It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood

Via-Jer





It is impossible to know all the problems with Obamacare simply because there is no real bill to read yet. Since the House and the Senate Democrats have passed two different bills which they are negotiating behind closed doors and attempting to reconcile we have nothing to look at. But based on what is rumored we have some idea of what is coming.

Let's start with this one.

Let's say I am a hard working self employed individual. I have made it as my goal to insure my family with the best health care that I can afford and am willing to pay twenty five thousand a year for a very good health care plan for my family of five.

My neighbor on the right is a single mother who works for a small non union company and over the years has sacrificed larger pay raises so that her employer would provide health care insurance for her and her daughter who has long term medical problems. The insurance they provide is worth twenty five thousand dollars a year.

My neighbors across the street are a young just married couple in their early twenties, just starting out tying to save up to buy a house, they have no health insurance at all.

My neighbor to the left is a twenty year employee of a company who belongs to a union. He like my neighbor to the right (single mother) allowed his union to negotiate lower wages for better benefits and has a health insurance policy through his company worth twenty seven thousand dollars.

Finally my neighbor two doors down is a divorced guy in his thirties (the neighborhood party animal) who is in and out of work just barely getting by and has no insurance whatsoever.

As we understand it here is what will happen with the emerging Obamacare bill.

I will be taxed 40% ($10,000) for providing the best health care insurance to my family that I can afford.

Single mom will be taxed 40% ($10,000) for the insurance she gets from her employer.

The young couple will have to get insurance or pay a fine to the IRS of $2250

The Union guy is fine.

The party animal will have to get insurance or pay a fine to the IRS of $750.

What could happen

I can not afford the added taxes so I either will have to cut my medical care benefits back to be under the $24,000 threshold to avoid the taxes or I could let go a part time employee at my company that I employ more as a convenience than a necessity.

Single Mom can not afford additional tax so she cuts back on her coverage and takes a small increase in pay to compensate. She hopes nothing happens to her or her daughter but her increasing anxiety drives her to hang out with party animal down the street and drink more.

Young couple wonders why they have to pay $750 more because they are married than they would have if they were single living together. They decide it makes no sense to pay so much and not have insurance. They buy a plan which meets the minimum legal requirements which costs them $4900 a year delaying their hopes to purchase a home until their incomes increases to meet the added burden they are now mandated by law to carry.

The union guy is fine.

Party animal pays the $750 fine to the IRS, he doesn't claim thousands on his taxes to make it up-"screw them". He then finds out that he has cirrhosis of the liver and needs serious medical attention. Since the law now requires that people can not be denied insurance because of pre existing conditions and can not be charged extra for it, he gets insurance and the soon to be bankrupt insurance company must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat him.

I get a notice from my insurance company telling me that they are going out of business, contact the US Government about the new FEDERAL OBAMAVISION HOPENCHANGE MEDICAL AUTHORITY which will now cover those families who have lost coverage due to the corrupt practices of former insurance companies.

It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood. Won't you be in my Union?

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