Today TaxMama wants to summarize the high points of President Obama’s Health Care speech last night.
Dear Family,
You can read the text of the President’s speech using the link in the Resource Box below. Print it out and analyze it to your heart’s content .
Obama has three basic goals:
· To provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance.
· To provide insurance for those who don’t.
· To slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.
Details:
· If you have insurance coverage through your job, that will not change:
… o Insurance companies will not be able to deny you coverage because of pre-existing conditions, or presently being ill.
… o Insurance companies will not be permitted to water down your coverage in the middle of treatment for critical illnesses – which has caused the death of some people in the past.
… o Businesses will be required to either offer their workers health care, or chip in to help cover the cost of their workers.
……§ 95 percent of all small businesses, because of their size and narrow profit margin, would be exempt from these requirements. That’s nice, but it won’t help their employees much, wil it?
· Folks who don’t presently have health insurance will have affordable choices:
… o There will a health insurance exchange offering competitive prices.
… o There will be tax credits to help those who cannot afford even those lower rates. (How will we be paying for this?)
… o However, just as with auto insurance, buying coverage will be mandatory for all Americans.
… o Those who still cannot afford any coverage whatsoever and cannot get it work will get a hardship waiver.
·The overall plan will take 4 years to implement.
… o In the meantime, there will be low cost coverage for those with pre-existing conditions to cover the costs of catastrophic illnesses without bankrupting individuals.
The President did not specifically mention portability as part of the plan – being able to take your coverage with you when you leave a job. He implied it. But when you don’t specify something, it may not end up in the plan.
He insists that this will be revenue neutral, that the plan will pay for itself through cost savings, the reduction of waste and the focus on wellness care, rather than wasteful procedures recommended simply to avoid malpractice issues.
Read the President’s remarks, using the link in the Resource Box below, and tell us what do you think? Can it be done?
And remember, you can find answers to all kinds of questions about health care and other tax issues, free. Where? Where else? At TaxMama.com.
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- President Obama's Speech on Health Care Reform ::
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