Question About the Affordable Health Care Act

Posted by $ Mimi 11 years ago to Legislation
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I keep seeing reports about how cheap the insurance rates will be on the exchanges after you supposedly qualify for the subsidy. However, I remember vaguely from a couple years ago ongoing discussions about a time limit for these subsidies. I believe you can only get a subsidy during the first two years of the program? I don’t remember, but I do believe that it’s just a carrot till the end of Obama’s presidency. Am I wrong? Help me understand this. I would go ask a newly designated navigator, but I don’t think he or she would know the answer, and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t tell me they were clueless unless they get all of my personal information first.


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  • Posted by Spinkane 11 years ago
    Instead of trying to unravel thousands of pages of health care law, I keep it simple. If it was a good idea it would sell itself and be optional. The fact it was made into law with penalties if you resist suggests something closer to theft. There is no escape; it is bad history repeating itself.
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  • Posted by dpesec 11 years ago
    100% right on the money. Business stated offering fringe "benefits" as a result of FDR's wage/price controls in WWII. This was a way to keep and attract workers. Well, a freebie once given is never taken away. Then workers kept demanding more and more fringes. The reason is simple there is/was no tax on them. Great way to increase your income free of taxes.
    I can remember going to a MD as a child and having to pay $10 for the visit, no copay, that's it, $10. Today the MD has to charge $125 because of regulations, paperwork and the other costs of this paperwork nightmare.
    Get the government out of everything and back to the role it was intended for, not being a "sugar daddy" to everybody. rant off.
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  • Posted by nelsneumann 11 years ago
    I remember a similar debate when car insurance was made mandatory. We were told that requiring everyone to get insurance would reduce the costs for everyone, but people were always very vague on the details. The costs never did go down.
    If government has to use force to require people to do something, it is not in their best interest.
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  • Posted by $ joy-123 11 years ago
    All government programs are bad. They are all based on force. It is theft! It will never be cost effective or efficient for the producers. But, I guarantee it will destroy the best health care system the world has thus far known. People who equate health insurance with health care are not thinking (or simply cannot think). If they ever make it to single payer, we will truly be in bad shape!
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    • Posted by $ 11 years ago
      I would have preferred single-payer. Take a few dollars out of my paycheck every week rather than me coming up with a few hundred dollars a month for coverage that barely lifts be out of no man’s land (an area which there are no competent doctors).
      There something to be said for health care in the UK. You can go anywhere in the European Union and you are covered completely. Some people in the UK also pay for private insurance so they have that assurance of not having to wait in case of emergency, but the people I have talked to that do have an extra policy can’t remember when the last time they actually used it. Single payer could have been debated, honestly.
      Tearing down the system to force us into a situation where a single payer system is the only alternative is evil. It means years upon years of enduring a broken system that isn’t even affordable. The middle class is going to get nailed. This is a horrible abuse of power. But you are right, health insurance is not health care, and the next need we will be clamoring for is more doctors. They must have an idea of how they are going to approach that problem, and I’m scared of what are the ideas they are kicking around.
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      • Posted by Hiraghm 11 years ago
        So you prefer slavery with velvet-lined handcuffs?
        No, No "single payer", whatever that nonsense term is supposed to mean. Get the freaking government OUT of the insurance industry.

        We should be looking for ways to get rid of social security and medicare, and now people are galloping on toward Obamacare or its R trademarked equivalent.

        Gee, health care costs are way too high... whose fault is it? In part it's business's, for giving "benefits packages" instead of pieces of paper which should have been gold. In part, it's employees with 20th Century Motor eyes looking at getting something for seemingly nothing. Instead of taking care of their own healthcare and getting paid more, no, they settle for less pay for a "deal" on insurance.

        But, mostly it's government's fault, with it's endless skein of regulation. The insurance profession is one of the most byzantine, and it's one of the most heavily regulated. This is not coincidence.
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        • Posted by $ 11 years ago
          I’m facing the truth. I prefer single-payer to what has been put in place. We can’t go back. The system is going to crash. As much as I would love to see the government out of health care all together that is never going to happen.
          Your right about business being partly to blame, but regulations were the reason that businesses started offering benefit packages. During the early part of the twentieth century when the government froze salaries during wartime, business began to offer fringe benefit packages to circumvent the freeze in order to continue to compete with other businesses for the brightest workers.
          How do you suggest realistically we get the government out of our health care when every time a Democrat stands up and ask, “So you don’t like this plan; what is yours?” a Republican stands up and responds, “Oooooh, I’ve got a plan better than yours!”

          There isn’t anyone in power brave enough to stand up and say, “The American people say--butt-out, period.”

          How would you fix this problem?
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      • Posted by LetsShrug 11 years ago
        "A few dollars a paycheck"... where'd you get that idea? And why are you okay with MORE taxation?
        The ideas they are kicking around are probably... "hmm let's who has student loan debt that went to medical school..... THEY will work where we say and when and how.. they owe us." Heck all student loans regardless of medical schooling will be manhandled eventually... in my opinion anyway.
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  • Posted by $ jsambdman 11 years ago
    There are income thresholds based on family size that dictate any premium subsidy you may be eligible for. It is provided via the Advance Premium Tax Credit on your tax return. However, if you don't file taxes now, that won't really help you. This is a way to make all individuals file a tax return whether they have income or not and to thus track and control them even further.
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    • Posted by $ 11 years ago
      That’s it! Now, somewhere buried in the Affordable Health Care Act there should be a disclaimer that states this credit has a end date. It is only to get the program off the ground. Every time I see a news report of people suffering from sticker shock, there is this need to make light of the higher premiums because of the premium subsidy.”See? It’s not so bad.”,they seem to be saying, But nobody is reading the fine print.
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  • Posted by richrobinson 11 years ago
    So much about this law has changed Mimi and we now know that they flat out lied about keeping your own plan. What you heard earlier and what actually happens are two different things. I'm sorry I didn't pay more attention about the subsidy. This whole thing looked so bad to me I kind of tuned it out.
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    • Posted by $ 11 years ago
      Yeah, me too. The point is: it is very important that people be aware when they are signing up if they think that a portion of the money they are shelling out a month that is designated to be returned to them in a tax credit --won’t be there in a couple years. I think we need to know this to budget accordingly, but they are so vague about everything.
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  • Posted by Rocky_Road 11 years ago
    You may be thinking about the 'fines'...they grow each year, but disappear after a set amount of time.

    Why they do this, I don't know. And what happens when you run out of opting for the fine...I still don't know.

    But my guess is that we don't want to find out!
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    • Posted by $ 11 years ago
      No, I wasn’t referring to the fines, but since you mentioned them: Pfffft. I use to approach this law with a willful stubbornness stating I wasn’t going to sign up and I would pay the fine, but after seeing the absolute amateur roll out of this program, I’m not going to dignify it with any of my income. If they want their fine, they’ll have to come and get it. Like Reardon, I’m not going to just give it to them. Hell, I might be Amish for awhile. ;)
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      • Posted by $ jsambdman 11 years ago
        The fine will be collected from any refunds due you on your tax return. So if you plan your tax year to have no refund due you they (IRS) cannot collect the fine. However, those paying the fine are also responsible for ALL of the costs of any healthcare they actually use.
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      • Posted by Rocky_Road 11 years ago
        Once an Amish...always an Amish! Hoorah!

        If I needed a reason to not use the website, it would be the lack of any real security in regards to my vital information...health, or otherwise. An identity thief's wet dream!
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years ago
    I believe the credit will stay, and it will be one more thing for politicians to bicker about going forward. It will be a gov't benefit that will be very hard to reduce.

    This is one of my biggest problems with the program, which I otherwise support overall. We will have constant debate about whether insurance companies should be required to pay for such-and-such test. But that will make them more expensive. Then we can have a parallel debate about the subsidy level. All this is complicated compared to people just apying for their own stuff.
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