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One of the reasons that many people are not in favor of the ACA is because they happen to be hearing much miss-information from the Republican Party and the right-wing news outlets and blogs.
Yahoo News has an article up which covers eight of the mix-ups that we have about the ACA. I list three of them.
Fiction: Everyone must purchase health insurance beginning in 2014, no exceptions.
Fact: While most uninsured Americans will be required to buy health insurance or pay a penalty (or tax, if you like) beginning in 2014, several groups are exempt from the so-called individual mandate.
They include those whose income is so low, they don't file federal tax returns; anyone who would have to spend more than 8 percent of their income on health insurance; undocumented immigrants; people who are incarcerated; members of Native American tribes; and those who qualify for a religious exemption.
There's also one other large set of people who won't need to buy health insurance.
"Everybody who is eligible for Medicaid or Medicare does not have to purchase additional coverage," notes Deborah Chollet, a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, D.C., who is helping states set up the new health exchanges where consumers will shop for insurance.
Private researchers have found that only a very small percentage of Americans will be subject to the individual mandate penalty, maintains Kathleen Stoll, director of health policy for the health care consumer group Families USA.
I get tired of having to tell those Fox News viewers that I know, that not everyone will have to buy insurance or pay a tax if they do not.
New government insurance?
Fiction: The Affordable Care Act creates a new government-run insurance plan.
Fact: The health care reform law includes no such provision.
Rather than centralize health insurance, health care reform accomplishes many of the goals of so-called universal coverage through its interwoven expansion of the existing Medicaid program, increased federal regulation of the health insurance industry and tax credits to make private insurance more affordable.
The law does call for the creation of new insurance plans, but the government won't run them, Chollet says. "The federal Office of Personnel Management is required to contract with at least two private insurance carriers, including at least one nonprofit, to offer coverage in every market nationwide," she explains. "They can contract with more than two, and some of these nonprofits are consumer-owned and operated health plans called co-ops."
See there? No government take over of insurance programs. And, last but not least, but one the rights biggest fact-free claims:
Immigrant inaccuracy
Fiction: Undocumented immigrants will receive federal aid to purchase health insurance.
Fact: Undocumented immigrants are excluded from health care reform.
And not only that, but they also are ineligible to receive Medicaid insurance for the poor or to purchase health insurance with their own money in the state exchanges when those open in 2014.
Legal immigrants who have resided in the United States for less than five years are similarly ineligible for federal assistance, though the states have the option of extending coverage to pregnant women and children while they await legal status.
"Undocumented immigrants are still in the same difficult situation they have always been in," says Chollet. Read More...
Any questions?
