Few will pay more under health care law

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-07-16/health-care-tax/56256676/1?loc=interstitialskip

Though the law is projected to raise more than $800 billion in taxes, fees and penalties over a decade, 40% comes from about 3.5 million households with adjusted gross incomes above $200,000. Employers, insurers and health care providers are slated to fork over much of the rest.

•About 7 million people could pay more because the law makes it more difficult to deduct medical expenses. People with lower incomes are less likely to itemize deductions.

•About 4 million workers could pay more because of a new $2,500 limit on flexible spending accounts, which can be used to shield medical expenses from taxation.

•The tax that rendered the law constitutional, to be assessed on those who fail to buy mandated health insurance, could hit about 4 million people across all income brackets.

[leveymg]

1. Not true. There's no cost containment for families making 4Xpoverty - that's only about

$80K a year for a working couple with one child.

Our private insurance (BC/BS) have already jumped from $9,000 to nearly $15,000 in the last couple years.

Not a good deal, at all, for many middle-class families.

Article is misleading because it doesn't factor in uncontained costs for many working and retired people who already pay for coverage.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. So why do you think there's a premium rebate worth $1.1 Billion going on?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/16/health-care-reform-rebate_n_1676964.html

When Laird Le found a check for $70.02 in the mail, he wasn't quite sure why. Turns out, he's one of the estimated 13 million Americans that will receive a rebate on their health insurance premiums as a result of the health care reform law recently upheld by the Supreme Court.



http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2011/05/ratereview05192011a.html

Fighting Unreasonable Health Insurance Premium Increases
Affordable Care Act Ensures that Large Premium Hikes Receive Close Scrutiny

Health insurance premiums have risen rapidly, straining the pocketbooks of American families and businesses for more than a decade. Since 1999, the cost of coverage for a family of four has climbed 131 percent.[1] These increases have forced families and employers to spend more money, often for less coverage. Many times, insurance companies have been able to raise rates without explaining their actions to regulators or the public or justifying the reasons for their high premiums. In most cases, consumers receive little or no information about proposed premium increases, andaren’t told why companies want to raise rates.

The Affordable Care Act brings an unprecedented level of scrutiny and transparency to health insurance rate increases. The Act ensures that, in any State, large proposed increases will be evaluated by experts to make sure they are based on reasonable cost assumptions and solid evidence. This analysis is expected to help moderate premium hikes and provide those who buy insurance with greater value for their premium dollar. Additionally, insurance companies must provide easy to understand information to their customers about their reasons for significant rate increases, as well as publicly justify and post on their website any unreasonable rate increases. These steps will allow consumers to know why they are paying the rates that they are.

On May 19, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), working in partnership with States, issued a final regulation to implement this important consumer protection from the Affordable Care Act.

[leveymg]

4. What's a $70.02 rebate when one's own family pays $14,400.00/yr for private health insurance?

Your response only illustrates my point, and makes one thing even more painfully obvious - the system doesn't even pretend to still be serving middle-class interests in this country.

ACA is another transfer of declining middle-class earnings upwards to private corporations with a captive government enforcing the transfer. Mussolini called it corporatism. There's another word for it.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Fine. Hate ACA for all its worth.

[leveymg]

7. I don't hate it, I just know it's a bailout to insurance cos. at the expense of the middle-class.

If it had effective cost containment mechanisms that benefit families like mine, I'd say it benefits me. As ACA is structured, however, we've become cash-cows for the private insurance industry. That was true, before, but now it's mandated by federal law.

And, in Italian, that's spelled "Fascismo."

El fascismo es una ideología y un movimiento político.

It isn't just for Italians, anymore.

[ellenfl]

6. technically, mussolini called it fascism because he spoke italian. eom

[woo me with science]

3. ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002961996

[Comrade_McKenzie]

8. I love the ACA...

I'm sick of this boohooing about the middle class having to pay a little more.

80,000 for a married couple and one kid? Boohoo.

I was raised on less than 20,000 a year the majority of my childhood. It was tough, but we made it.

So excuse my apathy when people complain about being middle class.

[leveymg]

9. $20,000 in 1980 is about $52,800 today, which is close to the U.S. median household income.

The inflation-adjusted value was calculated using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' consumer price index. $1 in June 1980 had the same buying power as about $2.64 in June 2010. That's just a national average for all goods and services. The cost of medical, education, energy, and housing have gone up far faster. Please, see, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pf_article_111493.html

The median household income at the end of 2011 was $51,413. In 1980 dollars, that's about $20K