Obamacare 101

From Lifehacker: How Will the New Health Care Law Affect Me?

• Individual Mandates: By 2014, every citizen in the US will be required to have health care. Medicaid will be expanded to include a wider range of people, and subsidies will be offered for those who struggle to pay for insurance.
• Employer Mandates: Employers with over 50 employees will be required to offer some type of health insurance option to employees.
• No More Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies cannot deny you if you have a pre-existing condition like a chronic illness or disease. In addition, insurance companies can't drop you because of an illness.
• Children Can Stay On Parent's Plan Longer: Previously, it was up to the insurance company to decide how long a child could stay on a parent's insurance program. Now, children can stay on their parents plans until they're 26 years old, regardless of whether they're in school, married, or considered a dependent.
• No Lifetime Limit: Insurance companies used to have a lifetime limit on the amount you could spend on treatment over the course of your life. Now, that cap has been removed and your insurance company can't refuse to pay for services because you've reached a cap.

From About.com: Tax Impacts of the Supreme Court's Health Care Decision

• the requirement for individuals to maintain health insurance coverage beginning in 2014 or else pay a tax penalty;
• individual premium assistance tax credits to help low- and middle-income families purchase health insurance on state-run insurance exchanges;
• an increase in the threshold for deducting medical expenses as an itemized deduction from the current 7.5% to 10% starting in 2013;
• an increase in the tax penalty to 20% for non-qualifying distributions from Health Savings Accounts, Flexible Spending Accounts or Archer Medical Savings Accounts;
• an additional 0.9% Medicare hospital insurance tax on wages and self-employment income over $200,000 for unmarried persons and over $250,000 for married couples starting in 2013;
• an additional 3.8% Medicare hospital insurance tax, also starting in 2013, on investment income or modified adjusted gross income over $200,000 for unmarried persions and over $250,000 for married couples;
• an increase in the adoption tax credit and making this credit fully refundable, effective for the years 2010 and 2011;
• an excise tax of 10% on indoor tanning services;
• a tax exclusion for student loan repayment assistance programs for health professionals to work in underserved localities;
• a tax credit for small employers ranging from 25% to 50% for providing health insurance coverage to their employees, effective for the years 2010 through 2015;
• a decrease from $5,000 to $2,500 in the amount that can be saved pre-tax through a healthcare flexible spending account, effective starting 2013 and with the amount inflation-indexed for subsequent years;
• restriction of the definition of qualified medical expenses for healthcare flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, health reimbursement accounts and Archer medical savings accounts so that only prescribed medications and insulin are eligible for tax-qualified disbursements, effective since 2011;
• a business tax credit of 28% of covered drug costs for employers who provide health plans offering precription coverage for retired employees, effective beginning in 2013;
• limitations in the amount that health insurance companies can deduct for any one employee's compensation to $500,000 effective beginning in 2013;
• a new economic substance penalty of either 20% or 40% for tax transactions after March 30, 2010, that do not involve a substantial change in a person's economic situation or have a substantial business purpose;
• a new excise tax of 40% on high-cost health insurance plans offered by employers starting in 2018;
• an annual fee on manufacturers and importers of brand-name prescription medicines;
• an excise tax of 2.3% on medical devices starting in 2013.

Anything in these lists surprise you? Will you be affected by it? Please share.

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