The best info I have gleaned says yes, everyone will be required to buy health insurance with those choosing not to do so paying a penalty which will be attached against your yearly federal income tax. This is a nifty little trick mechanism as it will also mean any unpaid balance will also have interest charged against it and .... make you into a federal criminal if you refuse to pay and will then give the same rights to the IRS to recover these costs as they do now with unpaid income tax which means they could attach your bank accounts, cars, home and personal property to recover your "unpaid tax".

And ... if you're too poor to afford this mandated expense and can show proof there will be credits and subsidies to help defray the costs to those in need, but .... you'll still have to buy a policy regardless of your ability financially to do so and then be re-paid afterwards with deductions to the federal income tax you owe at the end of the year.

There are so many nasty provisions contained in this bill that they are way to lengthy to go over here. Rest assured it's all much more about further governmental intervention and control than it is about some altruistic idea of helping the average joe or in even doing anything about the overall health care costs people pay now.

It will serve in a large part to further undermine Medicare as nearly 1/2 the money they claim for funding this program will come directly from the already underfunded and nearly bankrupt Medicare coffers.

One really nagging question that keeps cropping up in this debate to me is ... if this is such an important issue that MUST BE ADDRESSED ASAP why is it none of it is set to actually take effect until years, not months after it is voted on? With that in mind it seems much more like a last ditch power grab by the libs before the tables turn as is predicted in the next round of elections and much less about dealing with any perceived real need