Help with medical expenses

Last fall we received a letter saying that because of the myriad of changes that HHS had ordered health insurance companies to make to individual policies that were purchased on the open insurance market, that our health insurance would be cancelled...and it was despite they lies presented by President Obama and Sen's Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski. "If you like your insurance, you can keep it, period."

 Because last year  was a pretty good year for me, we don't qualify for subsidies...so my insurance which had costs us $132 per month rose to $137 per week. We had the choice of paying that or the rent...

The problem now is that I have four fractured ribs...for no apparent reason.  I have no surface trauma that would indicate that the underlying musculature is damaged...but I have four fractured ribs.  At first, because I work as a cabinetmaker and I"m often lifting heavy sheets of plywood, etc, I thought that I had just strained my chest muscles.

On Tuesday night, when tried to sleep (I usually sleep on my stomach or side) every time I tried to move over, I kept feeling like bones were grinding and "snaping" against each other and would wake up in huge amounts of pain.  So, when I got up in  the morning and had trouble getting dressed...I had my wife take me to the hospital...where they took a series of chest and back x-rays.

From the start, the ER physician gave me the feeling that she thought I was faking it.  When they were preparing to release me, she had said I had just pulled muscles, etc, and should just take it easy...but as we were signing the paperwork for release, she rushed back into the room and said that after having looked at the x-rays, I had four fractured ribs on the right side of my chest! This visit is going to cost us about $3,000.00...with no insurance we have to pay for it out of pocket.  That's going to be a very large problem, as only I am working.

On Wednesday, I went to my family physician, an awesome doc named Rachel Benn...who because I NEVER go to the doctor's office was shocked to see me and worked me in (despite not having an appointment). She wants me to have a number of test done (blood work $450, bone scan $1,500, MRI, etc)...I can't afford to pay for all that and keep a roof over my our head.

It wouldn't be so bad, but Cheri hasn't been able to find even part-time work, so we're dependent upon my $22 hour cabinet making job...so I'm literally reduced to holding out a tin cup to try and raise money to pay for the tests Rachel wants me to have...so please, hit the tip jar to the right.

Sen Jeanne Shaheen is a Liar

Here is the add that could well sink the Democratic party in general and Jeanne Shaheen in particular.



Remember, ObamaCare was passed without a single GOP vote...Democrats OWN this abortion, now ram it down their throats.

Obama: The Lying King

ObamaCare Tax Hikes

Via Newsalert, here's a full list of the tax hikes that the the Democratically controlled Congress has foisted on the country.

Obamacare law contains 20 new or higher taxes on American families and small businesses
WASHINGTON, DC -- Obamacare contains 20 new or higher taxes on American families and small businesses. Arranged by their respective sizes according to CBO scores, below is the total list of all $500 billion-plus in tax hikes (over the next ten years) in Obamacare, their effective dates, and where to find them in the bill.
$123 Billion: Surtax on Investment Income (Takes effect Jan. 2013): A new, 3.8 percent surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single). This would result in the following top tax rates on investment income:

	Capital Gains	Dividends	Other*
2012	15%	15%	35%
2013+	23.8%	43.4%	43.4%

*Other unearned income includes (for surtax purposes) gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents, and passive income in partnerships and Subchapter-S corporations. It does not include municipal bond interest or life insurance proceeds, since those do not add to gross income. It does not include active trade or business income, fair market value sales of ownership in pass-through entities, or distributions from retirement plans. The 3.8% surtax does not apply to non-resident aliens. (Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 87-93)
$86 Billion: Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax (Takes effect Jan. 2013): Current law and changes:

	First $200,000 ($250,000 Married) Employer/Employee	All Remaining Wages Employer/Employee
Current Law	1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed	1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed
Obamacare Tax Hike	1.45%/1.45% 2.9% self-employed	1.45%/2.35% 3.8% self-employed

Bill: PPACA, Reconciliation Act; Page: 2000-2003; 87-93

$65 Billion: Individual Mandate Excise Tax and Employer Mandate Tax (Both taxes take effect Jan. 2014):
Individual: Anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance as defined by Obama-appointed HHS bureaucrats must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following

	1 Adult	2 Adults	3+ Adults
2014	1% AGI/$95	1% AGI/$190	1% AGI/$285
2015	2% AGI/$325	2% AGI/$650	2% AGI/$975
2016 +	2.5% AGI/$695	2.5% AGI/$1390	2.5% AGI/$2085

Exemptions for religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS). Bill: PPACA; Page: 317-337

Employer: If an employer does not offer health coverage, and at least one employee qualifies for a health tax credit, the employer must pay an additional non-deductible tax of $2000 for all full-time employees. Applies to all employers with 50 or more employees. If any employee actually receives coverage through the exchange, the penalty on the employer for that employee rises to $3000. If the employer requires a waiting period to enroll in coverage of 30-60 days, there is a $400 tax per employee ($600 if the period is 60 days or longer). Bill: PPACA; Page: 345-346

(Combined score of individual and employer mandate tax penalty: $65 billion)

$60.1 Billion: Tax on Health Insurers (Takes effect Jan. 2014): Annual tax on the industry imposed relative to health insurance premiums collected that year. Phases in gradually until 2018. Fully-imposed on firms with $50 million in profits. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,986-1,993

$32 Billion: Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans (Takes effect Jan. 2018): Starting in 2018, new 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans ($10,200 single/$27,500 family). Higher threshold ($11,500 single/$29,450 family) for early retirees and high-risk professions. CPI +1 percentage point indexed. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,941-1,956

$23.6 Billion: “Black liquor” tax hike (Took effect in 2010) This is a tax increase on a type of bio-fuel. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 105

$22.2 Billion: Tax on Innovator Drug Companies (Took effect in 2010): $2.3 billion annual tax on the industry imposed relative to share of sales made that year. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,971-1,980

$20 Billion: Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers (Takes effect Jan. 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax. Exempts items retailing for <$100. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,980-1,986

$15.2 Billion: High Medical Bills Tax (Takes effect Jan 1. 2013): Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI. Waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994-1,995

$13.2 Billion: Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka “Special Needs Kids Tax” (Takes effect Jan. 2013): Imposes cap on FSAs of $2500 (now unlimited). Indexed to inflation after 2013. There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,388-2,389

$5 Billion: Medicine Cabinet Tax (Took effect Jan. 2011): Americans no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin). Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957-1,959

$4.5 Billion: Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D (Takes effect Jan. 2013) Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,994

$4.5 Billion: Codification of the “economic substance doctrine” (Took effect in 2010): This provision allows the IRS to disallow completely-legal tax deductions and other legal tax-minimizing plans just because the IRS deems that the action lacks “substance” and is merely intended to reduce taxes owed. Bill: Reconciliation Act; Page: 108-113

$2.7 Billion: Tax on Indoor Tanning Services (Took effect July 1, 2010): New 10 percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,397-2,399

$1.4 Billion: HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike (Took effect Jan. 2011): Increases additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,959

$0.6 Billion: $500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives (Takes effect Jan. 2013): Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,995-2,000
                                                                                                               
$0.4 Billion: Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike (Took effect in 2010): The special tax deduction in current law for Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies would only be allowed if 85 percent or more of premium revenues are spent on clinical services. Bill: PPACA; Page: 2,004

$ Negligible: Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals (Took effect in 2010): $50,000 per hospital if they fail to meet new "community health assessment needs," "financial assistance," and "billing and collection" rules set by HHS. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,961-1,971

$ Negligible: Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 (Took effect in Jan. 2012): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns. Bill: PPACA; Page: 1,957

75% of these taxes will be imposed upon those making less than $120k per year. That just goes to show tthat Obama was lying when he said that taxes upon the middle class wouldn't be part of the bill.



The hypocrisy of the Obama administration is shown here...his chief of staff is claiming that ObamaCare's mandate isn't a tax...only to be shown that Obama's attorneys said that it was before the Supreme Court.



We've been screwed by Congress for that last time.  If the GOP controlled House of Reprentatives doesn't present a bill repealing this abortion of a law BEFORE the November elections, they'll merely be showing us they are tools...

ObamaCare: Dem's NOT LOOKING TO THE CONSTITUTION

Here is a Democratic Congresswoman being completely honest:

“Well, basically, we’re not looking to the Constitution on that aspect of it.”

While Ms. Hochul claims that religious organizations are exempt from the provisions that require birth control...but they aren't.  The Obama regime has kicked it to their insurers...but most religious organizations are self insured.  They will still have to pay for birth control, regardless of what their religious beliefs are.

But..for comic relief...here's Nancy:

ObamaCare: Obama Lied!

ObamaCare won't allow you to keep your insurance "if you like it," nor will it keep costs down.  Video:



H/T Don Surber

ObamaCare: It's Real Effects...

A very good friend of mine who is now in his early 70's sent me this note a bit ago: 

I was notified on September 29, 2010 by AmericaGroup - my Medicare Advantage Program, that they will not be offering any more Medicare Advantage Programs. So they sent me the notice along with a 6 page list of companies who will offer Medicare insurance.


You got to love Obamacare ... you know and remember his 'promise' that you will be able to keep your doctor and insurance company.

The open enrollment period is from Nov 15 - through Dec 31 - ONLY.

Nobody on the list knows if Medicare will accept them as an insurance agent and nobody will know until November 15 - at the earliest.

Obama has stuck his thumb in the plumb pudding and he had his dumbocrats pass a bill, that nobody read or understood, but then lied when he said you would keep your doctor and insurance plan.

This guy is the biggest bull shit artist ever to serve as President. Hell - Nixon was a saint next to Obama.

I will lose my insurance on December 31st and be forced to accept straight Medicare - with all of its deductibles.

Like Don King is famous of saying - "Ain't it great to be in America."

Vote all the jerks out in November.

So much  for "If you like your insurance, you can keep it."  I figured that was a lie, as was all the rest, "This will keep costs down," etc.  Rasmussen Reports finds that: 

Nearly three-out-of-four voters (73%) believe it is at least somewhat likely that the new health care law will cause some companies to drop health insurance coverage for their employees, including 47% who say it is Very Likely. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that just 19% think that's unlikely.

 As my friend relates, there is truth that many health care companies will be dropping insurance.  Thanks Mr. President, Madame Speaker, Mr. Reid, you have just ruined the best health care system in the world.

REMEMBER NOVEMBER

VOTE ALL THE BASTARDS OUT!

Fact Checking ObamaCare

AP finally does it's job and has begun to take a closer look at a few of the claims that Mr. Obama made at this news conference this week. Here's how those claims stand up against the facts.

OBAMA: Said he never expected to extend insurance coverage to an additional 31 million people “for free.“ He added that ”we’ve made huge progress” if medical inflation could be brought down to the level of overall inflation, or somewhere slightly above that

THE FACTS: Those claims may be supported in the fine print of the plan he pitched to Congress and a skeptical public months ago. But they were rarely heard back then. “My proposal would bring down the cost of health care for millions — families, businesses and the federal government,” he declared in March.

Last August he predicted: “The American people are going to be glad that we acted to change an unsustainable system so that more people have coverage, we’re bending the cost curve, and we’re getting insurance reforms.”

On Friday, he conceded: “Bending the cost curve on health care is hard to do.” The goal: “Slowly bring down those costs.”

The White House contends that although health care costs will rise when most of the changes take hold in 2014 and coverage is extended to the uninsured, costs will go down over the longer term as controls kick in.

___

OBAMA: “We took every idea out there about how to reduce or at least slow the costs of health care over time.”

THE FACTS: One idea that most experts believe would do the most to control health costs — directly taxing health benefits — was missing in Obama’s plan. Opposition from unions and others was too great, and Obama himself had campaigned against the idea.

Some of the major cost controllers that did make it into the law — including a tax on high-value insurance plans — don’t start until 2018. That tax was watered down and delayed, and other cost-control approaches also softened after opposition from hospitals and other interest groups.

Health spending already accounts for about 17 percent of the economy and is projected to grow to nearly 20 percent in 2019.

___

OBAMA: “So these policies of cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans, of stripping away regulations that protect consumers, running up a record surplus to a record deficit — those policies finally culminated in the worst financial crisis we’ve had since the Great Depression.”

THE FACTS: The president probably meant the broader economic crisis and not the meltdown of the financial industry when he talked about the “financial crisis.” True enough, George W. Bush entered office with a $236 billion budget surplus in 2001, and in January 2009, before Obama was sworn into office, the Congressional Budget Office projected the deficit for the fiscal year 2009 to be $1.2 trillion.

But the surpluses the government foresaw in 2001 were based on a bubble economy that was bound to burst. And the deficit Obama inherited was only partly from Bush’s fiscal policies.
Mostly it was a result of a recession that sapped tax revenues, increased the costs of safety net programs and demanded more government spending to stimulate the economy. As recently as 2007, the budget deficit was just $161.5 billion. The current annual deficit is now an estimated $1.5 trillion

____________

OBAMA: Asked how he can lecture Afghan President Hamid Karzai about corruption when it’s fueled in part by U.S. aid dollars, Obama said: “I’ve said to my national security team … Let’s be consistent in terms of how we operate across agencies. Let’s make sure that our efforts there are not seen as somehow giving a wink and a nod to corruption.”

THE FACTS: While acknowledging the situation is messy, Obama seemed to minimize it.

“Are there going to be occasions where we look and see that some of our folks on the ground have made compromises with people who are known to have engaged in corruption?” he asked. “You know, we’re reviewing all that constantly and there may be occasions where that happens.”

The United States spends more than $100 billion annually in Afghanistan, the world’s second-poorest nation and one of the most corrupt. U.S. officials acknowledge that a significant percentage of the U.S. bankroll enriches shady characters even as it may finance worthy projects, or is stolen outright.

The CIA has paid Afghan warlords and power brokers for years, relying on them as informants and as leverage in the country’s internal ethnic and tribal squabbles. Intelligence officials say payouts are cheap insurance, but development officials and diplomats say the money supports a culture of bribery.

Obama pledged to keep up pressure on Karzai. The Afghan leader recently intervened to free a presidential aide arrested on suspicion of soliciting a bribe. U.S. investigators played a central role in fingering the aide.

Obama Backpeddles On ObamaCare Cost Increases

Here's video of Mr. Obama backpeddling when trying to answer a question posed by Jake Tapper in the press conference the other day.

ObamaCare's (Broken) Promises....

Over at HotAir.com is a lengthy post of ObamaCare's proken promises with video and links.  It'll take about 10 minutes to read and well worth the time.

Promise #1: If you are satisfied with your existing health care arrangement, you can keep it. 

Bottom line: Despite what the president told us repeatedly, it’s quite possible you will not be permitted to keep your health care plan– no matter how much you may like it. Supporters of health care reform argue that government mandates for certain kinds of coverage will only change health care plans for the better, making them more comprehensive, so no one will be negatively impacted. This argument ignores the loss of both choice and money inflicted by government mandates, but even if it were true, that wasn’t the promise, was it?

Read the whole thing.