Thursday, February 16, 2012

Why Start Paying the Federal Fee

By Tabber Lepo


Change, change, change is what the future is all about, however this can be quite a daunting task if you are in the health care field and don't get a memo on every change that is being made on the health care reform and what/where you must comply to and how/when to new laws, so what is a person to do?

Big Government claims most health care reform acts wont fully go into effect until the year 2014, however business owners are advised to start planning now for changes to employee health care plans or to make the decision to opt out and pay the federal fee of $2,000.

This may be all a bit daunting but at Social Service Coordinators they can help you understand the health reform better as well as track your benefits; you will want an advocate looking over your benefits because an expansion to Medicaid all newly eligible adults will be guaranteed a benchmark benefit package that meets the essential health benefits through the Exchanges. Again where is the money coming from? The health reform act intends to finance the coverage for the expanded Medicaid program by giving states 100 percent federal funding for 2014 through 2016, and 95 percent federal financing in 2017.

Businesses can't afford to wait unit the year 2014 to make changes if they haven't planned and budgeted for these changes. Some companies might find it resourceful to actually hire consultants or professional service agents who are knowledgeable about the health care law- to assist in decision making. With that said, the reason for health care reform in the first place was to allow all U.S. citizens the opportunity to have health care. Current draft legislation is working on just that, by reducing the current burden on small firms and their workers by giving them a small business tax credit the hope is that this will alleviate their disproportionately higher costs and encourage coverage.

Many of the leading CEO's in the health care industry concur this can be successful because it allowed for medium and large-sized firms the opportunity to provide health insurance coverage through so called "pay or play" provisions. Companies with employment or payrolls below a certain threshold would be exempt from the pay or play provisions.

However President Obama also promised to stave off cuts in payments to doctors for treating older Americans through Medicare, for 10 years. The reductions were part of a 1997 law that delay is forecast to cost a total of $370 billion. The budget proposes enough money to cover the first two years, starting with $18.6 billion for 2012.

People have been asking me, what if you are not in the low-income bracket but actually have investments and are financially sound; well the laws haven't forgotten you. Starting in 2012, the Medicare Payroll Tax will be expanded to include unearned income. That will be a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for families making more than $250,000 per year ($200,000 for individuals).

It seems a bit complicated to most Americans but there is hope, many health groups have health advocates to help educate and provide outreach services to you. There is no reason to let your health go down hill due to the complicated and small print of the new health care reform laws.

With Social Service Coordinators you can have some extra help as they have an extensive data base of over 6,000 public and privately-sponsored social programs in all 50 states, providing help from energy, nutrition and telephone cost assistance to transportation and property tax programs




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