Today's "Buffalo News" reports that 137,000 people in Western NY will be getting letters this week saying that their current health insurance is being cancelled. Considering that we are a rather small metropolitan area in comparison to the rest of the country, I'd be curious as to what is happening in other parts of the US. Are you seeing a similar spate of cancellations in your area?
I feel for my American friends. We in Canada have for many years "free health care". Which really comes from our high personal taxes we pay. On average 40% of our pay cheques go to taxes. not including the extra taxes for goods and services we buy or use. But everyone complains about taxes. But I will not give up our Heath care program. Everyone deserves HEALTHCARE. No one Should be denied a doctor Because they can not afford it. And you Should not have to mortgage your home to see a Frigging doctor. The whole system in the U.S is bad, starting with the minimum wage which is way to low. No one can afford to live with them wages.
Actually the concluding reports from NBC news said that after the full implementation, an estimated 93 million people that have personal health coverage or company coverage, that are inadequately covered will get cancellation notices. This is a required health coverage that will make you have to maintain under the new policies. If you do not carry the minimum requirements, you/your company will be fined a minimum of $2000/annually. Most companies that have started to implement this have opted for a couple of different options. They save face for their employees and absorbed the $2000/yr/per employee for not carrying the Obamacare, they have cancelled employees policy and went to Obamacare thus forcing employees to find their own coverage at a loss of wages to cover the cost of anywhere from $2-5K per/yr (depending on the level of insurance you have/want), or they continue your coverage and adjust your wages accordingly to compensate for their losses paid to the government. I have 1 person that works for GE Capital, that has taken in essence a $5500/yr paycut. If you are an individual paying for your own coverage, you have the option of going on Government care(Obamacare) for around $1800/yr with min coverage or you can continue your coverage with what you have and pay the fine for not carrying the minimum. That being the $2000 fine you are better to carry the Obamacare. You can also up you own personal care coverage to comply with the min standards but that again put most people in the range of anywhere from $1500-$5000/per yr increase. Now the real kick in the pants are a couple of things. On the first day that it was open, there were 6 registered users of Obamacare, and as to date there are 248 as posted by Forbes. In essence all of the country once again has to pay for the incompetence of those who are either inept or to lazy to work for what they need. I am all for helping those in need but the need must not be due to their own ignorance or laziness. There is 1 way around the whole Obamacare debacle. If you don't want it, refuse to carry insurance. Then you will be fined, maybe even imprisoned. Then what do you know... the government will house you, feed you, educate you and even give you free health insurance!
Off topic but minimum wage is not meant to be a living wage. At least not one for a family. Why not just raise it to $25 an hour? Oh yeah, it's called inflation.
Scott, the interesting twist to the law is that there is no provision, at the current time, for the IRS to do anything other than reduce someone's refund by the amount of the penalty. The law has no provision for the IRS to garnishee wages or attach property. Now, that may get corrected at some point in the future, but as of now the penalty has teeth but they're only baby teeth. Ed
Just to clear something up, I've heard both Canadians and Americans arbitrarily throw out figures like 40% when griping about high taxes, in the process confusing top marginal rate with their effective average tax rate. In Ontario, you would need to make over $300k per year in order to see 40% as an overall average income tax rate. Using a more realistic income for most Canadians of, say, $50k, your effective average rate would be about 17%, and that's before any credits, deductions, exemptions, etc. Sorry, but this kind of inaccuracy drives me nuts because it conveys the impression that in order to receive universal healthcare, it is necessary to part with half of your pay cheque. If that were in fact the case, I wouldn't blame anyone for not being interested in it.
Part of the problem with universal health care is that a person in Washington has no clue what insurance you need. Now any policy has to have maternity coverage or it doesn't meet the minimum standards. Why would a single man that is 18 years old pay for maternity insurance? Because some idiot in Washington told him he has to that's why. Just one of thousands of examples.
The real kicker is yet to come, when those signing up for the basic plans find that the only care available is from Vets-R-Us.
