Every American citizen is now required to help make insurance corporations richer. Enjoy!

[joshcryer]

246. Oh, Ron Paul et al would effectively mandate this crap.

Otherwise indentured servitude, etc. (It wouldn't be a legal mandate, it'd be a "if you don't get it you're a fucking slave" mandate.)

Generally I have supported the mandate from the get-go, because young, healthy, white males like myself need to pay into the fucking system. We need to do it. We're a scourge on society. We take and take and we get so many kickbacks for being privileged (that we don't even recognize) it's a fucking joke. It took me a long time to realize how privileged I am, but I am, it's just a fact.

I even laugh about the current "mandate" because the $300 I have to pay as a fine per year (and since I don't have and withholdings I can, literally, ignore the fine, but I promise I won't) is pennies compared to the $600-800 per month I'd be paying per month under a single payer system (my employer is too small to qualify for one of the larger employer plans as far as I understand, and I'm just below the median income, and I'm a single white male, so I have no recourse for that).

Otherwise I could put $150 per month ($1800 / year) into an interest bearing tax free Health Savings Account that Bush set up and not have to worry about shit, and can withdraw that money at any time.

As soon as a public option is passed I'll "go legit." I'm extremely healthy, my family has an average 90 age limit, I'm only 36 (in August). I have a long time to worry about needing insurance or anything like that. But in the end we cannot deny how lopsided the system is, how the privileged get away with a lot and how it's sucking the system dry. It's just undeniable.

And I admit I'm a part of the problem. But I have my own selfish priorities to consider and until the government mandates single payer (ie, if you don't pay your taxes you get criminal charges), I'm not going to change, just as most everyone else won't.

And that's why between the public option and mandates I support mandates. Mandates are hard to get in, the public option is easy after that fact. If you had a public option and no mandates, the public option would be soured and unsustainable. You need the mandates. It sucks, but that's civic responsibility.