Anyone ElseTerrified about Repeal of ACA Bill
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Well it must be nice to be rich, a member of Congress etc and not have to worry about health care
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They dont' care if healthcare costs go up, or healthy people pay incredible sums per month just to have insurance. Healthcare costs more than a car payment per month, and yet they'll wonder why less people are buying new cars. It's idiotic. Housing costs have also skyrocketed. Both healthcare and shelter are necessities, that people are "willing" to pay more than they can afford because the alternative is homelessness or death. So individuals just accure wild amounts of debt. All the while corporations get tax breaks and pay $0 in taxes, AND charging us out the ass. What a brilliant scam. Without the existence of credit cards and debt, we would just see how many poor, paupers we have in this country (I am one of them)..
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KID1919 - on rich people. It really bothers me that Trump thinks a family making $10,000 more a year is a big deal.
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Well I am back on Medicaid which I am not happy about. Because I am over 55 upon my death my estate must pay back all my expenses. I had thought it was just the amount the state pays for my coverage but it is for all expenses. In the past it was not thought to be an issue as the income level on Medicaid was so low that it was doubtful that the state could ever recover anything as the very poor would not have any assets to tap into but for the States that expanded coverage, many people have assets such as a home, retirement accounts, vehicles, life insurance etc.
Having said all that I made an attempt to track down my billing account a couple years ago. I had no idea of how much I owed as when on Medicaid you never see a bill. Both the State and my insurance company said I was not entitled to this information. When I asked how they know if someone is using my account or an unscupulous doctor is billing for services not received. I was told "We don't". Can you believe it?
Hi Marijen.
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Hey Notbrokenjustbent! Welcome back! I did not know that Medicaid collects after you’re gone. OMG. If they don’t send EOBS, well, there’s where the waste is. Sounds like a cover up.
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Well now he's walking it back.
Politics 01/24/2020 09:49PM EST
Donald Trump Vows To Save Social Security — From Himself
A day after he said he's considering cutting Social Security benefits, Trump now insists it's the Democrats who want to "destroy" the program.
https://apple.news/AbsCKTaolQB2-zmFB7e9r0g
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Of course this will fly. He's not going to touch anything until 2nd term.
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Trump also raised the individual deduction to $19k or so, I think from $16k or so....... so I'd say he thinks people making over $19k is a big deal.
It's pathetic.. it's 2020. Anyone who works full-time should not be below the poverty level. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate fully addressing these issues without any idiotic compromise to health insurance companies.
I have been a low income person since 2010, but now feel like I must stay below the poverty level in order to get free healthcare until things improve in this country... sad times. My prime earning years are now, and the recession hit when I was 27. I hate to blame external factors for the state of my life but I don't see the point of slaving away and having my gains be eaten up by healthcare costs. I can't fathom paying $450 a month just to have health insurance, then still need to pay $8k a year if something goes wrong.
I did agree with Trump about eliminating the "shared responsibility fee" but now my state (California) just enacted that... lots of poor people here (below the poverty level receiving free care) but lots of people hovering at $30k, no subsidies and no affordable options too. However I think we have a better marketplace than a lot of states. "MARKETPLACE" why the fuck do we even have something called a marketplace for health insurance.0 -
Bernie doesn't have the stamina to do the job for four years. Who do you think his VP will be? You really want a member of the squad as the next President?
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NotBroken: That is shocking! that they told you you cannot have access to billing records. (I'm not confident that that is legal.)
Gratuitous comment: the federal poverty guidelines are insulting. It's just over $12K per year for a single person. Who can live on $12K!?!? especially while battling disease!
The sad thing is, no matter what Trump says, he's been so erratic that we don't know if we can believe it.
Interestingly, members of Congress and their staffs currently get their health insurance from the Marketplace. So if they terminate the ACA, none of them would have health insurance.... unless they put some alternative plan in place - or re-enact the provision allowing themselves back on the federal employee plan. So I guess that is a deterrent to repeal-but-not-replace. (Interestingly, The DC plans they can purchase are MUCH more affordable than those for people just across the river in Virginia. Not sure why.)
BLah333: I agree...a marketplace for insurance does seem a bit absurd. The most sensible comment I have heard on our healthcare quagmire was from someone who is not a US citizen ...wish I could recall where she lived... People not from here are very confused by our "system." She just looked really confused and asked "Why would you not want people in your community to have access to healthcare?" I concur! WE gotta do better!
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/members-congress-health-care/
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Lumpie, isn't that a disgrace? No wonder there is so much fraud. I must have made over 20 phone calls plus written correspondence. Finally I called Obamacare and some big shit found out where to direct me. All I am entitled to in a total amount owed, no itemization, (or perhaps no one knows where I can get that info). I owe, or my estate owes 49,000 as of a year ago. 😱Obamacare would have been way cheaper than this scam.
Marijen, I agree Bernie is too old. I thought he was finished after his heart attack.
Well I completely support healthcare for all American citizens. Where the Dems lose me is when it will be offered to illegals. I see that as a giant magnet and something this country cannot afford.
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Blah, my son just texted. He did his income tax. He was expecting and counting on a refund but turns out Jersey has a mandatory requirement to carry health insurance. I asked why he didn't income qualify for an exclusion. He said you have to make less than $20,000. He works at a liquor store for $10/hr and works as much overtime just to make ends meet. He was just over the limit, had to pay $700 to the State and after TurboTax fees he has $5 coming back. I guess NJ thinks if you make just over $20,000 you can afford the extra tax? It doesn't pay to work overtime. Sadly that refund was earmarked to start paying down his college loan.
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NotBroken: Your son should qualify for a Marketplace plan and get a subsidy if he makes up to 400% of the federal poverty level. That is over $48,000 for a single person. There's a calculator to estimate cost here:
Just for "fun", I plugged in a random zip code and some rough numbers. It told me a silver plan would be $135 per month or a bronze plan $99 per month. If he is paying a $700 penalty, getting some coverage would seem worthwhile. If he is young, he may qualify for catastrophic coverage which would be even cheaper - maybe close to that $700 number.
Unfortunately, we are no longer in the open season time frame now.
Also, for future reference, people with income under... some amount...I think it is $60K... are supposed to be able to use tax prep software that is free. Of course, the various interested parties try to hide this act so that TurboTax gets your $.
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NotBroken, Also, on the billing.... I haven't researched this but think that any parties that have billed you.... those records are likely part of your health care record and you are legally entitled to them under....I guess it is HIPAA. Of course, if the state agency that holds that grand total will not divulge details, how could you ever verify that the amount billed and the amount they say is due match?
Sources of help: If I were you, start with your Congressional and state legislators. They may be able to help you get access to those records. If not, maybe talk to Legal Service in your community and see if they could help you saber rattle until someone responds. These are all hassles you do not need and should not have to deal with!
Enforcement: (meaning collection from our estates) 1) I have often wondered if they could enforce this claim against our life insurance. I am not sure. For many of our families, that is all we may have left. 2) Seems like for them to collect, they would need to provide an itemized accounting of the source of the bills. Of course, the scary thing is, as the state, they often don't have to go thru normal procedures to take what they want. They just take it. Truly gestapo like. Again...write your legislators.
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Good point Lumpie - to keep a copy of your life insurance payments for the kids. At least the most recent ones.
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If you have beneficiaries designated that is how your life insurance is paid out. It passes outside your estate, as do other accounts with designated beneficiaries
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That is not my understanding. Only burial is excluded.
When/if I ever have some cash I should meet w a lawyer.
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And no, you are incorrect. I don't have much but I have a small IRA, bank account and car. Those are all assets that the State will claim.
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Melissa, read up on the Estate Reclamation Act. All assets will be seized upon death.
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I even looked into trusts but that cannot protect.
Melissa, best not post without good info. I have been thru hell w the courts because my ex refuses to pay alimony. He is living the good life while taxpayers support me but it all goes on one big ass State IOU arrears statement which we all know I will never collect.
I should be in Obamacare but instead Medicaid. I keep telling my momma to redraft her Will so at least my kids have something instead of the State taking because of Dead Beat Ex.
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Can Medicaid Take My Life Insurance Policy?
Medicaid cannot take your life insurance policy while you are still living. However, based on the face value of your policy, it may be counted towards Medicaid's asset limit, rendering you ineligible for Medicaid. However, if you are a Medicaid recipient, and the beneficiary of your life insurance policy is your estate, Medicaid may take the proceeds of the death benefit to recover costs it paid for your long-term care. This is called Medicaid estate recovery. That said, it is advised one does not put their estate as the beneficiary of their life insurance policy. Rather, the name of the particular beneficiary in which one wants the proceeds to go should be on the policy, protecting the death benefit from Medicaid in the majority of states.0 -
How to Prepare for Medicaid Estate Recovery
So, what can families do to minimize the impact of the Medicaid estate recovery process? Are there exceptions to this harsh rule? First of all, in states where recovery of benefits paid is only made by a claim against probate estates, all you need to be sure of is that the Medicaid recipient has no probate estate at death. This can be accomplished by ensuring that all the recipient's assets are jointly owned with right of survivorship (JTWROS) or in POD, TOD, or annuity form. This estate-planning strategy is similar to those used to avoid probate for other reasons.
The only difference is that a living trust cannot be used as a planning tool. Any asset titled in the name of a living trust will be considered a countable asset for Medicaid purposes, even if it would ordinarily be classified as a non-countable asset were it not in the trust.
For example, a senior (Mary) can title an automobile in joint names with a child (John), such as "Mary Smith and John Smith, JTWROS." Upon Mary's death, sole title to the car passes automatically to John outside of the probate process. Since one car of any value is considered exempt by Medicaid during Mary's lifetime, it's protected until she passes away and then escapes probate and estate recovery. (Be sure to check your state's motor vehicle titling rules to be sure this example will work in your state!)
The same approach can even be used for a senior's home. A Medicaid recipient's house is normally exempt during their lifetime as long as its equity value does not exceed the state's limit. (In 2020, the limit in most states is $595,000, but some have increased this limit to $893,000. California does not enforce a maximum home equity value limit.) The recipient's home only becomes an issue upon their death. To avoid the house being included in the person's probate estate, once again you can title the house as JTRWOS. CAUTION: Adding another person's name to the deed functions as a gift of an interest in the house effective upon the date of the deed change.
For example, when Mary has her attorney add her son John to the deed, she legally makes a gift of 50 percent of the house to him. Although gift tax is rarely an issue in these transactions, it should be taken into consideration. More importantly, though, this is a Medicaid-disqualifying transfer with a large penalty attached. If Mary wants to go this route, she may be unable to apply for Medicaid for up to five years after she alters the deed to her home.
Another important consideration is the possibility of John getting sued or divorced. Mary may still think of the entire house as "hers," but one of John's creditors or his divorcing spouse will view his 50 percent interest in the home as an asset that could be tapped. Mary may find herself out on the street if the house must be sold to satisfy a judgment or divorce settlement.
Some states permit adding another person to the deed by giving them less than 50 percent interest, which could reduce the amount of the gift, but that is something only an experienced attorney in your state can determine for you. Be aware that the laws for real estate law and other assets may differ from the rules for Medicaid eligibility purposes. Therefore, it is crucial that the attorney who is handling these planning strategies is current on the effects that each will have on Medicaid eligibility.
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Trump administration finalizing Medicaid block grant plan targeting Obamacare
01/23/2020
The plan is guaranteed to enrage critics and invite attacks from Democrats in an election year.
The Trump administration is finalizing a plan to let states convert a chunk of Medicaid funding to block grants, even as officials remain divided over how to sell the controversial change to the safety net health program.
The Trump administration is seeking to bypass congressional opposition by using existing Medicaid authority to test states' health care ideas under what's known as demonstration waivers.
Several Republican-led states are pursuing plans to convert their Medicaid programs into block-grant funding. Tennessee, which has not expanded Medicaid, in November became the first state to submit a block grant plan to the Trump administration. That plan remains under review...
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blah333:
I was just about to write a post about the cost of living. The cost of housing in my area has sky rocketed. My rent is relatively low for the area but my health insurance premium keeps going up. They just bumped it up by over $100 per month, which puts my premiums close to $1000 per month.
It's not sustainable and I fully expect to lose health insurance at some point and die of something treatable or curable due to lack of access to health care in this country.
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Trump administration announces Medicaid funding overhaul
The overhaul would likely be attractive to red states that want to limit spending, maintain greater flexibility, limit the size of the overall program and share in cost savings.
Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/AMfRC16lxQA6RgymMaJS3Sw
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WC3 and others: I have come to think of this as a "Sick Tax." Even though we pay into the system, we are crushed by the expense of being sick. Very sad and discouraging - and not the case in other industrialized nations.
I have heard that HeatlhcareVoter.org will be organizing a cross-country rally/bus tour this spring to increase awareness about the inadequacies of our health insurance system, including the high cost of drugs and the financial consequences of being sick under our system. I will post info when I receive it.
Guidance for Block Grant Waivers Threatens the Medicaid Health Insurance Safety Net
https://healthlaw.org/news/trump-administration-continues-its-efforts-to-explode-medicaid/
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Lumpie:
I think the thing that gets me the most about this is that, as you pointed out, it doesn't need to be this way.
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February 4, 2020
Is the US importing socialist drug pricing policies?
The Trump administration is doing an admirable job of keeping its promise to reduce costs and protect Americans by rolling back excessive regulations. In January, for example, it announced a major reform package to update the "Waters of the United States" rule. It's rolled back the cost of many other regulations as well.
However, all these regulatory savings could be easily offset by a huge jump in costs if the administration goes ahead with plans to empower federal bureaucrats to set prescription drug prices. Further, American lives could eventually be at risk.
Remember the emotional debate over rationing boards and "Death Panels" that were the logical outcome of a single-payer health care system? It is possible that if the U.S. imports price controls from foreign nations, they might also import rationing boards, because all the nations that use price controls in Europe have rationing systems for health care services.
"The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed a new policy — known as the International Pricing Index (IPI) — that would set certain drug prices based on an international benchmark," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warns. "As proposed, the rule would affect many life-saving drugs administered to patients in hospitals and doctor's offices under what's known as Medicare Part B." The Chamber adds that "this will reduce American seniors' access to life-saving drugs, inhibit innovation, and ultimately threaten our nation's free-market health care system."
That's because the federal government would be setting prices for prescription drugs, tying them to prices charged in European countries. Those countries also have rationing boards, so once you import price controls, another cost-cutting step is to set up panels to deny care: death panels.
Meanwhile, even as they put people at risk, price controls don't work. As the Cato Institute wrote years ago, price controls have been imposed historically on everything from important products (food) to frivolous ones (TVs). In every case, the controls led to a shortage of the item people wanted; nobody would produce it at that price.
That would be true here as well. Instead of the robust drug market Americans now take for granted, we could have a stunted market that doesn't help people. The pipeline of drugs would dry up if companies were prevented from profiting from their innovations. Lives that are now being saved would be lost.
The House of Representatives is pushing for these price controls, though. Price controls are a key pillar of a bill the House passed late last year. That measure seems to be dead on arrival in the more conservative Senate (and it deserves to be). But an election year is no time to take anything for granted. Americans, especially seniors, could see their access to important drugs reduced if lawmakers enact socialist prescription drug policies.
"Conservatives have long opposed price controls because they utilize government power to forcefully lower costs in a way that distorts the economically-efficient behavior and natural incentives created by the free market," explains a coalition of more than 55 conservative organizations. "When imposed on medicines, price controls suppress innovation and access to new medicines. This deters the development and supply of new life saving and life improving medicines to the determent of consumers, patients, and doctors."
President Trump knows this. As his administration's 2018 economic report put it: "government policies and public insurance programs have unintended consequences that prevent, rather than foster, healthy price competition and induce artificially high prices. To promote patient welfare, government policy should induce price competition. However, in the two main Federal insurance programs, Medicaid and Medicare, current policies dampen price competition, thereby artificially raising prices."
That's a call for less federal intervention, not more.
HHS shouldn't borrow the policy that's failing in Medicare and Medicaid and apply it to the entire prescription drug market. Doing so would only increase costs and bring the risk of death panels to American shores.
Mike Daugherty is CEO and Founder of LabMD, a cancer detection laboratory based in Atlanta, Georgia. He is author of The Devil Inside the Beltway: The Shocking Expose of the US Government's Surveillance and Overreach into Cyber-Security, Medicine and Small Business.
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Sounds like a conspiracy theory. The rich corporations get richer and we the sick die
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I agree, JoE777. The article was written by a CEO and founder. He is looking to get rich...or richer.
I admit, I'm pretty simple-minded, but I just don't get it. We are the only country in our peer group that does not provide universal coverage for our citizens, and we have the highest health care costs and poorer outcomes than our peers. Our system is driven by profit. Insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies too, pay their CEO's millions of dollars a year, and worry more about their shareholders than the clients they are supposed to be serving. They charge us exorbitant premiums, and deny care routinely. How is this a good system? What do we expect when there is a middle man, between patient and doctor, that is getting rich by taking our money and denying us care?
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