Most people aren't directly touched by Obamacare. They get their health insurance through their employer, Cobra, Medicare or for veterans Tricare. Health insurance is mandatory now. The only health insurance that my wife can purchase is Obamacare on the Federal Exchange and at $1378 per month for their Silver plan it's unaffordable. There's no competition, take it but under IRS penalty you'd better not leave it. This is not a political fight for us, it's fixed income survival. Unchecked Obamacare will kill us. Best case: Obamacare cripples us.
Figuring 15% to 50% a year in premium increases we could be out a quarter of a million dollars (possibly more) by the time my wife becomes Medicare eligible in 8 years. And that's just for the mandatory insurance. Because Obamacare includes big deductibles as standard equipment actual health care for most things not catastrophic is an additional cost. I try to realize that Obamacare is working for some people but that's only at the expense of others. There are winners and losers with every government program and in this one we're big losers. I'm angry at the democrats for creating this nightmare for us and I'm angry at the republicans for teasing repeatedly that they'll modify or gut it and then not doing squat. Here's my Senator John McCain when he was running for reelection last summer:
Maverick my ass. He told us what we wanted to hear. Once he was reelected (I regret my vote for him) all of that was forgotten. I want Obamacare done away with, it sits over our heads like a sharp sword. I feel like a chump because I carefully planned and saved for retirement and in doing so set us up for this while others who pissed their money away are getting cheap or free rides. We're the broken eggs in someone else's omelette.
The Feds pay during Obamacare open enrollment time for something called Navigators. We made an appointment at the local hospital to see one and during our meeting quickly established what I already knew, their expensive threadbare and mandatory insurance was absolutely unaffordable. She told us that it was mandatory, I refused and only half in jest I invited her to visit me in Leavenworth. Not because I hate the government but because their health insurance in addition to my Medicare plus supplements would exceed $20,000 for 2018 and will only go up. She said that she understood and told us that most people who come in for these meetings who don't get a subsidized ride leave angry and without buying insurance on the federal marketplace. The upshot is that 2 weeks after the meeting with the navigator where we turned down their insurance we got a bill for $1140 from Blue Cross of AZ for a month of Obamacare. I guess it really is mandatory. I refuse to pay. Leavenworth here we come!
So what about that subsidy that we don't qualify for? Maybe we're rich and deserve to pay full freight. Hey man, no tax cuts or subsidies for the rich! Here's how the subsidy works for 2 people. The eligibility is figured using your gross income, the figure before all the common deductions for stock losses, mortgage interest, medical bills, personal exemption and state and local taxes etc. Have a gross income of $65,000 or less a year? Good news, you get a giant subsidy! Have a million dollars in the bank? You still get the subsidy. Have a gross income of $65,001? Nothing in the bank? No subsidy for you! That's it, $65k gross is the subsidy limit for 2018, that's why exceeding it is referred to as going over the subsidy cliff. Because of my pension and the bull stock market we're just slightly on the wrong side of the subsidy cliff. I'd rather be rich but over the course of 8 years this is guaranteed to make us poor, to possibly force us out of our home and to leave us with nothing but Social Security and cat food.
Not buying insurance on their marketplace opens us up to a fine of 2.5% of our income from the IRS. But there are ways around that. I have to submit paperwork to the IRS documenting that their insurance will cost us in excess of $6000. We've also joined the Christian Healthcare Ministries, by doing so we should get a religious exemption. Thank you Jesus.
OK, so now what? I had a 3 hour phone conversation with an old friend, he's retired and plays with the tax code and Obamacare just for kicks. He told me that due to quirks in Obamacare's ham handed regulations and the way AZ handles them Arizona is probably the worst state for Obamacare. He told me that in AZ there were no alternatives to the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace.
I even broached the subject of divorce with my wife. If we were no longer married she could get any job and get a big subsidy and our retirement funds would remain intact. We'd see a lawyer first so that nothing would change other than the ripping up of the marriage certificate. I've read of couples in our situation who have done this. She wouldn't hear of it. She is once again looking for work. It's slim employment pickens here but supposedly the economy is better now and if she hits the jackpot and gets a job with employer health insurance we can forestall the erosion of retirement assets. Meanwhile, she's making challah at $6 a loaf. Obamacare Silver goes for $1378 a month here so that means that for 2018 the break even point is 230 challahs per month.
I even broached the subject of divorce with my wife. If we were no longer married she could get any job and get a big subsidy and our retirement funds would remain intact. We'd see a lawyer first so that nothing would change other than the ripping up of the marriage certificate. I've read of couples in our situation who have done this. She wouldn't hear of it. She is once again looking for work. It's slim employment pickens here but supposedly the economy is better now and if she hits the jackpot and gets a job with employer health insurance we can forestall the erosion of retirement assets. Meanwhile, she's making challah at $6 a loaf. Obamacare Silver goes for $1378 a month here so that means that for 2018 the break even point is 230 challahs per month.
A neighbor my wife's age who just quit her job and is facing the same problem as we are called and said that she had answered some junk mail from a salesman who said that he had a way around Obamacare. The salesman was to come to their house to make his pitch, wanna come over and listen? I listened. It's flimsy and legal for them to sell but possibly illegal for us to buy. It's from a company I've never heard of that's owned by Kemper Insurance. They use the Christian Healthcare Ministries as a fig leaf of legality. Thank you Jesus, after a second meeting I bought the questionable insurance because it was a little more than 1/3 the price of Obamacare silver and I felt like I had my back to the wall.
I'm afraid of testing this insurance (it kicks in Dec 1). I'm afraid of the IRS. I'm afraid that the Republicans won't repeal or gut this financial cancer upon us and I'm afraid that the Democrats will again scream that to alter it in the slightest is heartless, cruel and will mean that innocent people will die. They're both full of crap. We're just collateral damage.
