Posted on 07/05/2015 1:25:31 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
Let me start by saying this is not a political screed against Obamacare; I’m thrilled that some 18 million Americans now have health insurance who didn’t before the law took effect, lowering the percentage of uninsured adults from 18% in 2013 to 11.9% today.
But I’m growing concerned that for some people — especially older, middle- and lower-income adults — the Affordable Care Act is becoming The Unaffordable Care Act.
A Growing Problem: The Underinsured
Several recent studies suggest to me that due to a combination of Obamacare’s incentives to reduce premiums; the rise of so-called “consumer-driven” and high-deductible health plans and employers’ moves to combat the Affordable Care Act’s coming “Cadillac tax” on certain health plans, rising numbers of Americans are now not uninsured, but underinsured.
What’s underinsured? The Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan health research group, defines the underinsured as insured people whose out-of-pocket costs — excluding premiums — equal 10% or more of household income (5% or more for the low-income) or whose deductibles equal 5% or more of household income.) Commonwealth says 23% of insured people between age 19 and 64 are underinsured, double when it looked in 2003.
In other words, these people are finding themselves facing enormous out-of-pocket health expenses — sometimes leading them to deplete their savings and rack up serious medical debt. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Spread it thinner while at the same time promising the preposterous, and then add a huge overhead of federal droids...
who would expect the result to be “Affordable”? Or even “Usable”?
the obamites don’t give a damn. the survival of the law has become more important than the survival of the people it was intended to help.
it’s the story of modern liberalism. sooner or later, it’s the apparatus is what matters. lives can explode.
Yeah, like my niece who has a $10,000 yearly deductible before the insurance kicks in. She has finally begun to asked what is the advantage of that?
” I’m concerned the affordable care act...is becoming the unaffordable care act”
No s**t, Dick Tracy! Where has the author been? Conservatives and Libertarians have been telling people for 5 years what Obamacare would do to the health care system. Some people just have to be smacked upside the head by reality before they will see truth.
CC
My friends in Spain laugh hysterically when I tell them that the USA government will soon be in charge of administering healthcare for its citizens -
. . . " what moron decided that they wanted their healthcare administered by politicians?" followed by rounds of hysterical laughter
Get people to puff out their chests over principle, and the consequences will be “damned.”
I guess they have had enough of that in Spain huh?
Well, it's of course totally unacceptable that someone purchases a service and has to pay for it out of their own pocket. Instead one should use the power of the government to force other people to pay his bill. /s
Medical costs are a painful issue, of course. But the sad fact is that there is no upper limit on these costs. As people get older, their healthcare needs grow exponentially - and at some point there is just not enough money to pay for all that.
Socialist countries dealt with this problem by providing medical services that were of low quality. Today healthcare in some countries (UK) is socialized, rationed, delayed, and denied to many.
This is all according to plan. The objective of ObamaCare is to be so onerous and horrible that people will jump for the liberal’s true goal which is Single Payer socialist-style health care. The private insurers will be forced out of business and everyone will have to play by government rules.
And it goes further. There will come a time when we will be urged to have a microchip on our foreheads or our hands (first by pretending it is for our good and finally by force against the remaining refusniks) that will contain all our financial and medical information. This is how the government will control your spending and your behavior. This is the “Mark of the Beat” foretold in the “Revelations of John” at the back of your Bible. It has been foretold and you have now been forewarned.
“$10,000 yearly deductible”
Sounds like catastrophic health care, but with catastrophic levels of access and catastrophic levels of cost...
Hack, cough, sputter... bull stuff.
From what I've read, it is clear that many of the people who have obtained coverage, have obtained coverage via Medicaid.
Once again, George and Susan taxpayer to the rescue. To hell with their own family, kids, pets, home, retirements..., just fork over the tens of thousands of dollars per year so other can have some health care even though it's getting tougher and tougher for George and Susan to hang onto their coverage for them and their children.
Yep - been there done that - I don’t know how it works now but they’re happy enough with it - you never hear them say that they can’t afford their premiums or their deductibles make all but catastrophic care out of the question - like here.
err..”Mark of the Beast”.
Let’s not forget that a part of the “affordable care act,” which naturally increased the cost of medical devices, also included increased thresholds for medical cost deductions from the tax code. IIRC, it increased the minimum threshold from 7.5% to 10% of agi.
In other words, you have to pay more out of pocket in medical bills before you can begin to deduct your medical bills from the income upon which you pay your taxes.
Last year, my medical bills only came out to 9.5% of my income, so no deduction. Of course, you have to itemize in the first place...
Mark
and there's double digit rate hikes on the horizon too...
The advantage of that is that it can be a part of a comprehensive wealth building plan.
If you take the cost of such a plan and save the difference between what you would normally have paid for a policy, and what you wind up paying for a policy with this deductible, you can save up some big money in short order.
Self insuring yourself for all but catastrophic loss, is a great way to channel your insurance premiums into large savings. The best time to do it is while you’re young.
Young people who can put some limits on themselves when young, can amass quite a chunk of change by the mid thirties to mid forties. They can invest that in a home or simply develop an annuity they can live off of when they retire at 50 to 60.
Instead of buying into expensive whole life insurance, you can buy into inexpensive term life insurance that will cover your family until you are self-insured.
Self-insured means having enough savings to be able to replace one of the two wage earner’s salaries en perpetuity.
A good term insurance policy will get you there quick while you’re young, and savings will get you there later on.
Thank goodness I’m on single-payer then. [rolls eyes]
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