New USA Healthcare Legislation...

[globetrotter]

...if it passes what I am concerned about is this:

1) Expats are considered covered and they do not have to pay for this idiocy. $12,700 a year to pay for mandatory, jailtime if you do not, HC is madness when one lives on $75 a month...

BUT....

Any business with payroll above 250k has to pay a sliding tax of 2% up to 8% at 401k annual payroll. The .Gov will have instant computer access to all of our bank accounts, Paypal accounts, eBay, etc.

2) So...if you live in the RP and have a website hosted in the USA and get money selling eBooks through PayPal, will the .Gov audit you just to be an asshole and collect more money?

Anyone with more knowledge, experience or a legal expatriate tax attorney is welcome to add to this discussion.

[Nate]

...if it passes what I am concerned about is this:

1) Expats are considered covered and they do not have to pay for this idiocy. $12,700 a year to pay for mandatory, jailtime if you do not, HC is madness when one lives on $75 a month...

BUT....

Any business with payroll above 250k has to pay a sliding tax of 2% up to 8% at 401k annual payroll. The .Gov will have instant computer access to all of our bank accounts, Paypal accounts, eBay, etc.

2) So...if you live in the RP and have a website hosted in the USA and get money selling eBooks through PayPal, will the .Gov audit you just to be an asshole and collect more money?

Anyone with more knowledge, experience or a legal expatriate tax attorney is welcome to add to this discussion.

I will be back in the USA for a time and periodically for the next year or two as I am preparing for the time before too long when I may decide to renounce my US citizenship. Of course by that time I will already be a citizen of another country and will hold a passport from that chosen country as well. I will not serve the bitch- or be a slave on the Obama plantation or any other.


Live Free or Die...

[momopi]

If you're required by law to purchase health insurance at some point, you can always opt for the cheapest plan with high deductible.

[zboy1]

The health care bill that was passed a couple of days ago is a complete disaster. Doesn't solve any of the problems of cost and greedy insurance companies. All it will do will bankrupt America faster. Social security and medicare is already going bankrupt and taxes are sure to go up to stratospheric levels to pay for this. I wouldn't mind if taxes actually paid for a true universal healthcare system, but this bill is a total joke. The only people that will benefit from this will be the illegal aliens and welfare recipients. Obama is pissing me off big time by passing all these stupid spending programs with no restraint in sight. And I thought Bush was a complete asshole, Obama is almost as bad.

[Winston]

So expats don't have to pay for this healthcare thing? But how will the government distinguish between expats and those living in America? I mean expats do not carry cards saying they are expats nor do they sign any document saying that they live abroad. How do you submit your overseas address to the US government?

Also, what if you get called for jury duty while you're living overseas? How will you know about it? Do you have to tell some agency that you're abroad so they don't call you for jury duty?

[FuzzX]

The US sucks... Im sorry but its so corrupt... I thought Mexico was bad but the US is just the top turd in the world. I don't understand the government has the people believing that a step towards healthcare is NOT in their best interests??? WTF?? This is brainwashing at its peak.

We in Canada pay a large chunk of our income and the companies shoulder much of the weight and generally everyone is happy to pay into it. Why? Well cause the system works. Whenever I'm sick, I just goto the hospital and I'm treated within a few hours. Last year I broke my hand...really smashed it up good (slight disfiguration now), within 4 hours I was seeing a doctor and they had me patched up and ready to go that night. Total cost to me: Nothing. I was also unemployed at the time and for quite a few months afterward.. now I'm working again and putting alot of it towards the care tax but I'd be happy to help someone else in a similar predictament. The US just seems to want to make more money off of its sick population... how sad. I can't believe you have to call an insurance company and they have the right to refuse you?! Thats insane.

The solution is simple: The US should really take a lesson from Mexico... start producing GENERICS, basically companies with expired patents manufacture CHEAP mediciines that are just as effective as the ones with patents... I paid 7 dollars for my asthma puffer in Guadalajara... here in Canada its 40 bucks and in the US its 200.

[ladislav]

So expats don't have to pay for this healthcare thing? But how will the government distinguish between expats and those living in America? I mean expats do not carry cards saying they are expats nor do they sign any document saying that they live abroad. How do you submit your overseas address to the US government?

Also, what if you get called for jury duty while you're living overseas? How will you know about it? Do you have to tell some agency that you're abroad so they don't call you for jury duty?

I file my 1040 every year and I declare myself a non-US resident. I guess they have a record. I also send a letter to the CA Tax board and I tell them that I am overseas. I have not had problems with things like that yet.

[ladislav]

...if it passes what I am concerned about is this:

1) Expats are considered covered and they do not have to pay for this idiocy. $12,700 a year to pay for mandatory, jailtime if you do not, HC is madness when one lives on $75 a month...

BUT....

Any business with payroll above 250k has to pay a sliding tax of 2% up to 8% at 401k annual payroll. The .Gov will have instant computer access to all of our bank accounts, Paypal accounts, eBay, etc.

2) So...if you live in the RP and have a website hosted in the USA and get money selling eBooks through PayPal, will the .Gov audit you just to be an asshole and collect more money?

Anyone with more knowledge, experience or a legal expatriate tax attorney is welcome to add to this discussion.

I will be back in the USA for a time and periodically for the next year or two as I am preparing for the time before too long when I may decide to renounce my US citizenship. Of course by that time I will already be a citizen of another country and will hold a passport from that chosen country as well. I will not serve the bitch- or be a slave on the Obama plantation or any other.


Live Free or Die...

So, basically universal health care is forcing people to buy insurance on top of taxes, not using the already existing taxes to finance insurance. Is that the best they could come up with? I have read that it is not going to really kick in before 2014. Is that correct?

As far as income goes. I think the way it works is if you make money in the US from US sources, you have to pay tax every year. But really I would contact aan account that specializes in expat taxes at least for a consultation.

http://www.expatcfo.com/site/index.html

http://www.protaxconsulting.com/index.h ... ewod9W59sA

[globetrotter]

I don't understand the government has the people believing that a step towards healthcare is NOT in their best interests??? WTF?? This is brainwashing at its peak.

It isn't the Government that has the people believing that a step towards healthcare is NOT in their best interests, it is the values of 40% or so of the population.

Many people in Canada are descendents of Loyalists who sided with The Crown in 1774-1812 and fled to the Ontario Peninsula shortly thereafter. America was founded by people who got fed up with their government and pointed a gun at their leaders in England and told them to comport or else. The Gov't did not, so we began shooting at them. Canadians have no such history. Thus The Queen is on your currency, but is not on USA currency.

There are some core values amongst those people and their descendents. These values are held by 20% to 40% of the American populace.

These are:

1) Self-sufficiency. We expect people to be able to take care of themselves. If a neighbor is in true trouble we will help out. Temporarily. But it is expected that they return to self-sufficiency soon. This help is given freely, not by coercion, not by law, not by edict, NOT BY TAXES and not by Government Decree. There was no room in North America for a leech who needed constant Gov't help, not from 1620 to 1920. If you could not stand on your own you literally had no business coming here.

2) Distrust of authority. These people who are their descendents don't trust the Government because they know that all Govt's eventually begin to take your money and property against your will.

Another way of referring to that concept is Taxes.

3) Independence. We don't want to vote ourselves other people's money via taxation. We don't want to benefit via forcing someone else to work for us (that is what taxes are...). Even if we stand to benefit, we don't want to vote ourselves other people's money because we know that soon enough it will be our money that is voted away and taken from us.

I know to the liberal mindset of Canadians and Europeans these ideas make no sense. I know that many people in the EU and Canada consider these opinions uneducated, uncivilised and stupid. But they are core principles of many Americans, ones that I hold.

What is Democracy?
Democracy is three wolves and one lamb voting on whether to eat the lamb for dinner.

[globetrotter]

So, basically universal health care is forcing people to buy insurance on top of taxes, not using the already existing taxes to finance insurance. Is that the best they could come up with? I have read that it is not going to really kick in before 2014. Is that correct?

As far as income goes. I think the way it works is if you make money in the US from US sources, you have to pay tax every year. But really I would contact aan account that specializes in expat taxes at least for a consultation.

http://www.expatcfo.com/site/index.html

http://www.protaxconsulting.com/index.h ... ewod9W59sA

Yes, this is the best they could do. Many Democrats (10-20) are conservative and did not want this, some objected due to abortion funding.

The USA is also BROKE. It collects $1,200 Billion in taxes this year and spends $3,600 billion and finances the rest with debt bond sales to China and elsewhere. $1T in defence spending, massive interest payments on the debt, Social Security, Medicare Parts A, B,C & D, and Medicaid are bankrupting the country and are now a net drain on the budget, increasing it every year.

Either this would be an increase in taxes, killing business and the middle class, or a mandated insurance, killing business and the middle class. Watch as unintended consequences kill jobs, put businesses out of work, raise the cost of healthcare even more, and raise medical insurance premiums 50% to 300% beginning as soon as October.

Contrary to worldwide opinion, the USA does not have infinite quantities of money. It has run out just like any other nation. I also argue that on many levels the USA is NO LONGER THE RICHEST NATION IN THE WORLD.

I prefer China.
X-ray, Physician consultation, medicines, prescription, crutches, 3 taxi cab rides for a sprained foot cost me $31.04 and 40 minutes of time. In America it would have been $975 and 5 hours.

[FuzzX]

but what about the taxes you pay that goto defense spending... I mean thats a pretty useless money pit right there. I read somewhere that if the US was to cut just 5% of its defense spending they could give free healthcare to everyone in the USA.

[Winston]

The US sucks... Im sorry but its so corrupt... I thought Mexico was bad but the US is just the top turd in the world. I don't understand the government has the people believing that a step towards healthcare is NOT in their best interests??? WTF?? This is brainwashing at its peak.

We in Canada pay a large chunk of our income and the companies shoulder much of the weight and generally everyone is happy to pay into it. Why? Well cause the system works. Whenever I'm sick, I just goto the hospital and I'm treated within a few hours. Last year I broke my hand...really smashed it up good (slight disfiguration now), within 4 hours I was seeing a doctor and they had me patched up and ready to go that night. Total cost to me: Nothing. I was also unemployed at the time and for quite a few months afterward.. now I'm working again and putting alot of it towards the care tax but I'd be happy to help someone else in a similar predictament. The US just seems to want to make more money off of its sick population... how sad. I can't believe you have to call an insurance company and they have the right to refuse you?! Thats insane.

The solution is simple: The US should really take a lesson from Mexico... start producing GENERICS, basically companies with expired patents manufacture CHEAP mediciines that are just as effective as the ones with patents... I paid 7 dollars for my asthma puffer in Guadalajara... here in Canada its 40 bucks and in the US its 200.

Are you serious? Everyone else from Canada here said that it takes months for them to see a doctor. So how come you say the opposite?

[zboy1]

Yeah, universal health care is by no means perfect and it does take several months to see a doctor for special surgical procedures, but most Canadians I know love their health care system, warts and all. I mean, are you saying our health care system is any better? I know a relative of mine that had to pay 50,000 dollars just for heart surgery, and the insurance company is trying to drop the coverage from her because of "pre existing conditions." What kind of society does that to people? All in all, I probably would prefer a completely free market health care system where there are no third party insurance companies and government involved. That way, prices for health care would fall just like any other consumer product. But unfortunately that isn't going to happen in America because the big corporations run the country and the insurance companies would fight tooth and nail if this was to happen.

[globetrotter]

but what about the taxes you pay that goto defense spending... I mean thats a pretty useless money pit right there. I read somewhere that if the US was to cut just 5% of its defense spending they could give free healthcare to everyone in the USA.

5% of the US defence spending budget is $50 Billion. 335 million people. That is $149.25 per person.

Your figures are off by a factor of 50. US healthcare sector is 18% of 14,000 billion or $2.5 Trillion. That is $7523 per person.

[FuzzX]

Are you serious? Everyone else from Canada here said that it takes months for them to see a doctor. So how come you say the opposite?



(I have been in and out of hospitals my whole life... I was a very sick child and probably wouldn't have made it if there wasn't free healthcare)

Months to see a doctor??? LOL thats just more propaganda they are firing your way. You better come over the border and do your own research. In emergency you are seen according to how bad the condition is... patients with fatal wounds or heart problems always get first priority. If an ambulance takes you in you get a high priority and are seen by doctors right away. If its not life threatening then you might have to wait a couple hours in the emergency room.

To see a family doctor you have to schedule your appointments ahead of time... like a week or two and we also have free walk in clinics that can take a few hours to 20 minutes depending on the number of people waiting. Anything else that you've heard about Canada is complete bullsh1t.

I needed a Ministry of Transport Physical from my family doc... I was in and out the door in an hour. I honestly don't know where americans are getting this crap from.

I don't mind paying for someone else to have surgery either... my father had a massive heat attack in China that cost us $40,000 and they even screwed up the operation and cut him wrong... after he got back home here (now disabled) he had to have a series of 3 other surgeries and was in the hospital for around 3 months or so plus he had to have extensive muscle therapy. Our total cost here 0. Also the elderly all get free medication after 65 too.

My mother has an upper middle class job and a large percentage of her income goes into taxes, none of us would want your system, even if it means saving a buck or two here and there. I think a productive society tries to help each other where it counts.

Imagine not having to worry about getting sick EVER because you know that there are people around that WANT to help you. Having a heart attack? The nearest person will run to a phone and have you taken care of asap. I don't care if they are Canadian or American or Chinese or whatever, in a technologically advanced civilization, healthcare should be available to everyone regardless of how much they make and what family they were born into.

The American way of life is based on greed and violence... I don't think you'll find too many Canadians who would willingly live in the USA.

Oh yeah just as a side note: Guns are illegal here so that probably makes up for a large part of your health/police services spending right there.

Christ, I'm glad I was born Canadian..