Obamacare only works for some people
In a recent column from syndicated columnist John Micek, he said we should worry about attacks on Obamacare. So what exactly does Obamacare do that we should worry about losing it? It mandated that people had to have coverage whether or not they wanted it or they would pay a penalty. The reasoning was if everyone was covered the risk of high claims would be spread out and more than enough premiums would be paid to cover the costs of people who did not have health insurance. What actually happened was young people did not buy health insurance because their penalty was less than the cost of the insurance which they could not afford or did not want to pay. Premiums quickly rose, many carriers pulled out of the individual market and some areas only had one option.
In addition to premiums escalating, the deductibles and co-pays have risen dramatically. Carriers in an attempt to slow premium growth increased deductibles and co-pays. They also provided narrower networks for certain plans to make them more affordable.
The majority of the people hit hardest by these huge premium increases and higher deductibles and co pays are the people who already had health insurance and are not eligible for tax credits and cost sharing.
The purpose of the law rammed through by the Obama administration was to cover the 130 million people in this country without health coverage. It did not do that! It did cover a lot of people by expanding medicaid, in fact the majority of the increase in coverage for people was the expansion of medicaid. It also mandated coverage for things many people do not need or want. It also forced people who were perfectly happy with their individual coverage off their plans and onto ACA plans they did not like. Granted some people who get tax credits and cost sharing got a better deal on premiums because they are subsidized with Tax dollars.
When John talks about losing $135 billion in Federal funding, I hope he realizes that is taxpayers money. The Government only has what it takes from us. The hypothetical case of 45,600 people losing coverage is just that, hypothetical. These are the people covered by the expansion of Medicaid. There is no indication that expansion would go away if the law was repealed.
The bottom line here is people should be able to buy coverage they want and not something mandated by the Federal Government. If the government wants to expand Medicaid, that is what they should have done, instead of overturning health care, making it more complicated, more costly, and more unsustainable than ever.
Jim Blair
Rostraver Township and health insurance broker