The health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act opened for business on Tuesday, allowing uninsured Americans to buy subsidized coverage. By Wednesday, conservative websites had a fresh conspiracy theory running: if you decline to purchase health insurance, the feds may put a lien on your home.
InfoWars cites this Facebook post as proof:
I actually made it through this morning at 8:00 A.M. I have a preexisting condition (Type 1 Diabetes) and my income base was 45K-55K annually I chose tier 2 ‘Silver Plan’ and my monthly premiums came out to $597.00 with $13,988 yearly deductible!!! There is NO POSSIBLE way that I can afford this so I ‘opt-out’ and chose to continue along with no insurance.
I received an email tonight at 5:00 P.M. informing me that my fine would be $4,037 and could be attached to my yearly income tax return. Then you make it to the ‘REPERCUSSIONS PORTION’ for ‘non-payment’ of yearly fine. First, your drivers license will be suspended until paid, and if you go 24 consecutive months with ‘Non-Payment’ and you happen to be a home owner, you will have a federal tax lien placed on your home. You can agree to give your bank information so that they can easy ‘Automatically withdraw’ your ‘penalties’ weekly, bi-weekly or monthly! This by no means is ‘Free’ or even ‘Affordable.’
The Affordable Care Act itself states that the IRS cannot file a lien on a property because an uninsured person fails to pay a penalty. Nor can it seize bank accounts or garnish paychecks to recover Obamacare fines. Nor will Americans who refuse to pay for mandatory health insurance be subject to criminal prosecution of any kind.
Infowars acknowledges all this, but concludes that the Facebook poster, Will Sheehan, still might be right: “Either Sheehan’s claim that he received this notice is a lie, or the feds have been dishonest with the American people all along, and the revolt against Obamacare is about to take ‘don’t tread on me’ to a whole new level.”
As Obamacare moves from legislation to reality, many of the old conspiracy theories making the chain email rounds will be laid to rest. It seems there will be no shortage of new tin foil hat tales to take their place.
