{"id":1197,"date":"2017-03-08T03:06:54","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T07:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/?p=1197"},"modified":"2017-03-09T12:36:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T16:36:38","slug":"sifting-through-the-ashes-part-fourteen-revisiting-health-insurance-a-better-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/blog\/2017\/03\/08\/sifting-through-the-ashes-part-fourteen-revisiting-health-insurance-a-better-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Sifting Through The Ashes,  Part Fourteen &#8211; Revisiting Health Insurance.  A &#8220;Better&#8221; Plan?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings and Salutations;<\/p>\n<p>Well, &nbsp;back in January,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/blog\/2017\/01\/09\/sifting-through-the-ashes-part-seven-what-about-health-insurance\/\">&nbsp;I wrote a blog entry about the Paul Ryan plan to replace the ACA<\/a>. &nbsp;That plan was, &nbsp;frankly, &nbsp;bat-shit crazy, &nbsp;in that it was essentially taking us back to the abusive days that ended a decade ago, with the implementation of the ACA..and was centered around the idea of a Tax-Free Healthcare Savings Accounts. &nbsp; At the time, &nbsp; I expressed my opinion that this was a BAD idea, &nbsp;and discussed why I thought so.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Well, &nbsp;the Republicans have finally released&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/03\/06\/politics\/republicans-public-obamacare-plan\/\">their proposal for the laws that will replace the ACA<\/a>. &nbsp; It, &nbsp;frankly, &nbsp;makes the Ryan plan look like the height of mercy and rationality. &nbsp; When Shawn Spicer held his Press Conference to announce this nonsense, &nbsp;his biggest selling point was that it was a much smaller stack of paper than the ACA! &nbsp;It is 125 pages or so long. &nbsp;The ACA is around 2000 pages, &nbsp;so that is true. &nbsp; However, as anyone with a lick of sense understands, &nbsp;the ACA is a complicated piece of legislation, &nbsp;that deals with a lengthy laundry list of problems with the Health Insurance Industry; unregulated areas that allowed them to abuse the Consumers and reap huge profits in the process.. &nbsp; So, &nbsp;yes&#8230;it did take a lot of pages of text to detail all that it wanted to accomplish. &nbsp; The simple fact that the Republican alternative is a fraction of its size simply means that the this alternative has some serious problems at dealing with these complicated issues.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While this is not a comprehensive List of the issues with the Republican debacle, &nbsp;here are some high points that provide examples of where it fails the American Consumer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul> \t<\/p>\n<li>End the requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty (sometimes called the shared responsibility provision). This would, according to one draft, be retroactive to after January 1, 2016, so that there would be no penalty on 2016 taxes &nbsp; This is going to be a problem, &nbsp;because the result will be that the younger, &nbsp;healthier folks that take up some of the burden of the costs of health care &nbsp;will likely drop that insurance, and go back to doing without again. &nbsp;Of course, &nbsp;this will ensure that the the amount of money available to cover insurance payouts will plummet. &nbsp; It will also result in a much larger pool of Citizens who have no insurance, &nbsp;so, &nbsp;will depend on the Emergency Rooms for help when disaster hits, &nbsp;and, &nbsp;will likely walk away from that debt &#8211; raising the costs for the remainder of the folks.<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>End the requirement that certain employers (typically those with 50 or more employees) offer insurance to their employees. &nbsp;I am sure that many companies will drop the insurance they have been required to offer their employees as quickly as possible. &nbsp;I am also sure that the cash that these companies save from not having to pay out these insurance premiums will NOT go into the pockets of the workers. &nbsp; Rather, &nbsp;it will go into the pockets of the Management and Stock Holders in the company. &nbsp;Of course, this will screw the consumer over because it will force them to go out into the market, and purchase health insurance on their own. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Expand Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) by nearly doubling the cap (max contributions for 2017 are currently $3,400 for individuals or $6,750 for families, more on how they work here). &nbsp;As I pointed out in my previous Blog entry, &nbsp;HSAs are great if one has spare cash to drop into it. &nbsp;However, &nbsp;for the vast number of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck, &nbsp;it is likely that they will NEVER put anything into a HSA..and if they can, &nbsp;it will be a small amount. &nbsp; Now, &nbsp;The limits that this law places on contributions to a HSA are foolish also. &nbsp;the caps are so low that the only way to get ahead is to never use the HSA. &nbsp; It is trivial these days for a single visit to an ER, which mostly consists of sitting around waiting for attention for several hours, &nbsp;to cost $5000&#8230;and an admission from the ER kicks the immediate debt up to $10,000 or more. &nbsp;I just heard about a study by the Government &nbsp;that came to the conclusion that at least half of the Citizens would not be able to cover a $400 cost for an emergency. &nbsp;Their only emergency net is to put a charge like this on a credit card. &nbsp; Now, &nbsp;this could be a problem for the millions of Americans who do not have a credit card. &nbsp;Also, &nbsp;getting a loan like this through a credit card is ruinously expensive. &nbsp;The interest rates on credit cards is always a huge percentage of the costs of using them, &nbsp;and cause the amount owed to grow like Kudzu iuntil the balance is paid off.<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Repeal of the premium health tax credit. &nbsp; This is a &#8220;Luxury tax&#8221; on the high end policies, &nbsp;and really only affected the people with $1,000,000 or more in yearly income.<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Implement a tax credit ($2,000-$14,000\/year) for taxpayers who do not receive insurance through their employer or a government program. Again, &nbsp;like many program proposals by the current administration, the specifics of this tax credit are still unsettled: the options for the credit range from it being income based &nbsp;to an age based calculation. Now, the draft may well incorporate both options.&nbsp; A chart of these proposals is on page eight of the draft bill.<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>End federal funding for Planned Parenthood and any other healthcare providers that even MENTION the idea of abortion. &nbsp;There are also other restrictions on coverage related to abortion &#8211; the term &#8220;abortion&#8221; appears 29 times in one version of the draft bill.&nbsp; This is a terrible idea for several reasons.&nbsp;&nbsp; First off,&nbsp; this tramps all over the separation of Church and State,&nbsp; as laid out in the Constitution and the Federalist Papers.&nbsp;&nbsp; Secondly,&nbsp; PP&nbsp; offers a huge number of female health care services, including cancer screening,&nbsp; prenatal care, etc.&nbsp; It also spends a big chunk of time working with clients to help them find what is best for THEM.&nbsp;&nbsp; Fourthly,&nbsp; the Abortion part of their services is a tiny percentage of their services. &nbsp;&nbsp; Finally, &nbsp; Planned Parenthood&nbsp; traditionally&nbsp; builds its clinics in the areas that are ignored by the other,&nbsp; For-Profit clinics.&nbsp; So,&nbsp; PP is providing a vital service for the poorer communities in America. &nbsp; Removing funding from PP for their abortion services would be like killing your spouse because they broke their big toe.<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Repeal a number of taxes (like the tanning tax, Net Income Investment Tax, Medicare surtax and medical device excise tax) used to pay for Obamacare. &nbsp;Since these are a big source of funding for the subsidies of the ACA, &nbsp;this will also leave us with an unfunded mandate that will, &nbsp;unless other sources of revenue are found, &nbsp;increase the Deficit, and hence, &nbsp;the Debt.<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Allow over-the-counter medications to be qualifying expenses for HSAs and similar plans<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Restore the 7.5% floor on medical expense deductions. &nbsp;This would be more impressive if it had not increased to 10% for taxpayers in 2016.<\/li>\n<li>A big part of the ACA &nbsp;is that it has quite a few provisions which provide support for research into ways to cure and prevent &nbsp;the ills of humanity. &nbsp; TrumpCare eliminates this funding. &nbsp; So, &nbsp;for example, funding for research into Colo-Rectal cancer will go away completely or, at best, be cut quite a bit. &nbsp; This will lead to more people getting the problem, and any possible treatment for it being pushed off into the distant future. &nbsp; &nbsp; As the old saying says &#8220;An ounce of Prevention &nbsp;is better than a pound of Cure&#8221;.<\/li>\n<p><\/ul>\n<p>Since the Republicans are seeing a groundswell of opposition from their Constituents who are realizing that if &#8220;Obamacare&#8221; goes away, &nbsp;so does their coverage under the ACA (yes&#8230;there are a large percentage of Right-Wingers who do not realize that ObamaCare and the ACA are the same thing) &nbsp;some of the provisions of the ACA are retained by this new proposal. &nbsp;These include the following:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul> \t<\/p>\n<li>Children would be allowed to remain on their parents&#8217; health insurance plans until age 26.<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Insurance companies would not be able to deny coverage or charge more for those with preexisting medical conditions. Of course, &nbsp;because the Insurance Industry has big pull with the Republicans, &nbsp;they are changing this so that if a person loses their coverage, &nbsp;when they get new insurance the agency will be able to charge them a much higher premium.<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Coverage in states with Medicaid expansion would remain. &nbsp;However, &nbsp;there are changes to coverage being moved through by the States, &nbsp;which will cut down on the insurance available, &nbsp;and likely will increase the costs of insurance.<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Employers would still be required to report the value of health insurance benefits on forms W-2. &nbsp;This &nbsp;WAS important because it was proof that you had insurance during the year, and so were exempted from the penalty. &nbsp;However, with the penalty gone, &nbsp;this seems a waste of paper. &nbsp; But NO! &nbsp;there is a reason for it! &nbsp;See the NEXT set of notes.<\/li>\n<p><\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Some provisions had been discussed but didn&#8217;t make it into the draft proposal &#8211; but that doesn&#8217;t mean they&#8217;re completely off the table. Those include:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul> \t<\/p>\n<li>Taxing employer-provided benefits. Currently, health care provided by your employer is tax-free. &nbsp;However, the above reporting on the W-2 will make it trivial to slip it into the &#8220;Taxable Income&#8221; bracket, &nbsp;as the amount will already be included in the tax forms filed for each worker. &nbsp; Guess who will get screwed by THIS little Revenue Enhancing measure?<\/li>\n<p> \t<\/p>\n<li>Repealing the &#8220;Cadillac tax&#8221; on high-end health care provided by employers. At this point in time, &nbsp;the tax is not being collected, &nbsp;as it was scheduled to begin in 2020. &nbsp;However, this &nbsp;proposal would push off the tax from 2020 to 2025.<\/li>\n<p><\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What can we do about this? &nbsp; I suggest a few steps that are easy, &nbsp;take little time, and can have a significant effect.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>1) &nbsp;Take a few minutes and Email your Federal Representatives, &nbsp;and the SCROTUS. &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usa.gov\/elected-officials\">Here is a tool<\/a>&nbsp;that will make it easy to track down the appropriate contact pages and Email addresses &nbsp;In your Email, be polite about it, &nbsp;but, very clear about the fact that you strongly oppose the repeal of the ACA, and the substitution of TrumpCare for it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>2) &nbsp;Vote. &nbsp; &nbsp;In the coming elections, &nbsp;make it a point to go to the polls and cast a vote for the candidate that BEST expresses the values you support. &nbsp;No candidate will be perfect (unless YOU are running for the office), &nbsp;but, &nbsp;focus less on their mistakes of judgment, and more on their views that reflect yours.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>3) &nbsp;Support your neighbors, friends and family in voting. &nbsp; Get them rides to the polls, or take them to the polls. &nbsp; Help them get registered. &nbsp; Do what is necessary to ensure that their rights as a citizen are not blocked by draconian and convoluted laws that are designed to keep them from being registered to vote. &nbsp; Support them and remind them that it is VITAL that every Citizen take a little time and vote.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If we all do just one or two small, and painless things like this, &nbsp; it will be possible for us to actually take back control of America from the politicians that are running things now.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>God Help Us All!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bee Man Dave<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>=-=-=-=-=<br \/>Powered by <a href=\"http:\/\/blogilo.gnufolks.org\/\">Blogilo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings and Salutations; Well, &nbsp;back in January,&nbsp;&nbsp;I wrote a blog entry about the Paul Ryan plan to replace the ACA&#8230;. <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/blog\/2017\/03\/08\/sifting-through-the-ashes-part-fourteen-revisiting-health-insurance-a-better-plan\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,7,10,23,12,13,16],"tags":[678,679,607,464],"class_list":["post-1197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-heath","category-nuttiness","category-political-rants","category-politics-2","category-questionable-decisions","category-ruminations","tag-aca-replacement","tag-health-insurance","tag-hsa","tag-republican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1203,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions\/1203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beemandave.com\/beemanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}