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This might be old, old, old news, but we only signed up for the SHPS health spending account this year. Having read the fine print, which defers to the IRS, I just found out from that venerable institution that kids under age 25 by the end of the tax year are covered for SHPS expenses under their rules---and the IRS is SHPS's Higher Power. All HSAs are tax-shelters, not health plans. (LLNS shouldn't even care since it's not costing them anything.) Might be of extreme interest to those employees with college-age kids, as LLNS cuts students off from all benefits on their 22nd birthdays!
This might be old, old, old news, but we only signed up for the SHPS health spending account this year. Having read the fine print, which defers to the IRS, I just found out from that venerable institution that kids under age 25 by the end of the tax year are covered for SHPS expenses under their rules---and the IRS is SHPS's Higher Power. All HSAs are tax-shelters, not health plans. (LLNS shouldn't even care since it's not costing them anything.) Might be of extreme interest to those employees with college-age kids, as LLNS cuts students off from all benefits on their 22nd birthdays!
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Posted: Friday, 22 January 2010 7:43AM
CA Democrats Revive Single-Payer Health Care Plan
SACRAMENTO (KCBS/AP) -- A key legislative committee in California revived a bill Thursday to create a government-run health care system in the nation's most populous state, two days after Massachusetts elected a senator who opposes the president's national health care plan.
The Senate Appropriations Committee released the bill for a vote by the full Senate next week. The legislation had been held over from last year because of the state's ongoing budget crisis.
Creating a single-payer system would cost California an estimated $210 billion in its first year. That's roughly double the size of the total state budget, but about what the state and federal government and residents cumulatively spend now on California health care, said Sen. Mark Leno.
Leno, D-San Francisco, introduced the bill after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger twice vetoed similar legislation. The Republican governor negotiated his own $14.7 billion health care reform bill with Democratic leaders two years ago, only to see the measure fail in a Senate committee amid concerns over paying for the measure.
Leno's bill would create a commission to decide how to pay for the system, at a cost this year of more than $1 million.
Leno said the system could be funded with a payroll tax along with existing state and federal money and increased efficiencies from a state-managed system that eliminates the insurance middleman. Voters would have to approve the commission's funding plan, he said.
Republicans mocked majority Democrats for reviving the bill as health care reform flounders in Washington, and California struggles with a new $20 billion deficit.
"California Democrats are either tone-deaf or delusional," California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring said in a statement.
Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, also criticized the timing, though Democrats can send the measure to Schwarzenegger without Republican votes.
Leno said voters may dislike the hybrid health care plan being debated in Congress, but polls have shown support for a state-run plan in California. The appropriations committee had to act Thursday for the bill to be considered by the full Senate before a Jan. 31 deadline for passing bills introduced last year.
"Whatever comes out of Washington is much less certain, which only gives greater incentive for leadership coming from state legislators because somehow, some way, health care reform must be addressed," Leno said in a telephone interview. "We're drowning. We can't keep up and it's killing our economy and it's harming our employers and it's harming our employees. It's harming everybody."
ListenKCBS' Holly Quan reports
Some experts worry that pushing too hard for healthcare could jeopardize everything.
Brian Liang, executive director of the Institute of Health Law Studies at California Western School of law, told KCBS state legislators are showing how out of touch they are with the people.
"In California, we’re going to distance ourselves from that horrible thing in Washington, and we’re going to do our own thing. Quite honestly, that’s again being out of touch with the folks who say, I don’t have a job. How are you going to do this for me? How am I going to have to pay for this?” he said. “You can demand a single-payer system all you want. But, if I can’t pay the premiums, I can’t afford to go to the doctor."
Liang said he believes the window of opportunity on health care reform is closing.
He also said that, what happened in Massachusetts - voters sending a message to Democrats - could easily be replicated in California.
(gba)
(Copyright 2010, KCBS. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
"Leno said the system could be funded with a payroll tax"
Tell me this won't cost you a very big cut in pay if allowed to pass. We cannot afford any more shenanigans from those in what use to be respectable positions in this country. So far I've seen nothing of any value come from Washington, DC since November and I suspect we won't for the duration. To make things worse, due to projected budget shortfalls LLNL will see additonal funding cut in 2011 instead of 2012 leaving them no choice but to once again make hard decisions.
So again we see this administration agenda. Tax the working class to assure the freeloaders survive instead of letting the process of natural selection of elimination take it's course as it should. Seems they're bound and determined to destroy what little sanity and common sense society has left. Kind of like letting LLNS and LANS take over the national labs. Destruction from within wonderful to witness, isn't it.
Mine was cut off from our health plan and all other LLNS benefits at 22 even though she's a full time college student. BUT SHE'S ONBOARD FOR SHPS ACCORDING TO THE IRS! ***Yippee***
Plus the IRS said part of Obama's plan will cover her till she's 26, not just for HSAs but all benefits!