Obamacare Software Glitch Will Limit Penalties Charged To Smokers 490
turbosaab writes "The Obama administration has quietly notified insurers that a computer system glitch will limit penalties that companies may charge smokers under the new healthcare law. The underlying reason for the limitation is another provision in the health care law that says insurers can't charge older customers more than three times what they charge the youngest adults in the pool. The government's computer system has been unable to accommodate the two. So younger smokers and older smokers must be charged the same penalty, or the system will kick it out. A fix will take at least a year to put in place."
I know the government loves to lie to us... (Score:2, Interesting)
but this is just lack of effort.
Re:Ah yes, government control of health care (Score:4, Interesting)
hey, you live in daddy's house, you live by daddy's rules.
skateboarders have a higher risk of injury, you will see a penalty.
gun owners? penalty.
rock climbers? penalty.
over BMI? penalty.
socialism. ideas so good, they have to be mandatory.
Re:A year? (Score:5, Interesting)
Translating the US tax code into software is probably a task rivaling some of the most complex software problems out there...and no one in their right mind will take that job if they can go elsewhere...
So you have a ridiculously complicated problem, worked on by several rejects (I'm not saying all of them are rejects, but probably a non-trivial amount. I'm sure SOME good devs actually work there willingly....).
The result must be an insane mess of crappy code...
Re:Ah yes, government control of health care (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:My health is none of the government's business (Score:5, Interesting)
Your sig suggest that you're a thoughtful person, but your post seems as if you didn't think about what you were saying at all.
Surely you don't really think that a market wherein the vast majority of consumers use an optional (subsidized) system will treat outlier, "pay-as-you-go" consumers equitably.
P.S. (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's a chart showing how the exchanges are supposed to work. [scribd.com] Just a system in which the public looks at different health plans from different providers would be complex enough, but note the links to the IRS, Treasury, Social Security, HHS, Homeland Security, and state Medicaid systems. This thing must be giving nightmares to even top IT pros.
Is it that bad in the US (Score:5, Interesting)
I knew the health care system in the US was ridiculously expensive but that this is allowed... Even in the new healthcare system proposed by the neoliberal party in the Netherlands insurance companies have to offer the same price for the basic insurance for everybody. Taxing some more than others would cause uproar. Some are suggesting to let smokers pay more but the usual response that in that case it would also be fair to let them pay less for their retirement pension usually cuts that off.
Re:I know the government loves to lie to us... (Score:2, Interesting)
But there is a huge difference between a private company's policy on this (I dislike those too, but they have that right). When a company does this, you are free to leave and find a less onerous place to work.
When the govt does this, it COSTS you money, all with full force of the govt behind one. An entity that can deprive you of your money, your freedom and in some cases your life.
You can't change that shy of leaving your own country which is something wrong.
I'm about to start thumbing through my US constitution, can someone give me a head start by suggesting where I read in the constitution about the federal govt being empowered to mold its citizens behavior through forced fines and taxes? I could swear I've never seen it there before, but I might have overlooked it.....
Re:I know the government loves to lie to us... (Score:0, Interesting)
So if government ALWAYS gets bigger and NEVER gets smaller... explain to me why my own country's government is growing at a rate significantly lower than the population and why a number of laws and their accompanying regulations have been removed in recent years.
Just last month, the code regulating HAM radio operators was reduced from 20 pages of text to 2. How could this happen if government ALWAYS gets bigger then?
Are you just a complete dumbass or are you a religious libertard?
Re:I know the government loves to lie to us... (Score:4, Interesting)
When I moved to the states a few years back now, I smoked Djarum. Two months before I moved, Obama + Phillip Morris (Marlboro I believe) Lobbied to ban "flavoured" cigarettes, well except for menthol. The legislation isn't supposed to make sense, it's just supposed to make money.
Phillip Morris with Obama's assistance got all flavoured cigarettes banned in the states. Then Phillip Morris after basically killing the market for many companies in the states (Clove cigarettes, etc) began selling "clove" Marlboro's to indonesia and other Indo-European countries.
Not that Canada is all that much better, they tax cigarettes about 200%. But at least you can still buy them if you feel like it.
Now if you've seen Djarum or other "flavoured" brands in the last 3+ years. They got around the ban by renaming them "Cigarello's" using cigar paper (thicker) and increasing the diameter by about an 1/8 of an inch or so.
They came for the smokers, but I was not . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
But why are we choosing to charge smokers more? I thought smoking was an addiction and we are supposed to offer health care regardless of pre-existing condition?
Are we going to charge single women or "slutty" women more for reproductive health care because, like, they shouldn't be "doing it"?
Are we going to charge fat persons more?
Are we going to charge people more if they admit to other drug dependencies?
Are we going to charge gay men more unless they can prove they are monogamous? Straight men more unless they can prove they are not "cheating"?
And how do we enforce this? If we catch you smoking and we cancel your health insurance? Put you in jail?
What about an occasional cigar smoker or someone who takes a drag when "a joint is passed around"?
Are the authorities going to stick a OBD-II dongle in your car to make sure you aren't driving too fast?
What about drinking and binge drinking? Are you going to get a rate break for abstaining, and does your rate go up if someone spots you taking a sip of champaign at a wedding?