The millionaire-next-door buys a health insurance policy

Moral of the story: 

Obamacare is a goldmine for self-employeds and small business owners if you know where to look.

Several years ago there was a book titled “The millionaire-next-door”. It told about the unassuming person who most likely drove a truck and owned a business. The kind of person who didn’t spend a lot (that’s important), but had enough to build a thriving business.
NYTimes.com/books Millionaire Next Door

The book contrasts the habits of that kind of millionaire to spenders, who drive expensive European cars, go on fancy vacations, buy lots of jewelry and up-brand items and display the trappings of wealth. In Texas terms: “All hat, no cattle.”

Let’s liken the millionaire-next-door to today’s self-employed person or small business owner. They control their own paycheck. The business pays for some (or most) of their heavy duty expenses (like transportation,fuel, smartphones & other electronics).

One such millionaire bought a health insurance policy yesterday. He is in his mid-50s, wife in her late 40s, 1 adult child (graduated from college, not employed on a full-time basis), 2 minor children. That’s a family of FIVE on an income of about $65,000 per year.

This year they pay $920/mo. Starting next year that goes to $243/mo, with both kids on MEDI-CAL. Even though they were quite willing to pay the premiums to ‘keep their doctors’, they will receive $9000/yr of TAXPAYER ASSISTANCE on their premiums. BTW, that is for Enhanced Silver plan, with a $500 deductible and many services provided with NO DEDUCTIBLE.

He could save even more by going with the Bronze HSA plan. It has a $5000 deductible, but over the last 10 years this client has amassed over $50,000 of tax-advantaged money in his Health Savings Account (HSA). But he’ll probably go with the Enhanced Silver plan, and leave the HSA invested.

Good news. He can use money from the HSA to pay for Long-Term Care insurance (LTCi). LTCi was originally included as part of Obamacare when it became law, but government officials decided it would be too costly to implement. So they decided to ignore that part of the Affordable Care Act. Isn’t it nice to be able to pick and choose which parts of the law you want to implement?

Moral of the story: 
Obamacare is a goldmine for self-employeds and small business owners if you know where to look.

It’s almost too bad we’re giving scarce taxpayer resources to people who don’t want it and don’t need it. Embrace the folly.