You beat me to it, but I was thinking more along the lines of class president for the school for the deaf, dumb and blind.
Look folks...it is all predicated on the simple FACT that we will all seek health coverage at some point whether it be a simple visit to the 24 hour clinic or the emergency room. If hospitals are required BY LAW to treat the uninsured then why is it such a stretch to require everyone to have insurance? By placing that burden on the hospitals, then all the hospitals do is pass the cost for treating the uninsured along to the rest of us. So you are already paying for it, but Congress is attempting to regulate those costs and ensure that the marketplace is as fair as it can be. Is it perfect, no.
The penalty is supposed to be $95 a year or 1% of salary, whichever is greater. Considering a family plan would run you anywhere from $400 - $800 a month (spitballing based on my experience) and you make $70k a year then your penalty would be $700 a year if you chose not to pay $9,600 in premiums. Assuming your family is the picture of health and you visit not one doctor all year then the penalty works out great for you. However, one mild car accident and you're probably in better shape if you had insurance.
I don't care what your political opinions are. Our government just said if you have income you must pay for your health insurance, and you will pay for others without income. Call it a tax, insurance premium, penalty, you will pay more if you have income.
Oh please....your IQ is borderline retarded so forgive me if I laugh at you making fun of someone's intelligence. It likely took you 10 minutes to type your post because you are such an idiot.
What our government did was ensure those who have income, choose not to pay for health insurance, and end up with a $300,000 hospital bill they cannot pay (no matter what their income is) do not stick the rest of us with the tab. All this law does is attempt to regulate that. Would you prefer that we revoke the laws that require hospitals to treat those who cannot pay for the treatment? How do you think that would end up? This way your uninsured cousin who shows up at the ER with a bleeding ulcer gets turned away after the hospital does a credit check on him (while bleeding to death) and determines he filed for bankruptcy two years ago. Sorry, cuz. On a related note: Did you see the hospital stocks surge today? Why do you think that is?
Moron....if it were that ****ing simple who would argue it? Go catch a train you idiot.....and let it run over you.
So according to this ruling, The government can now tax you for a "behavior" and not just income. This is going to get very ugly.
Don't all of you get your panties in a wad. If this healthcare thing is a "tax", then Congress can surely repeal it. Congress has been enacting and repealing taxes for two hundred years. A Democratic Congress enacted it; a Republican Congress can repeal it. If the Republicans gain control of Congress again, then they can repeal this "tax". If they do, then they should go ahead and repeal the Social Security tax also, otherwise they will be a bunch of hypocrites. If you are going to wipe out this "social program", then why not all of them. I doubt that the Repubs will grow the balls to do it. Welcome to some more socialism.
We are a family of 12. We have ten kids of varying special needs. We see MANY specialists. We pay co-pays. We pay our insurance every month. We LOVE our insurance. Love it. B/c of it, we take absolutely NO government hand outs whatsoever. Despite us probably qualifying for many of our kids according to our therapists. Since we had such great insurance and were able to pay it, we never applied for any Medicaid or anything of that nature. In all liklihood, we will lose our health insurance and be forced on the government option. We can not be w/out insurance so the tax thing is not an option. Yet, our employer will most likely not be able to keep up for all the employees what others have deemed a "Cadialac" plan of insurances. So, all our kids we've been paying for all along w/ no issues, I'm assuming will have to be paid for by someone else despite us having the ability to pay. I just honest to goodness do NOT understand it. Seriously, I don't understand a lot of the stupid bill. I just know that for us, this is hugely detrimental for our entire family. I don't know what to do. Some of my kids meds are critical to their health. Before generics, my kids' meds were roughly $5K per month. After generics, I think it's about $1K. Most covered by our prescription plan. We're scratching our heads figuring out what the heck we're going to do if we no longer have that coverage. Now, someone may be able to answer this. We have a 19yo w/ disabilities. Put it this way, she will not be able to academically attend college. She graduates next year. If she can not find a job, what happens to her as she won't be able to be on our insurance? Everyone is telling us to put her on Medicaid now. We haven't. Again, the no government hand out thing if we can afford to. Our choice. At this point though, if the bill goes into effect I doubt will have any choice. Any clear link as to what all this entails. NOT one political side or another but something that clearly spells out this stupid bill and how it may effect a family like ours. BTW, a friend of ours said they would no longer be able to hire more employees. I'm NOT a political person whatsoever but geez, this is not sounding good at all to me thus far. Stephanie-- mom to 10
Thanks. Part of the problem is as consumers, we have lost perspective of what healthcare costs are. Thanks to HMO,PPO, I Don't Know plans, we are so used to paying our $5-$20 copay that we have not cared how much the doctors and hospitals are charging or what they settle for with insurance companies. Now we have sticker shock as plans move away from the copay structure and it forces us to act responsibly. We shop around for most everything, why not healthcare? Insurance companies now give us the tools to decide what hospitals to use and corresponding specialists that use those hospitals. If I know I need to have an elective surgical procedure, it's my job to find out where my 20% coinsurance will be less. Until we do this, hospitals have no need to compete and can charge whatever they want. It's simple-you start losing business and you lower prices. And why would I even think of paying WakeMed or Rex full price when I know they are willing to take at least a 50% cut from insurance? It's all a mess. No easy answers. So we either all need to have insurance so we pay the same fair price, or none of us should have it and healthcare providers need to make healthcare affordable again.
When you refer to the government option, are you referring to Medicaid? There is no other government option of which I am aware. This is NOT national healthcare with a single plan. Under the Obama healthcare law, she will be able to stay on your insurance until she is 26. This has been in effect for two years. I don't see that this will have a detrimental effect on your family as long as your employer continues to provide the insurance. Here is a link which might help you understand what this healthcare law says. http://phobias.about.com/od/treatment/a/obamaplan.htm
The ONLY way she can stay on our plan from what I've read, is IF and ONLY if she remains in school. She can not attend college. She is a disabled adult though I don't think of her that way. It's the classification they give. We are told our only option for her to get health insurance is to put her on medicaid. That is complicated w/ her dx's. Long story, not getting into it on here. Anyhow, she can not go on our insurance and will not be able to hold a job the way you or I could. Hence, she can't afford insurance due to disability. We have a meeting w/ Voc Rehab at the end of July and plan to ask more questions. We've attended dozens of meetings on this very issue and trust me, everyone is confused. no one knows what will become of everything & that includes the professionals holding these seminars. Got to love it. And you said something...how can it be detrimental? I won't even get into it at the moment. too much to write. Here's the thing. There is a pretty good chance the employer will NOT be able to provide insurance any more. Not written in stone by any means but plenty of hints. Now, if we have to shop around, chances are we can't afford to have insurance, hence, having to go on what some would deem the "government option." I am being told by numerous sources that insurance costs will be going up, up up. I guarantee you, it will be nowhere close to what we pay for all of us to be insured. I'm trying to be optimistic but all the meetings we've had w/ all our kids' specialists, this is most likely not going to end well. Again, just my opinion. I hate politics and that's why I'm not in it!
Well I guess Rush is going to spend his money on healthcare overseas. :lol: Maybe he will send an employee over to get the prescriptions. :mrgreen: Sherry http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2...ongly_reports_rush_moving_if_obamacare_passes Every one of these people said what you're going to hear them say after I said specifically I was not moving, I was simply leaving the country for health care if Obamacare passes and then coming back. Not moving. I said that before all these people say this.
