re: #540 Killgore Trout

Actually government counts on tax penalties and interest all the time in their funding and revenue sources; they count noncompliance penalties and interest in their revenues and again do so when figuring out what to expect during tax amnesties held periodically. When recessions hit, those penalties and interest provisions become especially important, which is why enforcement becomes that much tighter (and tax provisions are construed even more loosely so as to bring in additional revenues as a matter of policy - as in what would construe nexus for purposes of sales tax or corp income tax, residency requirements, etc.).

The problem with the health plan is that the scope of the penalties and the imposition of those penalties are so wide and the expectation of noncompliance figures so heavily on making the plan revenue netural (outflow v inflow) at the outset that if more people choose to comply, the revenues expected from the penalties will necessarily fall short. It also would cause problems because more people than expected will be accessing the services, causing shortages in doctors and medical care (more people accessing same number of docs/medical services = less time per patient = lower quality of care).