Posted on 12/30/2013 3:22:29 PM PST by Kaslin
Lisa Myers has an excellent investigative reporting piece up at NBC News documenting how one small business is dealing with Obamacare. The quotes from the article are just brutal:
The 41 employees of Extreme Dodge in Jackson, Mich., are very familiar with trade-ins, but this year they’re learning about trade-offs as they come face to face with the new realities of health care. A few workers say they’re getting a great deal, but most have a severe case of sticker shock.
“I feel like I’ve been taken to the cleaners,” said Neal Campbell, a salesman.
...
“How is this helping the average American that’s working 40 to 50 hours per week?” said Terry Hardcastle, a salesperson. “How are we supposed to live?”
Cathy Smith, who’d hoped she’d qualify for a subsidy and made just a little too much money, had tears in her eyes. "You don't make that much money to begin with,” she said, “and the prescriptions are going to kill me."
...
"There are some people who do come out ahead, but I would say the overwhelming majority, they’re paying much higher rates and they have lower benefits.”
...
Among the hardest hit is Campbell, a salesman with a wife and three young children, all of whom are active in athletics. The premium payments currently deducted weekly from his paycheck will increase $77, to a total of $221 per week. “That’s a huge part of the budget,” he said. “We feel betrayed, lied to, and we're pissed off.”
Myers does report that, "A handful of the Extreme Dodge workers came out winners -- mostly low-wage earners who qualify for subsidies and therefore pay very little for insurance." But even those who think they come out ahead today should think again. If they happen to get a raise, or get married, the IRS could come back and demand all those subsidies back. Politico reports:
A key piece of the health care law gives Americans making less than 400 percent of the poverty line subsidies to buy insurance. But if buyers don’t alert the insurance exchanges to big life changes throughout the year — like a divorce, promotion or new job for them or a spouse— they could wind up with sticker shock at tax time.
...
All experts interviewed on the topic worried that most tax credit recipients do not have a clue about the new reporting responsibilities, noting that even policymakers are still trying to grasp how the process works.
In California alone, 38 percent of tax credit recipients are projected to have to pay back more than $850 — if no income changes are reported during the year, according to a September Health Affairs study.
Remember: President Obama delayed the employer mandate till 2015. So most Americans who have employer-sponsored health insurance really have not felt the Obamacare pain yet. That will change as more and more businesses make the same types of decisions Extreme Dodge did above. And when they do, Obamacare's approval ratings can only go down.
Next financial product on the market: Obamacare deductible loans.
Lets see what happens when the high deductible, subsidized low income people show up for care. Those providers that actually accept 0-care exchange plans will be inundated with patients and, because of low margins and a high risk of non-payment, providers will demand money up front. The patients will whine and complain and the demonization of doctors and hospitals will be underway.
Meanwhile, the 0-care patients will overwhelm ERs, where care cannot be refused. Patients truly requiring emergency treatment could face needless delays because providers are increasingly distracted by treating non-emergent patients. Patients with 0-care will receive lower quality care at higher expense at ERs because ERs are not set up or intended to diagnose and treat chronic disease. Of course, most lower income 0-care patients will be unable to pay their deductibles and the ERs will be forced to take the loss on the deductible. Bills will continue to mount, and these patients might stop paying their premiums as well.
I think that many hospitals are going to think long and hard about what to do with their ERs.
the $6000 deductible, is the thing I find hard to believe.
how does a person making 9 bucks a hour,
come up with 6 grand?
...........................
stay away from the ER on Jan 1.
there will be lines to get in.
Obama Care in a nutshell: 250,000 patients per doctor? am I close?
“A few workers say they’re getting a great deal...”
Probably the “lot boys” who make $9.50 an hour.
Get $2,400, maybe pay a $95 fine later. That’s a great deal.
The rest don’t understand the word “deductible”.
“everyone shall have to sacrifice” (2008 Bailout Babies)
Well, not everyone, and certainly not the Exempt Ones and Bailout Babies.
Though most everyone has had to cut back with great discretions, they have refused not to. Instead the Government Worker pension stock market grows steeper, government Student Loan Universities thrive and their Bowl Games, big made up so called “banks” inventors of evil collaterlizatons, their equity financial backer so called “insurance companies”, Qe mortgage buying sustaining scams, Fairfax Va. budget negotiation tax thieves,............
And now this next bailout scam desensitized by ALL in the media to be known as “ObamaCare” is the bailout babies attempt at SUSTAINED ExtortionCare bailout and Qe bailout.
Sustained as in forced learning i.e. the Arbeitsziehungslager, their forced workers the ExtortionCare forced rules. Concentration Camp ATTEMPT, U.S. Territory property AND talent theft ExtortionCare. Body temple of the Holy Spirit theft. Just as Christ had to overthrow the money changers in the temple.
What IS going to happen because of this Judas money bag lie built upon lie, is that the Velocity of Money is going to slow shut. People will not be buying vehicles, durable goods, fake lie “insurance” from disguised financial scammers, and even soft goods, and many will just avoid medical services and the 20$ tablet aspirin peddlers hospitals.
As a result of money flow collapsing, the Wolves in Sheep Clothing, will not get their tax Extortions, real industry (not the propagandized banks and insurance attempting to call themselves “industry” which they are NOT), will depress further, causing even more loss in extortion funds, industry idle, unemployment.
Activity depression vs. The Resistence. “Resist the devil, and he shall flee from you.”
Six vs. Seven
ERs will be jammed and a disaster. Lots worse than before ObunguKare was instituted. Why? It’s like you said. How many docs and hospitals are going to work on someone who seems highly unlikely to pay the $6,000 deductible on a $12,000 gall bladder or appendix operation?? The person has a totally funked up credit report and you are going to operate on him? You can operate on a few but will go bankrupt operating on them every day
“I think that many hospitals are going to think long and hard about what to do with their ERs.”
Here in the DC metro, several hospitals have already shut down their ERs, causing ambulances to scramble to find places to take their patients. Several other hospitals have converted to specialty care so they only deal with a few chronic care diseases or optional surgeries and not ones like accidents and assaults.
Both cases limit the hospitals’ patients to ones who are more likely to pay.
The premium may be “lower” if you qualify for “subsidies,” but that $11K deductible isn’t. There’s no point in having insurance if the deductible is that high.
For a person who does qualify for subsidies, the deductible can be substantially lowered but only in a silver plan (cost sharing).
That would make sense. I never liked “bronze” plans for my insurance, I prefer higher premiums. Huge deductibles never made sense to me.
STATMENT OF THE DAY!
(I can hear them now.....”I ain't never paid when Iz didn't have health insurance...I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay now!!)
Yes!....Bundled and sold to Wall Street ...with a Taxpayer backed guarantee!
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