A health care annual premium and subsidy calculator for the House and Senate health care bills has been posted on the Internet.
The URL for this calculator is:
http://healthreform.kff.org/...
I cannot vouch for the veracity of this software, since I have not seen the source code or documentation. I hope that the author made every attempt to be honest and accurate. Unfortunately this is the only source of actual calculations that I have seen reported anywhere. If anyone has any other rate calculations available, I would like to see them.
This is one occasion where I really hope that I am wrong and that further information will prove to me that the situation is better than what I could obtain through this source.
I have run the program for the case of a single adult, for the ages 24,34,44,54 and 64 with an income of $35,000 with no employer coverage and for a medium cost area.
Here are the results:
Age 24
House: $3169 with no subsidy
Senate: $2637 with no subsidy
Age 34
House: same as age 24
Senate: 3043 with no subsidy
Age 44
House: $4147 - $485 subsidy = $3662
Senate $4147 - $717 subsidy = $3430
Age 54
House: $6339 - $2675 subsidy = $3662
Senate: $6353 - $2923 subsidy = $3430
Age 64
House: Same as for age 54
Senate: $7911 - $4481 subsidy = $3430
Consider the budget of a person on a $35,000 income. In California, which has an income tax, the take home pay is about $2100 per month. In a state with no income tax a person will take hoe a little more, but if the income is 1099 the worker will also incur self-employment taxes.
The expenses are approximately:
Rent $900 (This is too low for the East Coast)
Utilities: $100
Phone and internet $75 (with no cell phone)
Car maintenance, payment, insurance, etc.: $250 (this may be too low)
Car taxes in California $20 (averaged over 12 months, including license, registration and tax – this is much more for a later model car)
Gasoline: $120 (assuming the individual is driving to work)
So now we are up to $1465 expenses per month and $635 remaining.
Estimate a student loan payment of $150, which is mandated, and that leaves $485.
Now include the $300 approximate premium.
Now the person has $185 remaining per month for food, personal care items, deductibles and copayments.
In other words, the rates drive a person in a private apartment (the people age 27 and over) into requiring food from a food bank. Alternatively, such people will not be able to have an apartment. This is a disaster, since if the person loses one’s job, one would be evicted from renting a room, so the person would be homeless.
Under this scenario, no saving is possible except for a tax refund.
If the person misses a payment, one would be subject to a fine.
Note that if the income is 1099 instead of W-2 the person will also incur some self-employment taxes. This would increase as the income moves towards $40,000 or $50,000.
You can see why the mandates and fines are a very serious problem at the currently proposed rates.