Posted on 12/20/2017 3:44:38 AM PST by Libloather
Republicans' tax overhaul gets rid of the tax penalty for people who fail to maintain insurance coverage. If it becomes law, what happens to the deficit and the number of uninsured?
RAY SUAREZ, HOST:
As the House and Senate vote to overhaul the tax code, they're also voting to undo a key part of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The bill gets rid of the tax penalty for failing to maintain insurance coverage. It's known as the individual mandate, and it's probably been the most vilified part of the healthcare law. Joining us now is NPR health policy correspondent Alison Kodjak to talk about what happens to Obamacare without the individual mandate. Hi, Alison.
ALISON KODJAK, BYLINE: Hi, Ray.
SUAREZ: So is the assumption that lots of people will simply decide not to buy insurance if there will no longer be a penalty?
KODJAK: Well, some people will.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
KODJAK: Well, yeah, there are definitely those people who just don't think they need it.
How about that.
And the removing of the mandate, now makes going out and buying the insurance one needs easier.
It dies.
America will be freed of the odious poll tax. MAGA!
Unfortunately no - still has massive Medicaid expansion and employers are still required to offer healthcare or pay penalty if more than 50 employees
The same thing that happened to Medicare after 1986.
They will have to print more money and borrow more from China.
No problem.
Yes, it does.
The real problem with ObamaCare is the issue of HUGE deductibles. (and High Premiums)
My daughter just switched from ObamaCare (which she had to go to because of being divorced by my X-son-in-law) to something I think she called Medishare. It is Mennonite operated substitute for insurance. It looks a lot more sane to me than any of the alternatives.
SUAREZ: Let’s talk a little bit more about the assumptions being made here. The people who decide not to buy insurance because the mandate disappears are people who wouldn’t have wanted to buy insurance in the first place.
KODJAK: Well, yeah, there are definitely those people who just don’t think they need it.
And they will still get care in cases of emergency?
Yes.
And the cost will still be passed on to those WITH coverage?
Of course.
We also have to deal with the idiotic mandates for services that must be covered by insurance companies. So the mandate is gone, but someone who wants to buy a low-cost insurance plan with limits on coverage still won’t be able to do so because insurers aren’t allowed to offer them.
Read the article in this link:
My guess is it will take a while for Insurers, Employers and individuals and org's such as churches ( Yes I believe they can form groups) to rap their heads around these "Association Health Plans (AHPs)".
When they do and realize, holy smokes we can link up with like groups and have huge leverage via purchasing power of large groups, Katie bar the door, that when the changes will hit.
the million dollar question is when do they go back and take a stab at undoing Obamacare and make Direct Primary Care universally accepted, it isn't currently, only amongst some large group plans. That is the game changer IMHO and I don't know who will be Dr Tom Price's replacement and can they do it with the HHS "Administrator Shall" powers in Obamacare, which to me is brilliant, use their own devices against their legislative fiat.
The only drawback to it is she has to help raise a barn every other month.
China stopped buying US debt a long time ago. Not only that, but they sold off much if not all of the US debt they owned
Good point as well
First sentence you had is correct. Second is incorrect. Chins still owns 1.2T in ust
Consider the source and their strong bias and you'll know.
You may be confusing them with the Amish. They are noted for that. The Mennonites are sort of more modern cousins to the Amish.
I’m not Mennonite, but I know a number of them. I’d have no problem working with them. I’ve built a number of barns. And some were pretty large. (they were not wooden)
I’d love to get my daughter back in Texas. Shared custody of my grandson has prevented that so far. At some point that may solve itself. For now we’re stuck with it.
I worked with a Mennonite in Oklahoma, did business with a number of them in OK, KS and MO. Most of them are very good honest people.
There are some really great Mennonite cooks. Friend of mine near OKC shared some of his mother’s Baklava. Amazing good stuff.
The mandate is basically a tax on existing.
That can be said of a lot of taxes :-(
Can some legal eagle answer this?
I thought the SCOTUS decision upholding the right of the federal government to control the options people had for health care was based on their power to tax - and that the penalty (the mandate) was the tax.
So if you take away that mandate - that tax - then don’t you also take away the basis for Obamacare being constitutional, under the SCOTUS decision?
I’ve heard that advertised on the radio. This is what the OMB and all of the other experts out there have no way of predicting or even understanding, marketplace innovation. In a free market society (well, at least we used to be), we really rely on our citizens freedom to come up with building a better box!
Of course when dealing with health care, there has to be some type of regulation, some type of fairness introduced into the system, but it can be minimal parameters. Let the marketplace innovation begin and let the people decided what best fits their needs.
Unfortunately, there will always be the government sponsored social safety net, but does it have to be at the federal level? Lets push this down to the lowest level possible (states and communities) and let them take care of their poor. Government closer to the people respond to their own people’s needs far better than a leviathan in Washington.
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