Self-imposed (but vague) deadline for website fix

 

November 30th has come and gone. Will the website experience be improved? The improvement goals were really vague: A better experience for the ‘majority’ of users, while the ability to pay for the plans hasn’t been finished.

And there is still the issue of ‘orphan plans’: people who thought they signed up, the website told them they signed up, but the website didn’t actually transmit the data to the insurance company. Meaning, they have no coverage; but won’t find out about it until they try to use the non-existent medical coverage, presumably, for something important.

Of course, the government considers the website improvements to be a success if 80% of the people can create an account. Oh dear, nothing there about actually procuring and paying for a policy. Estimates are that 10% of people will still get dropped from the system.

And the administration is in a tough spot. They encouraged people to have the ‘turkey talk’ with their families about getting health care. But they can’t encourage everyone to go to the website, because that would definitely overload the system. Instead, they encouraging their supporters to use the website at off-peak hours and weekends.

The real question is: is it a good thing that the website works better?

So far Medicare enrollment has increased by 35%. That is a lot more people getting health care, but no one putting more money into the system.

Young adults (through age 26) can stay on their parents policies. That used to be free, but now is a cost item -- so what's the advantage? And now I have to collect W2s from the adult-kids of my clients before I can tell the parents how much their health insurance will cost.

The ACA amounts to a de-facto tax of 9% on the self-employed. That's on top of other self employment taxes that currently amount to 15.3% and before the new ACA surcharge of 0.9% (on earnings more than $200k). That's a total of 24.3% to 25.2%, BEFORE federal and state income taxes kick in.
CBS News: when to pay self employment tax

How many start-ups and entrepreneurs will end their year earlier (aka stop earning money) when they approach certain limits rather than pay higher taxes and surcharges. Small business owners usually have cars, computers, internet and other things paid for by the business. So they end up with a lot of flexiblity over how much they earn and when, without disrupting their lifestyle.


That also leads to millionaires (with low MAGI) qualifying for MAXIMUM TAXPAYER SUPPORT on their health insurance.

And about the only cost-containment tool the insurers and hospitals can use is to limit which hospitals and doctors you can actually use. You go to the hospital only to find out “you choose poorly” (apologies to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).