DaRigger420 said:
Anyone looking at the $190 fine needs to take a closer look.
It goes up in 2016 to $695 or 2.5% of your income, whichever is greater.
Which is about $60/mo, and still far, far less than actual insurance. I'm 27, 6'5" and 203lbs. (~98kg) and for a $5k deductible 20% co-pay plan with one acute injury for which I've had surgery, the company quoted me $125/mo.
If you can't afford insurance now, how can you afford a $700 fine (or more) on the same pay?
Hopefully by 2016 pay will increase and the Middle Class will take back some ground.
Also, certain religious groups and economic hardship are grounds for getting waivers for the tax. There are also government subsidies available if you make too much for Medicare but can't outright afford private insurance:
"These premium subsidies will be available for individuals and families with incomes between 133 percent and 400 percent of the poverty level, or $14,856 to $44,680 for individuals and $30,656 to $92,200 for a family of four (based on current poverty guidelines)." -http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2012/March/22/consumer-guide-health-law.aspx
If an employer is found (by the government who collects the money) to not have a complient program, they will be fined anywhere from $100/day to $2000 per employee.
Can you say goodbye small mom and pop businesses?
This only applies to businesses which have more than 50 employees. If you have fewer than 50 employees, you are not required to offer your employees insurance.
Also, it's just the $2000/employee - not $100/day.
You can use the numbers presented here: http://www.census.gov/econ/smallbus.html
...and figure out that about 61% of businesses employee fewer than 50 employees, with 1-4 Employees being about 3x the size of any other partition.
We are ALREADY paying into the program but will not recieve any benefits untill 2014.
That equals paying in for 10 years for only 6 years of services.
Well, no, several provisions are already in-practice:
Effective at enactment
The Food and Drug Administration is now authorized to approve generic versions of biologic drugs and grant biologics manufacturers 12 years of exclusive use before generics can be developed.[48]
The Medicaid drug rebate for brand name drugs is increased to 23.1% (except the rebate for clotting factors and drugs approved exclusively for pediatric use increases to 17.1%), and the rebate is extended to Medicaid managed care plans; the Medicaid rebate for non-innovator, multiple source drugs is increased to 13% of average manufacturer price.[48]
A non-profit Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute is established, independent from government, to undertake comparative effectiveness research.[48] This is charged with examining the "relative health outcomes, clinical effectiveness, and appropriateness" of different medical treatments by evaluating existing studies and conducting its own. Its 19-member board is to include patients, doctors, hospitals, drug makers, device manufacturers, insurers, payers, government officials and health experts. It will not have the power to mandate or even endorse coverage rules or reimbursement for any particular treatment. Medicare may take the Institute's research into account when deciding what procedures it will cover, so long as the new research is not the sole justification and the agency allows for public input.[49] The bill forbids the Institute to develop or employ "a dollars per quality adjusted life year" (or similar measure that discounts the value of a life because of an individual's disability) as a threshold to establish what type of health care is cost effective or recommended. This makes it different from the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
Creation of task forces on Preventive Services and Community Preventive Services to develop, update, and disseminate evidenced-based recommendations on the use of clinical and community prevention services.[48]
The Indian Health Care Improvement Act is reauthorized and amended.[48]
Chain restaurants and food vendors with 20 or more locations are required to display the caloric content of their foods on menus, drive-through menus, and vending machines. Additional information, such as saturated fat, carbohydrate, and sodium content, must also be made available upon request.[50] But first, the Food and Drug Administration has to come up with regulations, and as a result, calories disclosures may not appear until 2013 or 2014.[50]
Effective June 21, 2010
Adults with existing conditions became eligible to join a temporary high-risk pool, which will be superseded by the health care exchange in 2014.[45][51] To qualify for coverage, applicants must have a pre-existing health condition and have been uninsured for at least the past six months.[52] There is no age requirement.[52] The new program sets premiums as if for a standard population and not for a population with a higher health risk. Allows premiums to vary by age (4:1), geographic area, and family composition. Limit out-of-pocket spending to $5,950 for individuals and $11,900 for families, excluding premiums.[52][53][54]
Effective July 1, 2010
The President established, within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a council to be known as the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council to help begin to develop a National Prevention and Health Promotion Strategy. The Surgeon General shall serve as the Chairperson of the new Council.[55][56]
A 10% tax on indoor tanning took effect.[57]
Effective September 23, 2010
Insurers are prohibited from imposing lifetime dollar limits on essential benefits, like hospital stays, in new policies issued.[58]
Dependents (children) will be permitted to remain on their parents' insurance plan until their 26th birthday,[59] and regulations implemented under the Act include dependents that no longer live with their parents, are not a dependent on a parent's tax return, are no longer a student, or are married.[60][61]
Insurers are prohibited from excluding pre-existing medical conditions (except in grandfathered individual health insurance plans) for children under the age of 19.[62][63]
Insurers are prohibited from charging co-payments, co-insurance, or deductibles for Level A or Level B preventive care and medical screenings on all new insurance plans.[64]
Individuals affected by the Medicare Part D coverage gap will receive a $250 rebate, and 50% of the gap will be eliminated in 2011.[65] The gap will be eliminated by 2020.
Insurers' abilities to enforce annual spending caps will be restricted, and completely prohibited by 2014.[45]
Insurers are prohibited from dropping policyholders when they get sick.[45]
Insurers are required to reveal details about administrative and executive expenditures.[45]
Insurers are required to implement an appeals process for coverage determination and claims on all new plans.[45]
Enhanced methods of fraud detection are implemented.[45]
Medicare is expanded to small, rural hospitals and facilities.[45]
Medicare patients with chronic illnesses must be monitored/evaluated on a 3 month basis for coverage of the medications for treatment of such illnesses.
Companies which provide early retiree benefits for individuals aged 55?64 are eligible to participate in a temporary program which reduces premium costs.[45]
A new website installed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services will provide consumer insurance information for individuals and small businesses in all states.[45]
A temporary credit program is established to encourage private investment in new therapies for disease treatment and prevention.[45]
Effective January 1, 2011
Insurers must spend a certain percent of premium dollars on eligible expenses, subject to various waivers and exemptions; if an insurer fails to meet this requirement, there is no penalty, but a rebate must be issued to the policy holder.[66][67][68]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is responsible for developing the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and overseeing the testing of innovative payment and delivery models.[69]
Flexible spending accounts, Health reimbursement accounts and health savings accounts cannot be used to pay for over-the-counter drugs, purchased without a prescription, except insulin.[70]
Effective January 1, 2012
Employers must disclose the value of the benefits they provided beginning in 2012 for each employee's health insurance coverage on the employees' annual Form W-2's.[71] This requirement was originally to be effective January 1, 2011, but was postponed by IRS Notice 2010-69 on October 23, 2010.[72]
New tax reporting changes were to come in effect to prevent tax evasion by corporations. However, in April 2011, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011 repealing this provision, because it was burdensome to small businesses.[73][74] Before PPACA businesses were required to notify the IRS on form 1099 of certain payments to individuals for certain services or property over a reporting threshold of $600.[75][76] Under the repealed law, reporting of payments to corporations would also be required.[77][78] Originally it was expected to raise $17 billion over 10 years.[79] The amendments made by Section 9006 of the Act were designed to apply to payments made by businesses after December 31, 2011, but will no longer apply because of the repeal of the section.[74][76]
Effective by August 1, 2012
All new plans must cover certain preventive services such as mammograms and colonoscopies without charging a deductible, co-pay or coinsurance. Women's Preventive Services ? including well-woman visits, support for breastfeeding equipment, contraception and domestic violence screening ? will be covered without cost sharing.
Effective by January 1, 2013
Income from self-employment and wages of single individuals in excess of $200,000 annually will be subject to an additional tax of 0.9%. The threshold amount is $250,000 for a married couple filing jointly (threshold applies to joint compensation of the two spouses), or $125,000 for a married person filing separately.[80] In addition, an additional Medicare tax of 3.8% will apply to unearned income, specifically the lesser of net investment income or the amount by which adjusted gross income exceeds $200,000 ($250,000 for a married couple filing jointly; $125,000 for a married person filing separately.)[81]
And as for those saying that it is now going to be handled through the Tax Code so don't worry, do you really want your healthcare handled by the IRS?
It's not really the IRS that mishandles cases; they rarely make mistakes, but there are a lot of people who try to cheat the system, so there's a lot of effort expended to track down who's not paying.
The IRS is also very willing to make deals for back-taxes as long as you make an effort to be upfront and honest with them.
I can see it now, to get your preexisting condition treated you have to fill out form 1040Bio, subtract your age, add the cost of treatment, refer to a table in the back of a booklet and after mailing it all in find that you figured it wrong and are only going to be issued some pain meds so you cant feel the cancer eating your body to death.
I believe you misunderstand. Private insurance companies are still handling all of the non-Medicare/Medicaid paperwork.
The only portion that's going to be handled through the Tax Code is the yearly fee for not buying insurance and additional taxes levied on those making a certain income level or above.
It may result in a few new lines to the 1040.
Folks need to look deeper into the 2700 pages of this bloated beast of a law, but they will no tbe allowed to see the whole thing.
You can download the whole thing here: http://www.healthcare.gov/law/full/index.html
It is a 4.27Mb PDF file with 2409 pages.
To quote the people who came up with it "We had to first PASS the Law to be able to find out what is IN the Law."
This isn't uncommon. Most Bills change up to the day they are passed, and balloon quickly as special interest groups and other things get added in attempts to compromise.
I don't know about all of you, but even to my 13 year old niece obamacare stinks like last weeks sushi in the sahara.
Opinions should be based off of as many facts as possible, and many of the statements you have made are false.
I'm not asking you to change your opinion, but I will say that you seem to have been presented misinformation and taken it as trustworthy.
