Officials sound off against Healthcare ‘tax’

Published 3:49 am Thursday, July 5, 2012

Last Thursday the Supreme Court ruled the Affordable Care Act was constitutional as a tax. This Act will provide coverage to over 30 million Americans that are uninsured or have been denied insurance coverage at some point in the past six months.

The Affordable Care Act was proposed and signed into a law on March 23 2010, but the law was not immediate. Most of the changes, that it carries will not come into play until 2014, and one “Paying Physicians Based on Value Not on Volume” will not take effect until January 1 2015. State officials in this area, however, are against the new tax.

“We already have a shortage in the medical field,” State Sen. Scott Beason said, “Because of all the legislation that comes along with it, not to mention the payments they have to make. People think that doctors have all the money, but they have to because they have to pay a lot to others.”

Rep. Randy Wood says that the new health care laws that are going to be coming into effect will make people change their minds about going into the medical field.

Doctors will now have to report things such as sample drugs they get from medical supply companies. Many doctors voiced their concerns with the demand they will be in once the ruling takes its effect, since they are in a shortage.

Doctors and insurance companies can no longer deny coverage or care to anyone over pre-existing or developing health or learning conditions. This includes things like Autism or diabetes. You must also have been without coverage for six months before you apply for this coverage.

The law also requires that chain restaurants and grocery stores, list calories under every item on the menu. One issue that many places are beginning to encounter is many business owners are complaining about the cost it will bring to provide each one of their employees with health insurance, so that they don’t have to buy it on their own.

According to the law, small businesses with 50 employees or more must provide health insurance to their employees. If that business chooses not to provide insurance they can be fined. Businesses with 25 or fewer employees may be qualified for a tax credit.

The tax credit is meant to offset the cost of covering their employees. For-profit businesses get a 35 percent tax credit, and nonprofit businesses get a 25 percent tax credit.

Beason compared it to a squirrel in a cage, “They feed you and water you a little bit every day. You have a little wheel to run on everyday, but you have to stay in that care. If one day you don’t want to run on the wheel, or any to go outside. You can’t. They won’t let you.”

With the new health care law, any family plan must cover people’s children until they are 26, no matter if they are married, in school, at home, or even if they are not financially dependent on their parents, according to HealthCare.gov. The exception is if the child’s job offers health coverage.

Plans are now required to provide 30 days before the start of a person’s policy year, to allow parents to enroll their children that are considered adults, onto their plan. A person must receive this opportunity of enrolling them in writing.

“What business of the federal government is it that if a parent wants to pay for their kid’s health care? Why should they mandate what age a parent stops paying for it?” Beason commented. “What if a kid refuses to work, knowing their parents have to pay for it until their twenties? Should we keep paying or do we show tough love; stop paying and have them do it on their own?”

Alabama is receiving multiple grants from the federal government:

-$863,000 for school-based health centers which will help clinics expand and provide more health care services to students

-$530,000 to support outreach to eligible Medicare beneficiaries about their benefits.

-$292,200 for Family-to-Family Health Information Centers for families with special health care needs.

-$4.8 million in Maternal, Infant, and Early Childcare Visiting Programs. These programs help at-risk families.

“I think that is too far reaching,” St. Clair County Commission Chairman Stan Batemon said.  “It is an encroachment of government on individual liberties.  Because of mandates people lose some of the ways they choose a physician. I hope the bill as it is written is overturned, and congress reviews it with careful consideration.”