Thursday, August 02, 2012

Kentucky's Catch-22

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 satirically attacks arbitrary abuse of government power.

From Wikipedia:

"Other forms of Catch-22 are invoked throughout the novel to justify various bureaucratic actions. At one point, victims of harassment by military police quote the MPs' explanation of one of Catch-22's provisions: "Catch-22 states that agents enforcing Catch-22 need not prove that Catch-22 actually contains whatever provision the accused violator is accused of violating." Another character explains: "Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.""


Kentucky utilizes Catch-22 reasoning in its continued assault on citizens attempting to escape ObamaCare. State law effectively forbids religious health sharing, an alternative to health insurance whose practitioners are actually exempt from mandates in the "Affordable Care Act."


Under Kentucky law this practice is not only illegal, it is a felony punishable by large fines and up to five years in prison. So if you are a Kentuckian who understands ObamaCare is an unworkable mess and want out, your state government could legally throw you in jail for trying. Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate, the state's Department of Insurance and the legislature have stopped even trying to clarify this situation, but all those people have one thing in common: they are state employees not subject to prosecution for seeking a health insurance alternative while regular citizens face ObamaCare taxes,  fees and mandates on one side and the potential for imprisonment on the other.


It's about time to storm the gates. Here's one idea. And another.