Even With the Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance Coverage Remains Unaffordable for Many

[antigop]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/14019-even-with-the-affordable-care-act-health-insurance-coverage-remains-unaffordable-for-many

Any hopes that large employers would be penalized for failing to offer affordable insurance coverage to the spouses and dependent children of their employees under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) were recently dashed by a proposed interpretation of the law from the Obama Administration.

The interpretation, which was released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) late last month in the form of a proposed rule, related to the “Employer Shared Responsibility Provision” of the ACA, popularly known as the employer mandate. That provision provides that larger employers (those with more than 50 employees) offer insurance coverage not only to their employees, but to the “dependents” of those employees as well. If these employers fail to offer “affordable” coverage, they may be subject to monetary penalties.

But the IRS’s definition of dependents in the proposed rule excludes the spouses of employees, regardless of whether the spouse is employed.

Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University and an expert on legal interpretations of the ACA, explained that there is thus nothing in the proposed rule that would incentivize large employers who do not currently offer coverage to spouses to do so. And for employers who do currently offer coverage to spouses, he said, there is no disincentive in the proposed rule against dropping that coverage in the future.

[L0oniX]

1. also ...how are the poor supposed to pay the deductable with the ACA ...yea there is a deductable.

[Demo_Chris]

2. It will only get much MUCH worse down the road

Thanks to Obamacare every person in America is now required by law to purchase from these companies.

It doesn't matter what price they change, you will have to buy.

It doesn't matter how little they offer, you will have to buy.

It doesn't matter how horrible their customer service gets, you will have to buy.

It doesn't matter how high the co-pay becomes, you will have to buy.

Don't like it? Too bad. You'll buy their policy or you'll pay the fine in the form of a special tax, and if you refuse to pay that you will go to Prison.

And now that it's LAW it's never going to get better. The costs will only continue to climb, the insurance companies will only continue to offer less and demand more. Why wouldn't they? They sucked before you were legally required to buy their products, why in the hell would they suddenly change? They will only become more powerful. Again, for those who don't get it, they now have a guaranteed customer base. Purchasing their products, whether you want to or not, is now the price of living in America.

And now that the precident has been set there is no reason that ANY industry cannot demand the same special guaranteed profit privilege. The people hailing this are out of their freaking minds. It is, without any question, the most disgusting piece of legislation to become law in the last century.

[area51]

4. +1

Those of us for single payer warned of letting insurance companies call the shots. And we didn't even get a public option that they'd be forced to compete with.

[font color="red"]"Mandates lock in everything that is broken about our current health care system." -- Richard Gingery, M.D. [/font][br][br]

[Doctor_J]

11. Dr. Gingrey was being optimistic

Health Insurance companies are among the most despised entities in the nation, and now we HAVE to give them our money (and our business). While the ACA will help on some fronts, it is not viable over the long run.

[goclark]

14. +1

[quadrature]

10. most people will pay the fine...

instead of getting insurance.

when will pricing for insurance coverage
be announced?

[antigop]

12. I think the exchanges open on Oct. 1 for coverage starting Jan. 1 nt

[kenny blankenship]

3. But at least we saved the insurance complex - after all, "They're Our System!"

If they go down we will all be sunk. Well, NOW we would all be sunk. Anyway - that's all done, all decided, and in the past. We DID health care reform. So any ungrateful caviling now about "crappy care", or affordability, or "the complete lack of cost controls doing nothing to break the upward spiral of costs and the attendant downward spiral of care" is just spiteful selfishness! People who attack our insurance system are attacking our health care system itself (since insurance equals health care), on which the well being of 300 plus million Americans now depends. Such left of the left ingrates should be designated as "antisocials." Socialist sociopaths - yes, it has a nice ring to it! We could require them maybe to take some sort of psychotropic pharmaceuticals obtained with no bulk rate discount through the government, or pay a hefty fine on their taxes. It will be a win -win for public and private sector interests alike. That's what we've always needed, true partnership with a friendly government.

[dkf]

5. Kick...

This is a must read.

[antigop]

6. Thanks for the kick. People need to know this... nt

[Doctor_J]

7. Only the KoolAid addicts thought this would actually solve the problem

The ACA was concocted by the Heritage Foundation and implemented my Governor Romney (causing his approval in MA to plummet). When Obama refused to invite SP advocates to the Health Care (sic) talks, the lucid segment of the populace knew what was really happening.

[Doctor_J]

8. From the way I read this, the government will enforce

the mandates on individuals, but will not enforce the mandates on big corporations. This is of course in keeping with our corporate-run government. Bu that one caught me off guard.

Single payer/public was deliberately left off of the negotiations because Big Insurance owns our government to a large extent.

[forestpath]

9. +1