Category: Affordable Care Act
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What the collapse of health care reform means to us
What does the collapse of Congressional efforts to reform health care mean to us in small businesses? Certainly it raises many questions and provides few answers. These questions came to mind: Is the IRS under a Republican Trump administration likely to enforce the tax penalties that it fought so hard to repeal? I suspect not.…
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Financial planning under health care reform
The health care news from Washington DC was disheartening this week. Key Republicans are bashing the president for his lack of understanding of basic health care concepts. One Republican Senator reportedly called the president “clueless” after a one-on-one meeting. Meanwhile the president touts himself as a health care policy expert. For the est of us,…
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5 things we know about the Republican health care reform plan
We know more about the Republican plan to reform national health care policy now that the Senate has released its ‘secret’ plan. These are a few things that are all but certain at this point: Obamacare will not be repealed or replaced. Both the House and Senate reform bills keep most features of the prior…
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How will you fare under the Senate health bill?
Summary of Senate health bill’s effect on small businesses: eliminates requirement to be insured protects insurers in the marketplace shifts but retains tax credits lowers the number of people eligible for free or reduced price coverage cuts taxes for the wealthy suspends the ‘Cadillac Tax’ strips federal funding from Planned Parenthood is surprisingly light-weight; only about…
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Outrage over Senate’s health care reform bill spreads
US Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey joined with many health care advisers, including myself, in expressing his outrage over the secretive process used to draft the replacement bill for health care reform that is apparently designed to hide the details from public scrutiny. I’ve been an advocate of health care reform and an active…
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Begin financial planning for health care changes now
We expect major changes ahead to U.S. health care policy under the current federal leadership. We don’t know specifically what these changes will be and when the changes will come. Yet for those with chronic medical conditions, it makes sense to begin financial and legal preparations for the change now. One key aspect of the change…
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Why I oppose the Republican health care plan
(Hint: It’s pretty much the same reason as I opposed ACA but with a new additional objection that it gives unwarranted tax breaks to the wealthy). “Anybody with $250,000 a year of adjusted gross income and a lot of investment income is going to have a huge tax cut.” – Warren Buffett, 5/5/2017 on the Republican…
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Worst threat ever to your personal financial security
It’s now been more than 30 years since I finished my formal business education in health care administration and more than 20 years since wrapping up tax law handling of health and welfare benefits. I’ve applied this training in an unusual manner to address consumer financial planning issues as an independent adviser rather than actually working within the health…
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Forming an action plan before setting a goal = FAIL
Tonight the nation prepares for the next imminent failure of Congress in its efforts to reform the nation’s health care policy. By the end of the week we will likely read headlines that the efforts of our nation’s leadership landed in the scrap heap again. Why? There is a simple but important lesson here for all…
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Health insurance help for illegal immigrants
My free online advisory service launched in the 1990s provides bits of financial advice to people; mostly on issues related to small business operation. The topical subjects of these questions have shifted over time and now quite often come from people who have trouble finding affordable health insurance or covering uninsured health care expenses. I presume this means that…