I’ve been seeing these posts all over Facebook claiming that there is a government document that claims you don’t have to sign up for any federal health insurance program. I’ll be honest….I thought it was a hoax. After seeing yet another post on my FB wall this morning, I decided to put this thing to rest once and for all, so I set out to disprove this mythical claim of government exemption. Boy but was I in for a shocker.
I started out by “Googling” the specific US Code that was supposed to be the golden ticket out of mandated health care. U.S. Code Title 42, Chapter 157, Subsection 18115. I thought for sure I was going to find that someone had twisted the verbiage or taken a quote out of context. Nope. This is what I found on the U.S. government’s Printing Office website:
§18115. Freedom not to participate in Federal health insurance programs
No individual, company, business, nonprofit entity, or health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall be required to participate in any Federal health insurance program created under this Act (or any amendments made by this Act), or in any Federal health insurance program expanded by this Act (or any such amendments), and there shall be no penalty or fine imposed upon any such issuer for choosing not to participate in such programs.
(Pub. L. 111–148, title I, §1555, Mar. 23, 2010, 124 Stat. 260.)
References in Text
This Act, referred to in text, is Pub. L. 111–148, Mar. 23, 2010, 124 Stat. 119, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 18001 of this title and Tables.
(http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2010-title42/html/USCODE-2010-title42-chap157.htm)
I posted this to give the American people something that the current administration has implied they did not have – a choice. Please help spread the word so that more people know they have a choice.
Realizations, Ruminations, and Life 