No fucking shit it's not fair! A tax on breathing enforced by the government to be distributed to private for-profit corporations! Who in their right mind thinks that's a good idea?? Only blind partisan political hacks and those who directly profit from the greatest corporate heist in history. This so-called Affordable Care Act is just like the Clean Air Act that allowed more pollution: a solution in name only.
Government employees demand a different set of rules for them:
Dozens of lawmakers and aides are so afraid that their health insurance premiums will skyrocket next year thanks to Obamacare that they are thinking about retiring early or just quitting.
The fear: Government-subsidized premiums will disappear at the end of the year under a provision in the health care law that nudges aides and lawmakers onto the government health care exchanges, which could make their benefits exorbitantly expensive.
...The Affordable Care Act — signed into law in 2010 — contained a provision known as the Grassley Amendment, which said the government can only offer members of Congress and their staff plans that are “created” in the bill or “offered through an exchange” — unless the bill is amended.
...Currently, aides and lawmakers receive their health care under the generous Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. The government subsidizes upward of 75 percent of the premiums for the health insurance plans. In 2014, most Capitol Hill aides and lawmakers are expected to be put onto the exchanges, and there has been no guidance whether the government will subsidize those premiums. This is expected to cause a steep spike in health insurance costs.
...It could be politically difficult to change this provision. The provision was put in the bill in the first place on the theory that if Congress was going to make the country live under the provisions of Obamacare, the members and staff should have to as well.
...More than a dozen senior aides interviewed by POLITICO about the issue declined to be named out of fear for future job prospects. The problem is most acutely felt at the staff level, where aides make between $35,000 and roughly $170,000 and budgetary problems have all but stopped pay increases and bonuses. Lawmakers have questioned leadership aides about the future of their health care.
...[Rep. Tom] Cole added, “A lot of the staff stays on largely because of the benefit levels and particularly if you’ve got people with families and it’s extraordinarily important to them … it’s just not right.”
Outrageous those poor babies have to live under the laws they help pass for others! These are "Federal employees", you say? Big fucking deal. What makes their families more important than anyone else's? Takes a sick mind to think like that. 35% of U.S. households live on $35,000 or less. A full third of the population makes less than a congressional staffer but it's OK to stuff extra burdens on the poor and working poor?
Who's really gullible enough to believe that this historically lowest rated Congress is so overwhelmingly concerned with the greater good they passed some marvel of equability going against the grain of corporate interests? (Or the super gullible claiming, "Yes, they're fucking you now but they'll stop later on!") Sure, everybody's for the idea of affordable health care but because we're happy being led down the garden path we got sold a bill of goods.
Yes, I know what it's like to sleep in a car and hock the gold chain my grandmother gave me so I can eat. For tens of millions out there there's no excess cash to throw around. This isn't some joke or political game as all the disconnects claim it is. They have an answer for everything - except reality.
It's called the Affordable Care Act, but President Barack Obama's health care law may turn out to be unaffordable for many low-wage workers, including employees at big chain restaurants, retail stores and hotels.
That might seem strange since the law requires medium-sized and large employers to offer "affordable" coverage or face fines.
But what's reasonable? Because of a wrinkle in the law, companies can meet their legal obligations by offering policies that would be too expensive for many low-wage workers. For the employee, it's like a mirage — attractive but out of reach.
The company can get off the hook, say corporate consultants and policy experts, but the employee could still face a federal requirement to get health insurance.
Many are expected to remain uninsured, possibly risking fines. That's due to another provision: the law says workers with an offer of "affordable" workplace coverage aren't entitled to new tax credits for private insurance, which could be a better deal for those on the lower rungs of the middle class.
Ohhh, it's all about embracing personal responsibility, right? Because those who skyrocket health care costs cannot be held responsible. The government who could implement regulations to reverse skywriting costs cannot be held responsible. But the low man on the totem pole, by God we can make him responsible! I hear all these specious arguments every day on why it's good to stick it to the little guy. Fuck them and the horse they rode in on. Those people are nothing more than rapists.
The law is complicated, but essentially companies with 50 or more full-time workers are required to offer coverage that meets certain basic standards and costs no more than 9.5 percent of an employee's income. Failure to do so means fines for the employer. (Full-time work is defined as 30 or more hours a week, on average.)
But do the math from the worker's side: For an employee making $21,000 a year, 9.5 percent of their income could mean premiums as high as $1,995 and the insurance would still be considered affordable.Even a premium of $1,000 — close to the current average for employee-only coverage — could be unaffordable for someone stretching earnings in the low $20,000's.
With such a small income, "there is just not any left over for health insurance," said Shannon Demaree, head of actuarial services for the Lockton Benefit Group. "What the government is requiring employers to do isn't really something their low-paid employees want."
Another thing to keep in mind: premiums wouldn't be the only expense for employees. For a basic plan, they could also face an annual deductible amounting to $3,000 or so, before insurance starts paying.
"If you make $20,000, are you really going to buy that?" asked Tracy Watts, health care reform leader at Mercer, a major benefits consulting firm.
And low-wage workers making more than about $15,900 won't be eligible for the law's Medicaid expansion, shutting down another possibility for getting covered.
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We all know why this nightmare law was railroaded into existence by appeasing the insurance industry and big pharma: for Democratic political power. It's not really a matter of helping anyone, it's just a matter of getting people to believe they are being helped. That's the ancient evil of politics. By the time the truth comes out there will be no options left, a fait accompli. I can hear it now: "Oh, I want to help you poor bastard constituents but there's nothing I can do!" Eh, you could off yourself and make the world a better place.
Every person - every living thing - and therefore every society has a direction. That direction is either towards life or death. As we more and more succumb to the cult of corporation we deepen our slavery and misery, arching towards death. The liars, the blasphemers, the predators, the soul-less will decry freedom as death a we spiral downward in delusion of a future. May God damn these false prophets.
The answer is simple and we all know it: if you want a society that succeeds, don't be fucking each other. Until we agree to do that, only the worst among us will continue to rise.
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