Getting Riled up over Obamacare
Obamacare sure does seem to be a big mess of a law and no doubt has many annoying features, as federal laws tend to have. But I just can't seem to get myself up-in-arms over it.
I'm betting that the cost of my health care is going to go up because of it. But then again, my employer has been pretty regularly pumping up that cost over the last 30 years anyway - not sure I'm going to notice the Obama bump.
If you run a big enough business that the law is going to affect you, then I'm sure this law sucks big time, but you're used to that, having to deal with all the other 5,000 regulations you need to follow. Conversely, if you work full time for a big-enough company that doesn't have health insurance, then you're probably going to find your income will drop since your hours are going to be cut to under 30 to avoid the employer mandate.
And speaking of mandates, we're really supposed to get upset over the Individual Mandate, which requires each person to have health insurance - meaning if you're not covered under some group plan, you have to buy an individual plan for yourself. That's supposed to make the whole thing work - that all these healthy young people who don't have insurance now are going to be buying policies now, and thus helping to subsidize insurance for the sickly folk who really need health coverage.
But what kind of person doesn't have health insurance? Are we really supposed to believe that there are hoards of strapping young folk walking around uninsured? Who are they? Poor, no doubt. Remember, individual coverage is going to be subsidized for lower income people, so to make it worthwhile, there has to be lots of high-income young people without insurance, but that doesn't seem too likely, does it?
At any rate, it sure doesn't affect me - I have health insurance, and couldn't imagine not having it unless I were really poor. It'll suck for people who currently purchase their own individual policy, make a decent living, and will now have to pay a lot more to subsidize low-income insureds. But, what the hell, another tax hike. Overall, you're still probably better off than if the Bush Tax Cuts had never gone into effect.
The biggest potential mess with Obamacare is that if Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) is passed, it will almost certainly exempt immigrants from the employer mandates, which means businesses will be even more eager to hire them over American citizens. But if CIR is passed, that will be the least of our problems.
I'm betting that the cost of my health care is going to go up because of it. But then again, my employer has been pretty regularly pumping up that cost over the last 30 years anyway - not sure I'm going to notice the Obama bump.
If you run a big enough business that the law is going to affect you, then I'm sure this law sucks big time, but you're used to that, having to deal with all the other 5,000 regulations you need to follow. Conversely, if you work full time for a big-enough company that doesn't have health insurance, then you're probably going to find your income will drop since your hours are going to be cut to under 30 to avoid the employer mandate.
And speaking of mandates, we're really supposed to get upset over the Individual Mandate, which requires each person to have health insurance - meaning if you're not covered under some group plan, you have to buy an individual plan for yourself. That's supposed to make the whole thing work - that all these healthy young people who don't have insurance now are going to be buying policies now, and thus helping to subsidize insurance for the sickly folk who really need health coverage.
But what kind of person doesn't have health insurance? Are we really supposed to believe that there are hoards of strapping young folk walking around uninsured? Who are they? Poor, no doubt. Remember, individual coverage is going to be subsidized for lower income people, so to make it worthwhile, there has to be lots of high-income young people without insurance, but that doesn't seem too likely, does it?
At any rate, it sure doesn't affect me - I have health insurance, and couldn't imagine not having it unless I were really poor. It'll suck for people who currently purchase their own individual policy, make a decent living, and will now have to pay a lot more to subsidize low-income insureds. But, what the hell, another tax hike. Overall, you're still probably better off than if the Bush Tax Cuts had never gone into effect.
The biggest potential mess with Obamacare is that if Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) is passed, it will almost certainly exempt immigrants from the employer mandates, which means businesses will be even more eager to hire them over American citizens. But if CIR is passed, that will be the least of our problems.
posted by ziel | 7/09/2013 11:46:00 PM
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2 comments
