First I thought it was important to show how the politicians how stupid they think we are and how corrupt the system is. As reported in The Baltimore Business Journal, the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange has hired Subramanian Muniasmy, the Deloite consulting project manager, who was previously assigned to overhaul Maryland’s exchange’s website, as Chief Information Officer. Interestingly Muniasamy started to work on Jan. 7, 2015, as the new exchange’s top IT official. He will now oversee ongoing maintenance and operations of the website that he played an integral role in building. Imagine that he, as the Director at Optum/QSSI, the Columbia, Md., company who was hired on as an interim basis to manage the struggling exchange website after firing the lead contractor Noridian Healthcare Solutions. Then when Brown and Maryland officials hired Deloitte in April 2014 to replace its exchange with code and technology from Connecticut, Muniasamy joined the firm as the manager overseeing the project.

Does anybody see the stupidity and hypocrisy in this and soo many other decisions? No way should Muniasamy benefit from his mistakes, lack of leadership and errors that have cost the taxpayers in Maryland more than $200 million.

Think about what our dear leader wanted to do with the 529 College benefits? He wanted to eliminate the tax benefits? Also as tax time approaches there are a number of beneficiaries of the Affordable Care Act subsidies who will be penalized due to their improved financial status. And Michelle Obama, the first lady, encourages the youth to strive for the college education, advanced educational goals, it seems hypocrisy again that our leader wants to improve the middle class, but it seems that in reality the middle class, the working stiffs get penalized at each twist, each turn, each yard that they make in the game of life.

The ultimate hypocrisy is in the flock of private jets/birds flying to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum looking at global warming and inequality. Their carbon footprint is more than most cities for a week. Inequality, these are the billionaires of the world!

Also, if you watched the Super Bowl you also understand hypocrisy. Football, the game of the common man and woman where the tickets to the game are for sale for up to $40,000 per ticket and the major problem in Phoenix was the number of private jets landing in the city airport. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Middle America, you have to watch from you T.V. studio seats and you can’t declare the cost of your big screen T.V. and the party, etc. as a tax write off as the corporate sponsors who take their guests to the boxes and great seats in the Phoenix stadium.

Our priorities are so far out of the norms to benefit the “common” man and woman. What do we need to do to correct the drifting ship and is a truly affordable healthcare system benefiting all Americans possible?

Consider the person or head of the family who initially was not required to file income tax or the person or family member whose income is initially low enough or unemployed and therefore received subsidies for health insurance coverage. He or she then gets a job, inherits money, etc. they will then be considered to be in a group of individuals who don’t deserve their subsidy and will be fined if they don’t purchase their own health care insurance policies.

But one way to avoid the penalty is to pay attention to the details.

Here are three of the common ways you might escape the fine:

1. If you were uninsured for less than three consecutive months the fine would only apply to people who have been without insurance longer than that.
2. If the lowest-priced coverage available to you, even after applying a government subsidy, would cost more than 8 percent of your household’s income, Or
3. If you earn less than $10,150 (or $20,300 for a married couple) and thus, are not required to file income taxes then you would not incur penalties.

Otherwise, you are required to purchase your own policy or your employer may be required to purchase the plan depending on the number of hours that you work per week., presently this is 30 hours per week. But this number of hours will probably change if the GOP has their way with remodeling the ACA.

Think how this de-incentivizes those who want to work, get ahead, and provide a better life for themselves and their families.

Next let’s look at what is really required to design a health care system that truly works and is sustainable. We need to examine the history of the past system as well as other suggested proposals for a “gold standard” system.