Less than two-hours ago, I submitted a revised W-4 form to our payroll department. My goal is to avoid being in a position where at the end of next year I am owed a refund from the federal government. As an act of civil disobedience, I am refusing to purchase health insurance. This means that I am subject to a tax/fine of 1% of my income (2% the following year, 2.5% thereafter). But the beautiful thing is that unless I am owed a tax refund, the government will never get any of that money.
My decision to not purchase health insurance is a decision a lot of people -- possibly millions -- are going to make, either out of protest, or once the ObamaCare site is up and running and they finally get a look at the increased cost of their monthly premiums under the Orwellian-named Affordable Care Act. Purely by coincidence, during his radio show today, Rush Limbaugh went into great detail about all of this:
Anyway, [my accountant] said to me that,
according to the law, the only way that the government can collect the
fine or penalty for you not buying insurance is if you are owed a tax
refund. If you do not owe a tax refund, they cannot go into your bank
account or anywhere else and get that money. Now, the sad thing is that
most people file their taxes to get a refund 'cause they think they're
screwing the government, and they're not. …
Therefore, the only way that they can
collect the penalty or the fine is by taking money from your refund. If
you are not owed a refund, they cannot get money from you. They can't
issue a lien. They can't garnish your wages. They can't use any of the
normal procedures available to them if you owe them money, even though
the Supreme Court has said it's a tax. So for those of us -- I mean,
folks, I'm in fat city. I'm in fat city because I always structure to
where I owe money. Well, not entirely. There have been years. But if
you structure your taxes so that you do not get a refund, you do not
have to buy insurance and you do not have to pay a fine 'cause they
can't collect it from you if you don't have a refund due.
And that is just another nail in the coffin of Obamacare imploding on itself.
Limbaugh also points out that in order for ObamaCare to succeed, the
program needs to coerce a few million young, healthy suckers into paying
for something they do not need. Like me (a healthy 47-year-old), all we
want and need is a catastrophic plan in case the unthinkable happens.
But Obama has outlawed affordable catastrophic plans and is using the
mandate/fine/tax as a way to force us into paying for services like
maternity, vision, dental, mental health, and drug and alcohol
treatment. According to the CBO, up to 20 million people could lose their health insurance because the plan they are currently happy with (and Obama repeatedly promised they could keep) has been made illegal under ObamaCare. There is little doubt that these ObamaCare victims are going to face higher premium costs that they might not be able to afford, or just don't think are worth the potential of a 50% to 150% premium increase with a higher deductible.
For those of you who -- for whatever reason -- will not be buying health insurance next year, remember that you legally do not have to pay that fine if you legally make sure that at the end of the year you are not owed a refund from the federal government.
Fight the Power.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
