Penalties for not buying your mandated insurance...

[ProSense]

118. This is insulting, and

"DU doesn't understand what it's like to be poor...A few years ago, when I started a new job, I was making about $22-25k. My budget was tightly controlled. Food, housing, transportation. Everything was earmarked. I scrounged up side work to make ends meet. Another $80 a month (with subsidy), would've been very difficult to make work. "

...there are a lot of people who know what it's like to be poor.

The point is that health care is always going to come at a cost, even single payer. At one point, the suggestion was a 3.5 percent increase in the payroll tax to pay for a single-payer program (which also required an additional 5 percent and 10 percent tax on the top 5 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

That would be mandated. Period.

There are people who will be eligible for hardship exemptions from the fees. The point is that the health care law establishes a way to make obtaining coverage affordable.

Again, more than half of the uninsured (17 million) will be eligible for Medicaid. This bill is a significant help to low-income Americans.