Healthcare revisions

What they changed The reconciliation bill will make changes in the new healthcare overhaul, including:* Boost subsidies to help low-income earners purchase insurance.* Eliminate by 2020 the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole” that forces seniors to assume the full cost of some prescription drugs.* Increase the penalty on individuals who forgo insurance to $695 a year, or 2.5% of income, by 2016.* Increase the penalty on employers who choose not to offer insurance to as much as $2,000 per worker (with the first 30 workers exempt).* Delay a 40% excise tax on high-end health plans until 2018.* Impose a new 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income for couples making more than $250,000 a year.* Eliminate a deal in which Nebraska’s extra Medicaid costs were to be absorbed by the federal government. Instead, the U.S. will cover the cost of Medicaid expansion for all states until 2016.Source: Times research