past, for as long as you’re willing to pay for it in time and hassle and stress.
A troubled marriage can only be saved if both people are willing to fully commit to the marriage. To let the past go. And to not hold back anything going forward. This is not easy, but it is essential. It is futile to stay in any marriage with a spouse who won’t fully commit until her feelings change. They will change on their own if you commit. If you don’t, they never will – because your feelings are stuck in a past that can never be altered.
Jason, eric, you are both spot on. The wife remembers stuff “now” that didn’t even happen. Something similar may have happened but not like she says.
Of course she recalls every perceived slight for 47 years. Not necessarily slights, but events she took as such.
She doesn’t remember nearly running over a few dozen people at an outdoor festival because she was mad at me. In her mind nobody was in danger but the crowd felt differently when they saw that 69 impola with some new Dunlops come slinging mud like a Baja racer.
And yes, I’d be like Jason with that van down by the river only without the van. Move over bear, you’re not the only one who shits in the woods.
Women are good at that. But just imagine what would happen if you brought up any of her mistakes.
The consequences of such an action do not bear thinking about. You’d be better off facing down a heavily-armed SWAT team.
It’s amazing how women will bring up shit from YEARS OR DECADES AGO! That happened in my last relationship, and I’m not sure I want to do that again…
Amen, Jason – same here.
I am baffled by the constant doctoring and pill-taking. Either I am an anomalous genetic superman or I am simply taking decent care of myself. I have no health problems at all. I take no pills, at all. Perhaps because I avoid becoming overweight by regular exercise and avoid eating shit/processed food.
I have no need of doctors, accordingly – so why would I spend thousands of dollars a year on “coverage”? I generally don’t buy things I don’t use as it strikes me as foolish to do so.
But what if?
People who live their lives this way are neurotics. I don’t deny that life has risks, that things can happen and even do. But assuming no congenital issues and assuming one takes care of oneself, I maintain that it is a reasonable risk to just live your life as you will probably be just fine. Until you die, naturally.
Jefferson and Adams both lived to ripe old ages without constant doctoring and pill popping. Washington was killed by a quack at 69.
We had a 15 month period when under Obama care we were paying $1635 a month for a family of three, our major healthcare expenditure was a couple of hundred each to the Dentist.
GODDANG! How do people even survive on that?
I am about to drop dental insurance as it and eye insurance are COMPLETE wastes of money.
BB,
It was that kind of HARDSHIP that caused an outcry over Obamacare. Folks contacted their senators and representatives to VENT their displeasure and hardship brought on by Obamacare. Did those assholes on Capitol Hill listen? No, they did not, because the donor class (in the form of the insurance mafia) matters more to them. That’s proof positive that our votes don’t really MATTER. If they did, the travesty of Obamacare would never have been passed in the first place…
Molon labe indeed. Thanks for the inspiration, Eric. I often learn something new here and really appreciate your writing and knowledge.
Im sure you’re aware, but your current situation does have many positives. With a family and small children, I’m often left fantasizing about concepts but not willing to take risks with dependants at stake.
Yup. The answer is to be poor, income wise.
So glad I paid off everything years ago and banked a bunch of cash.
Now I pay for nothing but car insurance, property tax, basic living supplies, electricity and fuel. Insurance and tax are annoying but I am mostly OK with the small amount I contribute to ‘society’ for the bits of it I use.
The compulsive consumers continue to get fleeced but the responsible and prudent can avoid most of the govtheft. Sales tax and the baked in ones can’t be avoided but they only matter if you buy new crap anyway.
Living reasonably well on half of what would be classified as “below poverty line” by the government.
Too bad this loophole method will probably be stitched up soon (negative interest, bail-in, property tax on cash holdings). Can’t have examples of bucking the system being successful. Might inspire folks to try the same.
Trust me, the taxman does everything that can be done to catch me out. They refuse to accept that I can manage on so little and have actually said I must be cheating on my taxes. I’m not, so it is a lot of fun telling them to fuck off.
“Hysteria has been confected to convince everyone that an imminent Medical Crisis hangs by a hair over the heads of everyone, but this is nonsense “
The big problem is that simple things have been made expensive and people live at the edge of the debt they can carry. They have also been made helpless where they can’t care for simple injuries themselves. So if little Johnny hurts himself as was common before safety mom culture there’s a huge financial crisis bill. But we aren’t supposed to ask why what was cheap to deal with decades ago is now a three, four, five, or six figure bill. Not ask how things got this way. Just get insurance to pay for every little thing.
There used to be real insurance. What do I mean by real? You paid for the little stuff in cash but if you got hit by a bus then insurance paid the big bills. Such insurance was cheap. Obamacare made it illegal for obvious socialization reasons. If people opted for catastrophic only then their scheme of transferring wealth to the medical cartel wouldn’t work. If enough people did it and found alternatives for the cheap and easy stuff the cartel would suffer a hit. So good by catastrophic only policies.
“Why earn $10 so that Uncle can seize $4”
Well as I calculated my ‘big hit’ taxes of 2018 that’s what it came out to. Federal and state income taxes, property taxes, social security, and medicare. Of course I doubled the SS and medicare and upped the gross income to remove the fiction of an ’employer contribution’. If you say ‘but benefits’ the way it works at my employer and with my usage level it wouldn’t show up with two significant figures.
Eric, You should have done the ‘honorable’ thing and lied to the government. I know some people who were un married but co-habitating and one of them had no employment or insurance so they just lied on that persons taxes that they did. They did this for two years and nothing happened and now the tax scam part is being repealed. In fact that person was cheaper to pay for out of pocket costs than paying an extra $150 a month to cover in insurance, and STILL pay copays and medical bills.
They have no heart either.
I am retired. Putting insurance on my wife costs over $300 per month. If I include what I pay for medicare I am paying $500 per month, $6000 per year. We are both healthy (knock on wood),,, I go see the quack once a year for my blood pressure renewal “Mother May I” even though the medicine itself is given ‘free’ by the pharmacy.
Let me tell you,,, $6000 a year when you are on SS is a heavy debt. I remember as a child we had no insurance,,, auto or health. Medical care was no where expensive as it is today. Emergency Rooms $2-4000 per visit. I have always paid my way but this is insane…
It’s cheaper to die….
“It’s cheaper to die…”
That’s the plan. Get rid of all those “useless eaters” to make room for all the elites. That’s why there’s this modern conservation movement to lock up all the open land, regulate buildings to the point of absurdity, and encouraging people to cram themselves into horrible living conditions.
Of course they still need to keep enough Third worlders around until AI actually works.
Hi RK,
And this is why I work out… eff them. God-damn them. I may not be able to change much, but I plan to go down fighting, if it comes to that.
My wife and I are sick of this racket. Our health insurance has risen 20-40% every year for the past 8 years. It’s sickening. If we stayed with the ‘you can keep your doctor’ lie, it would be on the upper end of those percentages. We were forced into obamacare to save a measly $5-7K.
I am now a believer that the system is just a tax to get what they can get, and the more you make the more you pay. When I ask my peers who make X, they pay X. The costs are just a percentage of what you make.
We are trying to find a way to get out of all this craziness, and outright theft.
Hi Chris,
Amen.
I rely on taking care of myself and hope the rest will take care of itself. Sure, I might get cancer or have a heart attack – but I’m not going to spend my life in penury – to pay the insurance mafia – for the sake of an event that will probably not happen.
I would consider buying a very high deductible catastrophic coverage policy – but Obamacare outlawed that option. Obamacare says I – a single/divorced/middle-aged guy who neither smokes nor drinks – must buy (among other things) maternity coverage and substance abuse counseling coverage.
Enough.
And, molon labe.
I’m learning there are more and more ‘cash’ options becoming prevalent. Obviously, as more and more are fed up and actually doing something about it. I think it just happens a lot slower in metro areas cause all the sheeple mostly go along.
I will add that I brought up the issue, cash, to our longtime family doctor and he shunned me as a kook for years. But just recently, his practice has just come out with some form of a pay-cash-in advance for some form of care. So he’s at least partially going down that road.
I can’t afford health insurance. If I tried, I’d need “substance abuse counseling”. I don’t think I could live like those Mexicans who survive in cardboard shacks right along a highway. The desert gets cold and I suppose most of the living area is underground.
Was recently “terminated” from my place of employment. After paying $180/month for over a year for government mandated insurance, that I used for one $35 dental cleaning. Like getting fucked with no Vaseline.
Hi Anon,
It’s because I refuse to buy “health insurance” that I can still afford to get my teeth cleaned. I pay out of pocket for that. If I were forced to hand over what you pay to be “covered,” I’d have no teeth by now – and be broke, too
Fish heads for them all.