Buy Insurance or go to Jail under Obamacare?

Buy Insurance or go to Jail under Obamacare? Yes, for months we on the right have been listing the troubles of Obamacare and have been lampooned for things like “Death Panels”, even though the next week Obama dropped the death panel provisions from the plan. One of the other fears that conservatives have about this plan, indeed about government in general, is the mandatory nature of Obamacare. Well, it turns out that it is much much worse then just paying a fine if you don’t have insurance, you can go to jail! During hearings Sen. Ensign received a handwritten note (you can see it below) from the Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Thom Barthold (a Democrat appointee) who confirmed that those who fail to pay the $1,900 fine for not having health insurance could also face a year in jail or an additional $25,000 fine.http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0909/Ensign_receives_handwritten_confirmation_.html?showall So, while some may scoff at this as a highly unlikely situation, let me relate my own story from my college days. When I was in law school I made very little to support my family. I waited tables and made maybe 300-400 on a good week. Not bad scratch while you’re in school, but hardly enough to pay all the bills. However, I didn’t want health insurance, we were in our early 20s and were pretty much willing to risk anything that might happen and we did fine. Many thousands of students are in the same predicament. So now what happens? Suddenly you have thousands of people who can’t afford health-insurance, don’t want health-insurance, but can surely not afford the $1,900 fee/fine for not obtaining insurance either. So what does that mean, we’re just going to start throwing college students in jail? We’ll create class of criminals who did nothing but fail to purchase health-insurance that they didn’t want in the first place. Does anyone see the problem with this besides me? Flout the mandate penalty? Face the IRS Americans who fail to pay the penalty for not buying insurance would face legal action from the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The remarks Thursday from the committee's chief of staff, Thomas Barthold, seems to further weaken President Barack Obama's contention last week that the individual mandate penalty, which could go as high as $1,900, is not a tax increase. Under questioning from Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Barthold said the IRS would "take you to court and undertake normal collection proceedings." Ensign pursued the line of questioning because he said a lot of Americans don't believe the Constitution allows the government to mandate the purchase of insurance. Friday, Brown reported that Ensign got a clarification on what the result of "normal collection proceedings" might be, and got it in writing (HT Hot Air): Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."