Drudge: poster boy for Obamacare fine

[Tero]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/03/ ... harge.html

It's a little difficult to believe a millionaire does not carry insurance. Any insurance is now Obamacare.

But maybe he managed to drop insurance just to be Poster Boy?

[Drewish]

If you are reasonably healthy and self employed, then paying out of pocket is much cheaper.

[MrJonno]

If you are reasonably healthy and self employed, then paying out of pocket is much cheaper.

Very few people having the savings to pay for a diagnosis of cancer or other serious disease which you can get at any age. In fact very few people have more than month's salary in the bank. Reducing taxes etc is not going to change that.

Whole point of insurance is those who are lucky subsidise those who aren't (and for health most is luck)

[FBM]

I don't mind paying taxes for education because I don't want to be surrounded by stupid people.

I don't mind paying taxes for health care because I don't want to be surrounded by sick people.

[Hermit]

If you are reasonably healthy and self employed, then paying out of pocket is much cheaper.

Are you sure about that? You can be reasonably healthy and self employed, and all of a sudden need an appendectomy, which in the general scheme of things is a minor operation these days. That'll be $55,000, thanks. Katching. Good luck to you if something actually serious happened to you. A few weeks in traction, and you can kiss all your assets goodbye, and then some.

[Hermit]

Here is the bottom line of a bill said to be for a four day hospital stay of an uninsured young man who got hit while riding a motorcycle:

[FBM]

Here is the bottom line of a bill said to be for a four day hospital stay of an uninsured young man who got hit while riding a motorcycle:

I'm not surprised. I had a horse wreck that wound up putting me through 3 surgeries and a subsequent bankruptcy. I wasn't poor before, but I was that way for quite a while after.

[MrJonno]

What is the point in even giving someone a bill that large to someone who has no realistic chance of ever being able to pay it. Might as well give him a bill for 10 gazillion dollars + sales tax

That's not capitalism or socialism its just pure loony economics?

[Hermit]

What is the point in even giving someone a bill that large to someone who has no realistic chance of ever being able to pay it. Might as well give him a bill for 10 gazillion dollars + sales tax

That's not capitalism or socialism its just pure loony economics?

Cynical thought: Maybe the privately owned for-profit medical providers have taken out insurance policies in regard to not being paid. By hyper-inflating bills they will be guaranteed to more than cover their actual costs. The irony would be palpable.

[Hermit]

Here is the bottom line of a bill said to be for a four day hospital stay of an uninsured young man who got hit while riding a motorcycle:

I'm not surprised. I had a horse wreck that wound up putting me through 3 surgeries and a subsequent bankruptcy. I wasn't poor before, but I was that way for quite a while after.

Apparently 60% of personal bankruptcies in the US are caused by the inability to pay medical bills.

[Tero]

This was not so much about the utility of insurance. The man wants to pay large sums...3%?...of the fine quarterly so he can be the first to be fined. Or to refuse to be fined, already in 2014.

His insurance would be less. He wants to be fined.

The fine appears in the quarterly tax form. But Drudge will not get a bill for underpayment till Apr 2015. Quarterly tax works that way.

[Tero]

Code: Select all

Drudge appears to pay a quarterly estimated tax, as many self-employed individuals do. However, the IRS does not yet have a mechanism set up for accepting mandate payments, nor has it released guidelines for determining the specific amount owed. “For whatever reason, Matt Drudge has decided to give the government an interest-free loan,” one tax specialist told the Huffington Post.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/drudge-w ... e-payment/

[Warren Dew]

I don't mind paying taxes for education because I don't want to be surrounded by stupid people.

I don't mind paying taxes for health care because I don't want to be surrounded by sick people.

And yet, you had to move to Korea to avoid being surrounded by unhealthily fat people.

[Warren Dew]

If you are reasonably healthy and self employed, then paying out of pocket is much cheaper.

Very few people having the savings to pay for a diagnosis of cancer or other serious disease which you can get at any age.

And Drudge is probably one of them.

[Drewish]

If you don't have a horrible accident then it's cheaper to not carry insurance. If you do, then the hospital isn't allowed to turn you away, so you get treatment anyways. So do the smart and selfish thing and don't have insurance if you don't have to. Of course if we allowed hospitals not to care for people who couldn't pay, then you'd see everybody buying insurance, but politicians won't let us do that because, "It's too cruel!" So then they use the drain cause by people making the smart decision not to get insurance as justification for compulsory insurance.

You know what the cheapest way to care for sick people who can't pay is? Not to.