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What happens if I opt out?
vanity

Posted on 11/08/2012 9:09:59 AM PST by YankeeinOkieville

It is time to renew benefits for 2013 at my place of employment - a fortune 100 company. I've been waiting for the election to be over to see which way the winds of misfortune blow before deciding to continue with my current health care plan or just let the government take care of me. Now that it looks like Obamacare will be the tax law of the land, can anyone tell me what penalty will be imposed and who would collect it if I opt out of my company's health insurance?

Are others thinking of doing this? I know it isn't the smartest thing in the world to be without health care coverage when it is readily available and the company picks up most of that cost but what other considerations can y'all think of that might be pertinent to this decision?

Oh, and I think Oklahoma is one of the states that told the Feds to pound salt but who knows where that leaves Okies when this all shakes out.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: obamacare
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Anyone studied up on this?
1 posted on 11/08/2012 9:10:00 AM PST by YankeeinOkieville
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To: YankeeinOkieville

You’ll get a yearly tax bill from the IRS for $2500 or some such thing. You can’t be off the rolls without paying for it. That’s why it went to SCOTUS.


2 posted on 11/08/2012 9:13:11 AM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: YankeeinOkieville

Just wait about 6 weeks. Your company will opt out for you.


3 posted on 11/08/2012 9:13:50 AM PST by llevrok
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To: llevrok

If you don’t stay on your company plan then you are making a poor choice. Your employer will not opt out and/or drop you. It makes more sense for them to maintain their company plan (which is most likely partially self-insured). So talk to HR but don’t put your family at risk


4 posted on 11/08/2012 9:18:09 AM PST by GerardKempf (Let's Get Over This)
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To: YankeeinOkieville

It would be good to have catastrophic health insurance, at the least.

Shop at your company, if they offer just that, or on the open market.

low cost/very high deductible/ no fringes


5 posted on 11/08/2012 9:19:07 AM PST by libertarian27 (Check my profile page for the FReeper Online Cookbook 2011)
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To: llevrok

You are so right. Once obamacare really starts being implemented, people with private insurance are going to be FURIOUS. I would think at last 30% of all companies will drop health care and dump everyone into the govt run crap.

obamacare was always designed to morph into single-payer and people were too stupid to see it. The GOP could have been in a position to gain untold numbers of seats in Congress, and the Presidency, if they weren’t so inept.

As it stands now, I have no clue where voters will go once the SHTF, but it won’t be the GOP, unless they clean house.


6 posted on 11/08/2012 9:19:37 AM PST by Sporke (USS Iowa BB-61)
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To: YankeeinOkieville

As with all socialist schemes, you are not allowed to opt out. You may not be interested in socialism, but socialism is interested in you. (and especially in your assets and all future income)


7 posted on 11/08/2012 9:20:11 AM PST by theBuckwheat
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To: rarestia
You’ll get a yearly tax bill from the IRS for $2500 or some such thing.

Not that much right away. My understanding is that the penalty is phased in over a few years. A couple hundred dollars the first year, little more the next....Eventually it will be $2,500.

But notice, even when it gets to $2,500, it is still *significantly* cheaper than buying a health-insurance policy. This is by design:

Nobody will purchase insurance until they are sick (they'll pay the cheaper penalty). Then, when they get sick, they will purchase a policy, since no company can deny them for pre-existing.

Within a few years, all insurance companies will go broke, with no healthy people paying in. Or the companies will see the writing on the wall, and just get out. Either way, all that will be left for us is "public" health insurance.

8 posted on 11/08/2012 9:26:08 AM PST by kevao (Hey, Obama: The 1930s called, they want their economic policy back.)
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To: Sporke

Switch parties: INDEPENDENT!


9 posted on 11/08/2012 9:26:51 AM PST by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
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To: YankeeinOkieville
If you currently have medical insurance through your company, DO NOT DROP IT. I have extensive personal and work experience with issues involving health insurance, government programs, etc. and I strongly believe that Obamacare is just a massive redistribution scheme that will never give good benefits to the people actually paying for it. I personally would never leave myself and my family at the mercy of Obamacare because I have seen how people who work for a living are denied benefits, while the indolent get free medical care at the best hospitals and don't even have to worry about their credit ratings because the hospitals don't bother to bill people whose profile is deadbeat, illegal, etc.

Every year, at whichever company I am working, I choose the most expensive health plan and I'll continue to do so until my company caves to Obamacare and doesn't offer insurance anymore. When that day comes, I'll pay what I have to to have supplemental medical insurance so that I am not dependent on the government.

10 posted on 11/08/2012 9:30:23 AM PST by utahagen
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To: libertarian27

I’ve been self paying for health care for 3 years, I would like a catastrophic plan. The one thing I have noticed is the price discrepancy between self pay and insurance. It’s generally half price. I had a colonoscopy this year payed in cash and saved all most $1000.00. I have no monthly health insurance bill of $600+. If I can find a high deductible catastrophic plan under $300 a month, that would be certainly do-able but will I be taxed for not having a government approved health plan?


11 posted on 11/08/2012 9:30:31 AM PST by qman (The communist usurper must go!)
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To: YankeeinOkieville

I will refuse to buy insurance under this unconstitutional mandate, and I will also refuse to pay the penalty.

I will exempt myself from this law under the religious exemption clause which unconstitutionally specifies muslims only.

What good is insurance when there are no doctors to spend it with? 44% of surveyed doctors plan on leaving their practices.


12 posted on 11/08/2012 9:35:41 AM PST by Safrguns
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To: Sporke
“obamacare was always designed to morph into single-payer and people were too stupid to see it.”

I agree completely, but this will happen gradually. In the meantime, you’d be nuts to drop your company’s coverage before they stop offering it. What you get through your company will be better than what the government “guarantees” you. In addition, many big companies will use the fact that they offer health insurance as a positive when recruiting employees.

Bottom line: don’t drop your medical insuracne in favor of Obamacare healthcare.

13 posted on 11/08/2012 9:36:47 AM PST by utahagen
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To: Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America

I left the GOP after Bush was reelected. I don’t consider myself independent. I’m a Constitutionalist. Libertarians are ok, but they tend to have some real whackjobs at their conventions.

I’m so Conservative I scare many Republicans. :)


14 posted on 11/08/2012 9:38:38 AM PST by Sporke (USS Iowa BB-61)
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To: kevao; rarestia

Right now, my portion is around $80/mo and my company pays about twice that. So if I round it out, I’m at just under $1000 contribution and total of $3000 to cover just one person (family has long since grown and gone) and that’s at the middle coverage offered. Dr visits cost $45, cannot quite remember the deductible but co-pay is 70%. $2500 penalty doesn’t sound all that bad, all things considered.

I still don’t know how whatever steps Oklahoma took will figure into this whole thing.


15 posted on 11/08/2012 9:40:11 AM PST by YankeeinOkieville (Obamanation [oh-bom-uh-nay-shuhn] n. -- ignorance and arrogance in the highest offices)
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To: YankeeinOkieville

What does your HR dept say?


16 posted on 11/08/2012 9:41:52 AM PST by stuartcr ("When silence speaks, it speaks only to those that have already decided what they want to hear.")
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To: utahagen

I agree with your comments, but would add that people should NOT be dropping their employer group health insurance at this time, due to we do not want to encourages employers to drop their plans. If there was a tidal wave of people opting out of participation, the employers would be more encouraged to drop their plans. In spite of the woes of 0bamacare, etc., it is prudent for people to keep their employer group coverage as long as possible.


17 posted on 11/08/2012 9:47:44 AM PST by NEMDF
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To: YankeeinOkieville

Never mind the fines and penalties.

Are you prepared to purchase your own health insurance or pay your own way at the doctor’s office?


18 posted on 11/08/2012 9:48:30 AM PST by Not A Snowbird (2 Corinthians 4:8)
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To: YankeeinOkieville

 


19 posted on 11/08/2012 9:49:41 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: stuartcr
What does your HR dept say?

"I don't know."

"I haven't heard anything about a change."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"I'm about as useless as a one-legged person in a butt-kicking contest."

20 posted on 11/08/2012 9:50:44 AM PST by YankeeinOkieville (Obamanation [oh-bom-uh-nay-shuhn] n. -- ignorance and arrogance in the highest offices)
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