OMG... Way too many lies have made people I work with stupid (and those who actually need insurance)

[glowing]

I came into work and the girl I work with was going through the Gov web site to sign up for health care (and we live in FL, so we are getting screwed out of having a state exchange that makes any sense)... Anyway, she's bithching about why the Gov needs to know so many personal issues and asks her a million health questions. I told her, it isn't the Gov, its the Insurance Co's in the exchange that are trying to determine what to offer, rates, and the gov subsidies that could lower the cost. Shoot, working here, she might even qualify for medicaid or really cheap rates. I told her to call a live person and talk with them for all her questions or go to one of the many hospitals who are setting up appointments to help people through the process of signing up.

Then she claims she would refuse medicaid because its public assistance, I said, you pay for it in your taxes every week. If you qualify, why wouldn't you take it? That's just crazy. BTW, do you drive on the public roads, or call the police for help when you need it here at work, or depend on a fire dept for service if your apt would catch on fire? Or do you not want to use those public assistance assets. Its not your fault that we aren't paid a living wage (which should be at least $15.00/ hr where we live). Minimum wage should me a living wage. It would be ridiculous not to try and see what types of ins you may qualify for and what the cost is. Most people are going to be on an insurance plan that it subsidized by the govt. The questions on the website are the questions that ins co's ask when you try to shop for insurance in the first place. AND perhaps, the work place may look into trying to find a plan thru the exchange; there's quite a few tax breaks and such for providing insurance.

Now, I'm not sure about this, but is it true if you don't sign up, the IRS is going to take money out of one's taxes? I thought that wasn't enforceable.. There's so much confusion. I don't qualify at this time to search the ins exchange because I have ins thru my husband's co, but I'm hoping we qualify for a bigger tax break toward the cost of it. Our ins is still quite a bit of money out of his pay check... so I'm really hoping that we get a benefit from the ACA... Does anyone know about this tax issue if you don't sign up? I'd like to let her know and if she don't want ins, then she can leave her BS grumbling to herself.

[Fumesucker]

1. If you have a refund the IRS will keep it if you are in penalty

That is the current arrangement as I understand it.

Nice rant, btw, I get tired of dealing with morans too..

[glowing]

2. Thanks, she probably does.. so I guess that they would keep a portion if she doesn't sign up.

I don't understand this stigma about Medicaid.. like Medicare is any different except that one is now old? I guess all the crazy down talking about it has made her rather suffer with her (supposed brain tumor), than to get insurance... She's the one who needs it the most of all of us. She's had 2 different hospitalizations over the years that literally have left her with unpayable bills to the hospitals. Do I want to keep paying to subsidize her irresponsibility of not having insurance and those of us who do have to pay an extra $2000.00 a year to help pay for all the uninsured who need health care... That's what many don't understand, the rates are so high and the ins coverage increased because we are paying for the uninsured who show up at the ER with no way to ever pay the bill.

[Roland99]

4. There is a stigma with Medicaid that involves people being uncomfortable....

you typically aren't going to find general practitioners in the 'burbs that accept Medicaid so people have to go to clinics or other parts of town that make them uncomfortable...they're out of their little white bread communities. That "stigma" bothers the shit out of me. Ugh...we're ALL people! We're ALL Americans! We're all just trying to live our lives best we can. No one is better than anyone else in this country.

well...there are a *few* teabaggers I think I'm better than...

[glowing]

7. We live in Tampa Bay, my step-son was born and taken care of for the first year he was alive with

medicaid and WIC and probably food stamps... He had the best care and was born at St Josephs.. so, not exactly like there aren't places that will take her, see her, or handle her ER costs.

[Roland99]

8. Too often people are afraid to even ask or do the simplest research

instead, the irrational takes over and the stigma is set.

[glowing]

9. I told her, she pays for it with her pay every week... I don't think she qualifies, but I think she

can get a subsidized plan that will be cost effective. But screaming about Obama and the gov isn't going to help her out any. She would be better helped by going to one of the many health care helping centers that many of the hospitals are setting up to help people thru the syste. Believe me, these hospitals want paying customers, not the many uninsured they are having to deal with now; regardless of Rick Scott.

[Roland99]

11. You'd think pRick would want hospitals to have more paying customers

He of HCA...infamy.

[TheMastersNemesis]

3. I Believe That The Supposed Penalty Is More Like A Surcharge If You Don't Have Insurance.

It is not like the IRS is going to take all your possessions and your first born for not having health care. And the penalty or surcharge assessed is relatively low actually. And the reason for the surcharge is to cover a fund for people who have no insurance to pay for health care where an uninsured person become ill or injured even catastrophically.

The GOP and its allies are trying to sabotage even this flawed but badly needed law. Yet they have no solution to offer and what solution they would offer would be a complete disaster for everyone. The GOP wants to offer vouchers and tax deductions to everyone. And they also want to allow the insurance companies to be totally unregulated. So if you are sick or get sick you can be denied or dropped even if you are a senior citizen.

Their plan would leave a large part of the population with no insurance. So even is you were paying $20,000 a year for a high deductible policy you could still be dropped from insurance once you got sick. The GOP offers nothing but bankruptcy for everyone over time because all of us will need care over time and almost 100% of Americans have pre existing conditions by the time they are 40. You could be denied if you had ever gotten sick before you were 40 under their plans.

What gets even crazier is that the GOP does not really believe in public health and wants to turn health care for the poor over to church and charity clinics with no regs. The also do not believe the National Institutes of Health or Center of Disease Control should be federal but only exist state by state on a voluntary basis.

I worked at DOL for 24 year and have a lot experience in employment programs. Other programs work just like ours used to.

Most people are totally ignorance of what the GOP wants to do. The media won't cover what the want. And the GOP is very secret about what they would do policy wise. What I have told you is obvious when you go back to their previous rhetoric on health care and what Romney supported.

[Roland99]

5. Info on the penalty >>>>

http://kff.org/infographic/the-requirement-to-buy-coverage-under-the-affordable-care-act/





http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/30/%3Fp%3D63297/

The federal government is actually really limited in the action it can take to collect the tax penalty for not purchasing health coverage. It can’t send agents to your door, nor can it put a lien on your house. The most they can do is take the fine out of your tax refund – or, if you’re not getting a refund this year, put it on your tab for next year’s refund.

[Roland99]

6. A little more detail on the penalty exemption >>>>

http://www.factcheck.org/2012/06/how-much-is-the-obamacare-tax/

Who’s Exempt?

The law makes a number of exemptions for low-income persons and hardship cases.

“Individuals who cannot afford coverage”: If an employer offers coverage that would cost the employee more than 8 percent of his or her household income (for self-only coverage) that individual is exempt from the tax.

“Taxpayers with income below filing threshold”: Also exempt are those who earn too little to be required to file tax returns. For 2011 — as previously mentioned — those thresholds were $9,500 for a single person under age 65, and $19,000 for a married person filing jointly with a spouse, for example. The thresholds go up each year in line with inflation, so those cut-offs will be higher in 2014, when the tax first takes effect.

“Hardships”: The Secretary of Health and Human Services is empowered to exempt others that she or he determines to “have suffered a hardship with respect to the capability to obtain coverage.”

Other exemptions: Also exempt are members of Indian tribes, persons with only brief gaps in coverage, and members of certain religious groups currently exempt from Social Security taxes (which as we’ve previously reported are chiefly Anabaptist — that is, Mennonite, Amish or Hutterite).

[MarchemintotheSea]

10. One of the few positives of the ACA is that with increased numbers of people with

Access to health insurance and care is that it will increase demand creating opportunity for doctors who want to start new practices. Under ACA everyone gets 2 visits a year and many covered tests, easy money for a doctor in the burbs and rural areas who will take Medicare, Medicaid and all insurances. Doctors don’t need lots of high tech equipment to start up and work either and used medical equipment works just fine.

Yes the ACA will work just like HMO’s been working for a long time.

When all this budget and shutdown BS is done the FIRST priority of Congress needs to be getting coverage for those intentionally excluded by the Republicans as a punishment for voting for the black guy.

[glowing]

12. I'm pretty sure that won't happen unless we turn the House Blue again and try to get 60 votes in the

Senate OR change the rules so bills won't get blocked... When Pelosi was in charge, they passed some good stuff, only to go and die in the Senate... Just to pass the ACA, Obama had to give away a lot of ponies for the Senators for support. The law is a good start, but we all know it needs improvements already because there are holes or issues that need fixing... But the Pukes will not do it for the American people.. They aren't even American as far as I'm concerned.