Meet your new health care provider
Dennis the Peasant: “It’s interesting to note that this sounds exactly like the sort of thing that would happen if you allowed a bunch of health insurance industry plutocrats to write a law to guarantee their profits.”
This statement from Dennis in response to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate that under Obamacare, you will be required to buy insurance (even if you don’t need it or don’t want it) to the tune of about $12K/year for most families:
If Congress passes the Senate health-care plan, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, American families will be required by federal law to buy a federally approved health insurance plan that will cost a minimum of $12,000 per year–and, on average, will cost $15,000 per year — whether their employer or the government helps them with the premium or not.
Beginning in 2014, the Senate plan would require all individuals to buy health insurance. Anyone who does not obtain insurance through an employer would be forced to buy it out of their own pocket. Families of four that make up to 400 percent of poverty level–currently $88,200 per year–would receive a subsidy from the government to help pay for their premiums. That subsidy would attenuate as their income increased and would disappear when their income reached the 400 percent of poverty level.
Families earning more than $88,200 a year (or whatever 400 percent of the poverty level equals in any given year) would be entirely on their own. Under the Senate bill, employers would not be required to purchase health insurance for their workers, and if they decided not to do so, the maximum penalty they would have to pay would be $750 per year for each worker they did not insure who subsequently received a federal subsidy to buy insurance. The $750 penalty on employers who decided not to insure their workers would be far less than they would pay in premiums for the $12,000 minimum required plan.
According to the CBO analysis, the insurance plans the Senate bill would require families to purchase would cost an average of $15,200 per year in 2016.
“Average premiums among all types of plans in 2016 would be about $5,800 for single policies and about $15,200 for family policies,” CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote in a letter to Sen. Olympa Snowe (R-Maine).
But even the bare-bones, minimum coverage required by the individual mandate in the bill–known as the “Bronze” level insurance plans–would cost families an estimated $12,000 to $12,500 a year, Elmendorf told Snowe.
“Overall, CBO estimates that premiums for Bronze plans purchased individually in 2016 would probably average between $4,500 and $5,000 for single policies and between $12,000 and $12,500 for family policies,” he wrote.
At “bronze” level, an insurance plan covers only 60 percent of medical services. “Silver” level plans cover 70 percent, and “Gold” level plans cover 85 percent or more.
Elmendorf reiterated the average cost to anyone not covered under an employer policy in a letter to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.): “Average premiums per policy in the nongroup market in 2016 would be roughly $5,800 for single policies and $15,200 for family policies under the proposal, compared with roughly $5,500 for single policies and $13,100 for family policies under current law.
Premiums for specific individuals would differ somewhat on the basis of their age, average spending on health care in their area of the country, and the specific plan they chose, Elmendorf added.
Experts predict that more and more families will be forced off of employer insurance and have to buy their own coverage because employers will be faced with the choice of paying premiums of several thousands dollars per employee for group insurance or paying a fine of just $750 per employee for not providing coverage.
Our only hope — other than voting every single person who voted for this out of office in 2010 and 2012 — is to make sure our state Governors and legislatures stand strong against this unconstitutional affront and invoke the 10th amendment to refuse to force its citizens to purchase insurance from the federal government.
We’re all seriously fucked now — well, except for the members of Congress who have exempted themselves from this travesty, and Labor unions who have been exempted from it too. Look for other Democrat voting blocks to get their exemptions, too, during reconciliation.
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I just cannot believe this guy. This all reminds me of Gray Davis. Obama will finish this term and someone will come in and have to re-do this fiasco. Everyone who runs against him will have the best sales pitch going. “Vote for me and I will rid the people of all this shit Obama shoved down your throats!” He makes it so easy on his competition. What an asshat this guy is.
Impeach!
http://www.impeachobamacampaign.com/
LOL!
Obama won by promising to rid America of all the shit Bush shoved our throats.
Americans bought it then, and, based on your comments, looks like they will fall for it again in 2012.
And yet the Liar in Chief hasn’t gotten rid of anything that President Bush “pushed down our throats” — Don’t ask Don’t Tell? Still in effect. Patriot Act? Still keeping America safe. “Warrantless wiretaps? Yeah, those are still around, too. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Still there.
All he’s done is keep the best of what Bush was doing to keep America safe from Islamic terrorists, and accelerated the out-of-control spending that Bush was to blame for, too.
The RNC has NOT been effective in getting this very message out. This is the first concise and understandable summary of premium costs I have read…especially about the difference in plan coverage. I have e-mailed this out to doubters. Please do the same. $88 is not a lot of money for a family of 4 in a lot of parts of the country and then horrible coverage on top of it.
I currently suffer under the model in MA. I work for a major hospital and have been on the waiting list for almost 3 years for a primary care physician. I’ve given up and get my healthcare from the neighborhood healthcare….where I sit for hours amongst the homeless and unmarried mothers of 5+ children. Welcome to my hell.
Haven’t heard from you in a while, Armybrat. I was wondering how things were going way up yonder.
Sounds like it is time for you and your good man to move again.
Here is a list of the top 100 most conservative counties to live in.
I recommend Plano.
Once passed, this shit will never be repealed. Think of ‘the great society’.
Oh, this is just great, just great. And let me tell you who is really going to get screwed; AT&T employees.
Although most of AT&T employees belong to the CWA (Crap Weasel’s Association), their health insurance is provided to both active, and retired, employees by the company, not the union, so the “union fix” will not apply to them.
The CWA has been sending out letters (up until the last month) telling members to get out and push for Obamacare.
So here is the deal, Robbie, and let all your readers know it: AT&T estimates that the annual cost of providing health insurance to an employee is $10,073.00, and that doesn’t include dependents, who are also covered. AT&T could opt to drop health insurance compeletely next contract, and there is not one damn thing the union could do about it but strike in an atmosphere where the company could easily do without them.
So AT&T pays the $750/yr per employee and save over $9K per year.
If I was CEO of AT&T, I would be sending out letters to all employees tomorrow telling them that at the next contract negotiations, all insurance will be off the table. And that they will simply provide a $5K annual payment (which employees will have to pay taxes on as income) as an offset to having to buy their own insurance. Employees with families will take the biggest hit.
And I would let the union members know that they have no one but that POS they supported in the last election for their loss of company sponsored health care insurance.
I am self employed and pay about $3000 a year for a $5000 deductible health care plan for my family of 3. It covers some preventative care, and we make sure we have savings to cover something catastrophic like a car accident. Our household income is just over the $88,000 subsidy limit. So now it looks like we will be forced to pay an additional $9000 a year for something we don’t want. If I am forced to pay that much, I might be tempted go to the doctor every time something might be wrong to get my money’s worth. This “reform” is going to push health care spending through the roof.
That’s what I kept telling people: that this plan to make healthcare affordable only means you will pay more in premiums and taxes. These people in congress live in an alternative world.
None of this info is new. Last fall the cbo published some report and in it they offered various calculations on what the premiums would be under assholeobamacare. All were in the range above. Yet, dumbasses continue to be for it. I can only believe that they are dumb as rocks which all liberals undoubtedly are.
My own brother….who I love dearly…sent me a “proud to ba an American today” card! WTF…Our father is a retired AT&T employee, worked for 40 years. They already dropped my mother from his coverage well before all of this BS even started. How can some people be so damn stupid as to believe some of this shit.
I know that we all have to stay positive and look forward to the next election…but damn, can we recover from all of this? My mind tells me that it isn’t possible.
GOD BLESS TEXAS
I really don’t understand all the fuss about Obama’s Health Care Reform law being unconstitutional because it forces people to buy a product or service.
Hello, all you conservative state attorney generals all up in arms? We already have to buy homeowner’s insurance if we own a home. If we want to drive legally, the law requires that we buy car insurance. Nobody makes a big stink about these laws that force people to buy insurance.
If we want to receive heath care, then we need to buy health insurance. Makes sense to me. Or am I missing something?
No you don’t, your bank will require it for the life of the loan.
Yes, but not required by the U.S. Congress, by the state.
A great deal, actually, not the least being this recently passed legislation was never about health care for our citizens. It is purely a power grab. I mean, if the dire warnings of those pushing this fiasco on us were true, that 190,000 people die each year for lack of health insurance, then why is this legislation going to kill nearly half a million people before the promised benefits actually kick in? If it is so wonderful, why do the people who wrote this bill, voted for its passage and signed it into law exempt themselves from it?
Want to know more?
Go here.
Thanks for making our case, Mike.
Home owners insurance and car insurance are not federal mandates, but state laws — you know, since the Federal government does not have the Constitutional authority to require us to buy either. Additionally, if I don’t own a home or a car, I don’t have to buy insurance for either. Not true of health insurance, as their is no way to opt out.
Mike,
I would say there is just a little more to it. Driving a car – you need to be able to prove financial responsibility in the event you run somebody over on the street. I think we aggree on that. On the other hand, if you want to buy some land, buy a car and go stump jumping all day, you dont really need insurance for that do you? Certainly you wouldnt buy insurance you dont need or want. Would you be a little ticked if you were required to have insurance in the above scenario? I would. So what is the justification for requiring a person to have financial responsibility when it comes to their health? The only person taking a risk is the individual and poses no harm to anyone else. I would argue that they should have a choice in the matter. Kinda like the whole Roe v Wade rulings. If you want an abortion, go get one. If you dont want to buy health insurance, dont buy health insurance. At least give people the choice.
How come everyone is crying and whinning about this and how unconstitution it is but you say nothing about mandated Car insurance, it’s the same thing!!!! It doesn’t even start until 2014 so who cares?? that’s 3-4 years down the road!!
Kevin read my reply posted on March 30 as to why this is different than car insurance.
Kevin, are you a Melville fan?
/moby
if obama gets reelected and if obamacare does not get repealed i’m leaving the country
vtno,vtno,vtno