Is this REALLY what you want? Annual $700+ fine for being poor!!!

It’s not official yet–but it’s getting awfully close. With the Senate finally passing an $871 billion healthcare reform bill, there’s just one major step left before the most sweeping healthcare legislation in at least 45 years becomes law. Senate negotiators will next meet with their counterparts in the House–which passed its own $894 billion bill in November–to work out the differences and try to forge one bill that Congress can present to President Obama.

Required coverage (the “individual mandate”). American citizens and legal residents would be required to have health insurance, or pay a fine. For an individual, the fine would be $750 per year or 2 percent of household income, whichever is greater; for a family, the maximum fine would be $2,250 per year or 2 percent of household income. The fines would go into effect gradually, starting in 2014. The House bill is similar, with exemptions for certain low-income people.