The Glade 4.0

^ Confirmed:

Press Secretary Jay Carney claimed that 2.5 million Americans leaving the workforce was a good thing, because they would no longer be “trapped in a job.”

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Wasn't the COBRA Laws limited to 18 months? And if so, then isn't it quite possible that some people were in fact trapped in a job for insurance alone, be it themselves or a family member?

I do remember at one point, my wife's employer could deny family/spouse coverage based on pre-existing conditions IIRC.

COBRA is expensive and most paycheck-to-paycheck Americans can't possibly afford it while on unemployment, even for a few months.

For example, at my job we have short term disability insurance. The company pays for long term which kicks in after 30 business days. Short-term, which we have to pay for if we want it, kicks in at 15 days and covers 15 business days until long term starts. My take home pay is about $800 a week after taxes, healthcare, 401k. Short term would cost me $30/week to eventually receive $2400 if I were to be disabled. So basically if you're on it for a year and a half you've already paid them more than you'll ever receive. The majority of people take it because they just can't afford to not get paid for 3 weeks. A few even can't take vacation time because they need to save all their PTO to cover that initial 3 weeks because missing even 1 paycheck would break them.

I don't think people really get how financially strapped the average American is.

Sure thing, in the same way I am trapped in a job by having a mortgage payment, cell phone bill, car payment and cable bill.

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Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck simply have no ability to delay their own gratification. It's possible to survive on a minimum wage salary; it is not possible to live like your Chandler Bing on a minimum wage salary.

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Not exactly apple to apples, is it?

How so? A bill is a bill. Medical bills are no more essential than the bills to provide food and shelter. In fact I think Maslow places food and shelter above health.

Yep:

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Where did that come from?

My Mom was "trapped in a job".

When my father passed, she specifically had to go back to work, after being retired for a year because she wasn't 65 yet. It was purely for health benefits which would have been solved with PPACA.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, nor mean that suddenly a ton of people are being "subsidized".

Because prior, health insurance was not a given that one could purchase it, regardless of their income?

You'll have to show your work on that one: we had more options to secure health insurance at affordable rates and with effective coverage prior to the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act has already decreased the availability of care and increased the cost of care nationwide, and the current exchange policies are inferior to prior price-point offerings. And let's not forget that as of last year, employer paid premiums are considered part of your Adjusted Gross Income, hence the new box on your W-2 for your group plan, and if a lot of you are suddenly owing Uncle Sam money, it's because the pre-tax payment on your part of the premiums just allows you to delay withholding on that income, it's still taxable now.

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Those benefits weren't solved by the PPACA: your mother would still be required to submit to the Medicare disaster.

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The employer premiums are only considered part of your AGI if you have one of the "Cadillac" plans.

That W-2 box is great, by the way. Maybe people will finally get on board with some kind of cost control when it's spelled right out for them that their health insurance for their family of four costs $25,000 a year.

Which is anyone with a policy that costs more than $7000 a year in total premiums, including a truckload of the Exchange policies. Every remotely effective policy in the country is a "Cadillac" plan, Xeq; that said, employer contributions to your health insurance are part of your adjusted gross income, "Cadillac" plan or no.

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You can't fix stupid.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I've been paying $166 a month for the past 20 years. It wasn't the best plan, but I was happy with it.

I just found out that my plan was cancelled. My best option is now $366 a month.

Thanks Obama!

Yeah, actually those benefits would have been solved by PPACA.

Except, they wouldn't have been solved by the ACA: the ACA requires people 63 and over who are using Exchange Plans to transition their primary insurance to Medicare, with all the attendant savings, asset, and capital liquidation necessary. And god forbid she needed to spend time in an assisted care facility. People between 60 and 67 are MORE trapped in their jobs now than they were before the Affordable Care Act. I don't know what you, TheRiov, Xequecal, and RangerDave think is in the ACA, but there's none of the feelgood, problem-solving elements you guys keep trying to tell us exist.

The Affordable Care Act is an unmitigated disaster that raised taxes on everyone, changed what we consider taxable and non-taxable income, and gave the Federal government way too much control over a lot of things you really don't want Uncle Sam managing.

Hell, a friend of mine just went through this -- his 92 year old mother ended up in a Nursing Home. She wouldn't sign away her land holdings or assets 5 or 10 or 15 years ago like is sensible because of our stupid laws; Uncle Sam just took the family farm, and that's a COMMON practice. And the ACA just makes it more difficult for people to plan for end-of-life care without having to turn everything over to the government. It's now considered tax fraud to transfer property and other such assets to a living trust any less than 7 years before you end up in an assisted-living facility paid for by Medicare. Fun times, people. Fun times.

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If the government is going to take it might as well mine the **** out of the property and create some pitfalls. Make them earn it in blood.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Please point out where I say that the ACA is a good thing. I've just been taking people to task for the "It doesn't benefit anyone, anywhere!" crap and a lot of other very suspect postings, such as the one on this page where you claim employer premiums count as taxable income. They are not taxable income, unless the IRS somehow forgot about it. Also, Forbes is going to get in a lot of trouble for this article. You seem to be confused and conflating Adjusted Gross Income with taxable income, the former is only used to determine how much of a subsidy you're going to get, it doesn't mean the employer premiums are taxable. I missed this the first time around and that's why I wrote the first reply, because I thought you were referring it to as actual taxable income.

The ACA doesn't have to benefit nobody in order to be bad, it's perfectly possible for it to be bad despite some people benefiting from it.

Xequecal:

Just so happens that my income for 2013 and 2012 were identical. The only difference in my AGI was the premiums my employer paid on my Health Insurance. Guess who owes Uncle Sam more money in for 2013 than I did for 2012? That certainly seems taxable to me.

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If I had to take a guess, it's because you have to pay the new excise tax on "Cadillac" insurance plans. It does not mean the employer premiums are suddenly taxable.

Really, then I guess its just odd that the amount of difference in my taxes owed was exactly 39.6% of my employer paid premiums? It's not like have a particularly good plan, but like I said, all plans that meet the Federal minimums are Cadillac Plans suddenly, Xequecal. If you're paying $600 a month on the exchange in total premiums, which includes your subsidies, you've got a Cadillac plan. I mean, hell, I was required in my forms to add that value to my AGI before determining my tax owed. I guess the IRS is just all-wet and published bad filing documentation? (that actually happens with alarming frequency).

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