Category Archives: Issues

Obamacare ACA information

Researching ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act)

Please send me helpful articles on the subject.  No politically-motivated articles, flaming  articles, etc. I want to understand how it will work so I can advise others who ask and determine what I can do to encourage its reform. I think we need healthcare reform. But it is apparent that the ACA has major problems. However, ut we need to work toward solutions, not excuses or political stonewalling.

Here are a couple articles that I have come across the help me understand ACA:

  1. http://www.kitces.com/blog/how-the-premium-assistance-tax-credit-for-health-insurance-impacts-the-marginal-tax-rate/

The article discusses the tax implications of ObamaCare.  Hopefully most of you understand marginal tax rates. As you make more money, you pay a higher % of tax on the additional income you make.  The first $17,400 of taxable income is taxed at 10%, the next $53,000 is taxed at 15%, and so forth.  Your marginal tax rate is the rate you pay for the last dollars of additional income you make. The higher your marginal tax rate, the more likely you are to look for tax breaks.

Under ACA, insurance coverage is subsidized for many Americans on a sliding scale via the premium assistance tax credit. As you make more money, the tax credit goes down.   The effect is to increase the marginal tax rate. See the article for more clarify and examples.

  1. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/11/want-to-know-how-the-obamacare-site-should-work-three-programmers-made-a-functioning-version-in-days-at-no-cost-to-taxpayers/

    You have heard a lot about the problems with the health.gov web site. In this article and the link below, there is information on how 3 young people built a functioning web site to allow individuals to find out their options under the ACA,  how much it would cost, etc.  Here is a link to the site they built:
    http://www.thehealthsherpa.com/. The web site is nice, the premiums are not (but that is the cost of the American system).