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Always in Season…White Chicken Chili

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White Chicken Chili…. Good and Healthy

White Chicken Chili will please everyone anytime of year! Easy to prepare on those busy days and great for those evenings when the kids are in different activities and eating in shifts.

I love this recipe because you can modify it with shredded chicken vs. chopped. This takes a bit more preparation time as you poach the chicken and shred with two forks. Also, I am not fan of cheese on my soups, so I use a dollop of low-fat sour cream in lieu of the cheese. And, you can add sliced carrots, mushrooms or other creative ingredients. While my family loves corn bread muffins with white chicken chili, other choices such as Garlic bread, crackers and toasted pita triangles make a great side. And…to end a perfect meal is the perfect desert of low fat and healthy brownies made with apple sauce or yogurt in place of oil…Yum!!

Let me know how you like it or have any suggestions for modifications!

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 15 min. Cook: 25 min.

MAKES: 10 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 cans (14 ounces each) chicken broth
  • 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
  • 3 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) great northern beans, drained, divided
  • 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
  • Chopped jalapeno pepper, optional

Nutritional Facts

1 cup: 219 calories, 7g fat (3g saturated fat), 37mg cholesterol, 644mg sodium, 21g carbohydrate (1g sugars, 7g fiber), 19g protein.

Directions

  1. In a Dutch oven over medium heat, cook chicken and onion in oil until lightly browned. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the broth, chilies, cumin, oregano and cayenne; bring to a boil.
  2. Reduce heat to low. With a potato masher, mash one can of beans until smooth. Add to saucepan. Add remaining beans to saucepan. Simmer for 20-30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and onion is tender.
  3. Top each serving with cheese and, if desired, jalapeno pepper. Yield: 10 servings (2-1/2 quarts)

Originally published as White Chicken Chili in Taste of Home Cooking School Collection

Insurance Tax Deductions

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Ask Frank

 

 

 

Dear Frank,

I’m a recently self-employed freelance designer who buys her own health insurance, and I have some tax-related questions. Are my monthly plan premiums deductible? What about other medical expenses?

Thank you for your help!

Itemized in Ohio

 

Hello Itemized,

You may be eligible to deduct your health insurance premiums if you are self-employed and have a net profit for the year—you can’t deduct more than you’ve earned.[1] According to the IRS, you should keep the following in mind[2]:

This is an adjustment to your income, rather than an itemized deduction, for premiums you paid on a health insurance policy covering medical care, including a qualified long-term care insurance policy covering medical care, for yourself, your spouse, and dependents. In addition, you may be eligible for this deduction for your child who is under the age of 27 at the end of 2016 even if the child wasn’t your dependent. See Chapter 6 of Publication 535 for eligibility information. If you don’t claim 100% of your paid premiums, you can include the remainder with your other medical expenses as an itemized deduction on Form 1040, Schedule A (PDF).

As for your second question, by law, if you itemize your deductions on Form 1040, Schedule A, you can deduct the amount of your total medical expenses that[3]:

  • Exceed 10 percent of your adjusted gross income
  • Or 7.5 percent of your AGI if you our your spouse is 65 or older

The IRS defines medical care expenses as “payments for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or payments for treatments affecting any structure or function of the body.”[4]

Examples of tax-deductible medical expenses include payments for:

  • Services from doctors, dentists, surgeons, chiropractors, psychologists, and nontraditional practitioners
  • Acupuncture treatment or inpatient treatment at a center for alcohol or drug addiction, for participation in a smoking-cessation program and for drugs to alleviate nicotine withdrawal that require a prescription
  • Insulin and drugs that require a prescription
  • False teeth, reading or prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses, hearing aids, crutches, wheelchairs, and for a guidedog or other service animal to assist a visually impaired or hearing disabled person, or a person with other physical disabilities
  • Click here to read more at IRS.gov

The IRS offers a tool to help you determine which of your medical and dental expenses may be deductible. See “Can I Deduct My Medical and Dental Expenses?” at IRS.gov to get started.

I hope these answers offer clarity as you complete your taxes. When in doubt, you may want to work with a tax professional who can assist you with specifics and answer additional questions.

Sincerely,

Frank

What Is The Future Of Health Insurance, How It Will Affect Me And What Can I Do Today?

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With the change in government, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, will be repealed and replaced… this is certain. What is uncertain is how quickly and what the replacement will be.

President Trump’s first step to repeal ACA was signing an executive order that gives the new administration enough leeway to target the most unpopular aspect of Obamacare – a mandate requiring Americans to get coverage or pay a fine. Republican leaders say they will repeal Obamacare and replace it this year with a plan that doles out fixed tax credits and unleashes market forces to entice people into health care coverage rather than relying on a mandate to force them into coverage.

The intent of the individual mandate is to pull healthy people into the marketplace to balance the costs for less healthy customers who can no longer be denied insurance.  Forcing healthy people to purchase ACA plans has become a huge financial burden on those who do not qualify for the present subsidized system. Premiums have risen and deductibles increased to the point that people would rather pay the fine than pay for health insurance that is unaffordable.

Republicans will be using fast-track budget rules to gut the individual mandate and other parts of the law in the coming weeks. I predict parts of the law that benefit people will be retained…. allow people with pre-existing conditions to have access to health insurance and financial assistance for those who qualify and children remain on parents plans through up to age 26.

What can you do today?

  • Align yourself with a health insurance professional that specializes in individual health insurance as there are major differences between group and individual insurance. Many changes took place at the end of 2016 that affect the insurance plans available for individuals such as Short Term Plans being limited to only one (1) 3-month policy starting April 1, 2017.
  • Enroll in a permanent health insurance plan with no annual renewal requirements to ensure certainty in an uncertain market.
  • You should also diversify your health insurance coverage with supplemental accident, critical illness and disability – much as you would your financial planning. These supplemental plans will assist in covering deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses not covered by insurance.
  • Look at living benefit life insurance options that provide a dual purpose – as a death benefit or use of the face value for medical and/or non-medical expenses if you have a critical, chronic or terminal illness. (Many people are using this option in place of long term care insurance).

If I had a crystal ball… I see the return of HSAs and major medical plans of the past, PPOs, more choice which will lower premiums and increase benefits. People will be able to keep their plan and their doctors…. hmm, sounds like Obamacare. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way.

600,000 New Reasons The Affordable Care Act is Sinking

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By Jeff Smedsrud
I work as a health reform advocate, entrepreneur and strategist.

In 2017 approximately 600,000 more Americans are exempt from paying a penalty for not buying health insurance because rising health insurance premiums are growing much, much faster than wages and household income.

If the least expensive plan available under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) costs more than 8.13% of your household income, you don’t pay a penalty if you refuse to buy it. The penalty is the greater of 2.5% of your taxable income, or $695 per adult, and $347.50 per child.

According to data scientist April Seifert, the average Bronze plan in 2016 for a family of four was about $8,600. In 2017, it will be more than $9,500. She estimates that this means about seven million more Americans would be exempt from buying health insurance in 2017 – assuming that everyone buys in the individual market. But not everyone does. Most experts believe it is in the range of 7%-9% percent that buy their own insurance. That creates a total of somewhere between 490,000 and 630,000 American families that are newly exempt.

When The Affordable Care Act was approved in 2010 it created a series of exemptions for certain individuals who would not be required to pay a tax penalty (the so-called individual mandate) if they did not purchase health insurance. These exemptions are given for a variety of reasons: certain life events, group membership, health coverage of financial status, being a member of a native American tribe, or being enrolled in a faith-based health sharing ministry.

One of the more obscure items was this: If the lowest cost Bronze-level plan available to you through the marketplace was 8% of your household income, you were exempt from paying the tax penalty for not buying a qualified health plan. The total cost had to be more than 8%, including any premium tax credit you would qualify for if you enrolled in that plan. It applied to everybody on your tax return who didn’t have coverage in 2017.

In 2010 the notion that health insurance – even with tiny house-size benefits and Mt. Everest-size deductibles – would ever cost 8% of household income was very remote. Maybe for those eligible for subsidies, we thought, but not for the upper middle class.

Forward to 2017. The individual market is in near collapse. Prices rose in 2014, and even more in 2015, and 2016, and in 2017 current estimates say the average price increase will be 24% percent, according to insurance industry expert Charles Gaba. For some, prices will go up 50% or more.

Suddenly, the cost of buying health insurance is more than 8% of taxable income for many people.

Why does this matter?

1.      It is useful to remind people what the ACA allows, and does not allow. It clearly gives people above a certain income get a pass when it comes to making health insurance a requirement.

2.      Because some of these 600,000 newly exempt don’t have to buy coverage, some of them simply won’t – especially the healthiest

3.      When fewer and fewer healthy people buy health insurance in the individual market, the risk pool gets sicker and sicker. Insurance costs will keep going up.

4.      As insurance costs go up and up, more and more people will be exempt from buying it. The risk pool gets sicker and sicker. And rates go up even more.

A “death spiral” is an insurance term for a sinking ship. At a certain point, there is a mathematical certainty that a ship will sink. The individual health insurance market isn’t at this point – yet. But it is getting close.

What is the solution?

Congress and the next President really need to reach a bi-partisan consensus on how to right the ship – closing loopholes, tweaking eligibility for subsidies by creating a longer sliding scale, allowing for plans with less benefits which will cost less. There are many small steps that could be taken.

Like them or loathe them, short term medical insurance plans are an option for all people. They cost less, only cover you for a specific period of time, and don’t provide as much protection. And so are fixed indemnity plans – the kind of insurance that pays a cash reimbursement for certain procedures based on a set schedule.

As consumers, we need to know all of our rights. Those who make too much to be eligible for a premium subsidy, but make too little to reasonably believe that having a comprehensive health insurance is affordable, don’t have to buy it. There are other options.

You are in charge of your choices.

 

 

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