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Thread: Healthcare/Public Option good or bad for us?

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    Search Healthcare/Public Option good or bad for us?

    I was watching the Obama speech, and it interested me at first because I haven't had health insurance since 2006 when I graduated college. I began dancing, and applied for independent insurance but never got it. Anyway, the Obama's plan for everyone to get health insurance is great, and nobody getting denied. I wonder how much health insurance would cost now for people like us, self employed and higher risk. He says he plans on coverage being low and that more Insurers would compete for the market, keeping the quality up and coverage low, but wouldn't dancers still have higher rates anyway since we are around smoke and alcohol and proned to accidents with our 7 inch heels? I know smokers and such pay a higher premium so I just want to know if his plan would benefit dancers at all, especially when we don't really have a voice in anything dealing with politics and the public. Also another thing is we don't have a choice. If individuals make 100%-300% above poverty level, and don't buy health insurance, we are subject to be fined approx $950 per year for individuals. So basically we are being forced to buy health insurance? This kind of bothers me, at first I was excited that we actually had a choice to buy low cost health coverage, but now that there is a fine involved, I'm kind of skeptical. Anyway, I don't even know where to start looking for insurance. Is there some list of places to shop under the new public option plan? I know there are always places online that offer insurance, but since the rules have changed, I would like to shop for insurance according to the new rules and see what competitive prices are out there.

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    Default Re: Healthcare/Public Option good or bad for us?

    for the moment at least, the national health care plan as proposed by President Obama is not yet in effect ... nor is the $950 'penalty tax' for Americans who choose not to purchase health care insurance coverage. This is directly pertinent to your question, since in the absence of a national health care plan each US state is able to set their own standards for health insuranc e coverage 'areas'. Thus states such as PA, NY, NJ, CA have chosen to require that insurance providers in their state cover not only basic medical / surgical treatment, but also treatments for mental health, for drug addiction, and a host of others. As such, the cost of health insurance policies written in these states is typically much higher than policies written in other states which must only cover basic medical / surgical treatment costs.

    As to the 'cost' of national health care insurance's 'public option' as proposed by President Obama, nobody has yet to offer a complete estimate. For one thing, the 'cost' of the 'public option' comes in two parts ... the direct cost of insurance premiums, plus the indirect cost of income tax increases necessary to subsidize 'public option' coverage. Thus. at a minimum, the actual 'cost' of national health insurance coverage will be a function of how much total money you earn. In the way of an admittedly wild guesstimate, if you dance two nights a week and earn $40,000 per year, your cost for the 'public option' might be a subsidized $1500 per year and your income taxes may increase by a few hundred dollars. On the other hand, if you dance 5 nights a week and earn $100,000 per year, your cost for the 'public option' might be an unsubsidized $3000 per year and your income taxes may increase by $2-3,000. Accounting for the two parts of the total cost of the 'public option' is a bit difficult though, since if you dance full time and earn $100,000 a year you would still be hit with a $2-3,000 increase in income taxes whether or not you actually buy 'public option' coverage for yourself. The reason for this is that SOMEBODY has to pay for the subsidy to reduce the 'public option' premiums for those earning less than 3 times the 'official poverty level', which for a single person is probably around $50,000 per year ( it's location dependent ).

    Another factor in the 'cost' of national health care insurance will be the changes in component costs of health care itself. This is also an area into which very little research has been published. However, the Wall St. Journal just published this article ...



    (snip)"In the heated debates on health-care reform, not enough attention is being paid to the huge financial windfalls ObamaCare will dole out to unions—or to the provisions in the various bills in Congress that will help bring about the forced unionization of the health-care industry.

    Tucked away in thousands of pages of complex new rules, regulations and mandates are special privileges and giveaways that could have devastating consequences for the health-care sector and the American economy at large.

    The Senate version opens the door to implement forced unionization schemes pursued by former Govs. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois in 2005 and Gray Davis of California in 1999. Both men repaid tremendous political debts to Andy Stern and his Service Employees International Union (SEIU) by reclassifying state-reimbursed in-home health-care (and child-care) contractors as state employees—and forcing them to pay union dues.

    Following this playbook, the Senate bill creates a "personal care attendants workforce advisory panel" that will likely impose union affiliation to qualify for a newly created "community living assistance services and support (class)" reimbursement plan.

    The current House version of ObamaCare (H.R. 3200) goes much further. Section 225(A) grants Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius tremendous discretionary authority to regulate health-care workers "under the public health insurance option." Monopoly bargaining and compulsory union dues may quickly become a required standard resulting in potentially hundreds of thousands of doctors and nurses across the country being forced into unions."(snip)

    ... thus one can logically assume that the labor related costs of health care are going to increase, and along with it the cost of future health insurance premiums be they 'public option' or through a conventional insurance company.

    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 09-10-2009 at 09:47 AM.

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