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"I love numbers. They're so precise"

If you were wondering what penalties, taxes, cuts were happening now that HCR was pushed through congress - please see below. I have compiled a few of them here.

 

Individual Mandate: The penalty for people who don’t buy health insurance.

2014: $95 or 1% of Income, Whichever is greater

2015: $325 or 2% of Income, Whichever is greater

2016: $695 or 2.5% of Income, Whichever is greater

 

Employer Mandate: The penalty for employers with more than 50 employees that do not offer health coverage.

$2,000 per full-time employee calculated on all employees if any employee accesses subsidized coverage in the insurance exchanges.

If the employer DOES offer coverage and if the coverage is deemed unaffordable than the penalty is $3,000 for every employee who receives subsidized coverage. (Not sure who makes the decision if it is affordable – it might be the employee.)

 

Financing the Health Care Reform

Cost

$434 Billion for expansion of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Plans enrollment

$466 Billion for subsidies to fund insurance for individuals and families up to 400% of the federal poverty level.

$40 billion for small employer tax credits

Sources of Funding

$328 Billion (could be higher) in reduced Medicare scheduled payments and Medicare Advantage cuts.

$210.2 Billion Medicare payroll tax increases

$70 Billion from premiums for long-term care program

$69 Billion PENALTIES paid by individuals and employers who do not buy insurance

$60 Billion market share taxes on insurance companies

$36 Billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid Disproportionate Share payments

$32 Billion from taxes on “Cadillac” Health plans

$27 Billion taxes on brand name pharmaceutical companies

$20 Billion taxes on medical devices starting in 2013

 

If you would like to see the bill yourself - you can find it here.

Numbers speak louder than the lies from the left

I keep hearing the same argument from the left “You can keep your insurance if you want” and “we are reducing the budget by” blah blah blah.

Pick a new talking point…

3,500 companies are thinking that paying the fines and pushing retiree and current employees to Medicare might be the most economic choice for them. I might be wrong but I don’t think these employees have a choice to “keep their insurance”.

The other issue with the companies pushing employees to Medicare is the cost.

"If enough companies drop the benefit, it may jeopardize the $4.5 billion in revenue that the tax was projected to generate and shove 1.5 million to 2 million retirees off of employer-sponsored plans to Medicare, raising government costs, said the American Benefit Council’s Klein".  

This cost was not accounted for in the numbers given by the CBO. How could it be - the CBO can only give numbers for what they have in front of them.  Pelosis knew this when she "[The score] speaks very eloquently to the deficit reduction that is in our package". LIES!

NO, I don't appreciate knowing that you ignored America

 

I received this in my inbox from my Senator, Carl Levin.

I won't bore you with the entire email.

Dear Ms. Hawley:

I thought you might appreciate knowing that Thursday afternoon the Senate passed important health care reform legislation. This bill, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (H.R.4872), is the second and final step by Congress and the president to enact necessary health care reform measures. This legislation now must be approved by the House of Representatives, which will likely occur Thursday evening, and signed into law by President Obama. The first step in this process, the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L.111-148), took place earlier this week. Together, this landmark package will vastly improve access to and the affordability of health care for millions of Americans.

...

The health insurance industry has dominated health care decisions in this country for too long. I voted in favor of this historic legislation to finish the task of bringing landmark change to health care in America.

Sincerely, Carl Levin

I seriously think Mr. Levin is taunting me or he just sends the same form letter to all of his constituants.

 

He could at least have one for YESs and one for NOs

Also, If the democrats are so angry with the health insurance industry why would they include them in all the talks..... If I recall they helped write the bill.

 

The dust has settled.

Finally…. I am back!

Where I have been you ask? Okay you didn’t ask but I am going to tell you anyway.

The obvious reason – I changed my website. My comments did not switch from the old site to this one. HUGE BUMMER. However, everything else seems to be working fine. I designed the website myself and soon will be doing other sites. I am working on two sites right now for friends after those are done it will open my calendar for other projects.

Also, I am now the Director of Operations at Smart Girl Politics and I needed to change a few things around in my schedule so that I can have time for blogging. Stay tuned for more cool things from SGP.

Enough with the excuses.

I am glad to be back.

Kristen Hawley,

Kristen hawley

recently graduated from the University of Michigan, earning her BS with a concentration in Ecology and a double minor in Field Biology & Geography. Despite her scientific background, politics is her true passion. Kristen has always been on the conservative end of the political spectrum – a rarity among college-aged Michiganders – but has never felt the pull of liberalism. To the great relief of her boyfriend and others subjected to her ranting, she developed Angry Female Elephant in October of 2008 as a forum for her political frustration.

On November 5th, 2009, a day when conservatives around the country were still in mourning, she found a new motivation to change the direction of her country and threw herself into online activism. Several months later she discovered Smart Girl Politics, and knew she’d found an organization that would connect her with other conservative women who were as ready for action as she was. She dove in feet first and volunteered wherever she could. Kristen is currently acting as the Director of Operations.