Why Do I Have to Pay the Penalty? (Philosophical)
Hello, my question is about the law of this Affordable care. Why do I have to pay any penalty at all? When someone in posses a threat unless you cooperate, is called extortion. Has any body really paid attention to the fact, that extortion is a crime.
Answer
The penalty is a "Shared Responsibility Payment". It's officially a tax that helps ensure access to affordable, quality healthcare and to reduce healthcare spending (general welfare).
When an American, who can afford to, decides to take responsibility for themselves by having health coverage, they are exempt from the tax.
When an American, who can afford to, doesn't take responsibility for their health, they raise the risk of costing their country more money due to the rising cost of healthcare spending (specifically due to Medicare costs for seniors).
Not only does the PPACA offer consumer protections and greater access to healthcare, it also protects our country from the potentially unaffordable rising cost of healthcare.
If healthcare costs rise to steeply over time then we will end up owing more and more interest on our debt. According to the CBO:
When CBO last issued long-term budget projections (in July 2014), it projected that, under current law, debt would exceed 100 percent of GDP 25 years from now and would continue on an upward trajectory thereafter—a trend that could not be sustained. (The 10-year projections presented here do not materially change that outlook.) Such large and growing federal debt would have serious negative consequences, including increasing federal spending for interest payments; restraining economic growth in the long term; giving policymakers less flexibility to respond to unexpected challenges; and eventually heightening the risk of a fiscal crisis.
FACT: Due to the ACA’s cost curbing provisions health care spending in 2014 grew at the slowest rate on record (since 1960). Meanwhile, health care price inflation is at its lowest rate in 50 years.
According to the Constitution:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States
Hence a reasonable tax to protect the general welfare of our country. Arguing that any tax is an extortion is more of a philosophical or ideological argument.
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Obamacare is extortion. The government has no right to cattle prod Americans into purchasing goods and services .Clearly a line has been crossed. Rhetoric has no place in truth.