The joys of being self-employed

[MinUph]

  I carry health insurance through the marketplace. I like Obama for that. Making it affordable, couple hundred a month for me. It was cheaper when my wife was on it too. My wife is done and on Medicare so she gets some relief. I have another year before I go on it.
  As for employees and the expenses that go with it. It is much better in florida than it was in NY as far as I remember. I don't provide insurance benefits except Aflac. They do me well. It works. My only concern is turnover and training new people. That is a work slowdown to say the least.
 

[bobbin]

My shop is at our home.  We take full advantage of all available "deductions".  One half of this team works "for the man" (I did it for many years) and that's how we handle "health/death care". 

Book keeping and assiduous attention to detail is crucial! and it's what allows us to make it work. 

But for too many? the present tax system is grossly unfair and stacked in absolute opposition.  And yet, too many "tradesmen" still vote against their own best interests.  Umm... duh...? take the long view guys. 

[sofadoc]

  I carry health insurance through the marketplace. I like Obama for that. Making it affordable, couple hundred a month for me.   

As I said before, my insurance is through my wife's employer. So I have no experience with the marketplace.

But when Obamacare first went into effect, everybody was pissing and moaning about it. They were ready to hang Obama from the highest tree. Now, it seems as though everyone is warming up to it. True?

[MinUph]

  I jumped on board at the very beginning. It took a long time before the website actually worked but it finally did. I can't say I understand the opposition to it as we now have health insurance that we couldn't afford for many, many years. Seems as though the 2 parties just dislike anything the other one does. And the president has been shot down for everything he wants to do. At least he did it. Whether it be good or bad time will tell.
  At the start of it all no-one I worked with signed up but now they all have. At least the ones that don't get it from a spouse.

[SteveA]

it seems as though everyone is warming up to it. True?

You don't really have a choice. My old policy was canceled.    Yes Obama had no cooperation for single payer but what he has delivered is not better then what I had - the waivers were another wrench in the works.   .  This new health care is not even close to what I had - I'd love my old policy back.  Nothing anyone can change although I hope over time they keep tweaking it until it is a policy we'll all like.,

SA

[byhammerandhand]

Not on Obamacare.    My two cents is that is does not really do anything to reduce the costs of health care -- just subsidizes it for the individual.   No malpractice tort reform, no reduction in Rx costs (highest in the world), no attempts to reduce costs of hospitals or physicians.

I spent one night in the hospital this spring -- showed up at ER about 8 pm, had a CRT scan to diagnose what I could have told them (kidney stones).  Surgeon on call was stacked up and got to me about 10:45 to do a temporary bypass, saw the ER doc twice for about 30 seconds each time.   Admitted after procedure, got out about 11 am the next morning.   Cost, not including the urologist's charges, $22,000 !!!  Thankfully, there were negotiated discounts with my insurance, but I'm still out $5,000 deductible   I know to refused my normal meds in the morning because I can buy a year's worth of multi-vitamins for what the hospital charges me for one..

[baileyuph]

Basic question about Obama care is simply, should the cost of an insurance policy be lowered for some at the expense of those who pay more taxes.  The cost of medical care is more expensive under the program.

Should other tax payers shoulder the cost to lower the cost for another receipient?

Tax the rich is the message I get.  Someone has to pay the bills.

Som - raises the overall cost- is the theory I read.

Doyle 

[bobbin]

Single payer national health insurance.  The rest of the "evolved", first world countries do it; time to study up and copy them, I say! Time for the good ol' USA to smarten up and get on board.  Enough grousing about how "much it costs".  And start looking at how much health insurance companies and big pharma. mean on the stock market...

Spare me the right wing clap trap about "marketplace economies".  Baloney! it hasn't worked for over 30 yrs.. time to move on, kids.  The only thing "wrong" with Obamacare is that it didn't go nearly far enough! Ted Kennedy had it figured out in the early '70s.  We need to spend less on interminable "armed conflicts" (let's not call them wars because if we did we could/should fund them with taxes) and direct the monies to things that will directly benefit those of us who actually pay full freight in taxes.   My regards to Mitt Romney and his wife who's never worked a day in her life!

'nough said.

[SteveA]

Bobbin
I'm not sure the rest of the world does health care so great.  Wars drain the budget but it's more of a mis-management of money then the cause.
I voted for Romney because I believed he had far more experience - nothing to do with right or left.  This major health care legislation was passed without one vote from the other side.  Romney may have gotten support from both sides and created a better bill.

SA

[gene]

Not one congress person who voted for O care read the legislation. The sole purpose of O care was for the fed gov to grab control of 7% of our economy. How could it have been about health care? No one new what it said!

Every single promise made by O about O care was a lie. How can you include pre existing conditions and have lower costs? Remember the many times O said you can keep your existing ins? Remember the talks about O care bringing all health care costs down.

Here's the bottom line: If you are getting some milk from the Government teet, you love it and you ignore everything else. I say "Suck away!"

Greece, Puerto Rico, next China. Our grand-kids who haven't even been born yet will be paying off our debts. Suck away while there's still some milk left. We are entitled!

gene

[sofadoc]

My regards to Mitt Romney and his wife who's never worked a day in her life!

She probably couldn't have found any job openings anyway (what with all the jobs already taken by all the Kennedy women).

LOL....JK.......winking smiley face.

[gene]

Blue Cross Blue Shield raising rates for next year. Just over 50% if you live in Minnesota.

Stay at home moms used to be a source of pride and great benefit to the children. Today a stay at home mom is an example of evil wealth - but only if she is a Republican.

To show how much our country has changed in just this last generation, in 1961 JFK said "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."

Today a Democrat would not understand why someone would even want to say that.

Can you imagine if a Republican presdential candidate said that today? They would be called a bigot for singling out "Americans" and excluding all other nationalities. Then they would be branded as racist for wanting to take away the entitlements of minorities, accused of trying to kill old people by wanting to take away their SS, speaking code for anti immigration legislature.

Whether it's an 8th generation welfare recipient living in the inner city wanting an upgrade on their Obama phone, a state or local government wanting federal dollars for a road repair project, health care, day care, education..., all of our needs from cradle to grave, our God, oops, sorry, typo, our Gov will take care of us. Amen.

gene

[kodydog]

Some would have us believe the health care debate is over. Time to move on. But the open ended way O-care was delivered means the law is forever changing.

As evident by a crazy law passed by the IRS yesterday stating, if an employer wants to help supplement an employee's O-care payment they could be fined up to $30,000.

But this works both ways. With a conservative president we could strip the bill of all the pork and and turn it into something more user friendly. Something more manageable. Something more affordable. Something easier to understand. Hell, lets just scrap the whole thing and start over.

I'll bet the folks in Oregon don't think O-care is affordable. They will get a 36% increase in their rates next year.

O-care was created at the wrong time in the wrong place. We should have gotten the economy under control before creating such an expensive bill. But Ed, the economy is BOOMING. My economy hasn't seen an up-tick in over 10 years. Some will simply say raise taxes on the rich. And keep raising them. Its only fair. Bring those greedy bastards to their knees. Greece tried that. Look whats happening there. With Spain and Italy soon to follow And a little closer to home is Jamaica. (Did you know the government in Greece is raiding safe deposit boxes and leaving an IOU)

And now our good friend Bernie wants to give everyone free collage education and raise minimum wage. Once again wrong place wrong time. We need to get unemployment under control before we can even think about free education. We need to look at the real numbers, not the government made up numbers. Where does Bernie think this huge flood of collage graduates are going to find jobs. Before we can talk about raising min wage we need to CLOSE THE BORDER. Our current president welcomes "undocumented aliens" with open arms. Wants to fast track to citizenship. After all they are hard working people just looking for work nobody else wants to do.  Problem is they ARE taking jobs from US citizens including skilled labor. Carpenters, Masons and yes Upholsterers. And doing these jobs for less than minimum wage forcing current wages to stagnate. And raising min wage will only force employers to hire more Illegal aliens making the problem even worse.

We need to fix the first problem before we create another one. Politicians can't seem to figure that one out. Or maybe they have figured it out, big ole power grab. Bankrupt America and take over the world. Bwa ha ha ha. It could happen. Anybody remember a funny little man named Hitler. Didn't Germany start off as a social-est country?

[SteveA]

Hammer - Cody - Gene -
Those comments make total sense to me; .... although given I'm a conservative - I don't know why any other party affiliation would consider otherwise.

Things are not better today than they were years ago and it's getting worse.  I've brought this up before and Virgs scalded me for not considering Women's issues -  I never meant I want everything to be as it was although my faith which is a personal choice is not intended to judge anyone else or limit anyone elses choices.   I just would like to see it get a little easier to exist for all of us - maybe some old style values  ?
We can changes things with a simple vote and enough supporters -

SA

[byhammerandhand]

I considered Obama care last year.  I have pretty crappy and expensive health insurance through my wife's work.  My big fear was that at the end of a couple of years, it would be "The original costs of insurance were way under estimated, so we're going to have to up the premiums by XX%"   Problem is, if I leave my current insurance, I can't get back in and I'd be stuck.

Will be interesting to see what Bernie does to Hilary's campaign.  Will it make her lean farther to the left? 

Also interested to see which of the herd of Republicans shake out early.   By the time I get to vote in the usual primary, it's all but over.

Donald Trump seems like just a publicity stunt to me.   An authoritarian boss would never make it as a successful president.