Comments on: How Will Health Care Reform Affect Your Wallet?

By: 7 Ways to Reduce Long Term Health Care Insurance Costs

7 Ways to Reduce Long Term Health Care Insurance Costs — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:03:13 +0000

[...] that some long term health care stays are covered by your regular health insurance, or by Medicare. Knowledge is financial power. Find out exactly what is covered, and for how long. [...]

By: Are You Overlooking these 8 Tax Deductions? — Personal Dividends - Money+Lifestyle

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:21:28 +0000

[...] has to amount to at least 7.5% of your AGI for 2010. Realize that this changes to 10% with the health care reform.Points for Refinancing: If you paid mortgage points on your refinance, those may be tax deductible. [...]

By: Six Months Later: Top 10 Updates on Healthcare Reform and Implementation

Six Months Later: Top 10 Updates on Healthcare Reform and Implementation — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:14:04 +0000

[...] some items that have already taken effect. Some of the changes to healthcare reform may already be impacting your wallet. We are in the neighborhood of the six-month anniversary of the signing of the healthcare reform [...]

By: Is Money Your Only Compensation?

Is Money Your Only Compensation? — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:20:14 +0000

[...] money most paychecks. In the U.S., many jobs also come with the ability to get access to discounted health care plans. Additionally, there are employers that offer discounted childcare, discounted gym [...]

By: Health Care Reform: How Will State Insurance Exchanges Work? — Personal Dividends - Money+Lifestyle

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:22:50 +0000

[...] this week, the health care reform bill was passed. Rather than creating government controlled health insurance, the bill instead required [...]

By: * Health Care Reform: Appealing a Health Insurance Claim Denial

* Health Care Reform: Appealing a Health Insurance Claim Denial — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:02:00 +0000

[...] from the recently passed health care reform bill are going into effect this year, including a new process of appealing a health-claim denial. Many [...]

By: 17 Infographics Explaining Obamacare and Health Care Reform

17 Infographics Explaining Obamacare and Health Care Reform — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:38:36 +0000

[...] of health care reform: Health care reform has been on the docket for nearly 100 years. Indeed, Theodore Roosevelt tried to get us on a [...]

By: Ben Bernanke Rallies the Stock Market - Money & Investing – Banks.com

Ben Bernanke Rallies the Stock Market - Money & Investing – Banks.com — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:02:22 +0000

[...] Street doesn’t even appear to be concerned about the health care reform bill recently passed; indeed, things are looking better for the health sector. So, while the debate [...]

By: Brice

Brice — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:13:35 +0000

@Mike
BTW, doctors and hospitals raise their prices because their own insurance increase !

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:43:37 +0000

This bill isn’t about helping the unfortunate, or bringing care to those who can’t afford it. It’s about the government taking more control of our lives. It forces people to have insurance, even the ones who don’t want it (like some college students). It takes away our freedom to choose! It’s the first step on the way to single payer health care and socialized medicine where the government will say which doctor you can go to, how long you have to wait, and they’ll tell doctors how much they will make.

Some of you are saying that “only the taxes on those making over 200k will go up”. Ok, let’s put that aside as to whether that’s ok or not – but do any of you really think that premiums aren’t going to go up for those with private insurance? When they kill the ability for insurance companies to put caps on coverage, or to exclude people due to prior illness, or charge more to people who use more health care – of course rates are going to go up for everyone – except the ones who are unhealthy! So even though your taxes don’t go up, your rates will. And since the government can subsidize their own public health care plan up the wahoo, of course people are going to switch to the cheaper government plan, which will mean the insurance companies can’t compete and will die in the long run.

And when health care becomes more affordable, guess what – more people go to the doctor for small things, meaning that your health care is more utilized and less available and health care will have to be rationed. Look at any of the countries that have socialized medicine – waiting periods of months to get a CT scan, see a specialist or have an important surgery. And NO, the health care ISN’T free, it’s just paid for in a more roundabout way – high taxes!

Also, the fact that they’re trumpeting this whole “the bill reduces the deficit” just goes to show how tricky they can get with the numbers. They’ve left off certain provisions that were previously in the bill like the medicare payments”doc fix” that would have made it increase the deficit, because by leaving it out of the bill they could claim that it would reduce the deficit. The CBO numbers can only account for the things they’ve been sent in the bill, so garbage in, garbage out.

I recently read a quote from 19th century Scottish historian Sir Alex Fraser Tytle:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy

Sounds like we’re headed down that road.