How to Protect Yourself From Obamacare

[heironymouspasparagus]

Until people start expanding where they get their news to include more than just the Fox News Channel, ideologues I fear will be all we see.  There's not a public place with a TV that I've gone to in over a year that doesn't have Fox News on the instant I see the television.

You can watch whatever you want at home.  In public you have to watch what the great unwashed masses want to watch...


Good for you, too - ya gotta know what the enemy is doing.  How better than to watch Fox?

[TulsaRufnex]

So you won't be voting to re-elect President Obama?

Oy.  I wish Obama were MORE of an idealogue, not less... he was against the federal insurance mandate before he was for it.... and yet, there is no public option after pre-compromising with republicans and the insurance industry....

Please stand for the singing of The Republican Party (aka "Party of No") National Anthem....

Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993 (HEART)
Sponsor:
    Sen Chafee, John H. (R-NH)
Co-sponsors:
Sen Bennett, Robert F. [R-UT] - 11/22/1993
Sen Bond, Christopher S. [R-MO] - 11/22/1993
Sen Boren, David L. [D-OK] - 5/17/1994
Sen Cohen, William S. [R-ME] - 11/22/1993
Sen Danforth, John C. [R-MO] - 11/22/1993
Sen Dole, Robert J. [R-KS] - 11/22/1993
Sen Domenici, Pete V. [R-NM] - 11/22/1993
Sen Durenberger, Dave [R-MN] - 11/22/1993
Sen Faircloth, Lauch [R-NC] - 11/22/1993
Sen Gorton, Slade [R-WA] - 11/22/1993
Sen Grassley, Chuck [R-IA] - 11/22/1993
Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [R-UT] - 11/22/1993
Sen Hatfield, Mark O. [R-OR] - 11/22/1993
Sen Kassebaum, Nancy Landon [R-KS] - 11/22/1993
Sen Kerrey, J. Robert [D-NE] - 5/17/1994
Sen Lugar, Richard G. [R-IN] - 11/22/1993
Sen Simpson, Alan K. [R-WY] - 11/22/1993
Sen Specter, Arlen [R-PA] - 11/22/1993
Sen Stevens, Ted [R-AK] - 11/22/1993
Sen Warner, John [R-VA] - 11/22/1993
Sen Brown, Hank [R-CO] - 11/22/1993(withdrawn - 10/4/1994)

Consumer Choice Health Security Act of 1994
Sponsor:
   Sen. Don Nickles [R-OK]
Co-sponsors:
Sen. Robert Bennett [R-UT]
Sen. George "Hank" Brown [R-CO]
Sen. Conrad Burns [R-MT]
Sen. Daniel Coats [R-IN]
Sen. Thad Cochran [R-MS]
Sen. Paul Coverdell [R-GA]
Sen. Larry Craig [R-ID]
Sen. Robert Dole [R-KS]
Sen. Duncan "Lauch" Faircloth [R-NC]
Sen. Charles "Chuck" Grassley [R-IA]
Sen. Judd Gregg [R-NH]
Sen. Orrin Hatch [R-UT]
Sen. Jesse Helms [R-NC]
Sen. Kay Hutchison [R-TX]
Sen. Dirk Kempthorne [R-ID]
Sen. Trent Lott [R-MS]
Sen. Richard Lugar [R-IN]
Sen. Connie Mack [R-FL]
Sen. Frank Murkowski [R-AK]
Sen. Alan Simpson [R-WY]
Sen. Bob Smith [R-NH]
Sen. Ted Stevens [R-AK]
Sen. Strom Thurmond [R-SC]
Sen. Malcolm Wallop [R-WY]

[guido911]

OKLAHOMA CITY – State Rep. Mike Ritze plans to reintroduce a bill to "nullify" the individual mandate in the 2010 federal health care legislation in Oklahoma.

"I disagree with the Supreme Court's ruling and believe that state governments were intended to serve as a check on the federal government," said Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is better known as ObamaCare, is an example of federal overreach and my legislation will authorize the state to resist it and ban the enforcement of it."

Ritze said his legislation would authorize the Oklahoma attorney general to defend citizens who fail to purchase health insurance against the federal government and criminalizes the enforcement of the individual mandate.

"My hope is that ObamaCare will be repealed, but I do not think that means we have to wait for the repeal to happen. Oklahoma lawmakers should do what they can to support our choice to make our own health care decisions," Ritze said.

[Emphasis added].



http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2012/07/oklahoma-state-rep-to-file-bill-to-nullify-individual-mandate/

[Red Arrow]

Ritze said his legislation would authorize the Oklahoma attorney general to defend citizens who fail to purchase health insurance against the federal government and criminalizes the enforcement of the individual mandate.

http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2012/07/oklahoma-state-rep-to-file-bill-to-nullify-individual-mandate/

Does that mean that the state will spend thousands of dollars to prevent some individual from paying a $695 fine/tax?

[guido911]

Does that mean that the state will spend thousands of dollars to prevent some individual from paying a $695 fine/tax?

Only if this law passes and Oklahoma hires new lawyers to staff the AG office to provide this defense.  Otherwise, we are already paying AG lawyers so the beef would be their being redirected from other matters or the office has been overstaffed. Who knows? Except obviously that once again some Oklahomans are embarrassing the rest of us by being obstinate or racist. You pick.

[Red Arrow]

Who knows? Except obviously that once again some Oklahomans are embarrassing the rest of us by being obstinate or racist. You pick.

I pick obstinate.  I'll let someone else call them racist.

[nathanm]

Does that mean that the state will spend thousands of dollars to prevent some individual from paying a $695 fine/tax?

A tax penalty for which criminal charges cannot be brought, interest cannot be charged, enforcement action cannot be opened, and is otherwise toothless unless you are a W-2 employee who, like most, overpays throughout the year. In that case they can hold it back from your refund. If you're not a W-2 employee, you can just pay estimated tax for your regular income and SE tax, make sure you don't underpay by more than 10% and send in a check for the balance of the tax owed (less the penalty) and the IRS can't do anything about it aside from sending you polite letters.

Basically, the only people who will be impacted by this and can't work around it are folks who get refundable tax credits large enough to take their income and payroll tax below zero. I suspect most of those folks will be eligible for Medicaid in states that don't refuse to participate in the expansion, so for the vast majority it's completely meaningless as a penalty. Don't be poor, but not so poor that you don't get Medicaid, and don't have a lot of kids, I guess.

I'm not surprised that one or more of our esteemed representatives can't grasp that there is no enforcement mechanism for the penalty.

[Red Arrow]

If you're not a W-2 employee, you can just pay estimated tax for your regular income and SE tax, make sure you don't underpay by more than 10% and send in a check for the balance of the tax owed (less the penalty) and the IRS can't do anything about it aside from sending you polite letters.

To some extent, you can adjust your withholding via the W-4 so I guess pretty much anyone can play the game if you're clever enough.

[guido911]

Saw this on Drudge. Kind of dramatic. I've heard similar rumblings.

Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama's health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.

Even if doctors do not quit their jobs over the ruling, America will face a shortage of at least 90,000 doctors by 2020. The new health care law increases demand for physicians by expanding insurance coverage. This change will exacerbate the current shortage as more Americans live past 65.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/09/report-83-percent-of-doctors-have-considered-quitting-over-obamacare/#ixzz20AUmDLZa

http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/09/report-83-percent-of-doctors-have-considered-quitting-over-obamacare/

[nathanm]

Perhaps Congress could see fit to restore the funding for the medical residency system they cut in the late 90s? (Yes, Virginia, every doctor in the US benefits from the socialist system whereby the government pays the hospital to take them on when they're still wet behind the ears and nobody in their right mind would employ them to stitch up a cat, much less a person) The AMA might throw a fit, though. After all, it was their ridiculous claim that there was an impending oversupply of doctors that got Congress to act in the first place.

[heironymouspasparagus]

A tax penalty for which criminal charges cannot be brought, interest cannot be charged, enforcement action cannot be opened, and is otherwise toothless unless you are a W-2 employee who, like most, overpays throughout the year. In that case they can hold it back from your refund. If you're not a W-2 employee, you can just pay estimated tax for your regular income and SE tax, make sure you don't underpay by more than 10% and send in a check for the balance of the tax owed (less the penalty) and the IRS can't do anything about it aside from sending you polite letters.

Basically, the only people who will be impacted by this and can't work around it are folks who get refundable tax credits large enough to take their income and payroll tax below zero. I suspect most of those folks will be eligible for Medicaid in states that don't refuse to participate in the expansion, so for the vast majority it's completely meaningless as a penalty. Don't be poor, but not so poor that you don't get Medicaid, and don't have a lot of kids, I guess.

I bet that if you underpay, what the IRS will do is count that penalty as part of the money you did pay, then declare your regular tax due as the underpaid amount - with penalties and interest, etc. 

All they have to do is put this fee as first in line for payment when money starts coming in, then everything else.  Simple solution.

[Conan71]

I got a notice yesterday in the mail from my health insurer that due to the Affordable Health Care Act, they must rebate 2% of all premiums earned in Oklahoma last year because only 78% of their expenditures went to actual health care costs.  I won't see the rebate but my employer will.  Not sure how well this is going to play with health insurance companies in the long run, dictating their expenditure percentages.

[nathanm]

Go figure, they have to spend most of your premium on actual health care. What a shocking idea!

[heironymouspasparagus]

Dam the bad luck...reduced bonuses all around!

[Gaspar]

I got a notice yesterday in the mail from my health insurer that due to the Affordable Health Care Act, they must rebate 2% of all premiums earned in Oklahoma last year because only 78% of their expenditures went to actual health care costs.  I won't see the rebate but my employer will.  Not sure how well this is going to play with health insurance companies in the long run, dictating their expenditure percentages.

There will be (are) fewer insurance companies.  Only the big insurance monopolies will be able to survive, but that's ok, because there will be fewer doctors too.  Under single payer, perhaps people will be able to see the government nurse?

http://www.doctorsandpatients.org/images/files/DPMA_SurveyResults.pdf