Both 'versions' of the idiotic 'health insurance' bill being considered within the House and the Senate mandate fines and/or imprisonment for failure to comply with the dictatorial edict to purchase health insurance.
This would be the first 'forced purchase' in the nation -- also called 'another tax'. It's outrageous, and the population should be up in arms (figuratively for now, literally the closer this gets to passage).
I cannot lay my finger on the article or clause in the Constitution of the United States which permits the federal government to forcibly compel the citizens thereof to purchase a product or service on pain of punishment.
At its heart it's another tax, this time on those who -- for the most part -- can least afford it. If I could afford to purchase health insurance, I would have it; since I cannot, how can the government force me to do so? Something about 'blood from a stone' seems apropos. So the government takes a two-pronged approach: Offer a lower-cost option (called the 'public' option or the 'government' option), while at the same time threatening me with fines and/or imprisonment if I fail to purchase it.
Of course, that sounds just fine-and-dandy to liberals seeking evermore control over our lives, but keep in mind that the 'public' option will be awful. The supply and demand portion of the argument (more patients+fewer healthcare professionals=long lines+substandard care+rationing of services) ought to be enough to squelch the argument for government-run insurance -- but when you add in the compulsion-to-purchase argument, the whole house of cards comes a-crashin' down.
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