It has been estimated 50 million Americans do not have health insurance. Presumably, the vast majority can’t afford it. The U.S. Senate’s solution is to fine each of these people $1,000.
(Next, we can fine each homeless person $1,000 for not paying rent.)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the fines will raise $36 billion over 10 years. That $36 billion requires 36 million people to remain uninsured. In short, the Senate expects the program to fail!
Supposedly, the government would provide subsidies for poor and “some” middle-class families. Of course, that will require a complex series of definitions for “poor,” remembering how cost of living varies markedly around the country. A New Yorker earning $30 thousand might be poor, while half that income might do very nicely in, say, Alabama. Then there is the question of how to count dependents - children and adults.
( Next, we can fine each starving person for not buying enough food.)
And if families are forced to spend money on health insurance, will they be precluded from sending their kids to college? Ah, that pesky law of unintended consequences.
If the government can subsidize the poor and “some” middle-class, why not merely subsidize them and forget about the ridiculous tax on poverty?
This all is a perfect example of why the government is excellent at supplying money, but truly stupid at running anything.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Wilmette, Ill.