I'm reading that the subsidies for the Health Insurance are actually tax credits which will

[truedelphi]

In some cases, have to be paid back.

This is a fascinating read:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/05/obamacare-a-deception/

I am in a situation that is actually discussed in this article -that my income fluctuates and that one year I am making a bit more than enough to survive, but then the next year could be better or worse, and the whole way this program has been devised makes it especially difficult for lower income people in that situation.

The fact that it is our GROSS income rather than our NET income also worries me quite a bit. You can certainly tell the politicans do not have the average person's interests at heart when the plans work out like this.

[dipsydoodle]

1. UK is based on gross income too.

This how it works : http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/nic.htm

Multiply by 1.6 to convert to US$'s..... current exchange rate.

First c. £7800 of gross not subject to payments by either employee or employer. Between that figure and c. £41500 following rates are payable : employee 12% and employer 13.8% = 25.8% of gross aggregate. After that reduced rate for employee but same rate for employer.

That funds both NHS and state pension.

I can see that your system could not be converted to a complete socialised system such as ours.

Ref. pre-existing conditions occasionally mentioned here : that cannot apply in the UK because coverage is from conception at which point there are no pre-existing conditions.

[truedelphi]

3. Do you have to worry about meeting deductibles?

Depending on how your insurance provider handles things, at least here in the USA, some policies require you spend $ 5,000 per person before getting a penny of help toward a medical event.

[dipsydoodle]

4. No.

We don't pay sfa - all covered excluding dental work which is subidised.

[Recursion]

2. The gross vs. net does introduce a perversity

Where as you allude to an employee can wind up being made worse off by a raise that takes him or her from just below the poverty line to just above it -- significantly worse, in fact. This is a real problem.

[truedelphi]

5. the only person in politics who remarked on this was

Jill Stein, the third party candidate for the Presidency. She had as one of her themes the fact that the ACA would be a difficult thing for people in the $ 17K to $ 42K amount of income. (And of course, how it is relevant: if you live in an area where housing prices are high, that is where the real pickle enters into the picture.)

I know that if I fall into the category where I have to come up with $ 242 a month, I am in trouble, because the Political Class assumes that those of us in the lower income ranges have some $ 242 a month just sitting around. Those folks in the Political Class of elected officials probably come up thinking like this: I guess those folks must simply stop going to Cancun in the winter, and Cannes France in the summer!

[truedelphi]

6. Small healthy kick

Kicking it due to the tremendous response!