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In Latest Obamacare Fiasco, Most Low-Income Workers Can't Afford "Affordable Care Act"
Just ten days ago we described the latest unintended (we hope) consequence of the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare, when Colorado's largest nonprofit co-op health insurer and participant in that state's insurance exchange, Colorado HealthOP, announcing it was abruptly shutting down ahead of the November 1 start of enrollment for 2016, forcing 80,000 Coloradans to find a new insurer for 2016.
It wasn't the first: the Colorado co-op was at least the fifth in the nation to collapse. Similar nonprofit insurers have already failed in Louisiana, Iowa/Nebraska, Nevada and New York. A health insurance cooperative in Tennessee announced this week that it would stop offering new policies.
The insurer failed because it would fail to be profitable, in the process burning through $23 million in taxpayer-funded loss that would not be repaid. "Taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars in loans given out to the CO-OP, money that will likely never be repaid," U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said in a statement after the announcement.
And while many had anticipated from the beginning that the Obamacare tax was merely a subsidy for the large insurance companies (or rather, their public shareholders), few had expected a far more sinister consequence of the "Affordable" care plan: that the employer mandate would turn out to be unaffordable for a vast majority of low-income workers - the very people who were supposed to benefit from it.
But before we unveil this latest depressing, if also anticipated, outcome of socialized healthcare, let's remember that much of the U.S. has press has touted the success of Obamacare. To be sure, nationwide, the Affordable Care Act has significantly reduced the number of Americans without health insurance. Around 10.7% of the country’s under-65 population was uninsured in the first three months of this year, down from 17.5% five years earlier, according to the National Health Interview Survey, a long-running federal study. Some 14 million previously uninsured adults have gained coverage in the last two years, the Obama administration estimates.
However, what is left unsaid is that most of those gains have come from a vast expansion of Medicaid and from the subsidies that help lower-income people buy insurance through federal and state exchanges. Workers who are offered affordable individual coverage through their employers — a group that the employer mandate was intended to expand — are not eligible for government-subsidized insurance through the exchanges, even if their income would otherwise have qualified them.
It is the failing of Obamacare to address the needs of America's struggling lower-middle class, those women and men who work long, hard hours, often at minimum wage, scrambling to make ends meet. It is them, that the NYT writes about in its recent scathing critique of Obamacare (traditionally, it has been the WSJ that gives scathing reports on the disaster that is Obamacare, usually involving soaring monthly premiums for those who were dragged into the Scotus-enabled tax beyond their will).
Take the case of Billy Sewell who began offering health insurance this year to 600 service workers at the Golden Corral restaurants that he owns. He wondered nervously how many would buy it. Adding hundreds of employees to his plan would cost him more than $1 million — a hit he wasn’t sure his low-margin business could afford. His actual costs, though, turned out to be far smaller than he had feared. So far, only two people have signed up.
“We offered, and they didn’t take it,” he said.
But isn't that against the stated primary objective of Obamacare: to make affordable health insurance more accessible and affordable to everyone? The answer, according to the NYT, is no.
The Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate, which requires employers with more than 50 full-time workers to offer most of their employees insurance or face financial penalties, was one of the law’s most controversial provisions. Business owners and industry groups fiercely protested the change, and some companies cut workers’ hours to reduce the number of employees who would be eligible.
But 10 months after the first phase of the mandate took effect, covering companies with 100 or more workers, many business owners say they are finding very few employees willing to buy the health insurance that they are now compelled to offer. The trend is especially pronounced among smaller and midsize businesses in fields filled with low-wage hourly workers, like restaurants, retailing and hospitality. (Companies with 50 to 99 workers are not required to comply with the mandate until next year.)
Hold on, aren't those some of the "best" performing job categories in the past year? Why yes they are, in fact, with 11.1 million workers, those employed by "food service and drinking places" are the single largest job subcategory tracked by the BLS. It is almost as if the bulk of the jobs growth went to fields that would be mostly disadvantaged by Obamacare.
Well, there may be millions of waiters and bartenders in the US, but contrary to what Obamacare promised the vast majority are and will remain uninsured:
“Based on what we’ve seen in the marketplace, we’re advising some of our clients to expect single-digit take rates,” said Michael A. Bodack, an insurance broker in Harrison, N.Y. “One to 2 percent isn’t unusual.”
The reason? What was supposed to be affordable remains painfully unaffordable for the lowest rung of the employment pyramid.
Here is the actual math as experienced by both the abovementioned Mr. Sewell of Golden Corral restaurants, and his mostly minimum-wage employees.
He employs 1,800 people at the 26 Golden Corral franchises he owns in six Southern and Midwestern states, and previously offered insurance only to his salaried management staff. In January, when the employer mandate took effect, he made the same insurance plan, with a bigger employer contribution, available to all employees working an average of 30 or more hours a week.
Running the math on his plan — a typical one for the restaurant industry — illustrates why a number of low-wage workers are falling through gaps in the Affordable Care Act.
The annual premium for individual coverage through the Golden Corral Blue Cross Blue Shield plan is $4,800. Mr. Sewell pays 65 percent for service workers, leaving them with a monthly cost of $140.
The health care law defines affordable employer-sponsored insurance as that priced at 9.5 percent or less of an employee’s annual household income for individual coverage. (Because employers do not know how much money their workers’ relatives make, there are several “safe harbors” they can use for compliance, including basing their calculation on only their own employees’ wages.) Mr. Sewell’s insurance meets the test, but $65 per biweekly paycheck is more than most of his workers are willing — or able — to pay for insurance that still carries steep out-of-pocket costs, including a $2,500 deductible.
And this is where Obamacare's employee mandate fails for a vast majority of US workers.
Clarissa Morris, 47, has been a server at the Golden Corral here for five years, earning $2.13 an hour plus tips. On a typical day, she leaves the restaurant with about $70 in tips. Her husband makes $9 an hour at Walmart but has been offered only a part-time schedule there, without benefits. Their combined paychecks barely cover their rent and daily essentials.
“It’s either buy insurance or put food in the house,” she said. On the rare occasions that she gets sick, she visits a local clinic with sliding-scale fees. It costs her $25 for a visit, and $4 to fill prescriptions at Walmart.
Other business owners find the same paradox:
Brad Mete, the managing partner of Affinity Resources, a staffing agency in Dania Beach, Fla., began offering insurance this year to most of his workers only because the law required it. He said the alternative, paying a penalty of about $2,000 per full-time employee, was unthinkable, “That would put us out of business, in one swoop.”
Trying to persuade his hourly workers to buy the insurance is “like pulling teeth,” he said. His company’s plan costs $120 a month, but workers making about $300 a week are reluctant to spend $30 of it on insurance.
That's ok - if you beleive the Obama administration, wages are about to soar.
Or maybe not.
What is truly tragic, however, that just like in the case of "punishing work" when Earned Income Tax benefits for those living around the poverty line, see their after tax pay rise above what comparable workers who make up to $50k per year, Obamacare seems to have been designed only for those making above the median US wage and above:
A study by ADP, the payroll processing giant, found an income tipping point at which most employees who are eligible for health insurance will buy it: $45,000 a year.
Workers making $15,000 to $20,000 a year buy employer-sponsored individual insurance when it is offered only 37 percent of the time. That rate rises at every income increment ADP studied until $45,000, when it reaches 82 percent and levels off. Further income gains have virtually no effect on the rate, ADP found.
And so the wheels slowly fall off the socialized healthcare train:
Low-income, full-time workers like Ms. Morris may prove to be some of the hardest people to bring into the ranks of the insured, said Gary Claxton, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, which conducts an annual study on employer health benefits.
“This is one of the outcomes of trying to keep employer-based coverage in place,” Mr. Claxton said. “These are folks that didn’t have coverage before, and they’re not being given much help to get coverage now.”
Then, now that the disastrous law has been observed in practice, the result is nothing short of a bureaucratic nightmare, and everyone is scrambling to find loopholes:
Mario K. Castillo, a lawyer in Houston who has extensively studied the new law, said it was poorly understood in the industry, and a bureaucratic nightmare.
“They have to issue you a policy, but dropping it after one year is perfectly legal,” he said. “If you’re in this space, you essentially have to shop for insurance every year.”
But the biggest slap in Obama's care comes from those who were supposed to be the direct beneficiaries.
For employees, forgoing coverage can mean facing tax penalties. Ms. Morris said she was surprised by the $95 fee she had to pay this year for being uninsured in 2014. “I had kind of heard about it, but I didn’t think it was going to kick in until later,” she said.
Around 7.5 million taxpayers paid the fine, according to a preliminary report by the Internal Revenue Service. That is significantly more than the three million to six million the government had forecast.
Actually, considering central planning and government takeover of private industries always leads to disaster, it is more surprising that the number isn't far, far greater.
As for those tens of millions of minimum wage workers, who thought they had a right to "hope" for "change", and instead ended up even worse off - as well as unisnured and paying a penalty - our apologies, especially since it is all downhill from here. What you should have done is buy the stock of health insurance companies: because their shareholders' gain (and your loss) is what the "Affordable" Care Act is truly all about.
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dumb ass americans did have achoice and they voted for obama twice. they have continued to vote in the same politicians for 50 years. it is the peoples fault. when the 'dont tase me bro' guy stood up and demanded he be heard and the the politician answer, he was tased and everyone laughed. most americans deserve the shit thats coming......
G-O-PEE romped in 2014 and has done everything Obama wanted including TPP/TPA and open borders. Voting is meaningless.
Here is a alternative to ObamaCare
http://selfpaypatient.com/2014/06/18/health-sharing-ministry-members-ref...
It's about getting along, don't you know. Conflict is just so ugly and "uncompromising".
A think-tank think-piece proposition that was shot down in flames & never saw the light of day again in "conservative" orLibertarian circles, do you know why?
BECAUSE THE THOUGHT PIECE INVOLVED THE STATE...that's why.
You can always depend on fucking progs to only tell one part of the story...or none of it.
"And now, page two."
That's why Paul Harvey was born.
"And now you know the rest of the story."
Ted Cruz even joked that he is on his wife's healthcare plan at Goldman Sachs. He is a TPA/TPP stooge and H 1B RINO. As bad as jeb and Rubio.
The Free Republic Bibi-firsters aka Jonathan Pollard conservatives love him.
BTW - I am Constitutional conservative who is anti (banksters) war. All wars are banksters/elite wars.
Until it blows your house down, and then it's just war.
Dont play the man, play the ball.
Ah, in the realm that is of a peaked empire,
there appears no one left to put pressure
on the 535,
in fact it appears there's no one left
who even knows why that would be a good idea,
a good idea, by design.
Smarmy gets you nowhere.
Defeatism gets you nowhere.
Protecting Principle and Rule of Law via prescribed avenues is a chance...
Sorry but Obamacare is NOT an example of socialized medicine, it is an example of CRONY CAPITALISM at its finest.
What specifically makes Obamacare capitalist? When high risk patients are subsidized by healthy low risk individuals is that not socialization of costs?
High risk patients are subsidized by healthy people under private insurance too.
Before Obamacare insurers did not have to take on clients whose medical conditions were such that the costs to the insurer were guarenteed to be greater (perhaps much greater) than the monthly premiums.
"Before Obamacare insurers did not have to take on clients whose medical conditions were such that the costs to the insurer were guarenteed to be greater (perhaps much greater) than the monthly premiums. "
Nor were they required to offer plans that covered pregnancy, abortion and all of the other goodies that a large portion of folks may not need.
If that were true, then why Obamacare?
There was a crisis, remember?
Communism/socialism is the ultimate monopoly. Call it crony capitalism if you must, but it is no different than calling something legal criminality. Corruption is corruption under any system of government or economy.
"Sorry but Obamacare is NOT an example of socialized medicine, it is an example of CRONY CAPITALISM at its finest."
Fucken-A Brother Right On!
If you want to see Socialized Medicine; look at the VA Medical System...PURE FUCKING SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!
Where is the call to "Repeal the VA"?
Of Hell No! Fuck No! Republicans tripping over each other to pour BILLIONS MORE into that Socialized Medicine Debacle...Don't our vets deserve better than Socialized Medicine...rightwingfucktards.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surprise: After scandal fuels billions in new funding, VA wait times…increase"Between 2000 and 2012, the VA’s budget nearly tripled, rising to $124 billion from $45 billion."
Who's run Congress for most of those years?
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/06/22/surprise-after-scandal-fuels-billi...
The forum needs more clear thinking people like you!
How many more Vets are being treated in the VA system in the last 12 years?
Obamacare is a tax.
Wow, people can't afford another fucking tax.
Color me surprised.
How about we cut government 50%?
How about we cut government 50%?
Double down and I'll ride along.
We elect people every year who are going to "cut government". It ain't going to happen as long as we rely on government to cut itself, which is exactly what we are asking every elected official and government employee to do.
IT AIN'T GOING TO HAPPEN.
The US spends more on healthcare than any developed country and has poorer outcomes. “Obamacare” was basically a (not so) elaborate scheme to transfer as much public (i.e., working people) money to health insurance brokers (basically financial middle men who provide no services). Medicine is a VERY public enterprise on the training and infrastructure end. Taxpayers provide $ billions for pregraduate and postgraduate (residency) training, subsidized loans for hospital construction, equipment, etc. One the service end, everyone- insurance companies, physicians, hospitals, big pharma is out to extract as much money as possible from the public. A concluding question to ponder- why is health insurance connected to employment? Obviously, the average working person is being squeezed by health insurance companies.
A concluding question to ponder- why is health insurance connected to employment?
Because when FDR put on price and wage controls in the 1940s businesses added benefits packages in order to retain and attract good employees to whom they could no longer offer a raise. Just another example of the evil capitalists taking care of the little guy when the helpful government screws him over.
I just checked a calendar. It's not the 1940's. And FDR is dead.Can we get rid of these stupid policies?
NO
This is what was so supremely fucked about Obamacare. Everyone knew that once it was enacted it would be with us forever. Even republicans were scared shitless that the SCOTUS would strike down the fed subsidies and they would somehow be blamed for "taking from the poor", and were looking everywhere for a place to steal the money to make it back up. Of course SCOTUS saved them again, but needless to say, Obamacare will not go away. It will be "modified and improved" by republicans, while still leaving the yolk around our neck.
I have to applaud you. Many of you got this stuff down pretty well and have the reasoning correct.
The last part about Republicans, Oldwood is spot on. I used to be a party officer...local level. This is your basic RINO. They are not really against big government. They just believe it should run well. So, Dems implement some horrendous new "save the world" benefit (New Deal, Great Society, Obamacare, etc.) and then Republicans follow and make it run better...without ever getting credit from the Left, mind you. Romney, Christie and McStain are all thoroughly in this camp. Hell, RomneyCare was the freaking model!
About half the Republican party is thoroughly neutered and actually in the wrong party. The other half wants a full on revolution and reversal even if they are not sure what the final product will look like. That means only about 25% of the country is steadfastly opposed to the march of collectivism. If you look at the last hundred or even just 50 years everything sort of makes sense with those rough numbers in mind.
People have to get with the NewSpeak. The name of an act is the opposite if its actual intention.
Patriot Act = Unpatriotic.
Affordable care act= Unaffordable care
A little more practice and you will get it.
Oh the military aka Deep State MIC military operations also use Orwellian speak. Operation Enduring Freedom.
More like Operation Enduring Looting of The Taxpayers by Govt Defense Contractors
Or
Operation Enduring Mass Murder of Innocent People in Foreign Lands for Mega Profits.
What the US helped do to Iraq, Libya, Syria and Vietnam is sickening. Add in Serbia and a bunch more. millions dead and the national debt to the private Federal Reserve over $20 trillion.
Freddie, in case you haven't seen it, government blurb which graces the entry gate at Camp Delta, Guantanamo, is priceless Newspeak:
Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp
We are deep, deep, deep within the Twilight Zone.
Just got a letter from BCBS that my plan is now gone, I need a more expensive one, and the deductible has doubled. Oh, and the new one is not HSA eligible.
Thanks Big O!
See below friend. Check out Liberty Health Share and the others. It might help and may not be for you. It is at least an alternative to this nightmare.
I'm becoming a refugee and moving to Germany...
You might want to re-think that strategy, Tempo. The germans don't give free shit to refugees. They live in tents over there.
A suggestion that may be helpful to some but not all: Take a look at the healthcare ministries: They are all compliant with ACA.
Liberty HealthShare (probably for the least religious and a good one run by Menonites). This appears to be the best one from what I have seen. They even cover colonoscopies 100% if you are over 50. You cannot be a boozer, drugie and smokers are generally not welcome at these ministries. Very moderate drinking.
http://www.libertyhealthshare.org/3-program-options
Christian Health Ministries (founded 1981)
http://www.chministries.org/
Samaritan Ministries
Curo (Catholic version run by Samaritan)
MediShare (closest to an HMO)
Altrua (the newest out of Texas)
This article talks about each one
http://selfpaypatient.com/2014/06/18/health-sharing-ministry-members-ref...
These are not for everyone but Liberty is pretty amazing as are the others. They are as close to what real time old insurance was. Not vile HMOs like Utd Healthcare where the CEO and CFO have $25 to 40 million a year in stock options and they wrote Obamacare.
Not for everyone but possibly a literal God send.
I had no idea. Thanks for posting those.
You are welcome. I am not trying to promote but just pass the word.
Good primer article for people.
http://selfpaypatient.com/2014/06/18/health-sharing-ministry-members-ref...
What is really cool is they beat up providers so they get huge reductions for essentially paying cash. the hospitals and doctors actually like it in most cases because they get paid.
Christian Health Ministries (CHM) has been around since 1981. I think they have somewhere between 100,000 to 150,000 members.
Just to give you an idea of the growth:
Monthly medical bills shared at CHM or bills paid.
June 2011 $1.1 million
June 2012 $2.8 million
June 2014 $4.7 million
Feb 2015 $6.6 million
June 2015 $10.7 million
They are growing faster than the corrupt VA's budget but growth in a good way because more people are opting out of the ACA scam. The health minitsries are ACA compliant so you will not get fined.
I sort of view these health ministries as going Galt.
Obama FAIL. Total wad
What's that saying about Americans doing the right thing only after they have exhausted every other possibility. I can't see them doing the right thing here ever.... .
I work for a compnay that offered an ACA compliant package where the employee premium went up with their wage. No takers.
When we started looking at it, the plan offered ZERO hospitaliztion coverage. That is correct, zip. If you got pregnant, the policy paid $600 for the baby out of a typical total cost (no complications) of over $10,000.
Nice job Bam.
sschu
Check this out: (I am not pimping or evangelizeing just trying to help.)
Christian Health Ministries founded in 1981 with probably over 150,000 members
http://www.chministries.org/programs.aspx
$45 a month Bronze Plan
Essentially a hospitalization plan with a $5,000 deductible. $125,000 per illnesss that can add $100,000 more in coverage for about $40 a quarter (Brothers Keeper).
$85 a month Silver Plan
$1,000 deductible and it is also like a hospitalization plan, $125,000 per illness and for $40 a quarter adds $100,000 more in coverage per incident.
$150 Gold Plan
$500 deduuctible and can see doctors and others services plus hospital. $125,000 per illness and for extra $40 a quarter it goes to unlimited coverage.
More info on health ministries
http://selfpaypatient.com/2014/06/18/health-sharing-ministry-members-ref...
Thos insured by Cigna have a new pharmacy benefit manager now too, named United Healthcare.
Indeed it's getting very interesting in healthcare with insurers. Here's a post I made today and you can't make this up...those insured by Cigna now have a new pharmacy benefit manager to go with their plan, it's name? United healthcare who now along with being the largest insurer in the US is now the largest PBM in the country after the 10 billion dollar bond sale to buy Catamaran PBM to combine with their already owned and in house PBM OptumRX. Looks like those folks insured by Cigna are stuck too, as before the acquisition of Catamaran by United, Cigna had just signed a 10 year contract with them.
So here you go, sign up for one plan and part of your premiums can not only help one insurer buyback program, but now a two fer...both benefit from the dollars paid by consumers and/or the government in the case of contracts.
You can read also how Cigna has pulled out of the Obama care market in Florida a couple weeks ago and see why. Express Scripts was also squeezed by the too big to fail insurer.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/10/if-you-are-insured-by-cigna-guess-what.html
I'm sure we will see insurance companies as well as providers continue to merge into a singular entity "system". With implicit government control, it will be a back door government take over of healthcare. This is how they do everything including subverting state's rights. They simply inject themselves into the funding stream and then dictate everything their "dependents" do. This applies from the top corporations down to the poorest individual.
So with all the mergers we will end up with "single payer" after all, only without any of the benefits. Worst of both worlds.
Oh by the way, how do doctors feel about Obamacare and the medical records stimulus today...watch this video, it's actually funny but the feelings are real and you have probably seen your doctor try and function like this, more attention to the keyboard and you get less time.
This is the EHR state of mind.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/10/ehr-state-of-mind-30-clicks-for-ambien.html
The biggest lie in this whole deal was that we can expand services, make health insurance more affordable merely by raising taxes on the rich and their investments.
The biggest lie is that this or any lash ever falls on the shoulders of the rich.
Rich people didn't lose a penny in all of this lobbyist care bullshit.
Obamacare in reality should have been named something like "The Crony Fascist Health Insurance Company Care Act" because the true beneficiaries are Health Insurance corps. Okay, yeah the name is too long. But, that's what Obamacare really was designed to be. Remember, a system does what it was intentionally designed to do. Obamacare was never about insuring low-income Americans through their employers.
What a sick, socialistic, Crony Fascist, dysfunctional country America has become. Thanks for the hope and change Obama. Too bad, no one really asked the question, "Exactly what kind of change have you in mind for the US, Senator?" question during the 2008 election.
Try again. its not socialism:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/06/09/14912/skyrocketing-salaries-health-insurance-ceos
Republicans should just sit back and let Obamacare collapse from its own weight.
"workers making about $300 a week are reluctant to spend $30 of it on insurance" They will never be able to pay the $2500 deductible. They have an insurance card in their wallet, but they are essentially uninsured.
How about a mastectomy, chemo and radiation? Over $200,000. Even with "insurance", they must pay the first $2500. Low grade insurance policies (like Obamacare) usually only pay 80%, so they get stuck owing another $40,000. The media makes a big deal out of people "who were previously uninsured now have health insurance"? What a fraud!
The people with these opinions usually have Cadillac policies from city, state, and federal jobs or high end employers like Apple or Microsoft that are paid for by the working poor and the middle class.
Something is wrong in America.
"Something is wrong in America."
Look at the wages of the executives in the big insurance companies. And the compensation of the crooked lawyer lobbyists. They should all be chopped up and fed to the horses.
The two biggest lobbies in America are health care and pharmaceuticals. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that healthcare in America benefits mostly them.
They pay $120 per month for essentially no coverage just so they can avoid a $298 penalty at the end of the year. Huh?
CabalCock$uckerObama sold democracy the moment he took millions of $ bribe (election funding) from pharma & biotech industry
Now they want to sell 1$ pill for 750$ each and puppeteer the US prez as they want.
Somebody, ban the election funding from corporates , it kills democracy , why you Americans & euroPeons dont understand
They, politicians, political parties, are all the same. Every one.
Obamacare is *lobbistcare*. Plain and simple. This article dances around with a bunch of catchy stories of people too broke to afford the mandated plans, but the big, big insurance companies are doing very well. Very, very well. The USA is run by lobbyists.
Anytime you give a politician control over money of any amount, he and his friends are going to steal some. Bank on it. (Pun intended). You want your government back, control the money. That's how all the crooked elite got there in the first place.
Get the damn insurance or get fined! End of story.
You sworn servant.
The fine is less than one month of premiums of decent insurance.
Plus in Kalifornia, if you end up on Medical the state puts a lien on your house. Over a certain age and their "recovery" program kicks in.
As long as I can maintain my health I will pay the fine. If I get sick, I will lose my house anyway.
Get a huge second on it or try to sell it and rent it back.
O rmove to anotehr state where you can BK med bills.
I didnt realize in Ca. you couldnt BK med bills.
Are you sure you cant BK med bills there?
I just did a search and the post was from a lawyer in 2102
and he said yes
http://www.skapiklaw.com/bankruptcy/when-to-file-medical-bankruptcy-in-c...
So this guy thinks it is reasonable to pay one of his employees 2.13 dollars per hour. That is fucking stupid no wonder your country is so fucked up. And don't get me started with your retarded "b-b-but she gets teh tipz" crap.
Anyone who thinks this act has ANYTHING to do with affordability is drinking the Kool Aid.
"It’s either buy insurance or put food in the house"
The reality is, most people are so poor (compared to medical costs and no emplyer insurance or employer insurance that is a joke)and many times by their own choices is that they do what the illegals do.
Go to the emergency room and then never pay the bill or BK. Med bills are the main reason people BK.
Witness all the free medical clinics that spring up in football stadiums where people camp out for days.
Jamie Dimon is nowhere to be found.
The gall of medical costs soaring above inflation for decades is evidence.
But heh ,lets be sure the MIC gets their TRILLION a year. USA ....USA...USA
obama , pelosi, those that got it passed .Just let the lobbyists write it. While they golfed and drank.
They dont care. They got theirs
hmm... i work permalance through a staffing company. they started offereing insurance as mandated by the law last year. even though human resources usually bombards us with emails, they sent as little information about the policy as was possible. i am one of the few employees who took it. after discussing it with my coworkers, i don't think it was the cost that stopped them. most of them had ignored the email. i almost missed it myself.
granted, i am not a low wage worker but the policy costs me close to 20% of my take home pay. it covers me, my wife and my 9 year old daughter. it has a $5k deductable. it's about the same price as my previous exchange based policy. the reason that i took it was that the exchange based bluecross blueshield policy is not accepted by any of our doctors, or any other small practice doctors that i could find in manhattan. when we had it, all of our care came from clinics and doc-in-the-box places. my employer's policy is from cigna and is accepted by all of our previous doctors.
At the beginning of the year, after taking a new position at a new company I found myself on the atrocity called obamacare. It's handled through the state of kalifornia as a Covered California plan. Steadily, we all have seen higher premium costs, larger copay's and bigger deductibles as companies have done what they can do to make the costs more reasonable for all. Once the ACA and Hitech laws were passed, the annual increases have been astronomical.
I have a family member who is an insulin dependent diabetic. Two years ago annual costs for supplies and insulin had an out of pocket costs at around $2,000. Today, it is over $5,400 and will increase more next year.
When I signed up for this plan, my son was in another state attending college and this obamacare health plan does not cover him unless it was a catostrophic event.
In my opinion, this is all by design. At some point, as everyone has to deal with the law as it was originally written (instead of annual obama Executive Orders to hide the real pain), the costs will be even more outrageous. Once it all hits the fan, the politician's fix will be a single payer plan which will be the VA plan on steroids. That is our future.....
All by design? Yes. It was designed for and by the insurance companies, not for those of us who have to deal with it.
$2.13 + tips ,in a self serve buffet? That's either illegal or you're making it up