Health insurance companies will have to provide for sick people, and will not be allowed to charge sick people more than healthy people. This will raise the cost of insurance for everyone else, no one is really sure by how much. Everyone will either be required to buy this insurance, or pay an additional 2.5% tax on their income. This additional tax will not exceed whatever the average cost of insurance turns out to be. The tax option will apply differently to people who have low incomes. Starting in 2016, the tax will be $695 for each individual in ones family up to a limit of $2,085, if the family income is below $17,375. The tax will automatically be adjusted based on the cost of living in subsequent years. The law does not require those with extremely low incomes to buy insurance, if one's income is below the tax-filing threshold (which was $9,350 for a single individual in 2009), or if the cost of buying the lowest priced insurance (after government subsidies for low-income families to help pay part of the cost) would exceed 8% of ones income and the income is less than four times the federal poverty level. The law also does not require native Americans or undocumented immigrants or prisoners to buy insurance, but these groups of people could potentially buy insurance as soon as they get sick and require expensive medical treatment. So what happens if a person both refuses to buy insurance and refuses to pay the tax option? The law seems to be somewhat ambiguous on this point. The penalty for not buying insurance would be treated much like any other tax, and one could be punished for not paying. From the new health reform law: "Section 7203: misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year." But the new law also clearly states that there will be no criminal sanctions for failing to pay the penalty, and no liens or levies on ones property, although the government would take the unpaid debt out of any future tax refunds, and employers are already required by law to withhold taxes from their employees paycheck. This information focuses only on the aspect of the requirement to buy insurance. The full 2010 'Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act' in the USA is much more complicated and has many more provisions than this, and many new taxes. So what does this all mean? Basically the young and healthy people will be paying for medical treatment for the sick and old. And certain groups of people that are not required to buy insurance (low-income, native Americans, and undocumented immigrants) could get a free ride, because they could just get insurance when they begin to get sick, and the insurance companies are not allowed to charge them more than anyone else.
My plan if the law stands is just stay under the poverty line so the state has to put me on Medicaid assuming the law is not overturned, they cannot make me work more than I want and the 40 hours I do a month Busking on weekends is enough for me at the moment. And its all cash in my pocket money.
I predict the new policy would result in even higher unemployment amongst Blacks in the USA. Black male unemployment is high enough, but that $2,085 a year in extra taxes could really affect single Black mothers. Because something tells me these poor Blacks will not be able to pay even a little more to afford the actual medical coverage itself, and will instead fall back on the taxes. Middle class people think everyone else (the poor) think just like them, and that no one would be so irrational as to not just buy the insurance. But poor families struggle for daily survival and will do whatever is cheapest, even if that means going without medical coverage. "Punitive" taxes simply do not provide incentives. We can see that with the tax credit for homeowners, which has not been enough of an incentive for the poor.
So what will happen is these people will just be less motivated, and earn even less, so that they qualify for government assistance and do not have to work so hard to pay for mandatory health insurance. This will trap more low income families into poverty. It is just unrealistic to expect people earning low wages to pay for all-encompassing health insurance. The root problem is the low wages itself, not the fact that they cannot afford medical treatment in the same way that middle class people are used to. Medical insurance should ideally be high deductable, and should only be to cover unsual risks. If people cannot even afford to see a doctor and get routine treatment, the problem is NOT that they do not have insurance, but that they simply cannot afford medical treatment. Medical insurance should not be about providing routine medical treatment. But this is just what many progressives are used to, because the government sectors where they typically work (especially education) provide this form of medical insurance. It is just more evidence of the ignorance of the progressive leaders about what is practical for everyone else.
While I am no fan of the ACA(Obamacare) I believe the OP does contain some errors. People within 133% of the poverty level around $30,000 dollars for a family of 4 would be provided medicaid under the plan at no cost to them. Most Native Americans already have insurance from their tribes so that should not affect the cost of insurance for others. Illegal immigrants receive free emergency care already so I doubt that will change. That said I dislike the plan and hope it is overturned in the supreme court, but doubt it will be. If it is upheld then I would have to either keep my income below $30,000 or just refuse to purchase insurance and pay the fine. Since the help the government gives those below 400% of the poverty level is to insure they pay no more than 10% of their income for premiums. That is a tax I can not afford.
This is assuming that the Congress will actually allocate money to the plan to help subsidise these families buying the mandated insurance. And there is a good chance that that will not happen. The Republicans really are against the plan, and if it is politically not possible for them to repeal it, it would be a much easier alternative option for them to simply not fund it. (I suspect this was a "poison pill" the Democrats built into the plan so if the Republicans tried to take away funding, it would put an impractical burden on moderately-low income people, and Republicans would be stuck with the blame) Admittingly I am not entirely sure on the details. Whether such a low income family would be forced to buy insurance if the government decides not to finance subsidies is probably an important question. I also do not know how much this ACA plan would increase the cost of insurance. My guess is somewhere between 20-30%, but it could also open up the door to potential increases in the distant future if the government ever decides to increase the fees on insurance companies to help subsidise more poor people.
This was a Republican idea that was promoted by more than a few top Republicans now it it unconstitutional and socialist. Republicans are like Zoo animals. Very fun to watchand laugh at. Then you realize why they need to be in a cage and not roaming around with the rest of the civilized world.
They don't have to under the law states MUST cover people at least at the poverty line or less the current limit based on income sharing the costs as they always have even if its not funded more than now if under Medicaid. Federal rules trump state rules if a state stays in Medicaid they must expand it as the Federal government requires or they could be dropped from it or lose ample funding at the discretion of the Secretary of Health and Human Services under the original law. But on the issue of the mandate all countries that cover everyone and keep costs down do that you must participate unless poor and then you get help, the government decides if a new treatement is worth investing in or not based on cost verses benefits and fix prices and rates in some way. Obamacare is just doing what must be done there is no other option.
It seems the undocumented immigrant has it the best,,,mmmm. Might pay to leave the U.S. and come back as one. One thing becoming obvious in this country, be ambitious and you get the shaft. Not sure if that's anyway to run a successful country.....
