Obamacare Will Help People Retire Early -- And Turn The USA Into Greece
Chuck Saletta writes at The Motley Fool how people could retire early, thanks to Obamacare, because it will pick up the cost of their health care:
The reason is that two of the law's key features -- guaranteed coverage and subsidized premiums -- play right into the hands of those who'd like to leave the rat race behind them. With guaranteed coverage, anyone who wants to can buy insurance, regardless of pre-existing conditions. With subsidized premiums, taxpayers could be on the hook for paying premiums for anyone making less than 400% of the poverty level.The Big Change
In essence, unless and until money to fund the program runs out, Obamacare has just made retiring early much easier. Prior to the law's passage, if you wanted to retire early, you needed to do one of the following:
•Convince your former employer to keep you on its health care plan.
•Go uninsured and hope for the best.
•Be healthy enough to qualify for insurance on your own.
•Qualify for some other group plan (like a trade association or union).
•Lower your assets down to Medicaid eligibility levels.
•Follow a carefully prescribed process of exhausting COBRA coverage, then qualifying for guaranteed issue insurance under HIPAA.In most cases, though, you either would be committing yourself to going broke, or you would be required to pay the full cost of your insurance, plus you'd have to figure out how to cover any premium increases. That's an incredibly risky undertaking, and it means that someone retiring young enough would need to have several hundred thousand dollars invested just to cover health insurance premiums until Medicare eligibility.
With this new law, as long as your income falls below the level of 400% of federal poverty guidelines, your out-of-pocket premiums for "silver" level coverage are capped on a sliding scale that gets to be no higher than 9.5% of your income. The rest of the costs of insuring you are covered by taxpayers.
Per another Motley Fool piece by Bruce Watson:
400% of the poverty line -- for a household of two adults and one child, this would be $70,208
Welcome to France. So, everybody retires, everybody's subsidized...and who, exactly, is paying for all this? I know -- we can have a tax to pay the tax! (Now, we're Greece!)
Yes, Obamacare could end up being the fiscal beginning of the end for this country. Saletta explains:
The law may cap out-of-pocket insurance premiums, but that cap doesn't eliminate the total cost of the insurance -- it merely shifts the difference to taxpayers. Indeed, by so significantly shifting costs, it fundamentally changes the nature of early retirement planning. Rather than "save, invest, and figure out how to cover your costs," the incentive has become "pay off your debts, keep your other costs and your income low, and your neighbor will cover your health insurance for you."Given that so many people so easily stand to qualify for such large subsidies simply by keeping their incomes below the caps, Obamacare is virtually guaranteed to cost significantly more than initially projected.
I can't wait for the government to fall. At this point it is when we go over the cliff, not if.
Jim P. at June 30, 2012 6:21 AM
The thing is that to the extent that the economy of Greece works at all, it works mainly because tax cheating is a way of life. Anybody who makes any money at all in Greece has figured out ways to dodge paying taxes, ranging from under-the-table cash payments to Swiss bank accounts. That won't work in the U.S. (except for the well-connected) -- the IRS is too efficient and too intrusive. Yes, there are some trades and freelancers who can make some extra money by working for cash payments on the side, but for most of the middle class, that won't work.
Cousin Dave at June 30, 2012 6:45 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/06/motley-fool-on.html#comment-3248701">comment from Cousin DaveA friend who knows someone there said her friend has NEVER paid property taxes there. I'm not for high taxes, but somehow the police, fire department and roads have to get funded.
Amy Alkon
at June 30, 2012 7:06 AM
By the Boomers, for the Boomers. No wonder the damn thing passed.
Pirate Jo at June 30, 2012 7:37 AM
We're doomed.
brian at June 30, 2012 8:14 AM
We're doomed.
Hookers and blow! But look on the bright side: we're going to go off the cliff so fast and hit bottom so hard that we'll not feel a thing.
I R A Darth Aggie at June 30, 2012 9:48 AM
And we've still got another two trillion left to pay for the wars in Afghanistan in Iraq.
So we've got that going for us.
Which is nice.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at June 30, 2012 9:52 AM
I'm for the same thing -- but why do we need the DOT, NTSB, NHTSA, and the FAA?
Not to mention they federal excise tax on gasoline? How about the need for high speed rail?
If your state wants to build a nice eight lane highway that runs like an arrow from the Simi Valley to Sacramento, more power to you. If they want to do the same Vegas, then they need to talk to Nevada and negotiate the deal. Your state shouldn't be looking to the other 48 to fund it.
Route 66 is the (in)famous nationwide highway that existed before the interstate system.
I try not be a Luddite, especially considering my day job. The other side of that is scale. Do you care if John Doe in NC has a job or not? Should you pay for his unemployment?
Jim P. at June 30, 2012 12:15 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/06/motley-fool-on.html#comment-3248856">comment from Jim P.why do we need the DOT, NTSB, NHTSA, and the FAA?
Start with disbanding the DEA.
Amy Alkon
at June 30, 2012 12:35 PM
The Obamacare program also allows for the IRS to have direct access to your bank accounts and the right to enter and seize your safety deposit boxes. In addition, the law calls for each and every person to have an RFD chip with medical information (medical records) and again access to your banking information to deduct copay etc. from your account. There will also be a tax on the sale of property and rentals. Gold sales will be taxed and monitored so the government can seize these assets as well if they so desire. This law is very intrusive.
Dragonslayer666 at July 1, 2012 1:42 AM
Jim P: Here's your answer.
Few people know anything about how things in an industrial nation are made, and so they don't know why or how any standards are maintained.
Consistency alert: if you want the Rapiscan 1000 inspected and calibrated before use at the airport, you must call for a Federal agency to see to that.
Radwaste at July 1, 2012 5:21 PM
I predict within 10 years it will be illegal to deal in cash or damn near it. The war on some drugs resulting in the attitudes of cops/government regarding civil asset forfeiture along with what Dragonslayer mentions make it inevitable. All for our safety of course.
Sio at July 1, 2012 6:38 PM
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