Quote Quoting S.T. Ranger
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I am not interested in becoming reliant on the government for a healthcare policy, but I cannot for the life of me understand how the government can force me to buy a policy, or penalize me if I don't.
The government does not force you to get insurance. Nor could the government impose a requirement that you buy insurance and, for example, impose a criminal penalty for failing to buy that insurance. The Supreme Court made that clear in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 132 S.Ct. 2566, 183 L.Ed.2d 450 (2012), which I’ll refer to as the NFIB case. The Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare), however, does not say anywhere that citizens must buy insurance. All it does is say that persons who are not covered or do not have their dependents covered by a qualifying healthcare plan must pay a tax (what the ACA refers to as a penalty) on persons who are not covered (or whose dependents are not covered) in any month by a qualifying healthcare plan and who don’t meet one of the exceptions to the requirement. The Supreme Court held in the NFIB case that while Congress could not directly require citizens to buy insurance, imposing a tax on citizens who are not covered by a qualifying healthcare plan is a valid exercise of the Congress’ power to tax under Article I, § 8 of the U.S. Constitution. While that may not seem like much of a difference, the key difference here is that you don’t have to buy the insurance. You aren’t forced to do it. There is a tax consequence for not having the health insurance, but that’s a choice you get to make. If you don’t want the insurance and would rather pay the tax, you can do that. That’s no different than any of the many other tax decisions that people must make. That particular tax provision is unpopular, but so are some other tax provisions, too. Though unpopular, it is constitutional and will remain until Congress repeals it.