Posted on 12/14/2013 11:08:00 AM PST by oblomov
People in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico may not be grappling with the botched Obamacare website rollout, but the program could spell disaster for the island, which is facing a financial crisis and where half the population already is dependent on free health insurance, members of the island's medical community warned.
Puerto Ricans, who are born U.S. citizens, do not enroll on the healthcare.gov because their government decided not to offer health-insurance exchanges, which offers private plans.
Instead, the Affordable Care Act, commonly dubbed Obamacare, has mostly arrived on the island in the form of a $6.3 billion social welfare check allocated to the government to continue to pay for its Medicaid and for its separate, free state-run insurance program called "Mi Salud," between 2014 and 2019.
And that could be disastrous for Puerto Rico.
Roughly 1.7 million Puerto Ricans already depend on free health insurance in the island and local doctors are concerned that the additional financial infusion to the program will make the territory even more dependent on welfare.
(Excerpt) Read more at latino.foxnews.com ...
WOW, OK so they receive welfare from us, but.....
“Though the Commonwealth government has its own tax laws, Puerto Ricans are also required to pay most U.S. federal taxes, with the major exception being that some residents do not have to pay the federal personal income tax.”
Taxation in Puerto Rico - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Puerto_Rico
Seems more than passingly strange, at least to me.
Also, US corporations get a big tax break for “exporting” from the island to the states, which is why many companies locate manufacturing facilities there.
I’ve only been there one time on business, but had personal time to travel around the island, away from the facade of San Juan or the resort hotels. It’s a strange place indeed, a mix of modernity and third-world style poverty.
The people there were wonderful - friendly and very hospitable, though maybe surprised by the weird American with the pretty wife who wanted to eat real PR food and see the place as it is...
...it’s not supposed to go further down the socialist crapper?
I am not sure I consider Puerto Ricans to be US citizens. They don’t have to pay Federal income taxes!
These clowns wanted full state status, right?
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