The individual mandate is a kind of slavery

[panamaican]

It's a tax, it's nothing like slavery.

Randomly, I was recently informed that health insurance is mandatory in Australia. @Ruprecht did I get that right?

 

[Ruprecht]

It's a tax, it's nothing like slavery.

Randomly, I was recently informed that health insurance is mandatory in Australia. @Ruprecht did I get that right?

Insurance isn't mandatory here. We have medicare, which is tax funded. They have undercut medicare funding though, and introduced a 2-tier system.
So it's increasingly attractive to get private insurance which will cover "the gap" between public health care and your chosen health provider's fee.

 

[panamaican]

So this is the basic argument of libertarians vs authoritarians in their many forms. We tend to argue that the person should be allowed to do whatever suits them best in regards to health, finances, guns, speech, drugs, or whatever. Just don't expect anyone to come to your aid if you make poor choices. Authoritarians believe that people should be protected from themselves and be forced to color inside the lines. Personally, I have no taste for being controlled by the government, so I would much rather have autonomy to self-select my own path.

I find that people say that until they're faced with the "might makes right" way of things and then they start pushing for social rules to quell that behavior.

 

[panamaican]

Insurance isn't mandatory here. We have medicare, which is tax funded. They have undercut medicare funding though, and introduced a 2-tier system.
So it's increasingly attractive to get private insurance which will cover "the gap" between public health care and your chosen health providers fee.

Interesting, the person I was talking with said that it's required or you pay a tax.

 

[Ruprecht]

Interesting, the person I was talking with said that it's required or you pay a tax.

Not quite, if you have private insurance you get a (means tested) rebate on the Medicare tax (either through lower premiums or your tax return).

 

[panamaican]

Not quite, if you have private insurance you get a (means tested) rebate on the Medicare tax.

Ok so if you don't have private then you have to pay the tax? Is there an income cut off where you don't qualify for the medicare but you still pay the tax or does everyone get the medicare?

 

[Ruprecht]

Ok so if you don't have private then you have to pay the tax? Is there an income cut off where you don't qualify for the medicare but you still pay the tax or does everyone get the medicare?

Everyone gets medicare, and you still have to pay the tax (it's not a complete rebate, and whether you get it at all depends on your earnings).

The most you can get is a 35% rebate if you are over 70 and earn less than $90,000, if you earn over $140,000 (or a combined income of $280,000) you get no rebate.

The Medicare levy is 2%, but there's also a "surcharge" at different income levels. Starting at 0% for under $90K and topping out at an additional 1.5% for those with an income over $140K.

 

[InternetHero]

Having a mandatory tax for existing is kind of against American tradition.

That said, why would anyone make that kind of hyperbolic comparison and expect to be taken seriously? Please reconsider your knowledge of what slavery and taxation are.

 

[panamaican]

Everyone gets medicare, and you still have to pay the tax (it's not a complete rebate, and whether you get it at all depends on your earnings).

The most you can get is a 35% rebate if you are over 70 and earn less than $90,000, if you earn over $140,000 (or a combined income of $280,000) you get no rebate.

Okay, I see the overlap between what you're saying and what he was saying. Basically, everyone pays into a universal healthcare system via taxes and everyone can use it.

However, based on circumstances, if you purchase private insurance you get some of that tax back in the form of a rebate?

 

[Deleted member 457759]

yes

everyone should be allowed to be unsafe, and open yourself up to financial ruin. murica

No risk, no reward.

 

[Ruprecht]

Okay, I see the overlap between what you're saying and what he was saying. Basically, everyone pays into a universal healthcare system via taxes and everyone can use it.

However, based on circumstances, if you purchase private insurance you get some of that tax back in the form of a rebate?

That's it.
Aside from underfunding the public health system, there's also other incentives to take private health cover.

 

[panamaican]

That's it.
Aside from underfunding the public health system, there's also other incentives to take private health cover.

Where in Australia are you? I just spent ~3 weeks between Sydney, Cairns, Melbourne and NZ. Beautiful country you've got down there.

 

[Limbo Pete]

Where in Australia are you? I just spent ~3 weeks between Sydney, Cairns, Melbourne and NZ. Beautiful country you've got down there.

I'm very jealous
There I said it

 

[Ruprecht]

Where in Australia are you? I just spent ~3 weeks between Sydney, Cairns, Melbourne and NZ. Beautiful country you've got down there.

I'm in Adelaide, South Australia. Not that big on Sydney and Melbourne myself, but I love Cairns and Brisbane.
Sadly I'm mostly flying through and don't get to spend much time there.
Rarely see more than this...

Spoiler

Glad you had a good time.

 

[HIMBOB]

Insurance isn't mandatory here. We have medicare, which is tax funded. They have undercut medicare funding though, and introduced a 2-tier system.
So it's increasingly attractive to get private insurance which will cover "the gap" between public health care and your chosen health providers fee.

Good summary.

Okay, I see the overlap between what you're saying and what he was saying. Basically, everyone pays into a universal healthcare system via taxes and everyone can use it.

However, based on circumstances, if you purchase private insurance you get some of that tax back in the form of a rebate?

The government kicks in to reduce your monthly insurance premiums.

I think the rebate stops once you earn over 350k pa

 

[whougonnacall]

To explain my above post in more detail:

France would be the 2nd poorest state per person in the country.

The UK would be the 2nd poorest state.

Germany would be the 5th poorest.

And we have 50 states.

3 of the worlds top economies there sport. Again its simply size and the western model that makes america the powerhouse it is...nothing else.

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

This is not true. "Rich" countries like in Europe would be our poorest states that we consider backwater flyover country. Or poorer.

Yeah I guess thats why people are flocking to fvking Mississippi right?

 

[calavera2]

living in America is a kind of slavery by this logic.

 

[WTF2008]

“
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

— The American Constitution

Since it’s a of that amendment, we’re getting our freedom back. And that’s what America is supposed to be: a nation of free individual people.

Countries like Europe don’t have this concept but this is why we don’t have universal healthcare. To do so is take away the right of me to be an individual. It’s why America has the most rights and the best economy.

Your last sentence made me want America to die.

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

“

Countries like Europe don’t have this concept but this is why we don’t have universal healthcare. To do so is take away the right of me to be an individual. It’s why America has the most rights and the best economy.

LOL

This is the dumbest zhit I have ever heard.

"By making conditions zhitty for most of the populace we are actually giving them freedom because they have the freedom to fail in multiple ways"

No dipzhit, by making healthcare worse and more expensive for EVERYONE including rich people you are infringing upon their freedoms because money they would have the FREEDOM to use elsewhere they are spending on over-priced, under-delivered, zhitty health care.

Not that hard to figure out Einstein.

Why not make the roads super zhitty then say "We are giving them freedoms, they always have the freedom to build a better road"

LOL @ this retard logic.