The new health care law, how's it working??

I've bookmarked this post because anytime we debate the tax burden of the wealthy class vs the middle class you specifically state that Medicare and Social Security taxes are not to be considered in that equation.

But back to the point....

Both Medicare and SS are commerical services the government mandates you participate in. The funding is a tax - which you can desperately say makes them different from the new health care bill - but nevertheless it refutes the point made in this thread that the government can not mandate commerce. It can. The upcoming debate in the Supreme Court is not about the gov being able to mandate commerce it is going to be over symantics of its funding - calling it a tax vs non-discretionary spending.

When is this thing supposed to take effect? How about the part where all employers have to offer some sort of insurance to their employees? Is that going yet?


I am still temping. As far as I know my employer does not offer any sort of medical coverage. My COBRA coverage ends in April and in November I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I did a little research, and it seems that since I am an adult, an insurance company is quite free to not cover my pre existing condition until 2014. The pre-existing condition coverage was about the only part of the bill that I actually liked, but apparently the libs do not care how much my disease progresses between now and 2014!

Karen, alot of the "reforms" won't be taking place until at least 2014. Be carefull of that "donut hole" bit for any perscriptions you may be getting before that time.

Depending upon how agressive your MS is, you may miss some of the worst stuff until after you get covered under the new law.

It is my understanding that anyone who has a business has to file a 1099 if they pay anyone or a business (like home depot) over $600.00.

Home Depot?

That will be any business that you spend $600 or more a year. How this ended up in the bill they had to pass so we could see what's in it is way beyond me.

As someone whose profession involves a lot of travel, that means I'll have to not only keep all travel expense receipts for tax purposes, I'll have to obtain and record all tax ID numbers for each business entity that I spend $600 or more with during the course of traveling, and send them a 1099. Airport parking, 1099. Plane tickets, 1099. Rental cars, 1099. Hotels, 1099. If I need a new laptop, 1099. Internet and cell phone service, 1099. This creates a mountain of additional tax paperwork that has absolutely nothing to do with health care.

Ahh, . . . but it will put the kibosh on black-market hemorrhoidectomies.

unless something has changed, 1099's are not issued to coirporations.

Karen, it changed with Obamacare.

I'll use small words here so you have a sporting chance to follow this.

The question on the table is, is the new Obamacare health insurance purchase mandate constitutional. I have made the case that pretty much proves that it isn't. All we await is Justice Kennedy to confirm.

Your response and rebuttal was... to.... um, attack Rush by claiming he read the wrong document in a speech.

Good for you. You really hit the ball out of the park on that one.