Life, Liberty, Politics and Policy in the Land of Enchantment!

Senate to Tax Americans Just for Being Alive

Call it a Life Tax. A Senate provision will require all Americans to purchase health insurance, even if they don't want it or have better uses for their money than paying for coverage riders they will never, never use. If you refuse to be taxed for being alive, you will be fined at least $1,000 a year. This sum will be collected by the IRS. So, effectively, we are taxed just for being alive.

Tags: healthcare

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Permalink Reply by Allen Cogbill on July 3, 2009 at 7:54am: Of course, what neo-comms such as Obama want to require is actually not insurance in any real sense. They want to provide for us from cradle to grave; along the way, they'll be forced to help us out with most of our day-to-day decisions, as they are simply far wiser than us mere serfs.

More seriously, if people actually paid a substantial portion of their costs for health care, costs would likely come down quite a bit. Insurance should be used for really seriously expensive events, such as, for example, bad accidents, major surgeries, cancer treatment, etc.

The plot below, from a Goldwater Institute Report, is really quite revealing:; ▶ Reply to This