The individual mandate’s penalty costs more than you think

[LWolf]

89. That's a Democratic phrase now, isn't it? "freeloading"

I've already got insurance. I can "afford" it because my employer pays most of the premium. What I cannot afford is to actually USE it, because having insurance doesn't mean one can afford care. Care still costs money AFTER paying the premium.

I know there are some subsidies out there, which I don't qualify for. Part of the problem is with the terms "affordable" and "afford." It's not the individual with financial obligations that is asked to define "affordable" or to determine what they can "afford;" it's some other entity deciding how that is defined, separate from the actual financial circumstances of real people.

If you are a full time student supporting yourself on a part-time job, like one of my sons, it takes every penny you earn to pay the rent, pay the utililties, and buy groceries. There's nothing left for insurance premiums, deductibles, and copays, PERIOD. It doesn't matter what some entity's formula says ought to be "affordable," and it doesn't matter that there are subsidies out there to help some, if you are not one that the subsidies will cover.

If you work full time and make a decent wage, but that wage has been cut repeatedly since you bought your home at the peak of the housing bubble, and you can no longer afford the mortgage, but can't sell the place because it's value has dropped by more than 50% since you bought it, and you are paying fully 50% of your income every month just to make the mortgage and hope you can hang on until the market someday recovers and you can sell the place, you aren't going to qualify for a fucking subsidy, and there is no more money in the budget for premiums, deductibles, and copays.

If you are a single dad making so little that your son qualifies for the state health plan, but you don't, and you are living paycheck to paycheck to pay the rent and utililties and keep food on the table, there isn't anything left for premiums, deductibles, and copays whether or not some formula spits out an amount that is supposedly "affordable," or you get a subsidy for part of that amount.

Of course, all of those working people are "freeloaders" if they don't somehow find a way to buy health insurance. What they are supposed to do is turn off their lights and heat to pay the premium, and just not use the insurance since they can't pay the deductible. Then they won't be "freeloaders." They don't have to actually be able to USE the insurance; they just have to pay for it.

And they are my family.

Don't think we aren't paying attention to supposed Democrats calling us "freeloaders."