How will it work for Americans abroad who have health insurance in the country the live in?
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How will it work for Americans abroad who have health insurance in the country the live in?
For the Americans abroad, it will be business as usual: taxation without representation and get the foreign benefits they pay for, ultimately depending on the foreign country.
Their pension status might depend of the agreements between the States and the country they live/work in or of the duration of their employment abroad.
I guess it would depend of the circumstances of life/employment abroad. I'm afraid they would have to buy in the American plan by default.
On a semi related subject, some friends of mine just moved back to the States. They were on a 3 years contract in Germany with an employer's mandatory American health plan. A plan which actually didn't cover non American doctors and hospitals, even tho the friends were specifically hired for a contract abroad.
I am more interested in situation of people who move abroad without a specific job contract (like for retirement) or who have dual citizenship/permanent residency abroad (married to German, Japanese, etc. ;). If they have to buy American plans by default, they are screwed big way.
Yes, that would be problematic as well.
Don't forget Cap and Trade. That's another "non-tax" decrease in disposable income...or any income period.
I'm not sure if this is the same thing, but the news reported that the cost of living increase was an automatic thing that has provided a raise to recipients of social security since the mid-1970's. I'm sure that there is a formula that is used to calculate the automatic kick-in like you say.
Yes, it is the same thing.
Originally, the government had to vote every SSI benefit increase. In 1973, they voted a law indexing the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W for short). That law took effect in 1975 and automatically increased the benefits with a percentage based on the difference of CPI-W between two years, the calculation is traditionally done at the end of the 3rd trimester. The CPI-W at the end of September 2009 was actually lower than at the end of September 2008, therefore negative index and no increase.