Health Care Bill : What's in it?

I told you last week I would let you know what this new health care bill would do for you and your family and here it is. If you have questions please don't hesitate to let me know by clicking here.

Before I get started, I want to give you this link that will direct you to the bill itself. I will try to summarize as much of it as possible; the problem we will have is that no one really knows everything in this bill and it could be years before it is all out to see where we stand. Our leaders even openly admit they did not know what was in this before they even voted on it. (Click here to see a video of Nancy Pelosi admitting she did know what was in it.) That being said, here is what we know so far:

The total cost over ten years is 940 billion dollars, according to CBO estimates it would reduce the deficit by $143 billion over the first ten years. My opinion on this is that this is a little over-exaggerated due to the fact that we will be paying taxes into this in the next 4-5 years and not seeing any real benefit for that time frame. So, yes, it will be reducing the deficit because they have the money (our higher taxes) coming in but nothing going out.

Here is the time frame for the bill:

2010

Coverage

• Subsidies begin for small businesses to provide coverage to employees.
• Insurance companies barred from denying coverage to children with pre-existing illness.
• Children permitted to stay on their parents' insurance policies until their 26th birthday.
  

2011

Coverage

• Set up long-term care program under which people pay premiums into system for at least five years and become eligible for support payments if they need assistance in daily living.

Taxes and fees

• Drug makers face annual fee of $2.5 billion (rises in subsequent years).
  

2012

Taxes and fees

• New Medicare taxes on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and couples filing jointly earning more than $250,000 a year.
• Tax on wages rises to 2.35% from 1.45%.
• New 3.8% tax on unearned income such as dividends and interest.
• Excise tax of 2.3% imposed on sale of medical devices.

Cost control

• Medicare pilot program begins to test bundled payments for care, in a bid to pay for quality rather than quantity of services.

2014

Coverage

• Create exchanges where people without employer coverage, as well as small businesses, can shop for health coverage. Insurance companies barred from denying coverage to anyone with pre-existing illness.
• Requirement begins for most people to have health insurance. Subsidies begin for lower and middle-income people. People at 133% of federal poverty level pay maximum of 3% of income for coverage. People at 400% of poverty level pay up to 9.5% of income. (Poverty level currently is about $22,000 for a family of four.)
• Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor, expands to all Americans with income up to 133% of federal poverty level.
• Subsidies for small businesses to provide coverage increase. Businesses with 10 or fewer employees and average annual wages of less than $25,000 receive tax credit of up to 50% of employer's contribution. Tax credits phase out for larger businesses.

Taxes and fees

• Employers with more than 50 employees that don't provide affordable coverage must pay a fine if employees receive tax credits to buy insurance. Fine is up to $3,000 per employee, excluding first 30 employees.
• Insurance industry must pay annual fee of $8 billion (rises in subsequent years).

Cost control

• Independent Medicare board must begin to submit recommendations to curb Medicare spending, if costs are rising faster than inflation.

2016

Taxes and fees

• Penalty for those who don't carry coverage rises to 2.5% of taxable income or $695, whichever is greater.

(It is speculative that since this is a federal law you could face up to 2 years in federal prison and have a felony conviction for not having health insurance. Let me be very clear here, it is only speculative at this point. This is possible due to the fact that this is a federal law and if you do something that is against federal law it is a felony.)

2017

Coverage

• Businesses with more than 100 employees can buy coverage on insurance exchanges, if state permits it.
  

2018

Taxes and fees

• Excise tax of 40% imposed on health plans valued at more than $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage.

—Sources: House bill; Kaiser Family Foundation

Now next week, as I research this more, I will try to explain more about what's in it, possibly some of the hype that's true and not true. Keep following my blog to keep informed.

Again, if you want to see if I can save you some money on your current health plan please click here.

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