What happened to Obamacare in Texas? After 9 Years of Obamacare, 17% of Texans still Uninsured

Nine years after Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, we learn this about the uninsured in Texas:

Despite a booming Texas economy, more Texans lost or dropped their insurance coverage from 2017 to 2018, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

That marks the second consecutive year-to-year increase of Texas' uninsured rate.

p>And with about 5 million uninsured people — about 17.7% of the total population — Texas remains the state with the highest uninsured rate out of all 50 states, the census data released Tuesday shows.

Okay — so Texas is #1 again, but on the wrong list.

Wasn't Obamacare supposed to fix this? How many times did we hear that everyone would have coverage, no matter what his medical or financial condition? In other words, no more "pre-existing conditions," or people can't afford their premiums!

Why are there so many uninsured? It could be that they don't know about the Obamacare options or the website. Or it could be that they can't afford the hefty and huge deductibles. Or maybe some people have just decided to spend their money on something else.

No matter what, the Democrats refuse to fix the problems. I guess they would rather scream "do something" and hope the problem goes away.

In 2005, across the entire nation....16-percent did not have health insurance. That comes out to around 46-million (more or less).

I would go and argue that the statistics are skewed a bit because you might go and find a higher rate for no-insurance in rural or non-urban areas. So outside of cities like Dallas or Austin....it might have been closer to 30-percent who didn’t have health insurance (say in the 2005 era).

I often wonder how many folks are in my situation. Self employed - 62 years old. Formerly covered by spouse’s employer provided health plan (which last cost her ~$300/month for my coverage - assume that was 50% of the cost with the employer picking up the other $300 of premium.) Spouse turns 65 and goes on Medicare employer drops coverage for employee’s spouse - so I am at the mercy of Obamacare’s “market”. A silver plan was initially about $880 per month, but increased quickly to $1440 per month in the 2nd year. At that point O joined one of the medical cost sharing plans which is a functional equivalent of catastrophic care insurance at ~$400/month. Essentially I need to keep my fingers crossed for 2.5 years until I become 65 and can access Medicare.

Smoke still comes out of my ears when I think of what Obamacare did to the private market for self-employed persons. There have to be a lot of people across the country in my situation - and they cannot be comfortable watching the prospect of any of the Democratic candidates currently on the scene.

When you go to 2008, and look at the problems existing...it came down to two issues. The people with prior issues couldn’t get onto any plans (for the most part), and the escalating prices were making it more unaffordable for all groups around the nation.

So Obamacare did one plus-up....if you have prior conditions, they have to sign you up. The escalating price business? It resolved nothing, and probably helped in some ways to ensure that continued at the same pace.

I think the Obama crew knew that outcome and designed the whole thing to be a temporary situation, with Medicare-for-all coming within fifteen years.

The same issue with me. My husband retired, and after looking at the Obamacare plans, I elected to COBRA for 18 months. That still does not get me into retirement age.
What is really funny is COBRA used to be more expensive than buying a plan on the open market. My COBRA plan has the same monthly premium as an Obamacare plan, but no $7000 deductible.
As more Boomers near retirement age, and one spouse is able to get Medicare, this problem will be at the forefront of discussion.

When you force people to buy a good they don’t want, “compliance” will be higher than if they can choose to not buy it for their own reasons.

Such as that the insurers have taken the mandatory (non-free-choice) aspect as a signal to disconnect value from price. If you want to sell me something, the value must justify the price, otherwise go pound. I'm not "uninsured", I'm "unstupid", and I bet that's the case with the rest who've "lost their insurance". I bet if there are any who've truly lost their insurance, it's BECAUSE of Ebolacare, not in spite of it.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.