Archive for the ‘Health Care’ Category
News starting appearing this week about doctors beginning their exodus out of the Medicare Program. Now this must be great news for all of the Politicos that voted for the plan. After all it is what they voted for, isn’t it? Wasn’t their goal to completely ruin, err I mean run, the health care of every citizen of the United States?
Why are the doctors dropping Medicare? Reduced payments that’s why.
But wait… you didn’t see that the other day? That’s because the “slip stream media” won’t report it very much because it means they lied from the start. It also means the Obama administration lied from the start, along with Pelosi and Reid and every other person that voted for the bill.
The exodus actually began appearing in reports in May – starting with 300 doctors in Texas dropping the plan.
I guess the Seniors are about to start becoming casualties of the law. Hey, I’m one of them!!!!
I gathered a bit of information to write this from a couple of sites.
http://www.athensreview.com/breakingnews/x1414105223/More-Texas-doctors-dropping-Medicare-patients
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/06/21/shocker-doctors-taking-fewer-medicare-patients/
http://lubbockonline.com/life/2010-05-25/many-doctors-limiting-medicare
http://dailydose.righthealth.com/cautions-concerns/more-doctors-dropping-medicare-insurance/
what can I say?
Here are 13 changes in the massive overhaul that could impact your tax bill, for better or worse.
The new health care reform law is chock-full of new taxes and tax increases that will affect many individuals and businesses, but it will be years before most of these hikes take a bite out of your — or your company’s — wallet. The law also has tax breaks to help both individuals and small businesses pay for insurance.
1. A new 10% excise tax on indoor tanning services on services provided after June 30, 2010.
2. The new law gives small firms tax credits as incentives to provide coverage, starting this tax year. Employers with 10 or fewer workers and average annual wages of less than $25,000 can receive a credit of up to 35% of their health premium costs each year through 2013. The credit is phased out for firms larger than that and disappears completely if a company has more than 25 employees or average annual wages of $50,000 or more. Beginning in 2014, small firms that sign up with one of the health exchanges to be created can receive a credit of up to 50% of their costs.
3. A requirement that businesses include the value of the health care benefits they provide to employees on W-2s, beginning with W-2s for 2011.
4. Elimination of a deduction employers now take for providing Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage to their retirees to the extent that the federal government subsidizes the coverage. This will not take effect until 2013.
5. Doubling the penalty for nonqualified distributions from health savings accounts, to 20%, beginning in 2011.
6. A limit on the amount that employees can contribute to health care flexible spending accounts to $2,500 a year, but the cap won’t take effect until 2013.
7. A ban on using funds from flexible spending accounts, health reimbursement arrangements or health savings accounts for the cost of over-the-counter medications, starting in 2011.
8. Starting in 2013, a 0.9% Medicare surtax will apply to wages in excess of $200,000 for single taxpayers and over $250,000 for married couples. Also, for the first time ever, a Medicare tax will apply to investment income of high earners. The 3.8% levy will hit the lesser of (1) their unearned income or (2) the amount by which their adjusted gross income exceeds the $200,000 or $250,000 threshold amounts. The new law defines unearned income as interest, dividends, capital gains, annuities, royalties, and rents. Tax-exempt interest won’t be included, nor will income from retirement accounts.
9. A hike in the 7.5% floor on itemized deductions for medical expenses to 10%, beginning in 2013. But taxpayers age 65 and over are exempt from the cutback through 2016.
10. A new 40% excise tax, beginning in 2018, on high-cost health plans, levied on the portion that exceeds $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families.
11. A new tax on individuals who don’t obtain adequate health coverage by 2014. The tax is be phased in over three years, starting at the greater of $95, or 1% of income, in 2014, and rising to the greater of $695, or 2.5% of income, in 2016.
12. Providing a refundable tax credit, once the individual mandate takes effect in 2014, to help low-income folks purchase coverage. To be eligible, a person’s household income must be between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level, generally around $11,000 to $44,000 for singles and $22,000 to $88,000 for families.
13. A nondeductible fee charged to businesses with 50 or more employees if the firms fail to offer adequate coverage. The fee will equal $2,000 times the number of employees, though it won’t count the first 30 workers in that calculation
I challenge the IRS or whomever to come after me!
On March 25th I posed the question about the Trickle Down Affect of the Health Care mess.
It didn’t take long, now that businesses can “see” the law, for the trend began.
Between the 25th and 26th a few large companies came out and said the bill will hurt them and will hit them pretty hard. AT&T, Verizon, Caterpillar, Deere, Valero Energy, AK Steel and 3M said “a tax provision in the new health care law will make it far more expensive to provide prescription drug coverage to their retired employees. Now, both retirees and current employees of those companies are wondering whether the new law could mean reduced or canceled benefits for them in the future.”
The list continues to grow. On Wednesday the 31st Boeing pretty much said the same thing.
You don’t even have to think very hard to realize that the American People are going to take a hit. AT&T and Verizon are going to have to pass along, to US, increases in our rates. You watch – it will happen! Valero Energy provides us with gasoline for our cars. Oh, no! Gas prices will have to increase. Prices for food will follow as the trucking companies get hit with increased fuel costs. And oil is used in many of the products we use all the time.
Look around the room you are in right now. What is in that room that 3M has made? Whatever it is will probably cost more soon. And airplanes is Boeing so I guess the airlines will raise prices to pay for the planes.
This year our fuel oil, for heat and hot water, cost about $2.79 a gallon. The smallest delivery size we can get is 100 gallons which equals $279.00. I can only wonder what it will cost next winter. $3.79 a gallon? $4.50 a gallon?
My fellow veterans and my fellow Americans, get on the stick and start getting on the people who put this into law and get on the people that can reverse it. NOW! (No more reunions because of the costs???)
I was worried before and even more now.
Opinions are welcome!
Well, for now the Health Care mess seems to be in place.
If you want to see who voted how you can check it out at the link here.
These are sorted by State. The list is very plain and opens in a new window.
Take the action you feel is appropriate. I might add that there are a few “Did Not Vote” names. These folks should be voted out because they show they don’t care one-way-or-the-other.
Okay. The Health Care mess is now the “law of the land”. Is that good?
Think about this. The law is going to force businesses to purchase health care for their employees. Is that good or bad? Were you aware that the only reason any company has offered health insurance to employees was TO HIRE THE BEST PEOPLE and to keep them. It’s not a “right” that the employer must give insurance. At least it wasn’t. It started over competition for workers.
So, okay, the employer now has to shell out money for health insurance. One of three things will happen.
1 – The employer will take some of the wages to offset the cost thus cutting “take home pay” cutting what the employee can spend thus hurting the economy.
2 – The employer will raise prices to the consumer – you and me. So we will either not be able to buy from that guy or if we do we won’t have that few bucks to spend on another company’s product. This hurts the economy.
3 – The employer will not be able to keep the entire staff, or expand his staff, and there is an unemployed worker. That hurt the economy.
Let’s go a step further.
1 – Company makes a product.
2 – He has to pay more for the supplies to make that product because his supplier has had to raise his prices.
3 – He has to pay more to get his products delivered to the store selling it because the firm doing the deliveries has had to raise their prices.
4 – The store selling it has to increase the mark-up to cover their additional health care expenses.
Let’s target one industry – Oil. Oil drillers raise prices; refineries raise prices; delivery truckers raise prices; gas stations raise prices; home heating oil companies raise prices and so on. I don’t even know all of the stuff that oil is used for but I can see our gas prices going to $4.50 or $5.50 a gallon. Now that’s really cool!
For me that means I will need a sizable increase in my Social Security to cover all of those increase prices. How about you? You need a raise too. However, you happen to be the one that your employer has to cut so he can pay for the increased costs.
This is not good for our economy or for our work force or, and especially, OUR COUNTRY!!
What do you think?
And that’s my view.
My dad told me that a long time ago and I have pretty much stuck to it.
But there is something very puzzling about the current Healthcare mess.
If it is such a fantastic piece of legislation WHY is it being fixed?
Sounds like we were all lied to again.
And that’s my view.
I am opposed to the healthcare bill and have been faxing every day for weeks. There has been a general trend, from Democrats, in the ability to get faxes through.
Sending to the same folks, about 45 of them, and every day I was able to get less faxes through. The responses I was getting ranged from “busy” to ‘unavailable’.
Now that leads me to one of two conclusions:
1 – their fax system is burning up do to the volume
2 – they are hiding
What do you think?
And that’s my view.
I watched and listened to the recent Bret Baier interview of our President. Wow, it sure would be nice if the President said something of value.
I don’t think I have heard anyone say so much without saying much in response to questions.
I think the most important thing he did say was something along the lines of (the is not a direct quote) ‘I don’t know what’s in the bill but once the bill is passed we will all know’. Now that is leadership!
Here is a man leading the United States down the road of ruin and he doesn’t even know what he is leading people toward.
Now that makes sense!
And that’s my view.
How dirty will the Democrat Party get?
Speaker Pelosi has been saying over and over that they have the votes. If that were true why have they not voted?
She has spoken about getting this passed by any means available. Is this what YOU and I really want?
Hey, if they want my support they only have to work a deal that hands me $100,000.00. Would you like the same?
Here is how I think I see this but it changes so quickly that I may have to add to this later.
The House votes and passes the Senate Version. (Based on promised changes in reconciliation.)
It then goes to the President and he signs it.
Then it goes to the Senate for Reconciliation.
But, will the Senate actually do anything? Why should they, it’s the bill they passed already. So, the Senate will let their partners in the House suffer the consequences because the Senate Lied.
Speaking of which – who was that person who yelled out “You Lie!”? Oh, and who was that Justice of the Supreme Court who mouthed the words “Not True”? (Isn’t “Not True” very much like “You Lie”?
I think the President of the United States of American has lied to us all.
I was going to list the Documented Lies from multiple web sites including Conservative sites, News Paper sites, CNN, Fox and about six more. I soon realized that I would either be typing for hours or copy-pasting for hours.
I have a business to run so the heck with that. You get the picture.
Trying to sum up what I just said here – It looks like the Democrat Party has learned very well from their leader, The President. Lie – the public can’t tell the difference!! Yeah Right!
And that’s my view.
The Health Care stuff is making my head explode. This morning I sent a fax to Senator Arlen Specter asking for help to understand. You realize that the Senators, that work for us, don’t respond so I really don’t think a plain English answer will be received.
If I can’t afford insurance or don’t want it I get fined an amount I can’t pay. Now this makes sense! Not!
If I buy the best insurance I can, I get fined. Now this makes sense! Not!
If I earn more than $250,00, the American Dream, my taxes are raised. Now this makes sense! Not!
In my business if I can’t afford to purchase insurance for my employees I get fined. Now this makes sense! Not!
If I buy them the best plans available, I get fined. Now this makes sense! Not!
So, the best I can do, for myself, is stop working, close my business, have no income, get the government to pay for everything for me – is this correct?
So, the government will then pay more for me raising the rates for everyone. Is this correct?
Sounds pretty stupid to me, how about you?
Another confusing thing is the way the lead Senator, Reid, has gotten the votes he needed to pass this mess. Bribery!!?? So now my taxes will go up to pay for Nebraska, Louisiana and what other states?
In my feeble way of thinking this seems to be another Tax Increase, right?
Oh, by the way, when are the Senators going to vote themselves a raise for NOT listening to the people you represent? I smell another tax increase.
It would be fun (you know) to see if enough people are as messed up with this plan, as I am, and really want to do something about it. We could call it the “Fax Party” and we start to fax, every day, the Senators that are supporting this bill. Imagine hundreds of faxes hitting each Senator Every Day. They would have to buy more fax paper and ink and maybe fax machines as we burn them up. WAIT! Would that be another tax increase!!??
Well America, it is up to us! Get Faxing! Get on the phones as I have – it’s not hard if you want to preserve your freedom and our country.
And that’s my view….