This is meant as a run down and posted for information,
not a political discussion. not a political discussion.
HR 3590 one sentence summary: Buy health insurance, or get fined or put in jail for not having it.
Now some finer points of this new law (my comments in
italics):
- H.R. 3590 mandates (aka REQUIRES) that all lawful residents purchase qualified insurance coverage or pay a penalty. The penalty for not having qualified health insurance would be $750, phased in over three years beginning in 2014. An exemption from the mandate applies if the premiums for the lowest-cost plan available exceed eight percent of income (which is deemed "unaffordable" coverage) and for individuals below 100 percent of the FPL.
The FPL for 2009 (http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtml) <-- link - Individuals must attest to coverage on their tax returns, and insurers must report information on their enrollees to the IRS.
- The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the coverage provisions in the bill will cost $848 billion over 10 years (fiscal years 2010-2019). However, the major provisions in the bill would not take effect until January 1, 2014, meaning the bill uses 10 years of revenue to pay for six years of coverage. Staff on the Senate Budget Committee estimates that the total spending in the bill over 10 years of full implementation (FYs 2014-2023) would exceed $2.5 trillion.
Current defecit is at 12.6Trillion- CBO estimates that penalties paid by uninsured individuals would total $8 billion from FY 2010 to 2019. The Joint Tax Committee has said that this tax will fall predominantly on individuals and families earning less than $250,000 per year, contradicting President Obama's pledge not to increase taxes on these people.
- To pay for the expansion of insurance coverage, the bill increases taxes by $493.6 billion, and reduces Medicare spending by $464.6 billion. Specifically, the bill would cut $134.9 billion from hospitals, $120 billion from Medicare Advantage (MA), $14.6 billion from nursing homes, $42.1 billion from home health agencies, and $7.7 billion from hospices.
- WAIT WHAT??? "Medicaid would be expanded to cover all individuals up to 133 percent of the FPL, which would increase the number of individuals covered under the program by more than 40 percent."
Wait, scroll up..... They cut a majority of the Medicaid funding, then expand the number of people that can get it by 40%? That makes ZERO sense. That means they have LESS money to be usable by more people, thus forcing the insurance coverage since Medicare will not cover the costs.- Among the more prominent taxes, the bill includes a new 40 percent excise tax.
So your taxes pay for the healthcare plans, then you pay taxes on those taxes. - A government-run plan (or "public option") would be available through the exchange unless a state passes a law opting out of the government plan.
- The bill would create a tax on employers with more than 50 full time workers if their employees receive a subsidy through the exchange. This so-called "free rider" mandate would increase taxes on employers by $28 billion.
- "The bill also includes a new Medicare Advisory Board that will have the authority to make cuts to Medicare that will go into effect immediately in the absence of intervening congressional action."
Medicare Czar!!!! We need to fund Obama family trip to exotic Tumpachu island for his week long vacation, lets cut $100 million from Medicare to pay for it!!! - The bill only allows insurers to vary the rate they charge young enrollees as compared to older enrollees by a 3:1 margin. This means that young and healthy people will be forced to pay higher premiums to subsidize the cost of older and sicker people.