Tag: healthcare reform

Marina’s Nightmare


ImagesI must've dozed off, or something…  And I dream that I died and went to hell.  There my soul is tortured by things I fear the most…

…I see the country that used to be a beacon of freedom for the oppressed being perverted into a security vault.  I see cameras, metal detectors, x-ray machines, bag searchers everywhere.  There are satellites looking straight at me.  Someone always watches, hears every whisper, reads every word I type on my computer… 

…I see that the notion of merit is dead.  All that matters now is who you know.  Connections and "club" memberships are the hottest commodities… 

…I'm forced to watch people merging into two groups: millions of those who barely manage to eke out a living from whatever professions or trades they forced upon themselves and a small number of comfortable others – nothing in between.  And on the top, there are a handful of secret billionaires who have been quietly buying up the world… 

…Someone murdered the free competition.  Small businesses fall down like slaughter victims.  Banking conglomerates are being bailed out of their greedy fuckups through the ponzi schemes of international borrowing, but the treasury is empty.  In horror, I look at the decaying corpse of the glorious industrialism formerly driven by the production of quality goods - now it's just a feed for the paper-trading worms…   

…I see special interests' money usher through the Supreme Court unconstitutional laws, re-directing average taxpayers' earnings right into the pockets of the paying monopolies…  

…And I see young fools, with no prospects for decent lives and no understanding of underlying reasons for it, burning with desire for a change.  They've been dumbed down to the point that they cannot formulate their purpose or devise an action plan.  They huddle in a tiny space, called Zuccotti Park, near the place they assume to be the source of their distress, simply because they have nothing else to do…

…I stop by a newsstand strewn with tabloids covered by repulsive photographs of insignificant clowns.  I manage to pluck out one "real" magazine.  It excitedly screams into my face that Lena Dunham has received four Emmy nominations for her half-baked mediocrity.  The well-connected and moneyed hipsters, she so skillfully represents, jump up and down like mad rabbits…

…And I see a 5-floor-high advertisement board of Katy Perry in 3-D, but I hear that Fiona Apple's The Wilder Wheel tour is not sold out…

…And I see the Redeemer, the young woman whose words and images have the power to alter people's consciousness.  But nobody can hear her as she is sealed into a cell of fear built by haters… And I know that I contributed to her imprisonment.  She is smashing her body at the see-through walls in exhaustive attempts to break free, and I am not able to help her.  And those who can, refuse to do it…  I feel impotent, paralyzed.  

It hurts so much inside, as if somebody put a grenade where my heart is supposed to be and it's exploding.  I scream in agony.  I claw at my chest, trying to let the pain out.  I whisper to myself, "Wake up, wake up!"

Only, I cannot wake up.  This is not a dream and I am not dead.  This is the hell of my actual existence.  

The Supreme Court Alert: New Wage Reductions Are Coming Soon!


ImagesLast week the Supreme Court of the United States worked really hard to reconfirm that they would defend our constitutional rights and freedoms… as long as the proposed laws are not heavily lobbied by the special interest groups. 

First, they struck down the petition to make it a crime to lie about receiving military honors.  The justices decided that this law would be a violation of the free speech.  If people want to make up stories about their heroism in Iraq, it is their constitutional right to do so.  It's been done since Beowulf and let's not disturb the ancient traditions of "military" folklore.  

Thank God!  If you start criminalizing any form of lying, you don't know where the hell it's going to get us.  Give it a precedent and before you know it, people will not be able to lie on their resumes, brokers will not be able to bullshit about the prospective investments, people will stop stealing each other's ideas, and (oh, no!!!) the politicians will be forced to tell the truth.

On the very same day, the Supreme Court upheld the law that has been heavily pushed by HMO-financed insurance lobbyists (AHIP): the individual mandate for health care, probably the most debatable part of Obama's healthcare "overhaul."  Even if you don't care about the news you cannot  escape this one – it's been discussed by everyone and their mothers. 

But, I would like the readers, for a brief moment, to let go of the politics surrounding this law and concentrate on the semantics.  The government will issue a MANDATE – an authoritative order, an ultimatum to the people to obtain a health insurance, or else…  A very personal choice of whether you want to buy an expensive policy with a lousy coverage is taken away from you.  I am sure this is a kind of freedom the Founding Fathers dreamed about when they were writing our Constitution.

Back to politics. The gist of the mandatory health insurance can be simplified as follows.  If you earn more than 2.5 times of the federal poverty level (FPL) you are required to obtain either employer-provided or individual policy to cover yourself and your dependents, or you will be fined.  If you are under the FPL threshold, your coverage will be subsidized.  The exempt categories are: illegal immigrants, jailbirds, and religious objectors. 

Even the debate about the nature of the fine is all about the semantics.  Let's get this straight first: it's the hard-working people, already paying payroll taxes, who will be subjected to this new levy, with IRS playing the role of the collector.  The proponents of the law call this a "new tax" and that gave the Supreme Court the grounds for upholding it – the government has the right to impose taxes.  The opponents called it a "penalty," making it an unconstitutional move. 

Of course, Mitt Romney got all confused and instead of following his campaign handlers' suit of insisting that it's a penalty, he went on record to call it a "tax."  Wall Street Journal couldn't pass on the opportunity to publish an op-ed calling the Republican candidate a dumbass, or something of the sort. 

My dear breadwinners, let us now put our concerns about freedoms and politics aside and talk about MONEY.  How much will it cost you to forgo the medical insurance?

Starting with 2014, the penalty per individual will be $95, or 1% of income, whichever is greater.  So, if you are a New Yorker with a $45K salary (an average my junior accountants make), barely covering your living expenses and considering yourself too young and healthy for medical insurance expense, your will end up paying $450 fine to the government.  For families, it'll be $285, or 1% of income, whichever is greater. 

The penalty will subsequently rise in 2016, reaching $695 per individual and $2,085 per family, or 2 percent of income, whichever is greater. From 2017, the minimums will rise each year with inflation. 

Now, this is for my fellow executive peers,  who do cover themselves and their loved ones with medical benefits.  Are we off the hook, here?  Nope.  To offset the cost of providing insurance to low income households and unemployed, individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples earning above $250,000 will pay additional "health care payroll taxes", thus subsidizing somebody else's benefits.

And who benefits from this supposedly "socially-minded" law  designed to keep people healthier and make sure that everyone stays on this poor planet longer?  Let's see.  You either buy the insurance (HMOs collect the premium), or you pay the fine (HMOs get the money collected by IRS), or you pay the subsidy for others (guess who gets the money).