An interesting article by John Geyman M.D. appears in the Huffington Post on January 25, 2013, and is also put on the Physicians for a National Health Program’s website over at http://www.pnhp.org/news/2013/january/the-affordable-care-act-what-to-expect-in-2013. It discusses the Affordable Care Act (ACA – aka ObamaCare)
I have previously discussed the Affordable Care Act on this blog a few months ago over at What does the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Mean for Americans?
The article by Dr. Geyman says
“The ACA’s fundamental flaw is that it props up an inefficient and exploitative private health insurance industry while not recognizing that deregulated markets can’t fix systemic problems of access, costs, quality, equity, accountability and sustainability…The only real fix for our problems is single-payer, improved Medicare for All, a proposal introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), H.R. 676, coupled with a private delivery system.”
Dr. Geyman addresses several directions that U.S. citizens can take to help improve healthcare in the U.S. and allow citizen’s to have access. He encourages people to speak out against the abuses in the current system, he encourages people to fight for a benefit program that covers all Americans in a single risk pool, and further argues that individuals push for an independent, well-funded national institute to deal with coverage and cost-effectiveness issues on the basis of scientific evidence, not upon which profit-based interest group can scream the loudest.
Although not discussed by Dr. Geyman but discussed in my prior blog post, people will see their hours reduced to less than 30 a week in order for their employer to not have to pay for their health benefits. Another important point is that on Form 1040, Schedule A, for your taxes their is an item on line 37 called your AGI or adjusted gross income. Starting, in tax year 2013, you will only be able to deduct medical care expenses if they exceed 10% of your AGI up from 7.5% of your AGI in 2012. Further, starting in 2013 there is now a $2,500 limit on pretax employee contributions to health care flexible spending accounts (FSAs) down from essentially no limit but often self-imposed limits by employers of $5,000 in 2012.