Hear that train a comin'

It appears the president and congressional Democrats want to pay for about half of $1 trillion-plus health plan by hitting the rich (a new surtax on those making $350,000 and above) and about half by hitting the poor (reduced spending on Medicare and Medicaid). How wickedly awesome! Those of us in the broad middle class will get all that great new health care for free!

So why am I worried? Oh,

As expected, the House bill would mandate that individuals and families have or buy health insurance.

But what if they don't buy it?

Then Section 401 kicks in.  Any individual (or family) that does not have health insurance would have to pay a new tax, roughly equal to the smaller of 2.5% of your income or the cost of a health insurance plan.

[. . .]

I assume the bill authors would respond, “But why wouldn't you want insurance?  After all, we're subsidizing it for everyone up to 400% of the poverty line.”

That is true.  But if you're a single person with income of $44,000 or higher, then you're above 400% of the poverty line.  You would not be subsidized, but would face the punitive tax if you didn't get health insurance.  This bill leaves an important gap between the subsidies and the cost of health insurance.  CBO says that for about eight million people, that gap is too big to close, and they would get stuck paying higher taxes and still without health insurance.

But this is sort of like complaining about the noise being made by the train that's roaring toward you while your foot is stuck in the tracks, isn't it? The real point of this bill and cap & trade is they will fundamentally alter the relationship between government and the governed. How much it might cost me or other Americans, no matter how high the amount goes, is only of secondary importance.