Displaced Fan wrote:
Can someone answer me this? Why are Republicans saying they are pissed that they will be footing the bill now through taxes? I thought this mandate made people have to pay for their own shit. It doesn't completely take care of the tax burden but now people have to get insurance and pay for their own health care. I'm confused.
It's a flawed narrative.
If you DON'T carry health insurance, you'll pay the tax. If you DO carry health insurance, nothing changes.
The vast majority of the middle class already carries insurance through their employer. So they have nothing to worry about. No new tax. If anything, their premiums _should_ go down, since more people are in the pool to spread the risk. (This is actually where the children to 26 clause helps out a lot ; parents pay the family premium for 8 more years, and insurance companies get that money for really young, healthy people who would probably have skated without it for a while.)
The people who DON'T carry insurance pay the tax, and theoretically that tax goes back into the system when those people don't pay their medical bills. (Theoretically, but probably unlikely.)