No Health Insurance = Jail Time?

From a Press Conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Seattle on November 9th, 2008:

SHOMARI STONE, KOMO 4 NEWS: Madame Speaker, I'm Shomari Stone from KOMO 4 news. I have a question for you that hasn't been pointed out but a lot of Americans feel this way. Do you think it's fair to send people to jail for not buying health insurance?

PELOSI: Well the point is -- is that we want make sure that everyone has access to health care. For a long time now people who haven't had health care or provided it have placed the burden on others. Everybody is paying the price for uncompensated care-I don't need to tell you that-in a hospital. And so this is -- is to say that we all have to do our part and that is the point of the bill.

STONE: But Madame Speaker, I'm just trying to understand, if you don't buy health insurance, you go to jail? You didn't answer my question.

PELOSI: Well, the point, there is -- I think the legislation is very fair in this respect. It gives people an opportunity to have health care, access to quality health care. If they can't afford it, it provides subsidies for them to do so. But do you think it's fair if somebody says, I'm just not going to have any, if I get sick, then I'll just go to the emergency room and send the bill to you. That's my view on the subject.

Now to be fair, Media Matters points out that the actual bill does not directly impose jail time for not having health insurance.  The bill actually imposes a tax on someone who does not carry health care coverage, and failure to pay this tax can result in civil or criminal penalties.

So, to me a more accurate question would be: "Madam Speaker, if a citizen refuses to purchase health care , and then refuses to pay an additional tax, even if they are healthy, will they go to jail?"

However what everyone is missing is that this question was asked of House Speaker Pelosi two days after the bill was passed.  Why didn't she answer the question with "there will be a tax imposed on persons who do not maintain acceptable coverage" rather than the dithering answer she gave?

I think her answer was not succinct because she honestly had no idea of what was actually in that behemoth bill she just strong armed through the House.  It becomes very hard to answer a question when you lack a working knowledge of the topic.