Posted on 03/21/2014 10:35:23 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Nearly six months after the disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov a new glitch has come to light: Incorrect poverty-level guidelines are automatically telling what could be tens of thousands of eligible people they do not qualify for subsidized insurance.
The error in the federal marketplace primarily affects households with incomes just above the poverty line in states like Pennsylvania that have not expanded Medicaid. The mistake raises the price of their insurance by thousands of dollars, making insurance so unaffordable many may just give up and go without.
Some states chose to run their own marketplaces. It was unknown Thursday night whether any had made the same error. Healthcare.gov is not the only website to make this mistake. The calculator at Independence Blue Cross' site also used the wrong guidelines until a reporter asked about them this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
“That’s not a bug, it’s a feature.”
Dang. Those *poor* folks shifted all those assets for nothing?
Incompetence is the only virtue liberals have. I thank God frequently that their talent falls far short of their malice.
You musta worked in the MIS Department at former telecom giant MCI [I worked there].
I had a software platform built for my department, and every bug I found was a "feature", according to MIS ...
“All your Obamacare are belong to us.”
This problem was intentional and was built into Obamacare: an income level was set well above each state’s Medicaid eligibility but below which people are not allowed buy their own insurance or get a subsidy for insurance. A whole range of low-income people is purposely prohibited from obtaining health insurance in order to force states to expand their Medicaid programs. This, of course, will be used to try to embarrass Republican governors into expanding Medicaid and inviting HHS in.
Guess Obama needs to extend the deadline even though Sebelius said they couldn’t/wouldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair not to since there was a glitch.
The extension has nothing to do with not reaching the sign-up goal or with the fact that someone (congress, the media, mickey mouse) might start expecting real sign up numbers once the deadline has passed.
Two other features no one noticed: #1, most Americans are not signing up, and #2, the ACA benefits don’t kick in until the deductible is paid....just like private health insurance.
Certain higher-tier plans waive the deductible for particular classes of benefits -- i.e. PCP office visits and out-patient Rx drugs most typically. Again, as you say, this is just like private health insurance, so hardly worth discussing.
These individuals who are caught in the "gap" in states which haven't Expanded Medicaid are not prohibited from obtaining health insurance. They are effectively preventing from obtaining subsidized insurance through the exchange, but nothing stops them from purchasing elsewhere (except their limited income possibly).
Assets aren’t taken into account anymore anyway, except, possibly, in Texas (I forget whether that was for SNAP or Medicaid).
There are so many glitches what is one more?
People that qualify for subsidies also have the issue of needing to be careful how many hours of work they get or if they get a raise it could bump them up to the income level for full pay. The full pay cost is not affordable for those people that barely make over poverty level income. Can you imagine barely getting by and then telling your boss you can’t work more hours or get a raise?
The whole thing is insane.
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