Today registration opens around the country for the new Affordable Healthcare Plans (a.k.a. Obamacare) which will take effect on January 1, 2014. People on both sides of the fence are fired up and expressing their support or disgust for the plans. It got me thinking though: What does this mean for self-employed photographers?
I voted for Romney in the last election. I have not been the biggest supporter of Obama and the choices he has made so far. However I have got to say I am quite interested in what the new health insurance plan means for our industry. Let me explain.
Self-employed photographers finally have a way of purchasing a reasonable health insurance plan.
I have been working for myself for the last 3 years. I have 5 kids under the age of 12. My wife works for herself as well. We have managed to get by over the last year without any health insurance at all. Fortunately for us, our family has been healthy. I hate to admit this openly. But if one of us were to need health care, we don't have a plan. I think about this often. One broken bone, one sick child, one surgery, one hospital visit, any of these things could end up costing us a fortune. According to a recent study medical bills are the biggest cause of bankruptcies. Being uninsured is not the way to live as it causes a lot stress, praying everyone in the family stays healthy. (I hope my mother doesn't read this as she always asks about whether or not we have health insurance and I have just fibbed telling her we did as to not stress her out as well.)
Every couple of weeks I wonder if it would be better for me to have a full-time job with health benefits rather than work as a wedding photographer. But I just can't do it. I feel like it is my calling to photograph weddings and create photos that couples can cherish throughout their life. So while I have yearned for some kind of health insurance protection, my wife and I have just continued rolling the dice hoping we all stay healthy as a family.
Even with pre-existing conditions you still qualify for health insurance.
I didn't think much about this before. After all, my wife, kids and I have been healthy. But in one discussion inside a Facebook group of photographers one person spoke up. She explained that in her early 20's she was diagnosed with cancer. She fought the battle and won but as a result she has found it extremely difficult to find any insurer that will cover her. With the new Obamacare she can finally get the health insurance she desires and not have to worry about being disqualified because of her past condition. I was truly excited for her. It opened my eyes that there are a lot of people out there in her same shoes. These people are now going to be able to get the prescription medications and doctor checkups they need without having to pay out of pocket to cover all the costs.
More people will be able to follow their dream to become a photographer.
One of the biggest hurdles for people interested in becoming photographers is that as much as they would love to do it they just couldn't see how it was possible. Insurance was too expensive. Their child had a pre-existing condition. It was a risky choice for them to make and so more often than not they just stayed in their 9 to 5 job and did a little photography on the weekend. I have a feeling in 2014 we are now going to start seeing many of these people leave their "9 to 5" and find a more fulfilling life as they actually are able to do something they love.
Is Obamacare perfect? Absolutely not. Am I looking forward to paying an estimated $7,000 a year for my family to get the insurance or be penalized? Nope, not at all. In fact, when my wife and I first talked it over about a month ago we were fired up. We were angry that we were being forced into something we didn't want. But as we educated ourselves more and more about what this meant to us as a family we started realizing this was not such a bad thing after all for us. I have a feeling that on January 1, 2014 a lot of stress of worrying about my family needing health care will finally be lifted from my shoulders. Will we need to use it? I hope not. But it is there to assist us in case of an emergency.
You hear about outrageous hospital bills all the time. In fact, I bet if you asked around you probably have a friend that has received one for $50,000+ and hopefully they had insurance to cover it. My feeling is that as a family we might go years and stay healthy never needing a doctor visit. But when that one time happens. When one of us gets sick, cancer, Parkinsons, heart disease, I am grateful to know that we will be able to get the help we need without having to worry about breaking the bank or reaching our hands out desperately to family members to help.
When we buy a new car, before we drive the car off the lot we have to show them proof of insurance. Same thing goes when we get pulled over by a cop. It is required by law to have it. When we buy a house they often bill the cost of insurance right into our mortgage because the lenders want to make sure we are insured. Insurance is all of us pitching in a little bit today so that the person who needs the help tomorrow can find it.
I realize that Obamacare is not perfect. In fact far from perfect. But I do believe that for us self-employed photographers it does give us certain benefits that were once not available. I thought that was definitely worth mentioning. If you would like to find out more information about it you can visit this link, Healthcare.gov. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Please keep it civil and keep party lines out of it. While the new Affordable Health Care plan is not perfect, it is here, it is happening. What are some of the additional benefits we can get out of it as self-employed photographers? What are some of the disadvantageous? Chime in below.
my wife is a type 1 diabetic, so I'm a big fan of getting rid of the pre-existing conditions clause... But for the life of me, I can't understand how we as a nation can afford this. I consider myself a *reasonably* intelligent person and think the whole thing is a great concept... but I can't imagine a single scenario where we can pay for this. illumination?
I am terrified where the funding for this is coming from as well.
Terrified?
The funding comes from the money being paid into it.
(playing devil's advocate)
Because that worked out really well with Social Security.
Well, it's not worked out too terribly badly with SS yet. And it doesn't mean that concept doesn't work well, it means that they did a really poor job estimating retirement ages.
But also, it's exactly the same way health insurance has always worked - people pay premiums, the claims are paid out of those premiums. The difference is that instead of private insurance companies profiting, any surplus money will go back into the budget to pay for schools, infrastructure, etc.
That is IF there is a surplus.
The whole point is that there isn't SUPPOSED to be a surplus.
There has to be a pool of money to pull out of to pay for the health care.
Clearly. The pool of money they use to pay for the health care comes from the money people pay into the program to be insured.
When there's a surplus, the Government's role will be to drop prices the following year. When there's a deficit, the Government's role will be to raise prices the following year.
Assuming that the polls indicating the unpopularity of this law is true, what would happen if not enough people enroll in the gov't healthcare. What's the plan B on getting it funded?
Raise taxes.
or print more money.
Jerrit, I like you man, but I wish you'd stop posting suppositions as though they're facts. Clearly you're anti-Government, and that's just fine, but don't just make things up.
Your not bad yourself. I have no good answer for this but from what the government has done in the past with group systems it has not gone well. Yes change has to happen, but why can't it start small at first and grow? I do have a very hard time trusting the government with anything, my health / my families even more. I have a ton of friends that take advantage of the system while I work my ass off. Yes it happens, not the governments fault? ahhh I think they could do things to make sure it doesn't happen as much. Yes I am jaded, a lot.
I'm totally with you on people who take advantage of the system - totally with you. It's frustrating and maddening. But just like the justice system errs on the side of the guilty, systems like food stamps, disability, etc., have to err on the side of the scammers. When it comes to people who benefit from Government programs I'd rather have 5% of them be scammers than people who really need the help don't get it because they can't jump through the right hoops.
We will end up paying more into the system to get everyone health care. I do not like saying stats from Romney but around 50% of us pay taxes... he was correct, the rest don't. So we will be paying for their healthcare as well. That is alot. Yes it will be nice, but a lot.
You're right. But more importantly - and not just a little more importantly, MUCH more importantly - as Trevor mentions in his article, people with pre-existing conditions will be able to get coverage. The system now is absolutely despicable - my uncle has had cancer twice, he's beaten it both times, but he couldn't work anymore during his 2nd treatment - and now he can't get health insurance. At all. It's not that he can't afford it, he can't GET it. None of the insurance companies will cover him. That is sickening - profit is more important than life to health insurance companies.
They could have written a bill that help with pre-existing condition coverage. This covers everyone.
How would they do that? It's a private sector.
Like making it a tax to not have insurance now. haha Clearly we are not solving world issues with our comments. I really do hope this goes well.
People are super quick to blame insurance companies, but why don't we turned that high powered scope onto what hospitals are billing. This is a much bigger problem than "greedy insurance companies".
So again, how would it be funded if not enough people enroll?
Maybe we'll invade foreign countries less often.
Hahahaha! So it's really not self-sustainable as promised?
(a) who promised that, and (b) that's hardly an accurate statement. If it's not sustainable they'll raise the premiums. Just like insurance companies do. It's not complicated.
Here's President Obama's speech... search for the word "self-sufficient"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-to-a...
Awesome, so that's the answer to my part (a). What's your rebuttal to part (b)?
Well didn't he promise that Obamacare will not raise the current premiums? I may be wrong about that but I thought I've heard him numerous times that it will not raise the current premiums. Any btw, I'm asking sincerely. I'm not starting an argument.
Ummm that has nothing to do with what happens if a year from now it isn't self-sustaining.
Hahahaha. Okay, I'm done. Thanks!
I thought you might be! ;)
Show me one place the government handles money well?
You're kidding right? There are a lot of negative things to say about the government, but the bottom line is that they are the largest employer in the world, they bring in the most income in the world, and they have the largest outcome in the world. It's a massive, massive job.
But, to answer your question - the CDC, state and local health departments, the Interstate Highway System, the FDIC, Social Security (which despite the ridicule has cut the rate of poverty in elderly people by from 29% to 10% in 40 years), the GI Bill, the Federal Housing Authority, the CPSC, Clean Water + Clean Air programs, OSHA, NWS, student financial aid programs. I could go on.
They fail in a lot of ways, but they have a thankless job and have improved the quality of life and length of life dramatically.
I don't consider being in the red doing things well or efficient. Yes I am thankful for the jobs they make but the private sector would make them as well.
What does any of those programs I mentioned have to do with being in the red, other than arguably Social Security - which isn't in the red yet, but is projected to be if something doesn't change in the next 20 years.
A national debt is good for the economy. It shows that the people you have loaned money from has faith in your currency and future. We've always had a national debt...and we've been going pretty steady for 300+ years now.
Jerrit - as an answer to your question, "Show me one place the government handles money well?" It's hard to see the answers to this unless you go spend quite a bit of time in another country and learn about what the people there are going through. Having lived for a few years in third world countries I am quite thankful that we have a government not nearly as corrupt as many of the ones I have experienced. I have an older friend who served as a senator in one of these countries for a number of years. Hearing his stories was enlightening. It opened my eyes that I while our government will never be perfect (Republican or Democrat) we have a lot to be thankful for. I can't tell you exactly where our government handles the money well, simply because I am not educated enough to do that, but I do believe that often times we need to take off our political party glasses and start seeing things without the biases that so often form the opinions we have.
The funding works out here in Germany, too. We also have a mandatory health insurance and it works. Of course Germany is not as big and does not have as many citizens, but in fact this happens to be a good thing, as a large base of people paying in stabilizes the whole system.
I got warm and fuzzy inside when reading this. Too many people are ill-informed on the topic and are just angry because of hearsay. This pushes the important part of Obamacare into the spotlight...which is the pre existing conditions. That will help middle class Americans and self employed people more than any of the recent stimulus plans.
(Not interested in having a debate about it. I have studied finance for years, have worked with tax law and have formed my opinion based on my own experiences.)
You're absolutely right. Sections of the media/GOP have done a fantastic job of labeling it as a negative thing, but the reality is that this is the only humane option. The healthcare system as it stands now is disgusting - profits before people, and it can't go on.
Really? You believe that this is not about profits? It's about the government taking their own piece of the medical action. It's never about the people. If it was Americans would have a voice, a choice and be able to vote on things just like this that effect us all.
Yes, because Americans are clearly so well educated in all the nuances of Governmental policy.
Most Americans are ignorant and aren't even smart enough to stand together to get these crooks out of office.
Yeah, that was my point Scott - that's why the idea of Americans voting on every piece of legislature is scary.
Every time I think about this sort of think I want to move to Canada, or Australia.
Thankfully getting a passport is not affected by the recent shutdown of government, we can still leave!
.
well what are you going to do about it..?
you are right, so how are we going to get rid of the idiots like bachman
this is OBAMACARE, so far?
13,000 pages I heard, so far?
The fact that it's being pushed on us in an " OR ELSE" fashion, pisses me off.
As for what both sides are saying, I wouldn't believe a word of what anyone is saying about it.
BOTH SIDES ALWAYS LIE and keep everyone angry at " THE OTHER SIDE" Simply put, BOTH democrats and republicans, blame the other guy, for the problems. NOT ONE of them has the balls to stand up and talk truth simply and effectively.
the simple fact is, IF YOU DONT ABIDE BY THIS LAW, YOURE GONNA BE PUNISHED! (and there is 13,000 pages of how they can SCREW YOU OVER and say you aren't abiding by their law)
Here's a pic of the pages;
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BFGcd8oCUAEEc7k.jpg:large
This is not socialized medecine. Never has been never will be. That is a falacy put out by bachman and gohmert. Amazing I bet you are pro life and think the government has the right to say that women do not have that right. But you are against the idea of the government telling people to get health insurance.
It's puppets like you that cause these types of governmental issues. The government just keeps taking away our right time and time again and ignorant puppets like you defend them. FORCING Americans to get "their" profitable insurance and if they don't they get fined is a dictatorship. You obviously haven't been on the website looking at prices and penalties. I'm pro gun and pro choice. That avi of yours is accurate. You're just a dog being lead around on a leash.