No, I'm not talking about Tennessee's defense against the Ducks. In case you haven't heard, Cover Oregon is Oregon's implementation of Obamacare....the so called Affordable Health Care Act. As a self-employed person who would qualify to be covered under the program, this crap is about to get very real for me and my wife in a big hurry. Sign-ups begin in October, with the program slated to go into affect January 1 (assuming Congress doesn't somehow pull the plug or it doesn't get delayed by the White House). I spent a bit of time playing with the calculator for individuals and families on the Cover Oregon website. http://www.coveroregon.com/calculators/individual-calculator/ I'm going to share my personal situation with my fellow S2-ers just so you can see how this thing impacts someone like me. I'll be 61 when this thing goes into affect (yeah, I'm an old fart, but I've been a Blazers fan for 40 years so show a little respect) and coverage for me and my wife is projected to cost $1,553.00 per month (yeah, that's affordable). Now, there's a sliding scale of federal tax credits that will offset a portion of this cost as long as our Modified Adjusted Gross Income doesn't exceed approximately $62,000 (the cap for a family of 2). If I keep my MAGI to $62,000 my share of the monthly premium would be $491 per month and the remaining 68% would be covered by tax credits. Make a few bucks more and apparently I'd be on the hook for the full $1,553 per month. The Cover Oregon website doesn't say whether that's for a Gold, Silver or Bronze plan, but I'm guessing it's the Silver, which covers 70% of costs up to the out-of-pocket cap. I'm a land use planning consultant and my clients are primarily land owners, school districts and developers who have to process permits through local governments. As you can imagine, the recession caused a major hit on my business. Presently, I'm considerably under the $62K income cap, but things are picking up again. If I bust my tail and try to add accounts and max out my work load, I could probably net $125K or so. I could dump about $18K into my IRA and HSA, but I'd be well over the $62K income limit and would have to pay my own insurance without any government support. I presently have a health insurance policy that costs $800 per month and bascially only covers major medical. We try to put money into our HSA to cover our out-of-pocket costs. When things have been tight, that doesn't happen. Under Obamacare, this plan can be grandfathered in and allowed to continue, but it has none of the preventive care coverages that are a part of Obamacare. So, as I see it, I have the following options: 1. Continue my present plan, work like a dog and make as much money as I can until I retire at age 66. I'll pay about $5-$10K more per year for my insurance and out-of-pocket expenses than I would if we were under a Cover Oregon plan. 2. File for a plan under Cover Oregon, work just hard enough to max out my IRA and HSA contributions, but make damn sure I don't exceed a MAGI of $62K per year. I'm going to have to do some serious looking at this option to see how our budget would work on this restricted of an income. 3. Go for the total leech option. Downsize my house, pay cash for a car, qualify for Food Stamps and whatever other assistance I can get to make my cost of living as low as possible, have my health insurance paid for almost entirely by other suckers (I mean hard working individuals) and play the system for all its worth. What scares me is that I don't even know what I don't know at this point. I'm going to have to do some serious research over the next few months. What a wonderful system.
2 things, one, would you please send me some info on this. I am a freelance employee and have no benefits for me and my family and am very excited about this. For just health care for me my wife and kids, I'm spending $1500 a month and it is killing us! I would love to bug you if you don't mind, I have a ton of questions about this. And two, the commercial with all the people dancing at a BBQ..... These are 3 really good friends of mine hip hop group The LifeSavas. Very proud of them! Sent from HCPs Baller-Ass iPhone 5...FAMS!
HCP, all the information I have is what I've learned from the Cover Oregon website. Here's the link: http://www.coveroregon.com/
What do you mean by shit hitting the fan. Anything that can help me afford insurance for my children is a good thing right?
You must not have read his post. Silver will increase your coverage, right? As you start seeing the doctor more often in your 60s, the better insurance will save on his fees more than your current policy. So you should subtract the savings from the cost. As for your question about how much to earn, it's simple. Keep your Adjusted Gross Income out of the $62-75,000 range. 75,000 = 62,000 + 12 X (1553- 491). Above 75K you make the same dollars per unit of effort that you would have. Between 62-75 you make less, to pay for more coverage, which may pay for itself if the 60s hit you hard.
Yes, but I'm interested in your answer to his question: Anything that can help me afford insurance for my children is a good thing right?
e, I think the best option for you is #2. Put as much away as you can to defer taxes (I think you can increase contributions at the end) and make 62K/yr . . . determining your salary is the luxury you get being self employed. This might even allow you to cruise a little going into retirement. If you want to work like a dog the last 5 years, there should be ways to invest it in your business and cash it out later. I keep playing with the idea of buying a building and dumping a big part of my salary into paying off the mortgage, then at the end I can sell the building. But ask me, it a no brainer to go on cruise control of maxing out all deferred compensation programs, bring home 62K and enjoying life.
What bothers me about the commercial is that it is a total stereotype of the portland lifestyle. It is almost like a skit on portlandia. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
If so, I think you are thinking too much. I'm biased because those guys are lifelong friends of mine. But it just shows a bunch of family and friends having a great time. And growing up in N.E. Portland, we grew up having get togethers like that all the time. Reading too much into it.......maybe you need to come into the city and enjoy a good old fashioned black BBQ! [video=youtube;43R_7UKvy2Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43R_7UKvy2Y[/video]
A premium of $1553 sounds like it's Gold, not Silver. Your present catastrophe-only insurance compares to Bronze, so your price and breakeven income will be lower than the above numbers. If you make under $62K you take home $3700 more than before Obamacare, 12 X (800 - 491). So on $62,000 you'll live like $65,700 now.
He could deduct the 10 brain surgeries that he isn't having from his cost, too. It's a wonderful thing this free health care.
Incentives matter. How do people think focusing on NOT making money will effect the economy? As for HCP, quality health care is expensive. Sacrifice is always tough, but there couldn't be a better reason than for your kids. And right now, you health insurance costs may decrease a bit, but they're expected to skyrocket. The quality of your care will also decrease, as with fewer doctors making less money and spending more time on administration rather than care ripples through the system. There's an assumption in the US that we get as much health care as we want whenever we want it. In Canada, they wait months for an MRI. In the UK, the survival rate for breast cancer is 77%. In the US, it's 94%. I think we can all agree that those 17 percentage points matter more than saving a few bucks on "free" health insurance. There are those of us who have been screaming at the top of our lungs about the disaster that's looming with the ACA. Few have listened or even bothered to look at the track record of other countries with socialized medicine: more bureaucracy; worse outcomes; longer waits; rationed services; and governing of your lifestyle (as it's the government's business now). And if you don't think we're not on a road to single-payer, you're simply not paying attention. The only way people are going to learn, sadly, is when they're denied care. There's going to be a lot of pain experienced by people who put their faith in this Administration, and it could have been avoided.
So option one is that someone else gets cheaper health care than you, but you still net 115k$/year or you could have option two where you "get it easy" and only make 62k$/year. That seems like a win/win to me. But what do I know, I'm struggling to break 33k$/year.
