Quick Fact: Limbaugh falsely claims Dems' health care bill "puts people in jail" for not having health insurance
In an interview on Fox & Friends, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that the Democrats' health reform plan "puts people in jail, potentially, if they don't have health insurance." In fact, the penalty for failure to purchase insurance is a tax, not jail time, and willful failure to pay taxes of any sort can result in civil or criminal penalties.
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Limbaugh claims health care bill "puts people in jail, potentially, if they don't have health insurance"
From the February 4 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
LIMBAUGH: This is not even a health care bill. This is a bill that raises taxes 14 times; puts people in jail, potentially, if they don't have health insurance mandated by the government to buy. This is an avenue to control every aspect of life.
Fact: Penalty for failure to purchase insurance is a tax, not jail time
As Media Matters for America has noted, Section 501 of the House health care reform bill provides that an individual must be "covered by acceptable coverage at all times." "Acceptable coverage" includes "qualified health benefits plan coverage," "grandfathered health insurance coverage," "Medicare," "Medicaid," coverage provided to members of the armed forces and their dependents, "coverage under the veteran's health care program," people who receive health care "through the Indian Health Service," or other coverage deemed acceptable by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If a person does not have acceptable health care coverage, Section 501 imposes a tax on that person "not to exceed the applicable national average premium." The Senate version of the bill provides that "[b]eginning in 2014, most individuals will be required to maintain minimum essential coverage or pay a penalty of $95 in 2014, $350 in 2015, $750 in 2016 and indexed thereafter."
Fact: Willful failure to pay taxes of any sort can result in civil or criminal penalties
A press release by Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) relying on a letter from the Joint Committee on Taxation states that "Americans who do not maintain 'acceptable health insurance coverage' and who choose not to pay the bill's new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years." That section of the letter dealing with "civil and criminal penalties for noncompliance" specifies that Camp asked the committee to "discuss the situation in which the taxpayer has chosen not to comply with individual mandate and not to pay the additional tax." Thus, the letter is not discussing the penalties for failure to buy insurance, but the penalties for both failing to buy insurance and failing to pay the tax. The committee's letter explains that the tax code provides penalties to prevent tax evasion of any sort: "The Code provides for both civil and criminal penalties to ensure complete and accurate reporting of tax liability and to discourage fraudulent attempts to defeat or evade tax." [Joint Committee on Taxation letter, 11/5/09]
It's like if you don't pay your taxes that pay for the military, police or fire department. All essential services, just like health care.
There's nothing in any HealthCare reform bill that prescribes jail time for this failure. It's a fine, a fee, a tax.
And in the IRS rules, if you don't pay a tax you owe and won't work with the IRS to get that debt resolved, you can go to jail. If you fail to pay the taxes you owe on an IRA early withdrawal, or fail to pay small business income taxes owed, or any other taxes, you can go to jail. But you don't go to jail because you withdrew money from the IRA, and therefore were assessed tax. You don't go to jail because you had profits from a small business, and therefore owe self-employment taxes. And you won't go to jail because you failed to purchase healthcare insurance, and therefore were assessed a penalty.
This is not rocket science. No one says that someone who failed to pay self-employment taxes goes to jail because they ran their own business successfully - it's because you failed to pay the taxes owed! And so it's a lie to say that one could go to jail because they failed to purchase health insurance!
So, what spin exactly are you talking about?
Before bill: No law telling me to buy insurance. If I don't
buy insurance, I don't go to jail.
After bill becomes law: Law saying if I don't buy insurance
I am penalized and if I don't pay the penalty, I go to jail.
THEREFORE: Bill says I go to jail if I don't obey the bill.
MMFA goofed.
If you don't pay your self-employment tax, you go to jail for not paying taxes owed, not because you were self-employed.
If you don't pay the taxes owed on an early IRA withdrawal, you go to jail for failure to pay taxes owed, not because you withdrew money from an IRA before a deadline. It's perfectly okay to withdraw money from an IRA at ANY time. Some withdrawals can be done without a penalty, and some can only be made with a penalty, but they are ALL allowed.
Someone can choose to not buy healthcare insurance coverage. There's nothing wrong with that choice. It's perfectly okay to do.
The bill enacting a self-employment tax or an IRA withdrawl penalty don't say that you go to jail of you have self-employment income or that you have an IRA that you withdrew money from.
You don't know what you're talking about. We've debunked this nonsense countless times.