Obamacare enrollment sees sharp increase in November

[jaichind]

...when you retire you're going to have this evil socialized healthcare program called Medicare and you never have to deal with a private insurance company again if you choose not to. If you're wealthy enough to retire early, you're not going to be able to get a subsidy. You're going to fail every means test they could throw at you.

Not really.  The means testing is quite clear.  It is MAGI vs 400% of FPL.  If MAGI is less than 400% of FPL then you get subsidy.  For me since I will retire early I will still have my child as a dependent.  So we will have household of 3.  So 400% of FPL for a household of 3 would be around $78K.  Now, how will I structure my MAGI to be less than $78K to get subsidies.  Many of the work is done already.  A very large of our net worth are in IRAs (just for full disclosure my name is not Mitt Romney.)  I will start to take money out of IRAs after Medicare starts so all the income accruring in our IRA are not relevent for discussion.  That a big chunk of our net worth are in IRAs will also help when we apply for college financial aid for our child's college is another plus.  So with that out of the way bear in mind that MAGI is merely interest and dividend income plus net capital gains.  For sure we will send a good deal more than $78K a year when we retire.  But one can extract value from one's portfolio without increasing MAGI.  Like selling winners and losers at the same time as well making sure dividends are not too high.  Of course this might not work if the distribution of winners and losers are not correct.  That is where I will go for Obamcare subsidies every other year.  On even years I will sell all my winners that will generate enough cash for us to live for 2 years.  On odd years I take no action and as long as my dividends are less than $78K (it will most likely will since dividend yields on Dow is around 2.2% or so and since we will be in safe stocks in our retirement that would be around the dividend yield we will be getting.)  The Obama regime left all sorts of loopholes that I plan to take advantage of.

Look, the Obama regime could change this but for now that is the way it works.  I know some other high net worth people are also looking to do the same that I am planning.  We been sharing ideas how to get it to work.  I also came up with the idea of using way out of the money options toward the end of a certain year to get losses to go below 400% of FPL if one is on the edge.  If the way out of the money option is a winner then you make enough money on it to make up for the lost subsidy.  A true win-win play.

[Link]

...when you retire you're going to have this evil socialized healthcare program called Medicare and you never have to deal with a private insurance company again if you choose not to. If you're wealthy enough to retire early, you're not going to be able to get a subsidy. You're going to fail every means test they could throw at you.

Not really.  The means testing is quite clear.  It is MAGI vs 400% of FPL.  If MAGI is less than 400% of FPL then you get subsidy.  For me since I will retire early I will still have my child as a dependent.  So we will have household of 3.  So 400% of FPL for a household of 3 would be around $78K.  Now, how will I structure my MAGI to be less than $78K to get subsidies.  Many of the work is done already.  A very large of our net worth are in IRAs (just for full disclosure my name is not Mitt Romney.)  I will start to take money out of IRAs after Medicare starts so all the income accruring in our IRA are not relevent for discussion.  That a big chunk of our net worth are in IRAs will also help when we apply for college financial aid for our child's college is another plus.  So with that out of the way bear in mind that MAGI is merely interest and dividend income plus net capital gains.  For sure we will send a good deal more than $78K a year when we retire.  But one can extract value from one's portfolio without increasing MAGI.  Like selling winners and losers at the same time as well making sure dividends are not too high.  Of course this might not work if the distribution of winners and losers are not correct.  That is where I will go for Obamcare subsidies every other year.  On even years I will sell all my winners that will generate enough cash for us to live for 2 years.  On odd years I take no action and as long as my dividends are less than $78K (it will most likely will since dividend yields on Dow is around 2.2% or so and since we will be in safe stocks in our retirement that would be around the dividend yield we will be getting.)  The Obama regime left all sorts of loopholes that I plan to take advantage of.

Or you could just get an f'ing job.

When I talk to my father about retirement he grumbles about how he is going to be forced to withdraw money from his IRA.  He's got a nice six figure job that he intends to keep going to as long as he is healthy.  There is a time in your life when you have to grow up and stop living like a broke college student.  At 60 a few thousand dollars a year in insurance premiums is hardly something to notice let alone monkey around with your portfolio to try and dodge.  The whole point of being successful and making money for me is to get rid of life's little annoyances.  I for one am glad the president isn't catering to people like you.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Unlucky PlayStation 4 owners face 'blue light of death'

iPhone 5 wifi issues

Feds open formal probe into Tesla electric car fires

About 15,000 Medtronic devices used in heart procedures are being recalled

Keep in mind those last two are about cars bursting into fire and burning to the ground and peoples hearts stopping and killing them... not 404 errors on your internet machine.

Even bigger than the iPhone 5 wifi issue was the iPhone 4 antenna controversy. My favorite part was Steve Jobs indignantly replying to one email with "You're not holding the phone right." They had to give everybody free phone cases for months!

Not to mention the Apple Maps Fiasco: even though it's vastly improved over the past year, I know plenty of people who still won't use it because of the early horror stories.

[jaichind]

Or you could just get an f'ing job.

When I talk to my father about retirement he grumbles about how he is going to be forced to withdraw money from his IRA.  He's got a nice six figure job that he intends to keep going to as long as he is healthy.  There is a time in your life when you have to grow up and stop living like a broke college student.  At 60 a few thousand dollars a year in insurance premiums is hardly something to notice let alone monkey around with your portfolio to try and dodge.  The whole point of being successful and making money for me is to get rid of life's little annoyances.  I for one am glad the president isn't catering to people like you.

I hear and appreciate your feedback.  My goal is to live on a consumption of around inflation adjusted lifestyle of around $150K.  That can take place with me working or it can take place with me not working why not.  I have structured our net worth so we can do this starting in a few years without working.  It could be given your lifestyle $150K consumption is living like a broke college student but I feel my family and I will live quite well with that level of consumption.  Of course the net worth we have to save up has to take into account of very large medical costs like long-term care when we are in our 70s and 80s but other then that having assets to generate at $150K consumption is very good living for us.  And yes, getting Obamacare subsidies in the future will help but not essential. 

[jaichind]

Then your understanding is incorrect.  You aren't "enrolled" until you pay your first bill, whether you pay it in January or pay it early now.  Most people aren't going to do that, seeing as how the Exchange is designed for poor and lower-middle class people who can't do that, so that's why the count is based on who has it "in the cart."

Also, you undermine all of your own credibility by saying the "Obama regime."

Well, I am ready to be wrong on this.  Really comes down to what "put in shopping cart" means.  If it means the insurance comapany also vets the data and locks down the subsidy then for sure I agree that would count as "signed up."   Based on what I am being told my friends who are retired and trying to sign up for Obamacare to get subsidies, what they go through is after the info is sent to the insurance company it took a week to call them to verify a few details (like,  what the website showed their premium and subsidy to be.)  Then about a week to mail out new insurance cards.  I think "officially enrolled" is when one can log in on the insurer's website and see ones name next to the new premium, deductible, etc. -- and when one can see and download the Summary of Benefits there, not "just" via Healthcare.gov. (Granted, it's a link between the two sites for now, but still.)   It could very well be that when the Obamcare regime says "in shopping cart" this is what they mean.  In which case I would be glad to retract my statement about a bogus metric.  It is just the words "in shopping cart" does not obviously imply what I said above.

If one defines "in shopping cart" to be those things then sure I agree that is a very good metric.  I also agree paying for it is not relevent since you cannot start paying until 12/15 which leads to the other problem I pointed out that the software for payment is not built and installed.

[jaichind]

See

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/obamacare-update-consumers-see-progress-but-insurers-smell-trouble/2013/11/25/2d260ba4-539c-11e3-9fe0-fd2ca728e67c_story.html

-----------------------------------------------
Even if it does work better for consumers, there are still problems — particularly the scrambled reports insurers are getting about people who have signed up for coverage through HealthCare.gov. Insurers say they are getting duplicate records and reports that misstate family relationships, such as listing a child as a spouse.

In some cases, enrollment reports are disappearing. With these “orphan records,” insurers would have no way of knowing whether a person is signed up for coverage, unless a new customer happened to call the company with questions.

“The biggest concern is that there are going to be people showing up to get their care,” said one person close to the insurance industry, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive issues. “Then [the doctors or hospitals] call us and we have no record, and then the consumer is left frustrated and worried and scared.”
--------------------------------

This is why I say that if "in shopping cart" does not mean that the insurance company has vetted the info it should not count.  Of course if "in shopping cart" meant the info has been sent to the insurance company to validate then for sure it should count as someone enrolled as only the step of paying for it which cannot take place until Dec 15 anyway is missing.

[badgate]

Even if it does work better for consumers,

Even if it does work better for consumers,

Even if it does work better for consumers,


Even if it does work better for consumers,


Even if it does work better for consumers,

[Cory]

Even if it does work better for consumers,

Even if it does work better for consumers,

Even if it does work better for consumers,


Even if it does work better for consumers,


Even if it does work better for consumers,

[President von Cat]

Even if it does work better for consumers,

Even if it does work better for consumers,

Even if it does work better for consumers,


Even if it does work better for consumers,


Even if it does work better for consumers,

[Torie]

Harvesting tax losses (and avoiding capital gain recognition) is a good idea (particularly short term tax losses) irrespective of the inventive of gaming the Obamacare subsidy rules. These days, I also play the game of moving income around, deferring, etc., to be able to qualify to dump money in a Roth IRA. It does take a lot of planning though. Thank heavens for turbotax where you can play around with hypotheticals.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

My mother seems to believe that ObamaCare is evil, while simultaneously showing understanding that ObamaCare is the only way I'll be able to get health insurance. Republicans just don't make any sense to me anymore.

[Landslide Lyndon]

My mother seems to believe that ObamaCare is evil, while simultaneously showing understanding that ObamaCare is the only way I'll be able to get health insurance. Republicans just don't make any sense to me anymore.

It seems to me that your mother is one of those "Get the Gubmint out from my Medicare!" types.

[opebo]

This wouldn't be a news story if they got it right on October 1.

That's true, the corporate media would focus on this minor bagatelle.  Of course the real story is epic and really rather astounding in such a sad, miserable land as America: millions of poor people are getting access to health care through Medicaid expansion.