Can someone tell me what the financial hardship cut-offs are for the individual mandate in HB 3200?

[usregimechange]

Likely a certain percentage of the federal poverty level...

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Medicaid to 133% of Federal poverty line...

....sliding-scale subsides beginning there and going up to 400% of poverty. I don't know how steep the scale on the subsidy is.

[usregimechange]

2. What do you mean "Medicaid to...?"

[usregimechange]

3. Can you imagine explaining that to the public?

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. Under HR 3200, if your AGI is less than 133% of the federal poverty line...

...your health coverage is provided via participation in Medicaid, which now has wildly varying state-to-state requirements to qualify, and even in the more generous states may not include people with income that high.

The income cap for Medicaid foreseen under HELP (the Kennedy Senate draft) and HR 3200, the House bill, is roughly $13,500. In Alabama, for example, the ceiling is presently $2300 -- per year.

Watch me 'explain that to the public': If your annual gross income is $13K or less, Medicaid will pay for your medical care directly, with money going from the Feds to your doctor (via the state). It's single payer for the poor, the working poor, and their family.

[usregimechange]

6. Here is more details of what you described:

Require all individuals to have health insurance. Create a Health Insurance Exchange through which individuals and smaller employers can purchase health coverage, with premium and cost-sharing credits available to individuals/ families with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level (or $73,240 for a family of three in 2009). Require employers to provide coverage to employees or pay into a Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund, with exceptions for certain small employers, and provide certain small employers a credit to offset the costs of providing coverage. Impose new regulations on plans participating in the Exchange and in the small group insurance market. Expand Medicaid to 133 percent of the poverty level.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20090816/NEWS01/908160371

[usregimechange]

4. I no longer support this bill until I can locate this. Why is this not quantified?

[usregimechange]

5. "Exceptions granted for dependents, religious objections, and financial hardship."

That apparently is all that anyone knows. Veto the damn thing if they pass it.

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. "Dependents" in most cases are covered by your state's version

of S-CHIP, which has different income ceilings, much higher than that for Medicaid in most states. So your income can exceed 133% of poverty, putting you in the insurance pool, without affecting whether your children receive health care paid for by the Feds (via your state). In Maine, eg. your income could be as high as ~$42,000 but your kids would still be eligible for CubCare (our local version of S-CHIP) if they're not covered as dependents by your own insurance.

"Religious exceptions" cover people like monks, who literally earn no money, and own no property, and would qualify under income alone, but who aren't 'poor' in the traditional sense.

[Maru Kitteh]

9. I think I'm remembering that it's subsidized up to 400% of the FPL.

I could be wrong but that's what I'm thinking.

[Davis_X_Machina]

10. Above the cut-off for participation in Medicaid...

...where the insured pays nothing, or nearly so, the subsidies for premiums on an insurance policy would start.

The subsidy is on a sliding scale, and phases out. Someone making roughly $13,000 would have his or her premiums almost entirely paid by the Feds. Someone making roughly $42,000 would be paying almost all of the premiums themselves. I don't think the exact sliding scale is in the legislation, just the endpoints, but is left to be determined by the Commissioner.