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Obamacare Software Glitch Will Limit Penalties Charged To Smokers
turbosaab writes "The Obama administration has quietly notified insurers that a computer system glitch will limit penalties that companies may charge smokers under the new healthcare law. The underlying reason for the limitation is another provision in the health care law that says insurers can't charge older customers more than three times what they charge the youngest adults in the pool. The government's computer system has been unable to accommodate the two. So younger smokers and older smokers must be charged the same penalty, or the system will kick it out. A fix will take at least a year to put in place."
I'm hoping that this is because there's too many other things in the pipeline that are more critical to get done first, and not because, say, the system is so badly written that this one relatively minor looking task will take a year.....
If it's the latter, then I'm in the wrong business.
Finding God in a Dog
No, the sensible party doesn't stand a chance. We only elect Republicans and Democrats to the presidency these days.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
better then the old system where you can pay in to plan for years and when you get real sick they drop you or say you hit the max pay out cap (easy to do when acetaminophen sold for $1.50 a tablet (you can buy 100 of those for the same price at Amazon); $77 for a box of sterile gauze pads (Amazon’s prices vary between $6 and $11); $18 for a single diabetes test strip (sold for 54 cents by Amazon); $108 for antibacterial Bacitracin ointment (Amazon’s prices vary between $2.50 and $6.50)
You know, that doesn't sound like socialism at all.
In US political dialogue, "socialism" is just a vague term used to smear people or plans that you don't like. I suspect only a tiny minority of Americans could give a reasonably accurate definition.
Oddly, it has moved to fill the niches formerly occupied by both "communism" and "fascism".
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Been trying to warn folks for years that the smokers were the canaries in the coal mine but nobody listened. Look at your history folks, government ALWAYS gets bigger, NEVER smaller. Look at places like NYC telling you how big of a soda you are allowed to have and talks of sugar taxes and fat taxes, all under the "its because of healthcare" bullshit excuse.
This is one of the most wasteful governments in world history folks, we are paying for illegals, we are paying billions to third world thugs to benefit this or that big business, paying paying Uber Millionaires like David Letterman not to grow crops on the acres he bought as a tax writeoff, hell we recently got to pay close to 3 million dollars for EPA to fix a simple malware infection WITH A SHOTGUN...look it up, I'm NOT shitting you, their answer to a simple malware infection was to pay nearly a million to a "consulting" firm and when the consulting firm couldn't wave a magic wand and give them a guarantee that they could make the PCs 100% clean without a wipe they took a sledge to the PCs, the printers, even the fucking monitors...your tax dollars at work folks.
So you better start standing the fuck up for the smokers, because just as they use the "terrorist" and "pedo" magic words to pass laws they end up using to Big bro your ass so too are they using smokers to pass laws they will later use to tell you how many slices of pizza you are allowed to have or they'll tax the fuck out of you, because of "healthcare" of course. Remember the rule folks, ALWAYS bigger,NEVER smaller.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
But why are we choosing to charge smokers more? I thought smoking was an addiction and we are supposed to offer health care regardless of pre-existing condition?
Are we going to charge single women or "slutty" women more for reproductive health care because, like, they shouldn't be "doing it"?
Are we going to charge fat persons more?
Are we going to charge people more if they admit to other drug dependencies?
Are we going to charge gay men more unless they can prove they are monogamous? Straight men more unless they can prove they are not "cheating"?
And how do we enforce this? If we catch you smoking and we cancel your health insurance? Put you in jail?
What about an occasional cigar smoker or someone who takes a drag when "a joint is passed around"?
Are the authorities going to stick a OBD-II dongle in your car to make sure you aren't driving too fast?
What about drinking and binge drinking? Are you going to get a rate break for abstaining, and does your rate go up if someone spots you taking a sip of champaign at a wedding?