Obamacare: Do Expats Need To Buy Health Insurance?

[ajoknoblauch]

I see a lot of Fox News links in this thread... terrible place to educate yourself on current events

I think you mean Fox "News" or, alternatively, Faux News...

 

[ghost]

"Faux News... " Which rhymes with No News. Purveyor of disinformation.
It's a travesty the way this program is playing out. I am stateside right now and dialed into the website as a Florida resident. [FL did not participate and did not build an exchange because the governor is a dickhead republican] so any discounts do not show up in the selection process and even worse the so called tax credits are not identified as such and are not clearly defined. In fact when you select a plan your interaction with the site ends. I don't have a clue as how you actually pay for the plan or where you go next.
This roll out is a fucked up mess and heads should truely roll.
Disclosure: I support affordable universal health care, I applaud the fact that Argentina has a program that works [which is demonstrated by almost all of the hospitals being 65% empty], and I supported Obamas effort. But I really don't know what this f..cked up product is??? Fortunately I don't need it. Otherwise I would raging mad.

 

[ryanlee]

You would think the right would care enough about self preservation to just roll with the universal healthcare idea.

We're well overdue for a pandemic and in such case you don't want 40 million people uninsured who may have symptoms reluctant to go to the doctor. That's insane. Other countries seem far more prepared than us because at least when things start going wrong there's a lower barrier between the infected and a doctor. In the US, out of 40,000,000 without insurance, let's say .1% think "well it's either death or bankruptcy" and go straight into denial.

40,000 people walking on sidewalks, taking buses, going sporting events infecting and reinfecting everyone around them.

So much is spent on national security, isn't a pandemic a threat to national security?

In a way aren't we a threat to the world by keeping people from preventative healthcare and letting whatever happens happen?

Am I the only person who thinks it's kind of messed up that we'll go into crazy debt, kill a lot of people, hand over our right to privacy, have our tax dollars taken by war after war but we won't invest in a new pair of boots to cover our achilles heel?

I understand some of you are never going back to the US, but let me say, you can't stop any of these guys from getting on a plane because usually not everyone in a pandemic who has it displays symptoms.

Just sayin'

 

[scotttswan]

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror

 

[sergio]

I have only read a few of the posts on this topic. I watched the interview with Obama that Steve posted on page 9. People ridiculed Palin (I admit that I too thought she was uninformed at least on history) when she said that there would be death panels. Obama's roundabout answer implies that there will be death panels. This has subsequently been confirmed.

I checked into Obamacare for myself. The MINIMUM cost is $549 a month with a $6,000 deductible. I find that outrageous -- and it is the bottom plan. This is affordable health care?

 

[scotttswan]

I have only read a few of the posts on this topic. I watched the interview with Obama that Steve posted on page 9. People ridiculed Palin (I admit that I too thought she was uninformed at least on history) when she said that there would be death panels. Obama's roundabout answer implies that there will be death panels. This has subsequently been confirmed.

I checked into Obamacare for myself. The MINIMUM cost is $549 a month with a $6,000 deductible. I find that outrageous -- and it is the bottom plan. This is affordable health care?

yup shite isn't it. Still better than the shit that existed before too.

 

[Redpossum]

yup shite isn't it. Still better than the shit that existed before too.

Face it, Obama sold us down the river on the healthcare issue, just like he's sold us out on every major issue, starting with his cabinet appointments before he was even inaugurated. He cut a deal with the HMOs and the pharmaceutical industry, and so we get a mandate but not even a weak public option.

And the supreme irony is that Dick Nixon, (of all people!), proposed a national healthcare system 40 years ago, but congress killed the idea.

I voted for Ronnie Reagan twice, when I was young and stupid. But I'm not half as embarrassed about that as I am about voting for Obama in 2008, when I was more than old enough to know better.

 

[Macanudo]

Not sure if anyone ever addressed the original question of this post. I read that according to the IRS, if you live outside of the US for over 330 days a year you will be treated as if you have qualifying insurance coverage and won't owe any tax penalty.

 

[nlaruccia]

I have only read a few of the posts on this topic. I watched the interview with Obama that Steve posted on page 9. People ridiculed Palin (I admit that I too thought she was uninformed at least on history) when she said that there would be death panels. Obama's roundabout answer implies that there will be death panels. This has subsequently been confirmed.

I checked into Obamacare for myself. The MINIMUM cost is $549 a month with a $6,000 deductible. I find that outrageous -- and it is the bottom plan. This is affordable health care?

I checked into Obamacare and there are plans for as little as $350 per month, and possibly less depending on your salary.

 

[nlaruccia]

According to this website if you're not present in the US for 330 or more days during a 365 day period, then you're exempt from the Affordable Care Act fine. I hope that's correct.

http://obamacarefee.com/expats/