Health Saving Accounts: Families cough up 10.5K, Singles 5.25K...

[elehhhhna]

You pay for catastrophic coverage ON TOP of that.

Choice exepts:

GWB: "...if you take care of your body and you exercise and you don't do stupid* things, you end up saving money,"

(* stupid things: fall off bike, choke on pretzels, get shot by VP)

Under changes Bush is proposing, the amount that individuals could contribute to the tax-free HSAs would go from the current $2,700 to $5,250. The family contribution would increase from $5,450 to $10,500.


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-na-bush16feb16,0,7121458.story?coll=la-home-business

[Daphne08]

1. I'm sorry, but I cannot even think about this without blowing a

friggin' gasket!

They have downsized, outsourced, insourced our good jobs (with benefits) to death, and now they want this?

[Warpy]

4. The holy corporation must be relieved of the horrible burden of

keeping even its greatly depleted workforce healthy. The holy corporation must be relieved of any expense that goes to support human beings. The holy corporation must be entirely free of prior commitments to employees who sweated their lives away in its service.

Got it now? That's where Repugs are at. That's always where they've been at. They have never changed. People who vote for them are FOOLS.

[seabeyond]

2. i watched a special on hitler and obsessiveness on keeping body

healthy and fit. bush is sounding a lot like the man. i am grateful that i was born and have genetics that is a healthy body. i also know it has a lot to do with what my genetics are. what about those that arent born with the same genectically healthy body, are they expendable. boy this comment from bush is really sounding like hitlers thinking pattern along with other comments from bush, of course, in many areas

[sandnsea]

3. One of them fancy accounting loopholes

for the rich, so they never have to pay taxes. Just like Bush said in 2004.

[gizmo1979]

5. If I had an extra 10k lying around

I wouldn't worry about healthcare.How much do you have to make to be able to put that much in a savings acct.?This is a crock of shit.You know because of corruption in government this may be the only Insurance in town pretty soon.How long before greedy corp drop peoples insurance coverage and open health savings acct. for them?This is the start of the slippery slope and it's not going to be pretty.Sooner or later we are going to have to fight literally fight to take our country back.

[elehhhhna]

6. Hubs' shoulder surgery cost 14K (and counting w/ phy.s therapy)

so wtf is catastrophic about THAT besides the pprice?

[Itchinjim]

7. If you get seriously ill,

$5.5k will last you about a half a day. Last year my younger brother was downsized and lost his company provided health insurance. He and his wife had to buy their own (Mom wasn't working at the time as they had just had their fourth child) They paid $1200 a month for what was basically just catastrophic coverage. That's $14000 a year. Just for insurance, no treatment, just insurance. How long does * think $10K is going to last? Bastards. Fucking Bastards.

[frankly_fedup2]

8. Well, I hope we all are as comfortable and can afford to eat healthy

like Bush seems to think.

What about a car accidents? You are required to have insurance by law; however, a young man that hit my mother-in-law and almost broke her back was not driving his car. He had borrowed a friend's car, and he nor the friend had insurance on either vehicle. I don't know how people get away with that. My mother-in-law's insurance covered her; however, with her being elderly and with osteoporosis, this accident with her neck injuries has caused her constant pain. This is something she has to live with the rest of her life . . . chronic pain.

What about when you are working 12-14 hour days just to make ends and you can try to get at least 5 hours sleep because you have to work 7 days a week for up to months at a time.

My husband's company required them one year to work 7-days a week from January 1st of that year until the first of April. He had no time off except enough time to come home, eat a quick dinner, maybe watch a little TV, then to bed and start all over again. He was run down, tired. His blood pressure went up due to the stress and had to increase his blood pressure medication.

Unlike this dumb ass, some people actually have to work for a living and don't have family money to fall back on. He makes me sick.

Doesn't this fool understand that if people could put that kind of money back, they could afford to pay for their health insurance. I have friends who work only to pay for groceries and to get better health insurance then their husband's companies provide. Family plans running almost $300 a month without a prescription card. And these are group plans. I don't think the companies people work for are helping them at all anymore. We have plenty of minimum wage, part-time jobs, no benefits. Pretty soon that is all this country will be . . . a service nation.

[LiberalPartisan]

9. I see singles continue to be discriminated against

Sorry - but why people should get tax breaks for breeding is beyond me.

[elehhhhna]

10. huge point there.

[grilled onions]

11. Taking Care of The Body?

So many "lovely" jobs out there seem to go against the grain. From coal mines to washing windows on high rises many have to risk life and limb every day just to keep food on the table. Not everyone has the luxury to "playboy" his life to pick and choose and never lose a nights sleep because the heat bill is due. Eating for some is almost a luxury and the staples in their diet are often the worst for the body. Exercise? WHile his idea of exercise is actually playtime he has no idea how many work so hard that once they get home all they can do is collapse so they can get up at dawn and do it all over again. Until the maggots who create this lack of concern over real health coverage,are forced to work at REAL jobs nothing will ever change. They don't even seem to think there are people out there with chronic illness's.:mad:

[foreverdem]

15. Exactly

I am one of those with a chronic illess that requires I go to a specialist for blood tests every 3 months, there is no way in hell I could afford the specialist's fee where it not for my company's health plan. I also had to have major surgery back in June that cost well over $20,000. People have medical problems that require care that have nothing to do with whether or not they take care of themselves. Neither my illness nor my surgery had anything to do with me not taking care of myself. These accounts are bullshit.

[serryjw]

12. I saw the FIRST commercial promoting this

on TV!!!!!

[KatyaR]

13. Unfortunately this is the insurance my employer offered this year.

The insurance company can't even furnish us information on how the stupid thing works, but we're all convinced of this--it sucks. Yes, the premiums are cheap, and yes, the company kicks in $750 for the MSA, but you're on your own for the rest. I hope to god no one has an accident or becomes seriously ill this year, because they'll be shit out of luck.

To top it off, my employer decided not to include vision insurance to "keep the costs down." Wouldn't you think that a company that has 99.8% of its employees tied to a computer all day might think their employees would need vision coverage? I am considered "glaucoma suspect" and am supposed to have extensive testing every six months--it's been over a year since I've been to the doctor. The visits cost around $400 each, and I can't afford it.

The POS has lost his mind . . . .

[punpirate]

14. It's all part of undoing...

... the New Deal and the Great Society. The concept there was that the risk was shared across all of society, making individual risk much smaller. Conservatives have always hated it (that's why we hear so much about rugged individualism and personal responsibility from them, when those concepts have nothing to do with shared risk).

It also accomplishes another end--increasing the amount of tax load transfer to the middle and lower classes. Median annual family income in this country is something like $43K. Who in that income range is going to be able to put a quarter of their income into an HSA? The wealthy, who have health care and could pay for it even if it weren't paid by an employer, get yet another $10K off the top of their earned income.

Who wants to bet there's something to be buried in the proposal about HSA money being paid out first on medical bills before insurers have to cough up anything? That all HSA money has to be drawn down before being eligible for nursing home care? Any scheme such as that puts risk back on the individual.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

16. the part about using by the end of the year or losing it

is usually buried in the small print somewhere. That's right. You pay in all year, never get sick so you don't have to use it, and at the end, they take it. Poof. it's quite a scheme.
You're much better off opening your own savings account and paying the taxes. then if there's anything left at the end of the year, you get to keep it. amazing concept. :)

[elehhhhna]

19. no-- that's the MSA. Different deal.

pre tax savings for out of pocket costs, currently offered to many employees

[Viva_La_Revolution]

21. thanks

they both suck. imho

[SmokingJacket]

17. Sounds EXACTLY like what my family has now:

a catastrophic policy and a bunch of money in the bank to pay up the 10K deductible if, God forbid, something bad ever happens.

Let me tell you: it REEEEEEEKS. We forego preventive care, we live with constant worry that we'll have an illness that lasts several years: say a chronic illness. That's 10K a year!!! In a few years, we'd lose the house!

Plus... we're lucky we even have the 10K in the bank: we might have to eat it if the economy doesn't improve and we don't find better jobs....

My DREAM is for one of us to find a good job with full benefits. I'll be able to sleep...

ON EDIT: Oh, and I forgot: catastrophic policies are NO LONGER CHEAP! They cost about as much as regular health insurance cost about eight years ago. Plus, very few insurancec companies even offer them.

[SoCalDem]

18. $875. a month AND paying premiums on catastrophic coverage

AND paying out of pocket for office visits and meds..

Gee what a deal :eyes:

[InsultComicDog]

20. These fuckheads

are just like those guys who do hostile corporate takeovers, only it's our government they have taken over and are now looting everything left and right, including everything we depend on as Americans.