Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Obamacare Without Intent

Am I reading this right?

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 63 > § 1347

Health care fraud

Whoever knowingly and willfully executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice —

(1) to defraud any health care benefit program; or

(2) to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any health care benefit program,

in connection with the delivery of or payment for health care benefits, items, or services, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both. If the violation results in serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of this title), such person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and if the violation results in death, such person shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both.

Also:

-CITE-
18 USC Sec. 1347 01/05/2009

-EXPCITE-
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 63 - MAIL FRAUD AND OTHER FRAUD OFFENSES

-HEAD-
Sec. 1347. Health care fraud

-STATUTE-
Whoever knowingly and willfully executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice -

(1) to defraud any health care benefit program; or

(2) to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any health care benefit program,

in connection with the delivery of or payment for health care benefits, items, or services, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both. If the violation results in serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 of this title), such person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both; and if the violation results in death, such person shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both.

-SOURCE-
(Added Pub. L. 104-191, title II, Sec. 242(a)(1), Aug. 21, 1996,
110 Stat. 2016.)

-End-

This is now amended thusly:

(b) INTENT REQUIREMENT FOR HEALTH CARE FRAUD.—Section
1347 of title 18, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by inserting "a)" before "Whoever knowingly"; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
"(b) With respect to violations of this section, a person need not have actual knowledge of this section or specific intent to commit a violation of this section.".

Key part: "a person need not have ... specific intent to commit a violation of this section."

In other words, with the advent of Obamacare - a 906-page law - you can now be convicted and sentenced to prison for a violation of this 906 page law even though it is not shown you intended to do so.

Over nine hundred pages... people are going to violate some part of this nine-hundred-page law every day without intending to do so.

How many people have even read it?

How many people have even read the summary?

How many pages of federal laws are on the books? And, how many of those pages have you read? Do you even know when you are violating one of these laws?

They can come after anyone they want to. They have the legal authority; Congress passes these bills, and stupid (sly?) Presidents sign them into law.

You might want to review my previous post and see what this could mean.

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