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Affordable care act

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These Obamacare Facts Have Our Readers Rattled – Where Do You Stand?

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning -

Want to sound off about the most frustrating, upsetting Obamacare facts you’ve heard? Want to know how others are preparing? Here you go… Read more...

How the New Healthcare Tax Affects You

By , Money Morning -

The Supreme Court recently upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, sparking concern in the United States about the future of healthcare tax.

Even though some people argue the healthcare law is not a tax but instead a penalty, right now it's been ruled the former - and has become one of the key issues in Election 2012.

In a July 12 poll by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, 55% of American voters said ACA is a tax hike. But it doesn't necessarily mean they are against it.

Interestingly, 48% agreed with the U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold the law, while 49% believe that the U.S. Congress should repeal it.

In addition, 55% of American voters said a presidential candidate's position on health care is "extremely important" or "very important" to their November vote. Those who think Obamacare breaks the president's promise of not raising taxes could be lured to a GOP presidential vote.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a press release, "President Barack Obama has worked mightily to avoid the 'T' word, but most American voters say the ACA is in effect a tax hike. The big question is whether the Republicans can sell the idea to voters that the president's Affordable Care Act breaks his promise not to raise taxes on those who make less than $250,000. That's why what voters believe on this issue matters."

Whether it is a tax or a penalty, either way people are going to have to pay.

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Obamacare Ruling: Key Takeaways for Investors and Taxpayers

By , Contributing Writer, Money Morning -

It's time to buy some insurance for your portfolio following Thursday's landmark Obamacare ruling.

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 in favor of President Obama's controversial healthcare reform law, formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The chief and appellate justices upheld the core of the law which has sweeping political and economic ramifications. Many economists, analysts and healthcare experts warn it's a Pyrrhic victory at best.

President Obama and his supporters cheered the landmark healthcare decision - as Republicans reached for an aspirin, an antacid or an analgesic.

While the GOP vows to throw out the law on day one if Mitt Romney wins Election 2012, the ruling does remove some of the dark clouds that have been looming over healthcare stocks. The uncertainty of the law's passage has had many market participants staying away from the sector.

Obamacare Ruling and the Average Household

What Obamacare means for the average American working family with an annual household income up to approximately $90,000, is that starting in 2014, they will be able to purchase private insurance through new state insurance markets at prices subsidized according to income level.

Mammograms, cancer screenings and other preventative healthcare measures will be available without deductibles or co-pays.

Adult children can remain on parents' health insurance plans until they are 26. Seniors can continue to receive discounts on prescription drugs, and health insurers will continue to pay rebates on premiums not adequately targeted at healthcare services.

In addition, insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage to adults with a pre-existing medical condition and must stop or limit the practice of discriminatory pricing based on gender, age and current health status.

Furthermore, healthcare providers will gravitate away from the conventional fee-for-service approach toward systems that coordinate care.

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Healthcare Stocks: What Happens if Obamacare is Overturned

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler -

With the Supreme Court ruling on President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law just three weeks away, investors in healthcare stocks need to be prepared.

While some are confident the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a rejection of the law -- or at least of the mandate requiring everyone to buy insurance -- may be more likely.

If so, Obamacare could be toast.

Based on tough questioning from moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy in Supreme Court hearings in March, the odds of that happening are rising. In close cases, Kennedy is often the swing vote.

At InTrade - where people can bet on the outcome of real world events -the probability of Obamacare being overturned has risen to about 70%.

So what would happen to healthcare stocks if Obamacare was overturned?

Surprisingly, it is less than you'd think.

In fact, most healthcare stocks will benefit simply by having a definitive answer on the fate of the law. A decision would lift the uncertainty hanging over the sector since Obamacare passed in 2009.

"Coming off the market lows of 2009, you saw multiple expansion in virtually every sector of the S&P 500, but very little in health care," Eddie Yoon, Fidelity Investment's top health-care analyst, told Barron's.

Still, some healthcare stocks would gain more than others if Obamacare gets torpedoed. And a few could get a little dinged.

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From Obamacare to Taxes: 5 Hot Topics Politicians Love to Lie About

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler -

Political lies are as old as the Republic, but that doesn't make the practice any less of an insult to the American people.

Whether they are about Obamacare or taxes, political lies are a special kind of deception.

Rarely are they blatantly false. Political lies rely on misrepresentation of facts and convenient omissions that make their target look better - or worse - than it really is.

So convincing are today's politicians and their minions it's not even clear they always realize when they're bending facts past the breaking point.

"The problem is we never know whether they believe what they're saying or not," Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth political scientist and author ofAll the President's Spin, told USA Today.

At least three fact-checking organizations - the Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org, the Washington Post's Fact Checker column and the Tampa Bay Times' PolitiFact - do their best to point out the almost daily deceptions.

But politicians know that few citizens ever visit such Websites. And that's what politicians and their surrogates are counting on.

"I don't think [the fact checkers] make a whit's worth of difference," Rick Tyler, a senior adviser to Winning Our Future, a super PAC that supports Newt Gingrich, told USA Today. "Millions more people will see [our] ad than will ever see the political fact check."

That doesn't deter the fact checkers, however. The constant stream of political lies has been keeping them very busy lately.

Here are five issues that have been particularly prone to political lies over the past several months. You'll probably hear variations of these all the way through the 2012 election.

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Health Care Reform: How the Supreme Court's Affordable Care Act Ruling Could Affect Our Economy

By , Money Morning -

Health care reform takes center stage this week as the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare - and it's going to be a real doozy.

A final decision will be issued around the end of June, just months before the presidential election. It could be like the shot heard "round the world.

Law, politics, U.S. world image, and our economy weigh in the balance.

Pundits are predicting and cogs are turning. Here's how the Supreme Court's decision on Obamacare may play out and how it might affect our economy.

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