Posted on 01/25/2013 8:15:46 AM PST by Orange1998
WASHINGTON (AP) Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.
The Affordable Care Act "Obamacare" to its detractors allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1.
For a 55-year-old smoker, the penalty could reach nearly $4,250 a year. A 60-year-old could wind up paying nearly $5,100 on top of premiums.
Younger smokers could be charged lower penalties under rules proposed last fall by the Obama administration. But older smokers could face a heavy hit on their household budgets at a time in life when smoking-related illnesses tend to emerge.
Take a hypothetical 60-year-old smoker making $35,000 a year. Estimated premiums for coverage in the new private health insurance markets under Obama's law would total $10,172. That person would be eligible for a tax credit that brings the cost down to $3,325. ..........
But the smoking penalty could add $5,086 to the cost. And since federal tax credits can't be used to offset the penalty, the smoker's total cost for health insurance would be $8,411, or 24 percent of income.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
After you pay Federal Income Tax, State Income Tax, Social Security Tax, Medicare Tax, Property Tax, Sales Tax, Medical Device Tax you will be at poverty collecting Food Stamps.
Welcome to the USSR of America. One Nation under Obama.
They came for the smokers but I wasn’t a smoker so I didn’t say anything.
Then they came for the gun owners but I didn’t own a gun so I didn’t say anything.
Then they came for the obese but I am not obese so I didn’t say anything.
Then they came for me and there was no one to speak in my defense.
And all these years smokers have been paying high taxes on the cigarettes because of their healthcare.
I’m guessing somehow that potheads and meth heads will still be fully covered...
Isn’t this discrimination? they didn’t touch drinking, drug use, risky sex, junk food.
You got that right! The communists network is expanding.
—New York Times, 3-29-87
Nicotine addiction should be classified and treated the same way other forms of chemical dependency are approached in ObamaCare.
Again, it's evident that this law was written by people with no knowledge of how health care works in the real world.
Yet... alcohol will NEVER be included as a substance of issue in this "law" because it's "protected" by the Bill of Rights.
Bunch of petty tyrants, the lot of them.
So, smokers should just pay the “penalty” and then obtain insurance only after they get cancer, because cancer is a pre-existing condition that cannot be refused.
See the looking glass yet?
How will they determine that you are a smoker? Send an inspector to smell your house? When your Dr. asks you questions..smoke? drinks? guns? No No No.
A virtual Pandora’s Box of unintended consequences here. Either all of the state CHiP programs (which are funded by obscenely high cigarette taxes) go broke and leave THE CHILDREN without coverage, or smokers decide just to pay the penalty and buy coverage only after they get sick (as Obamacare gives them the right to do)
Either way the popcorn sales should be brisk.
Oh boy! For later.........
what about the osmokers that are already on Medicaid and SSDI.
Any requirements or restrictions on them?
Percentage wise, I would wager that there are more smokers on government assistance than not.
Since I don’t smoke the point is Obama lied about healthcare. If Obama said smokers will pay 25% of income for Obamacare it would have NEVER passed. What else is buried in the paperwork that will effect us.
“How will they determine that you are a smoker? Send an inspector to smell your house? When your Dr. asks you questions..smoke? drinks? guns? No No No.”
Routine blood test looking for elevated nicotine levels. Insurance companies use it all the time. As a matter a fact, the insurance company that did mine called the test,are you ready, an Enitocin test.
Discrimination? Its been a mute issue ever since they passed double digit Tanning Salon Bed Tax. The IRS expects to collect some $2.7 billion in taxes from tanning salons over the next decade.
How can a RACE specific tax be constitutional is beyond me.
However, where is this going: Guns are a health risk to everyone, so if you have guns, you will pay a 50% penalty to have health insurance. Now, are you interested? Can you forget this one?
Give up your guns and your insurance policy will be low enough you can buy it - keep your guns and you don't have enough money to pay for healthcare due to your penalty for having a gun.
What will you do?
The rot they drip everywhere they go can't be cured, only treated costing millions so the filthy bastards can live to spread it.
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