I have a feeling that older smokers won't comply with Dear Leader's plan.
Posted on 02/01/2013 11:26:39 AM PST by BO Stinkss
Smokers, beware: tobacco penalties under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act could subject millions of smokers to fees costing thousands of dollars, making healthcare more expensive for them than Americans with other unhealthy habits.
The Affordable Care Act, which critics have also called “Obamacare”, could subject smokers to premiums that are 50 percent higher than usual, starting next Jan 1. Health insurers will be allowed to charge smokers penalties that overweight Americans or those with other health conditions would not be subjected to.
A 60-year-old smoker could pay penalties as high as $5,100, in addition to the premiums, the Associated Press reports. A 55-year-old smoker’s penalty could reach $4,250. The older a smoker is, the higher the penalty will be.
Nearly one in every five U.S. adults smokes, with a higher number of low-income people addicted to the unhealthy habit. Even though smokers are more likely to develop heart disease, cancer and lung problems and would therefore require more health care, the penalties might devastate those who need help the most – including retirees, older Americans, and low-income individuals.
“We don’t want to create barriers for people to get health care coverage,” California state Assemblyman Richard Pan told AP. “We want people who are smoking to get smoking cessation treatment.”
Nearly 450,000 US residents die of smoking-related diseases each year, making the unhealthy habit a serious concern for lawmakers. One legislator is trying to criminalize smoking in his state, while others have raised taxes on cigarettes and the Obama administration has tried to inflict hefty fines upon smokers’ premiums.
Karen Pollitz, a former consumer protection regular, told AP that no insurers want to provide coverage for Americans who have been smoking for decades, and that the penalties might prompt people to abandon the habit.
“You would have the flexibility to discourage them,” she told AP.
But quitting is not easy, and charging older smokers up to three times as much as younger ones could make it difficult for them to seek care in the first place. A 60-year-old smoker charged with the penalty could be paying about $8,411 per year for health insurance, which is about 24 percent of a $35,000 income and is considered “unaffordable” under federal law.
“The effect of the smoking (penalty) allowed under the law would be that lower-income smokers could not afford health insurance,” said Richard Curtis, president of the Institute for Health Policy Solutions.
Ultimately, the law that is meant to make health care more affordable could have the opposite effect on older smokers at a time when smoking-related illnesses usually arise.
“we can’t just charge extra for the ones that are politically correct and expedient.”
You misspelled “paraphilias protected by law”.
Fascism.
I have a feeling that older smokers won't comply with Dear Leader's plan.
God rest her soul in glory. It is a hard thing to lose your mother. My mother never smoked tobacco in her life and she too died of lung cancer that metastasized to her skeleton. She was 80 when she passed and she refused chemo- and radiation therapy. She died at home. That was 15 years ago. Worst time of my life.
The Sandra Flukes of the world should face a premium increase as well.
“A 60-year-old smoker charged with the penalty could be paying about $8,411 per year for health insurance, which is about 24 percent of a $35,000 income and is considered “unaffordable” under federal law.”
Unaffordable? There’s living expenses too. May as well die if you’re going to be charged that much on 35k a year.
Hey Obama, why don’t you just line us up and put a bullet in our collective brain pans?
I’ll bet a majority of der Fuehrer’s supporters will be deemed too poor and will not pay a dime, we’ll pay more to support them. Illegals will make up a large portion of that pile of excrement and we already know they won’t pay a dime either. For unions etc, additional exemptions will be given.
Well they all followed Madame Pelosi who proclaimed that we’ll know what’s in it after we pass it. 20K for health insurance for a small family, 5k extra for smokers and fatties. The illiterate American voting public got exactly what it asked for.....4 more years of Bam.
could subject smokers to premiums that are 50 percent higher than usual, starting next Jan 1. Health insurers will be allowed to charge smokers penalties that overweight Americans or those with other health conditions would not be subjected to.
Yet-—Don’t worry they will get around to fat people, people who ride motorcycles or go skiing, people who own guns.
Once they get started they will not know where to stop.
That will teach you not to smoke and skeet shoot on a boat at the same time, dang you lost 2 hobbies that day.... :-)...
Ding Ding we have a winner...
So sorry to hear about your Mother’s last days Myrddin. Nothing I can say can change anything. But if I had that diagnosis, I would have rode the wave of least resistance. I almost died 18 months ago. Glad I chose to fight because I’m in my 50’s. Later? Forget it!
BUT I STILL DON’T WANT SOME “Figlio di Puttana” CHOOSING MY DESTINY FOR ME!
“Health insurers will be allowed”
“Health insurers will be allowed”
“Health insurers will be allowed”
“Health insurers will be allowed”
I wonder what lobby is to rake it in, hammer and sickle?
“Smokers cost less in healthcare because they die sooner.”
—
Some do,some don’t.
I’m 80 and my good friend is 79. We’ve been smokers for many,many years,and quite active for our age.
.
I stayed with her for months to give her as much opportunity to live in her home with pets as possible. A severe episode of congestive heart failure put her in the hospital, then rehab for 60 days. I cared for the house/pets in hopes that she could return home. A physical test of her ability to get up off the floor unassisted was the turning point. She could not do it. She went to assisted living. I took one of her dogs home to live with my family in Idaho. My sister euthanized the 19 year old Spitz. I moved to my current rental and visited mom a couple times a week after that. Except for her last couple weeks, her last months were pretty good. Lots of new friends. She made the best of her new situation.
No matter the subject, notice the FascistSpeak every time these Brown Shirts open their mouths.
"WE don't want....."
"WE want....."
"We DON'T WANT....."
"We WANT....."
"Ve vant people to get thinking-cessation treatment....."
What about what WE THE PEOPLE want???
Are Obama's Storm Troopers now completely in charge of our lives through the poisonous, all-enveloping, all-smothering web of ObamaCare?
You'd better believe they are. It's happening NOW. You are reading it daily. The diktats are coming at us from all sides with rapid-fire assaults.
Leni
What a comfort for you to know that many of her last days were in fact good. Sounds like a woman I’d like to mirror myself after. Thank you for sharing. I won’t forget your kind words about your Mother. May God Bless You!
poobear
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