How is this going to be fair with the states choosing to opt out of Health Care option?

The taxes that you refer to are taxes that the INSURANCE companies pay on premium "high dollar" plans. Individuals do not pay these taxes. There are no taxes collected from states or individuals.

The plan (whatever is passed...there is no guarantee that it will be this plan) does not go into effect until 2013 because it takes several years to put a plan such as this into place. As reference, when the last administration passed the Medicare drug benefit in 2005, it did not go into effect until 2007, and this was a much smaller plan.

"More than two years after Congress passed legislation authorizing a new prescription drug benefit in Medicare, the program goes into effect on Sunday, January 1. "

http://archive.disabledperson.com/articles/medicar...

EDIT

The tax is the penalty that for not having ANY health insurance. It is not a penalty for having private insurance, as one of the options in this plan is to be able to purchase private insurance from a pool of plans that include the public option. The current bill phases these penalties in in 2014.

The penalty is for NOT having health insurance of any kind, whether you purchase it on your own using the tax credits, or use them to purchase from the insurance pool provided by the plan...this pool will contain both a government option ( a government run plan) as well as several private plans you could choose from.

Understand that the "government option" is one of SEVERAL plans you could choose from if you have no insurance. It is not the only choice nor mandatory, you could use your credits plus available assistance to purchase insurance from anywhere you can afford.

"Ms. Snowe and Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, offered an amendment to reduce the penalty and to introduce it gradually. Under their proposal, the maximum penalty for a family would start at $200 in 2014 and rise to $800 in 2017.

The Finance Committee adopted their amendment, which would also eliminate the possibility of criminal penalties for people who went without insurance."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/health/policy/02...

Trying to get hundreds of legislators to agree to anything will be impossible.

If states opt out, how long before the federal government withholds highway funds or education funds or welfare payments for those states?

This healthcare bill is about destroying america - it has nothing to do with actual healthcare.

the fines that the liberals are putting into this legislation just show that it's about revenue (power, control, etc..) and not about health care.

It's not odd...it's down right bullsh|t.