Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You see, you make the mistake of thinking democratic politicians are different from CEO's. The only difference is that CEO's of companies like employees, that means their company is doing well. You also do better because of it. When they have to lay off thats because they are forced to cut back due to bad economy. Democratic politicians on the other hand do better when there are more poor.
CEO's cut back on employees for lots of reasons. Even in a booming economy, you find companies laying off employees, and offshoring work.
No, you have to be really poor to go on Medicaid even with the new rules in some states. People who make 20,30, even 60K per year have been doing without insurance because they simply can't afford it. The subsidies help, sure, but it is still outrageously expensive and a family budget buster. I retired early from my company and my insurance which was free while I was there went to nearly $15,000 per year! Sticker shock? Tell me about it. It's not that great policy either. I can and may do better on the exchanges, but even then I am looking at $11,000 for a policy I would feel comfortable in having. Insurance is expensive; it is beyond the means of probably half of all Americans even with the ACA subsidies. If ACA fails, it will be precisely because it does not do enough to bring down costs to the lower middle class - people who are tapped out and don't have the money to pay even for the low end bronze plans.
I agree with you. But we had that in place and the simple thing would have been to lower the threshold standards for qualifications for Medicaid, even if that required a modest premium (and I mean - like $32/mo).
Well I'm covered by a group plan so I'm insulated from Obamacare until 2015 but seems to me paying the penalty is the way go for young people not covered by such a plan. Since you can get insurance with pre-existing condition you just buy it when you get sick. Am I missing something?
That should work quite well for you with one exception. You'll have to stop hammering on the "personal responsibility" angle whenever you post your distaste for a social safety net program and it's recipients.
You know,....hypocrisy and all that.........
unless you're a liberal parasite surviving on obama cheese,
the penality will run thousands of $$s, not $95 like the mouth-breather-in-chief has been lying about...
Considering how many people are unemployed or working part time, I doubt many will be able to afford mandatory health insurance. Some of my friends have eliminated their income from their businesses and will not be having any taxable income for 2014. I have not had taxable income for the past few years either. No income tax, no penalty, no obamacare, simple.
People who think they can avoid the penalty by not having a big tax refund, miss that the HHS has a year to simply amend the law and allow garnishment of wages, and change that 1% fee to whatever they feel like.
Remember that under Obama, laws are no longer laws, he can bend them, break them, and contort them to do whatever he wants to. The entire ACA is one big play toy for controlling, punishing, and taxing people, businesses and organizations.
The delivery of healthcare though - point of service - how has that been affected? Folks expect individualized treatment. There are going to be a lot of people who will balk at such things as walk-in clinics, where assessment is provided by PAs, NPs, for example. They want to have a physician with which they have a relationship.
All that will necessarily have to change. I have no problem with it. I think such things as "Docs in a Box" (arrangements that drugstores have, for example, to offer some healthcare and lab services - and Dx done on-site) are a great idea. Flat fee. Typically, fast service.
If those things occur, it won't be because of Insurance Mandates and compulsory, mandated insurance policies. Making people pay for insurance is not giving them lower prices on procedures, lab work, scans, etc.
If we wanted Affordable Healthcare, then we should not have created a monstrous Insurance industry and tied it all into the IRS -- along with penalties and punitive regulations.
We have had that sort of thing in my part of the country for several years now. It's like going to Brakes +. Commodity medicine seems to be the norm around here. We also have the second lowest insurance rates on the ACA exchanges they say. Maybe that explains it.
The ACA is forcing insurers to go head to head for business. Those lower priced options are being driven by insurers hard bargaining over rates and favoring store front medicine over cozy, marble lined, doctors' offices of the past. And that is only one aspect of the ACA cost control provisions. There are many others such as penalizing hospitals for patient readmissions and withholding 2% of payment to hospitals and only paying it based on patient satisfaction surveys. People who say ACA has no cost control provisions simply are not familiar with the law. ACA is pushing cost-consciousness into every level of medicine from consumer choices about healthcare plans to doctors offices and to hospitals. It remains to be seen how effective it will be but it is wrong to simply dismiss them.
There is this thing called concerned trolling where people have these fake concerns and issues.
Look, young people, old people, poor people, rich people, single people, married people, everyone just about wants affordable health insurance.
The key is affordable. If you are a "young" person under the age of 26, you can stay on your parents health insurance.
If you are a young person and single and you make under $40,000 a year, you may get subsidizes to buy health insurance on the exchanges.
If you are a young single person and you make over $50,000 a year chances are very good that you already have insurance or work for an employer that offers decent insurance.
There is a relatively small subset of highly paid younger adults you were in the individual health insurance market who were buying crappy health insurance and those plans are going away.
Those adults will have to pay more for better insurance, but this small subgroup is not most young adults who want quality insurance for themselves and family.
Again, people are being purposefully silly about all of this. People want affordable health insurance, and they will buy it because they want health insurance.
Also the penalty is $95 dollars or 1% of your salary which ever is higher. So if you make $20,000 the penalty will be $200. If your income is higher the penalty will be higher.
Many people already had policies that allowed students to stay on their parents' policies til age 26. I did. So did most of my friends.
The people who are 26 and don't have insurance coverage most likely STILL won't have parents who can afford to put them on a policy. So that was a non-starter as far as providing healthcare to a big chunk of young people who have no insurance coverage.
Yes, the key is AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE. What we got was semi-affordable HEALTH INSURANCE, with many plans having high deductibles and lousy coverage (i.e. 60% of MRI scans as opposed to 90% of the cost of an MRI) . . . so the end result is - folks who can't afford to pay for TOP TIER healthcare still can't pay for it, plus now are burdened with mandatory insurance cost -- and penalties if they don't comply.
I think you have never been hit with a big hospital bill or with having to pay for CTs, MRIs, etc. It sucks to need a scan and not get one b/c you know full well the bill you will be left with is simply beyond your ability to pay - even with insurance.
Now you're getting it! By the same token why should I be forced to pay higher taxes for the entitlement class? I want to save my money and build my future for me and my family.
Welcome to Obamas entitlement society!
Liberals are calling me a leech for exploiting a system they created for my benefit. Now I'm supposed to act out of honor, for what exactly? Liberals have spent the last 50 years sneering at family and honor now all of a sudden they want folks to act honorably to save Obamacare. Ain't nobody got no time for that.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
