Don't have health insurance? Pay a fine. Have too much health insurance? Pay a fine.
Is this a great country or what?
Obamacare decided to look to the Massachusetts Romneycare health insurance plan for ideas on how to structure health insurance for the other 56 states. Romneycare not only mandates benefits which drive up premiums to among the highest in the nation, but also levy a fine if you fail to buy health insurance.
After paying a $2,000 fine for failure to provide health insurance for his wife and himself, Michael Merlina decided enough was enough and he filed a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority.
For those who have been living under a rock for the last few years, the Connector is kind of like eHarmony for health insurance. If you don't have health insurance and are looking for a relationship, go to the Connector. Or perhaps your current health insurance plan is not fulfilling enough and you find yourself looking at other health insurance plans in a lustful manner.
The Connector might be the answer.
But back to Merlina . . .
“It makes no sense to me,” Merlina told The Pulse. “I’m a hard-working, tax-paying guy who can’t afford $800 a month for health insurance, or the $2,000 penalty for not having it, and nobody seems to get this.”
This isn't the first time he paid a fine. Last year it was $400.
But there is a reason why he doesn't have health insurance.
The $800/month premium for him and his wife is out of reach.
According to his suit, Merlina’s after-tax, weekly income of $762 a week covers the two mortgages on his North Reading condo, which he and his wife bought at the top of the housing market.
Then there’s the $400 a month in car loans and $393 a month in condo fees, not to mention $74 for electricity and $360 for groceries.
Sounds like a Master Card commercial, doesn't it?
Cars, $400.
Condo fees, $393.
And for everything else, there's lawsuits.
Priceless!
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