democrats beg to be saved from obamacare

Loading

Pressure is building on the Obama administration to give uninsured people a second chance to sign up for ObamaCare before they are slapped with a fine.

People without insurance in 2015 will pay a fine of $325 or 2 percent of their income, whichever is greater, during next year’s tax season.

Democrats and several advocacy groups argue that people without insurance don’t realize they’re in danger of taking a significant economic hit.
“Millions upon millions of people are unaware about these penalties,” Ron Pollack, the executive director of the nonprofit group Families USA, said in a briefing Wednesday.

This year’s penalty is up significantly from the $95 or 1 percent of income fine for not having insurance in ObamaCare’s first year.

The first time people will actually pay the fine is in this coming tax season. Just one-third of people without health insurance said they were aware of the healthcare law’s penalty in a March 2014 poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The administration estimates that as many as 6 million people will be forced to pay up this spring.

Many are confused when they are told of the penalty.

More of this at The Hill

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
5 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

The reason so many are about to be smacked upside the head with stiff penalties? Because Obama and his media will only talk about how free everything is and ignore the fact that you will be penalized for not accepting all his “free” (at the cost of much more than it was) health care.

To paraphrase….

“There is no coercion in health care….”

@Pete:

“There is no coercion in health care….”

To Collect Debts, Nursing Homes Are Seizing Control Over Patients

Lillian Palermo tried to prepare for the worst possibilities of aging. An insurance executive with a Ph.D. in psychology and a love of ballroom dancing, she arranged for her power of attorney and health care proxy to go to her husband, Dino, eight years her junior, if she became incapacitated. And in her 80s, she did.

(Snip)

But one day last summer, after he disputed nursing home bills that had suddenly doubled Mrs. Palermo’s copays, and complained about inexperienced employees who dropped his wife on the floor, Mr. Palermo was shocked to find a six-page legal document waiting on her bed.

It was a guardianship petition filed by the nursing home, Mary Manning Walsh, asking the court to give a stranger full legal power over Mrs. Palermo, now 90, and complete control of her money.

Few people are aware that a nursing home can take such a step. Guardianship cases are difficult to gain access to and poorly tracked by New York State courts; cases are often closed from public view for confidentiality. But the Palermo case is no aberration. Interviews with veterans of the system and a review of guardianship court data conducted by researchers at Hunter College at the request of The New York Times show the practice has become routine, underscoring the growing power nursing homes wield over residents and families amid changes in the financing of long-term care.

(Snip)

…But lawyers and others versed in the guardianship process agree that nursing homes primarily use such petitions as a means of bill collection — a purpose never intended by the Legislature when it enacted the guardianship statute in 1993.

At least one judge has ruled that the tactic by nursing homes is an abuse of the law, but the petitions, even if they are ultimately unsuccessful, force families into costly legal ordeals.

“It’s a strategic move to intimidate,” said Ginalisa Monterroso, who handled patient Medicaid accounts at the Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home until 2012, and is now chief executive of Medicaid Advisory Group, an elder care counseling business that was representing Mr. Palermo in his billing dispute. “Nursing homes do it just to bring money.”

(Snip)

“They chose to use a strong-arm method, asking for somebody to be appointed to take over her funds, hoping for a rubber stamp to do their wishes,” said Elliott Polland, Mr. Palermo’s lawyer.

Many judges go along with such petitions, according to lawyers and others involved in the process. One judge who has not is Alexander W. Hunter Jr., a longtime State Supreme Court justice in the Bronx and Manhattan. In guardianship cases in 2006 and 2007, Justice Hunter ordered the nursing homes to bear the legal costs, ruling they had brought the petitions solely for the purpose of being paid and stating that this was not the Legislature’s intent when it enacted the statute, known as Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law.

Something else to think about, is whether a nursing home that has successfully stolen guardianship of a loved one (and their finances,) will be able to decide to terminate this patient to free up the bed (once they have bled the patient’s finances dry,) in order to make room for another patient as another cash cow to milk.

@Ditto:

Perhaps I should have put a sarc tag on my post #2…

I was poking an allegorical stick at the islamic claim of “there is no compulsion in religion”

@Pete:

No prob. I was looking for an excuse to introduce that somewhat relevant report.