Obama's Health Care Overhaul: Your Opinions

[Jet]

Opening the thread starting with the following report. But please feel free to comment on anything regarding Obama's health care plan.


Nearly 4M to pay health insurance penalty by 2016

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER – 58 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Nearly 4 million Americans — the vast majority of them middle class — will have to pay the new penalty for not getting health insurance when President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law kicks in, according to congressional estimates released Thursday.

The penalties will average a little more than $1,000 apiece in 2016, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report.

Most of the people paying the fine will be middle class. Obama pledged in 2008 not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000. Republicans have criticized the penalties, even though the idea for a mandate was originally proposed by the GOP in the 1990s and is part of the Massachusetts health care plan signed into law in 2006 by then Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican. Attorneys general in more than a dozen states are working to challenge the mandate in federal court as unconstitutional.

"The individual mandate tax will fall hardest on Americans who can least afford to pay it, many of whom were promised subsidies by the Democrats and who the president has promised would not pay higher taxes," said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
Democrats argue the mandate and the penalties are a necessary part of a massive overhaul designed to expand coverage to millions who now lack it. They point out that getting young, healthy Americans in the insurance pool will reduce costs for others.

Americans who don't get qualified health insurance will be required to pay penalties starting in 2014, unless they are exempt because of low income, religious beliefs, or because they are members of American Indian tribes. The penalties will be fully phased in by 2016.

About 21 million nonelderly residents will be uninsured in 2016, according to projections by the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation. Most of those people will be exempt from the penalties.
Under the new law, the penalties will be phased in starting in 2014. By 2016, those who must get insurance but don't will be fined $695 or 2.5 percent of their household income, whichever is greater. After 2016, the penalties will be increased by annual cost-of-living adjustments. People will not be required to get coverage if the cheapest plan available costs more than 8 percent of their income.

The penalties will be collected by the Internal Revenue Service through tax returns. However, the IRS will not have the authority to bring criminal charges or file liens against those who don't pay.
About 3 million of those required to pay fines in 2016 will have incomes below $59,000 for individuals and $120,000 for families of four, according to the CBO projections. The other 900,000 people who must pay the fine will have higher incomes.

The government will collect about $4 billion a year in fines from 2017 through 2019, according to the report.

[MsDemeanor]

I don't feel that Obama's plan goes far enough or acts fast enough. Single payer is my preference. If we have to continue to feed the insurance cartel, there at least needs to be a Medicare For All buy-in option; this could easily be made available within the next year. And I fail to understand why so many of the policy changes aren't slated to take effect for months or years. Why is it so hard to say "starting May 1st, you cannot cancel or refuse someone for a pre-existing condition"? What about that requires months or years to enact? Oh, yeah, it's like credit card reform, where we had to give the banks lots of time to jack up rates, cancel folks, rewrite policies, and just all around fuck over as many people as possible.

As for the three million people who elect to pay the non-enforceable penalty instead of getting taxpayer-subsidized insurance? *shrug, whatever*

[Apocalipstic]

Yeah, I think we should have a single payer system. The healthcare changes fall WAY short of what I think they should be, but I understand the heavily charged political situation we are in.

I do think the media is trying to freak people out...as usual.

[key]

The penalties will be collected by the Internal Revenue Service through tax returns. However, the IRS will not have the authority to bring criminal charges or file liens against those who don't pay.

About 3 million of those required to pay fines in 2016 will have incomes below $59,000 for individuals and $120,000 for families of four, (key: many of these will qualify for MAJOR subsidizes, so why avoid having health care?) according to the CBO projections. The other 900,000 people who must pay the fine will have higher incomes.

If you want to know exactly what your premiums (and subsidizes would be, click below)

http://healthreform.kff.org/SubsidyCalculator.aspx

IF you want an easy to understand detailed explanation of the plan click here

http://healthreform.kff.org/

I agree much of the media is designed to keep people afraid very very afraid (especially of the big bad Government - heaven forbid that the people wake up to the fact the WE ARE the government).

[MsMerrick]

Single Payer, thats ta way to go. Create law, prohibiting Insurance Companies, being for Profit, go back to when they were non profit, thats another way to go, and actually my preference. I could live with all the rest of teh HC Bill,if that was done.d

[Apocalipstic]

Great point M! Health care should not be for profit. There should be no Health Care "Industry".

[BornBronson]

Obama's health care bill,I don't like it.That is all.

[Diavolo]

Originally Posted by BornBronson

Obama's health care bill,I don't like it.That is all.

Not helpful, nor constructive. Why don't you like it? What does it do that you don't like? Or are you just parroting the party line? More information please.

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by BornBronson

Obama's health care bill,I don't like it.That is all.

So what precisely would you like to see? What is it that you don't like? How could the bill be better? If you were writing the bill, how would you have written it?

Your saying you don't like it isn't really, ummm, informative. It would be helpful and would move the discussion forward if you were to say *why*. Otherwise, it seems you're just overturning the pot to see what happens next.