WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed.

The change would affect early retirees: A married couple could have an annual income of about $64,000 and still get Medicaid, said officials who make long-range cost estimates for the Health and Human Services department.

Up to 3 million more people could qualify for Medicaid in 2014 as a result of the anomaly. That's because, in a major change from today, most of their Social Security benefits would no longer be counted as income for determining eligibility. It might be compared to allowing middle-class people to qualify for food stamps.

Indeed, administration officials and senior Democratic lawmakers say it's not a loophole but the result of a well-meaning effort to simplify rules for deciding who will get help with insurance costs under the new health care law. Instead of a hodgepodge of rules, there will be one national policy

By 'Free', you mean everyone should be entitled to health care paid for by those of us paying taxes?

How do we afford it? How do we pay for it? Healthcare for everyone sounds like a great and compassionate idea. I just don't see how to make it work legally and equitably.

How do we afford it? How do we pay for it? Healthcare for everyone sounds like a great and compassionate idea. I just don't see how to make it work legally and equitably.

Yes, this.

Well we can't afford what we are paying for now, let alone future programs.

Go die in a fire idiot.

I'ts not exactly "working out" in either country - they have higher tax rates. Canada has a small population, and is able to rely on the U.S. for defense because of its location.

Britain also relies on us, but in their case, endlessly cuts defense to pay for social programs. Eventually there will be none left to cut and they will no longer be able to afford this nonsense.

In some European nations, taxes amount to somewhere between 40-55% of each citizen's wages. It's steep, but they've been managing to make it work for them for quite some time now. I imagine never having to face doctor's bills helps.

Technically, you could cut your federal government spending on healthcare and give universal coverage equal to Canada's...but you seem to have some efficiency issues. Canada's universal health care costs about 50% less per capita than America currently pays for its medicare system alone...which, considering the level of healthcare service canadians get is comparable to what Americans with top-end coverage get (with some caveats...the Canadian system actually has better results in some areas, and a few issues in others...but overall they are comparable), is really astounding. How the **** does Medicare --which doesn't seem to do much of anything-- cost you that much?

Even if we ignored this problem, and cut military and security expendiatures to pay for healthcare or any other social good, and no one took advantage of this, it still would not work. Eventually, we would simply run out of military to cut, but we would doubtless still be hearing calls for more money because social do-gooders are never satisfied. There is always another wrong to be righted.

What has the U.S. military defended us from, historically speaking? Seems like almost nothing to me.

Then stop focusing on actual invasion of our territory. You might get a clue then.

People think twice before attacking us because they know that they will likely be crushed. That is a form of defense because it results in less attacks.

That's offense then.