The dirty little secrets are starting to come out now, the safety of being buried in two thousand and seventy-four pages now gone. https://higginscompanies.com/health-insurance/a-little-more-bragging-about-bcbsaz/
In 2017 the folks with substantial medical expenses, primarily the elderly, will have to wait until they spend over 10% of their income on medical care before it becomes tax deductible. If you are younger this higher tax rate kicks in four years earlier, in 2013. Today a person must spend over 7.5% of their income on medical expenses before being tax deductible.
So who will this affect? 15 million very ill people who have enough to worry about as it is. And how much will the government collect in new taxes from these sickly folk? $15.2 BILLION dollars! Nice. Never mind simply kicking a person while they’re down, this new health care bill empties their pockets completely. This is not a new tax on just the rich. 99% of those affected make less than $200,000 a year, substantially less in most cases.
Hopefully those with Arizona health insurance are taking notes. This bill is not in your best interest. It is not in the best interest of this country. The one thing this country needed in a health insurance reform bill were ways to control spending and costs, and this bill has nothing like that. Health insurance premiums in Arizona and across the country will continue to rise, and possibly at a higher rate than before… someone has to pay for all the new government agencies being created.
The only good news is that it looks like our government officials have written themselves out of coverage. They stuck a ban in the bill preventing members of Congress and their staff from enrolling in the federal health plan, instead forcing them to buy in the exchanges like everyone else. This became the law the second President Obama signed the bill. They forgot to clarify that this new rule should not start until 2014 when the health insurance exchanges in Arizona and elsewhere will be in existence.
Well Mrs. Pelosi, you wanted the bill signed so that you could see what’s in it. Not such a good REID is it?
Michael Higgins
602.405.8769
An Arizona health insurance broker.