According to the article below, these are some of the main points of the new healthcare bill... 1) The law would raise the Medicare payroll tax by an additional 0.9% (to 2.35%, from the current 1.45%) on earned income above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for joint filers. It would also impose a Medicare tax of 3.8% on investment income, such as dividends and interest, for individuals with adjusted gross income above $200,000 and joint filers with AGI above $250,000. These taxes will go into effect in 2013. Distributions from pensions, IRAs, 401(k)s and other qualified retirement plans will be exempt. Self-employed people will have to pay the additional tax. 2) Six months after enactment, health insurers cannot place lifetime limits on the value of coverage or revoke existing coverage. Starting in 2014, insurers must accept all applicants, including anyone with preexisting medical conditions. Until then, individuals with preexisting conditions who have been uninsured for more than six months will be eligible to enroll in a national high-risk pool and receive subsidized premiums. Cost sharing will be capped at $5,950 for individuals and $11,900 for families 3) Nearly everyone would be required to buy coverage, or pay a penalty. Early retirees, the self-employed and others without insurance would be able to purchase coverage through state-based exchanges. Tax credits would be available to individuals and families with income between 133% and 400% of the poverty level (that's $19,378 to $58,280 for a couple). Private insurance companies could sell policies through the exchanges. Buyers would choose among four benefit categories. As long as you don't earn over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for joint filers, then the additional taxes will not affect you. If you do earn more than that, then it will, unfortunately, cost you more in taxes each year. I have individual insurance, since I am self-employed, and I am hoping that premiums do not go up, since the insurance companies will now have to accept everyone, including anyone with pre-existing medical conditions and provide unlimited coverage that has no lifetime dollar cap. Hopefully, with nearly everyone having health insurance, the premiums will go down, because of the larger pool. You can still go without the health insurance, and just pay the penalty each year (as long as the penalty is less than the insurance premiums) and then just buy insurance once you get really sick. http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-reti...ns-for-retirees?mod=fidelity-livingretirement
Who will buy health insurance if its cheaper to pay the penalty, then enroll after they get sick? How will insurance companies survive if most opt out because the penalty is lower than the premium? Peter Schiff thinks Obamacare is a really an interim step, designed to fail, before full Federalization of Healthcare. We tried private, it didn't work. We tried public-private hybrid, it didn't work. Then they nationalize.
Most young people will take this path. The number of people with income that is just below 200,000/250,000 limit will jump substantially up. To sum up people and companies will use thier engenuity to fool Gummint again. After 10 years the children of this great nation once again will try to figure out how to pay for all this mess going forward.
I also wonder if large and small corporations will drop all of their employees' coverage to save money on insurance premiums, and then have their employees just buy the insurance once they get sick. Even if they then give some or all of the money to their employee to buy the insurance, it would still be far more cost effective than paying for premiums for many years.
Don't worry. By the time these penalties kick in it will be much higher than insurance premium. They will " fix" it very fast unless there are some changes in November and all that crap will be repealed. I personally don't believe it will be.
This bill is great, especially if you make under $250,000, assuming a joint filer. It won't affect your taxes at all. It eliminates insurance companies dropping your coverage or denying you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. It also eliminates a lifetime dollar cap on your coverage. What's wrong with that, especially if premiums don't go up by much? Now if you are making millions each year, your taxes will go up quite a bit, and I see why those people would be complaining. I guess nothing can be made perfect.
Don't you guys know what the government will do if people try to game the system?? Obama may do things you don't like, but you are badly mistaken if you think the man is stupid. He ain't. You got to know that Obama has a plan B that will go into effect if things aren't looking right. In other words, the Public Option is on the way and you will be getting insurance of one sort or another. Am I the only one here who would welcome a full government takeover of the system? Let's squash all the game and destroy the criminal health care syndicate in this country. You can bet, Obama is going to control costs one way or another. Use your imagination. The cow is already out of the barn. Mooooo(ve) out-the-way.
I wonder how many companies will top out at 49-50 employees, and either outsource, offshore, or bring in contractors/interns...
Obamacare will not lower costs. If the sole focus is to find some way to pay for anything (drugs, healtcare) then the price will increase. The way to lower healthcare costs is to increase supply. One way would be to lower barriers to entry and another would be to minimize costs (Tort Reform) and unnecessary regulation.