Can someone explain this? Subsidies don't kick in for years

[cali]

(3 in the House legislation, 4 in the Senate). When does the mandate take effect? How can you have the mandate before the subsidies?

[cali]

1. so I gather no one knows.

[Posteritatis]

2. Probably to give plenty of time for the subsidies to be repealed. (nt)

[cali]

3. that's hardly a useful response. I'm looking for real information, not speculation

there's plenty of the latter here, not so much of the former.

[Clear Blue Sky]

4. The taxes to pay for it kick in immediately though.

[TheKentuckian]

5. I thought the mandates and subsidies kick in at the same time

or even subsidies for a year and then the mandate starts. I'll look into it later.

[alc]

6. CBO does 10-year analysis on bills, and

to get the 10-year budget & deficit numbers to look acceptable, they need to collect taxes/fines for all 10 years, but can only pay subsidies for 6-7 of those years.

[dkf]

7. That is pretty deceptive

How disillusioning that we pull this crap too

[DrToast]

17. No, because it still decreases the deficit over the second decade, too

It takes a while for the cost savings to kick in.

[AllentownJake]

8. To make sure that they can say the bill pays for itself over 10 years

They are playing accounting shell games.

[highplainsdem]

14. Playing shell games, and pretending voters won't notice.

This bill is such a mess...

[POAS]

9. The mandates don't kick in right away

The Kaiser Family Foundation has a good side-by-side analysis tool to compare both versions at the link.

According to their analysis for the House bill:

The penalty will be phased-in according to the following schedule: $95 in 2014, $495 in 2015, and $750 in 2016 for the flat fee or .5% of taxable income in 2014, 1.0% of taxable income in 2015, and 2% of taxable income in 2016. Beginning after 2016, the penalty will be increased annually by the cost-of-living adjustment.

For the Senate bill:

Require individuals to have "acceptable health coverage". Those without coverage pay a penalty of 2.5% of their adjusted income above the filing threshold up to the cost of the average national premium for self-only or family coverage under a basic plan in the Health Insurance Exchange. Exceptions granted for those with incomes below the filing threshold (in 2009 the threshold for taxpayers under age 65 is $9,350 for singles and $18,700 for couples), religious objections and financial hardship. (Effective January 1, 2013)

[cali]

10. Many thanks!

[POAS]

11. Your welcome

I would bookmark that page, their site has much good information.

[TheKentuckian]

12. Do the subsidies also adjust with inflation/rate increases? (NT)

[POAS]

15. From the same link above

for the Senate version:

Index the affordability premium credits after 2013 to maintain the ratio of government to enrollee shares of the premiums over time.

[phleshdef]

13. Mandates, subsidies and mandatory pre-existing condition coverage all kick in together.

Between now and then is a ramp up period to allow everyone to prepare to accomodate all the changes. In the meanwhile, the government will be creating a high risk emergency pool to cover people with serious pre-existing conditions between now and then.

[POAS]

16. Facts facts facts....

What is this a rerun of an old "Dragnet" episode?

Facts don't seem to matter anymore!