OBAMACARE …The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…
We are 16 + months from the start of this new chapter in the healthcare in this country.. only two other major changes have happen in my life time… in the mid 60’s with Medicare/Medicaid and in 2006 with Part D. Of course, depending on the outcome of the election this fall… Presuming that Obamacare – or some hybrid of this is fully or partially implemented in 2014… the face of healthcare in this country may never be the same.
The first part of the new program has already started… with Medicare Part B & D.. they have implemented “means testing”… which basically means that the more income that you have.. the more premiums for Part B & D you have paid.. up to 3.5 times the basic monthly rate. This could be just the first of these means testing that are applied to any and all medical costs.. can deductibles and co-payments be that far behind?
Just wait until “they” figure out that “means” can be more than just income… with the rather new Roth IRA’s… a retired couple could have a much larger “assets means” than income.. since distributions from a Roth IRA is NOT TAXABLE…
For those of you who are younger… you might want to consider to take the hit on taxes and put your money in a ROTH IRA .. .rather than a traditional IRA… since the traditional IRA has a forced distribution at 70.5… and is taxable… as INCOME… at your marginal rate…
Maybe the “AFFORDABLE” in OBAMACARE … is going to depend on how much “means” that you have…
There is one word/phrase that has not been used much… “ACCESSIBLE CARE“… there are stats out there that a large per-cent of older physicians profess that they are going to stop practicing once OBAMACARE is fully implemented…
There are also claims out there that reimbursement for Medicare services will be LESS than those currently allowed by Medicaid… and it is common knowledge of how hard it is in some areas to find a physician to accept Medicaid patients.
Maybe the definition of ACCESSIBLE CARE is buried somewhere in the 2000+ pages of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Filed under: General Problems
Leave a Reply