Anyone Have Any Experience Yet with the New ACA Tax?
 

This could prove to be a more regressive tax than I first thought. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obamac...104300531.html

Still way ahead paying the penalty. For me anyway. Crap coverage on the exchanges for huge $$. Why should i finance birth control and drug rehab for people who aren't going to use it anyway?

The penalty will only work for this time though. After the first or second year they put a multiplier in, so it exponentially goes up, to keep people from not using their system. Gonna get your money any way they can, better hope the supreme court makes a good decision this time.

This drives me crazy. You guys are looking at it wrong (as much of the public conversation does). It's INSURANCE people, not a budget! You should be insuring mainly for a large catastrophic event, not for how much you save/pay for doctor visits or prescriptions. If you get hit by a bus, you'll wish like hell you bought some kind of insurance rather than paying a penalty. This is true healthy or not. After getting hit by the bus, you'll be declaring bankruptcy to avoid the months of hospital bills. Then, the rest of us getting medical services will be paying for your months of medical treatment via outrageous medical prices.

So, ask yourself if you want to jeopardize your assets with the risk of a large medical event before figuring out your monthly savings of going naked.

Auto insurance is not meant to pay for oil changes.

Andy we all understand the need for insurance but some of us actually have to account for their monthly expenses. The fact remains that one must buy what works best for your needs, risks and yes budget. I have 3 kids who like to go fast and take chances. They play every sport in every season, as such, I have seen what ER bills look like and have payed them out of pocket when I could not afford insurance. I prefer to not have 5,000$ out of pocket before receiving any benefits and I tailor my coverage in that direction. I also prefer not to buy birth control and drug rehab coverage for people who will never use it, so I do not buy that option. The result is a penalty that I will delay payment of for as long as possible in the hopes that the crazy will end before I have to pay up.
I am self employed and make just enough money to get slaughtered on the exchanges. The last of the middle class. Take a picture quick before I'm gone.

I understand as I've been self-employed for 15 years. I've used Anthem Blue Cross insurance that did 2 things for me: 1) Get me on the PPO list so that the prices I paid for doctor visits were not the crazy high off the street cash price for services. 2) Cover me for catastrophic medial events. The insurance was not that expensive. Other than the savings from PPO prices, I never saw a dime of money come from my medical insurance company. My premiums were relatively cheap, but my coverage also did not kick in until about $2,500 which I never saw. Between the premiums and that $2,500 deductible, I would pay out about $6,000 annually before seeing any possible benefit. Every time I saw the doctor or got prescriptions, I wrote a check. This made me think about cost/benefit when calling the doctor. I But, I had $1,000,000 or more insurance if something really bad happened (cancer, emergency trauma, other diseases, THE BUS).

That said, I will recognize that Obamacare added mandatory coverage requirements for many things that people don't need or want that boosted premiums. I've been lucky in that I got married a couple years ago and now am insured via her employer's policy.

If you have any assets at all, you guys are CRAZY to go without insurance. At the very least, buy the lowest cost / high deductible insurance you can find with a reputable company - because unanticipated medical issues happen to all of us.

"buy the lowest cost / high deductible insurance you can find with a reputable company - because unanticipated medical issues happen to all of us" That option was removed. My brother-in-law had catastrophic insurance for $254 dollars a month for his daughter and him. That was not good enough under the ACA so that coverage went away. I always thought capitalism (free market) was about choice and now "öil changes" and high-risk drivers, such as three time DWI offenders are now covered by us all. My wife's insurance has turned to garbage but she cannot change because her company offers insurance. That part you are talking about, Andy, I understand all too well. It's the tax portion that could take a huge portion of most family's budget. A lot of families depend on that tax rebate every year.

The problem with HC and HI insurance is that it hasn't been a free market for decades. When you have the govt paying part of your premiums (either though subsidies or tax deductions) then the free market is gone and you can expect uncontrolled inflation. If HI had never been tied to employment then you could expect for HI to be much cheaper and HC to be much more competitive. Free market HI would not cover mundane HC. That wouldn't be insurance. I don't really want to pay for fat unhealthy people going to the doctor all the time for maintenance of their self inflicted problems. They should pay out of their own pocket.

If you want the govt to subsidize your HI, then we need to go to universal healthcare. If the govt is going to pay for part of your HI then it should control HC costs.