Healthcare exemptions for the good commie boyz and gurls. Ashes, switches and a visit from the IRS if you've been naughty...
Posted on 12/25/2013 3:54:30 AM PST by Libloather
The Obama Administration on Tuesday proposed new regulations that add to the list of benefits not subject to reforms under the president’s healthcare law.
A draft rule issued jointly by the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury is the latest in a series of tweaks to the Affordable Care Act announced just days before major parts of the law are to take effect.
The regulations, published in Tuesday's Federal Register, amend the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which laid out a category of “excepted benefits.” These include workers compensation or disability coverage, accidental death insurance, auto insurance and other benefits that are related to health but don’t amount to comprehensive health coverage.
Excepted benefits are exempt from the market reforms imposed by ObamaCare, though they don’t satisfy the law’s requirement that individuals obtain coverage, also known as the individual mandate.
"This proposal would give employers and workers more options for their health-care coverage while staying true to the consumer protections put in place by the Affordable Care Act," said Phyllis C. Borzi, Labor Department's Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employee Benefits Security.
The administration is expanding the list of excepted benefits to include employee assistance programs (EAP) that are typically free to workers and include short-term substance abuse or mental health counseling, referral services, as well as financial counseling and legal services.
EAPs would be considered excepted if they are free to employees and don’t “provide significant benefits in the nature of medical care or treatment,” the agencies said.
Self-insured vision and dental policies and certain supplemental “wraparound” coverage would also be considered excepted.
The rule is designed allow individuals to take advantage of the benefits without risking their eligibility for a premium tax credit for enrolling in qualified health plans through the law’s insurance exchanges.
The action responds to concerns raised by both employers and employees during the administration’s development of the law.
"This is another example of federal agencies listening to public concerns and responding with solutions," Borzi said.
What a mess!
“during the administration’s development of the law.”
Earlier in the article they said the regulations are amending the law!
Can’t they at least disguise the fiction that the administration can change the LAW?
A law that changes every day-—more often than the weather.
What kind of law is that?
This is crazy. repeal the thing and write something simple that we can understand.
We have no idea what is in this law, because it changes more often than Obama takes vacations.
This is thier living breathing document. Something they can change at will to cover mistakes, mishandling, hide the truth, decieve, us force, dictate, regulate and exempt friends and family
Openness, honesty and transparency are unknown in the Chicago-style Presidency. The Constitution be damned.
ANY exemptions are unconstitutional. You know, that little thing called “equal protection?”
What kind of law is that?
You haven't seen anything yet. This thing WILL morph into single payer in very short order. Count on it.
For those who don’t want to get ObamaCare insurance, there’s additionally an entire category of benefits that may serve as a rough substitute for health insurance, but the premium a lot cheaper: Critical Illness Insurance. This kind of insurance pays a lump sum upon proof that you have suffered one of a set of defined conditions, e.g., cancer, heart attack, stroke. The cash goes directly to you, not to any hospital or doctor. The minimum is typically a payout of about 50K, and you can opt for a bigger payout, in increments of 25K or 50K, by paying a higher regular premium.
So if you pay out-of-pocket for check-ups and pre-screenings, and also get Critical Illness insurance, you in effect have a kind of catastrophic health insurance untouched by Obamacare’s regulations governing what’s left of the private market. Only drawback is Critical Illness insurance typically covers around 7 or 8 very common health catastrophes, so if you get a rarer disorder, you’re in trouble.
Critical Illness insurance can also be combined with policies that pay directly to you X dollars per day you spend at the hospital, and disability insurance. These kinds of benefits are offered by employers, but are also on the individual market, and are also largely untouched by Obamacare. I suspect that many individuals who had their policies cancelled by Obama will get some combination of these kinds of health-related benefits, and opt out of the crap “narrow-network” Obamacare-compliant health plans offered in their area.
No, no, no, no, NO!!!! Repeal it, and DO NOT replace it with anything!
First of all, because there is no "crisis" in health care in this country, other than what the government has created through their meddling and interference. Second, because the government has NO business or right to get involved in it. And finally, because you simply do not destroy the coverage that 90% of the population has, and is generally satisfied with, for the sake of getting coverage for 10% of the population, many of whom don't have insurance because they CHOOSE not to have it.
Accept the premise/assertion that there is a "crisis" that the government must "do something" about, accept the notion that the government can tell doctors and hospitals what they can and cannot do, and you've locked the shackles on your own ankles.
It’s not a “mess.” It’s going just as planned. Everybody will some sort of subsidy eventually, except for the evil rich one percent. The evil rich will pay for the entire system.
With socialized medicine in England, every drunk chick with a bruise on her besotted head can show up at a doctor or hospital and get free care. On the other hand, the evil rich will turn to private “primary” care by paying cash direct to doctors. That is, before they wise up and flee the country due to high tax rates (duh!).
The rest of us? We show up at dirty, Soviet-style hospitals for our free health care. But because waits are so long, we might get assigned a death panel first.
Relax. It’s not a mess. O’Bummer and his single payer advocates were planning this along.
I suspect this whole Obamacare law was written for revenge. I suspect Ezekiel wrote this maze of legal crap in retaliation for Valerie kicking his brother out of the WH.
Healthcare exemptions for the good commie boyz and gurls. Ashes, switches and a visit from the IRS if you've been naughty...
It was passed in March, 2010... FORTY-FIVE MONTHS AGO... and they are STILL "developing it", and it is at least a year away from full implementation. That's longer than an entire presidential term. Simply amazing.
I had not thought of that. Or maybe it was revenge on the rich evil taxpayers. “Spread the wealth around,” as O’Bummer said during the 2008 campaign.
I don’t believe they think the sudden spate of “exceptions” is a bad thing - it will help destabilize the insurance companies and provide another avenue towards the real goal of single payer.
Yeah, like put it back for the states to regulate, and allow purchasing across state lines.
It is the Venzualean Way.
And finally, because you simply do not destroy the coverage that 90% of the population has, and is generally satisfied with, for the sake of getting coverage for 10% of the population, many of whom don’t have insurance because they CHOOSE not to have it.
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Excuse me: That is exactly what they did.
I agree that the single payer was the goal all along, but the American People aren’t going to accept it, they are rejecting the ‘one size fits all’ model right now with Obamacare.
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