Does Biden have a health care plan or a realistic method of getting it passed

Politics & Elections
21

I would say that I am a small business. I have 11 employees right now, and revenues of under a million a year.

Does it? I am aware that the definition can be squishy, but I don’t know that they would qualify. Maybe if they are franchises, then each individual franchise may be.

I dunno about that. The paperwork for the PPP loan was far easier than any other loan that I’ve ever applied for. Very straightforward, took me maybe a couple hours, if that. The forgiveness part was a bit more work, but that was mostly just doing some legwork in getting reports together.

The tax credit for COVID sick pay daunted me at first, but I talked to my payroll company, and I have a column in my payroll that I can put eligible hours into, and they take care of the tax credits.

Being a small business doesn’t mean that you don’t have any resources.

CPA’s aren’t that expensive. I only pay mine around a thousand a year. I don’t know how much I would be paying in taxes without him, so I can’t say how much it saves me, but it certainly saves me the work of doing all that myself. He makes a bunch of adjustments to various accounts that makes sure that I am paying the lowest tax I can legally pay.

Just send over my quickbook’s file, my payroll reports, and a big stack of documents from my bank, and he sends me back my returns along with a tax payment schedule.

This is very true. It is really the healthcare thing that makes it hard for me to attract and retain quality employees.

22

No, it doesn’t:

Well, it’s been in effect for over 6 years, and hasn’t been extended yet.

And if they did extend it, then that would be part of a healthcare reform bill, exactly what you seem to be claiming is not needed.

23

Right, the owner doesn’t get the credit on the Insurance he buys for himself, of course. However, it doesn’t actually do anything for the owners is false. The owner gets a nice, solid Tax credit on insurance he pays for his employees, which does quite a bit for the owner, as it puts $$ in his pocket. So The IRS is right, and you are wrong.
If you are a small employer, there is a tax credit that can put money in your pocket.

The small business health care tax credit benefits employers that:

24

You are evading my point in that it does not subsidize in any way the insurance for the owner. I am 100% correct on this.

If you are just starting out, you don’t have any employees, or very few. For my first year, I had none, and even into my second, I only had a couple. It was only a few years in that I have enough that such a tax credit would even be close to worthwhile.

So, it does not do anything for the owner, as I said.

It also requires that you pay 50% of their premiums, and it only covers up to 50% of that. So, it does help you to pay your employee’s premiums, it does not actually mean that you end up with more money in your pocket than if you had not. It doesn’t put money in your pocket, it just means that you have to pay a little less than you otherwise would have.

Do you understand this, that having a health insurance plan would cost more than not having one, even with this tax credit? If you do not understand this, then you are not equipped to continue this discussion. If you do understand this, then you understand that your claim that “it puts $$ in his pocket” is misleading, at best.

No, I am correct in what I have said. You have just chosen to reinterpret it to mean something else, and then declared victory. I never said that the IRS was wrong, I said that the tax credit doesn’t do anything for helping out someone starting their own business, and that is still 100% correct. So, the IRS is right, I am right, and you are wrong.

It is also only good for 2 years, then you can’t claim it anymore. This doesn’t do much for a business that plans on being around for more than 2 years. So, small businesses that have been around for a bit, and have already used this tax credit are not eligible to claim it again, even though right now, they are hurting more than ever.

As my entire point was that a lack of a comprehensive healthcare plan discourages people from leaving their fulltime jobs at a large employer to start their own business, everything that you have said here is utterly irrelevant, and the victory that you have declared for yourself is rather quixotic.

As it seems your entire point is that there do not need to be any changes to the ACA, and that it is just fine as it is, I will also say that you are entirely wrong on that as well.

25

That isnt what you said, and no, I am not evading it, if you READ the first line of my post you quoted I agreed on that. Of course it doesnt, otherwise everyone on ACA would get get a EIN, a schh C and claim the credit. It is ridiculous to think you’d get a credit on your own benefit.

It does a lot for the oner, it enables him to get a large tax credit on his EMPLOYEES insurance.

Now you are moving the goalposts from: it doesn’t actually do anything for the owners to it doesn’t actually do anything for the owners personal insurance .

Not at all, I completely support Bidens proposed changes.

26

When I applied for ACA subsidies through a navigator after being laid off, they told me I didn’t qualify for anything since my annual income (based on 6 months of UI) was too low for private insurance but my monthly income based on UI was too high for medicaid. She told me that seasonal workers were also excluded from ACA subsidies and medicaid for the same reason. I hope she wasn’t just inept, but thats the impression I got.

People whose spouse has insurance through work that only cover them and that only offer wildly overpriced plans to families do not get ACA subsidies. At one job I worked I think they quoted $800 every 2 weeks in premiums for the employee and their spouse and children.

People who live in states w/o the medicaid expansion don’t get help.

27

Yes, ACA subsidies and yes medicaid has a income limit.

But all of those can buy ACA, they just might not get a subsidy. Bidens new program will supposedly fix this to a degree.

But we werent talking who could get subsidies, just who could get ACA.

See, you said to get ACA. Not to get subsidies.

28

Or, work for a large company that gives benefits, which is what people actually do, rather than start their own, largely because of the health insurance issue.

If a company gets a tax credit for my benefit when they provide a health care program, then when I start my own business, then why should I not get a similar tax credit? That’s not ridiculous, that’s helping people to start small businesses.

You have latched onto one sentence from that, and ignored everything else.

It still costs far more to give your employees insurance, even with the credit, than not giving it to them. It doesn’t put money in your pocket, it just reduces the amount of money out of your pocket.

And it is also only two years.

No, I’m not. You have chosen to interpret what I said in a certain way, and have latched onto that interpretation. At best, I was a bit ambiguous, and my clarification should make you understand what I meant.

The entire point is that starting your own business is a daunting challenge for a whole host of reasons, most of which you don’t even know about until you’ve started down that road. A really big one is the health insurance angle. Someone could stay here at a job that they hate, because of the health insurance, or they could start their own business, doing something that they love, something that is more productive for the community, but are afraid to take that step due to fear of losing their insurance.

Then why do you keep defending the status quo?

I think that healthcare should be entirely separated from employment. It really makes no sense to do it that way, and it gives employers far more power over their employees than they should have.

29

I have not heard much about a stand-alone Biden healthcare bill. But the Covid relief bill has a short-term ACA 2.0 type thing attached to it. If the bill is passed, it will boost subsidies for 2021 and 2022. So, it’s two years of getting more tax credits. Here’s a link to what’s in the works.

The subsidies would be set such that premiums are never more than 8.5% of your income, and the subsidy cliff that occurs at 400% of the FPL would be eliminated, making the ACA exchange policies MUCH more affordable for middle-class people. People who make less than 400%FPL would get stronger subsidies, too, so that they can afford more for less.

They’ve also got a new 3 month period for the exchanges to open up, a special enrollment period, which is running from mid-February to mid-May.

This is a slick way to backdoor an ACA 2.0 type bill. And I’m going to make a guess that they will try and make this permanent sometime in 2022. Once the public gets a taste of these much stronger subsidies, I think it will be popular, and they’ll try and make it permanent in 2022, maybe via another reconciliation bill.

So, if the Covid relief bill passes with this still tucked inside the bill, then it will be a big deal. It will not get us to UHC. But it has the potential to cut us from 9% uninsured to something much lower, maybe around 5%.

30

Can Biden pass 3 budget reconciliation bills a year or just 1? If he can do 3, that means he has up to 6 total over the next two years.

One will be the covid bill, but I believe he also wants to pass a stimulus/infrastructure bill too. Maybe a health bill can be a 3rd reconciliation bill.

31

It’s one each for “spending, revenue, and the debt limit”. So sort of 3, but typically just 1. The COVID relief bill will certainly touch both spending and revenue so that will be it for those two topics for this year. This Congress will get one more bite at the apple in 2022 before the midterms.

32

And I think it’s once each “fiscal year”, which end on 9/30. So, he technically might have two more shots at reconciliation bills to include an ACA 2.0 before the next congress kicks in during 2023. He could get one in between 10/1/21 and 9/30/22, and then potentially another after 10/1/22.

Slipping a 2-year update to the subsidies is a big thing, and not much of the media is talking about it. I sure hope he can make this permanent, because it would make the ACA a much better deal for income groups that either can’t afford it now, or can barely afford it.

33

So have I got this right about the American system of governance?

  1. Joe Biden won the presidency with a majority of the popular vote and the electoral vote.

  2. Democrats control the House.

  3. Democrats control the Senate, thanks to 1, above.

And the President and the Democrats can only reasonably expect to pas one bill this year? :thinking:

34

Democrats don’t control the senate. Control of the senate requires 60 votes. There are a few instances where a simple majority will suffice, Those instances are the ones they’re talking about in the thread. Democrats now have 50 votes with the VP tie for 51.

Here’s more. There’s lots of debate about the 60 vote rule.

60 Votes Needed in the Senate?

35

Unless they nuke the filibuster.

Or Republicans become interested in actually governing for once.

Neither is going to happen though, and I have my doubts of them passing their one bill either.

They could surprise me, but while there are very few Republicans who are willing to govern in the best interests of the country, there are a couple of Democrats who are generally not willing to do so either. 50 Senators caucusing with the Democrats does not mean 50 votes.

36

No, they don’t.

The ACA, while a step in the right direction, isn’t a federal government single-payer system. It’s a set of rules and regulations governing private, largely for-profit, insurers, combined with subsidies for lower-income insurance buyers.

As someone here said, it’s as full of holes as Swiss cheese. It’s better than nothing, but not fantastic.

37

This is true. But it can be made much better without completely re-engineering our healthcare system. Biden’s Covid bill will go a long ways to plugging these holes by strengthening the tax credits and making it affordable for all income levels and not just for poor people. And alot of the holes are there not because of a flaw in the original design, but because our SCOTUS made the Medicaid expansion optional, which then created the holes in red states where ideology trumps helping people.

38

I see what you did there. :grin:

39

Yes, they do. Read what I was replying to:
"…having the ability for every American to get health insurance from the federal government, either through a single-payer or multi-payer system."

40

I hope Biden’s plan is better than you’re making it out to be. Arguing that access equals ability to get insurance without taking into account that cost limits and sometimes eliminates access was a Republican strategy. I hope that’s the strategy you’re using and doesn’t exemplify Biden’s plan.