Congress threatening to shutdown unless ACA is defunded/repealed immediately.

[archibaldcrane]

Maybe I should hire my wife as a "secretary" or some shit.

but payroll taxes would murder the benefits

uggghhhh

[archibaldcrane]

Maybe I should hire my wife as a "secretary" or some shit.

but payroll taxes would murder the benefits

uggghhhh

COULDN'T EVEN DO THAT

The law also excludes owners and owners’ families from counting toward the credit, which can cut both ways. On the one hand, owners don’t count as employees and their salaries are excluded from the annual wages, exclusions that could make some companies eligible for a bigger credit than they might otherwise have gotten. On the other hand, premiums paid for the owners’ and their families’ insurance aren’t eligible for the credit, which for some companies, as You’re The Boss commenter JAB recently noted, “greatly reduces the incentive to provide coverage for employees.”

[Callisto]

How do HSAs work? My job offers either an HSA or a PPO. I currently have the PPO for about $1250 a year but the HSA is cheaper.

An HSA is basically a savings account where you get to siphon money from your pre-tax income and put it aside into it. You can only spend the money in the account on healthcare-related things(though recently they retooled them so you can't generally use them on OTC meds, only prescriptions). You never lose the money, if you end up canceling the coverage and want to just withdraw the money you put in as cash you can do so, though at that point you'd have to pay regular taxes on it. Generally the spending rules are much more lax than what your insurance would actually cover, for example even if you have no vision coverage, you can spend your HSA funds on new glasses. Basically you're saving 12%+ on your routine out-of-pocket health costs because you aren't paying taxes on any of the money you're spending for it, and in many plans when you deposit a certain amount from your paycheck into your HSA, your employer will also deposit that same amount into it so you're doubling the deposit without additional cost.

If there's one thing that wooshes over my head its when people talk about their plans/copays and shit. Maybe it's because I've never been sick in my life and haven't been to the doctor since high school. Currently 28/male and I pay like $55/month for this shit. Maybe it's just garbage I don't even know, ya'll bros with families quoting $200+/month makes me cringe.

Basically, cheaper plans are cheaper because they have a high deductible(the amount you have to spend out-of-pocket before the insurer steps in and starts paying out). If something catastrophic happens, these plans are still good because they tend to have high maximums, so you'll still be on the hook for $3-5k on top of what you pay in premiums, but anyone who's been in the hospital can tell you that's nothing compared to the bills for a serious injury(I spent a single night in the hospital with an eye injury after a car accident, and the bill was $8k+, I don't even want to know what something like giving birth where you're laid up for a few days costs).

However when it comes to just like, having a toothache and needing a basic procedure + painkillers, you're still shelling out $500+ in cash with none of it being covered by insurance since you aren't over your deductible, which means even if you're dumping 8-9% of your income on a premium like I am the cost of going to the doctor for non-catastrophic/non-life-threatening help is still extremely prohibitive. I have had things like nagging back injuries, respiratory issues, broken teeth, etc. that I've just had to suck up and walk off because even with my insurance it'd eat a whole two-week paycheck to go get it looked at. The bullshit part is that when you're a low/mid-income person who finally gets insurance, your first thought is 'Oh cool, I can finally get this shit checked out and get healthy', when in reality it's just that you won't be in debt for the next 50 years if something that might kill you happens but you're still fucked on everything else.

[archibaldcrane]

An HSA is basically a retirement account where you get to siphon money from your pre-tax income and put it aside into it. You can only spend the money in the account on healthcare-related things(though recently they retooled them so you can't generally use them on OTC meds, only prescriptions).

ftfy

You don't want to withdraw for non-medical expenses before you are 65, because

Funds can be withdrawn for any reason, but withdrawals that are not for documented qualified medical expenses are subject to income taxes and a 20% penalty.

Once you are 65 you can use the money for whatever you like.

But it's basically a superior IRA, because you can use the money at any time for medical expenses, pre-tax.

[Callisto]

Eh, the caps are pretty low for what you can even put in for a year though, but I'm sure that's not the worst option for supplemental savings lol

Plus, like I said, I can't even afford routine care shit out-of-pocket so I probably won't last til that age either way

[archibaldcrane]

Do you not contribute at all to your employer-matched HSA? Any money in there is fine to use for what would otherwise be "out of pocket" "routine care" shit, so I'm a little confused.

[Callisto]

Do you not contribute at all to your employer-matched HSA? Any money in there is fine to use for what would otherwise be "out of pocket" "routine care" shit, so I'm a little confused.

I do, but it's a limited amount. My specific plan isn't actually a 'match' deal, it's that if you put anything at all you get $500/year from the employer in 10 installments, at the moment I can only afford about $50 a month of my own(partially because I'm spending the aforementioned $230~ on premiums for the plan itself). I've only been on the plan since May, once this month's installment hits it should give me enough to cover a fresh eye exam/glasses/contacts but it's not going to be enough to cover like, trips to an allergist for testing and such.

All that aside, and this is probably a cynical take on things, but really 'low-cost' health plans aren't really made in mind with covering the actual person paying premiums at all anyways, it's just a mechanic to not spend money on the relatively healthy 25-35 year old range so they can pay in and subsidize the costs of baby boomers(see: pretty much every safety net-type expense that age range pays).

edit: One really nice thing about my HSA that I forgot to credit it for is that if I do not have enough in the account, but do have enough enough cash on hand to cover expenses I would otherwise use the HSA for, I can link my bank account to the HSA, register the expense I paid out-of-pocket, and as further contributions are made to my account I can transfer those from my HSA to my checking account and still reap the tax benefit.

[Celeras]

Basically, cheaper plans are cheaper because they have a high deductible(the amount you have to spend out-of-pocket before the insurer steps in and starts paying out). If something catastrophic happens, these plans are still good because they tend to have high maximums, so you'll still be on the hook for $3-5k on top of what you pay in premiums, but anyone who's been in the hospital can tell you that's nothing compared to the bills for a serious injury(I spent a single night in the hospital with an eye injury after a car accident, and the bill was $8k+, I don't even want to know what something like giving birth where you're laid up for a few days costs).

However when it comes to just like, having a toothache and needing a basic procedure + painkillers, you're still shelling out $500+ in cash with none of it being covered by insurance since you aren't over your deductible, which means even if you're dumping 8-9% of your income on a premium like I am the cost of going to the doctor for non-catastrophic/non-life-threatening help is still extremely prohibitive. I have had things like nagging back injuries, respiratory issues, broken teeth, etc. that I've just had to suck up and walk off because even with my insurance it'd eat a whole two-week paycheck to go get it looked at. The bullshit part is that when you're a low/mid-income person who finally gets insurance, your first thought is 'Oh cool, I can finally get this shit checked out and get healthy', when in reality it's just that you won't be in debt for the next 50 years if something that might kill you happens but you're still fucked on everything else.

Makes sense I guess. While shopping I looked at plans with the calender year deductibles as the 'bad' ones, and got what I did explicitly because it didnt have one.. only has co-pays between $25-$150. Just looking at the two BCBS plans (one with the deductible, and mine which doesnt have one), they both say the same thing under "catastrophic services": 100% payment level begins after you pay $5000 out-of-pocket in coinsurance and copayment expenses. So I still don't see the point in the deductible.

And yeah my bad, this thread isn't really the place for this lol. I guess I should be saying something like "FUCK I MIGHT BE UNEMPLOYED TOMORROW".

[archibaldcrane]

Ugh...

i'm in the same boat


as Michelle Malkin


shit.


http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...ichelle-malkin

[Callisto]

Ugh...

i'm in the same boat


as Michelle Malkin


shit.


http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...ichelle-malkin

In that case you should probably make sure your next health care plan also covers psychiatric consultations.

[Melena]

I know I'd love to get paid six figures to work 126 days a year and have single payer health coverage.

Shh don't say that, you'll take away every piece of ammunition for anti union people who think teachers get paid too much for 9 months of work a year

[Celeras]

Ugh...

i'm in the same boat


as Michelle Malkin


shit.


http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...ichelle-malkin

Did that not happen because the plan you had didn't meet the minimum standards of coverage now required by the law?

[Callisto]

Did that not happen because the plan you had didn't meet the minimum standards of coverage now required by the law?

I doubt it. A more likely case is that the profitability of catastrophic-coverage type plans tanks hard when you are no longer allowed to exclude preexisting conditions(another part of the ACA), so providers are going to stop offering them. My $5k deductible plan with no maximum is a shitty deal for someone like me, but for someone with lukemia or some shit it's a giant bargain.

[archibaldcrane]

Did that not happen because the plan you had didn't meet the minimum standards of coverage now required by the law?

I just signed up for it 4 months ago, it covered pregnancy, psych, hell even chiropratic. Callisto's likely correct.

[kuronosan]

It feels a little less like Obama is lying about keeping your current coverage and a little more like Insurance companies simply don't want to offer it at the same rates because they stand to make more money off of people (since they have to raise the minimum amount they use for your direct care).

This is a decision on the part of insurance companies and nothing more. In fact, I feel as though this is more like Papa John's saying they have to cut hours to meet the guidelines than something the insurance companies are being "forced" to do. No one's forcing them to do this. They're doing this either out of spite or a need to maintain their ridiculous profits.

I can only hope this pushes everything to a single-payer system.

[Meresgi]

So government shutdown means the congress/senate/president all don't get paychecks right?....right..........right?

[Melena]

So government shutdown means the congress/senate/president all don't get paychecks right?....right..........right?

http://images.wikia.com/thehungergam...a/Laughing.gif

[ronin sparthos]

So government shutdown means the congress/senate/president all don't get paychecks right?....right..........right?

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...psa84ebb0d.gif

[archibaldcrane]

It feels a little less like Obama is lying about keeping your current coverage and a little more like Insurance companies simply don't want to offer it at the same rates because they stand to make more money off of people

Still, you shouldn't go crowing about "you can keep your current coverage" if you haven't made it illegal for a provider to drop your coverage.

[kuronosan]

See, that's where I'm lost. I didn't think that companies would employ this "loophole" to drop people. It's despicable.