red states rule
09-27-2013, 10:21 AM
So much for those health polices sold at Obamacare exchanges being affordable. Thai is sure to depress our resident Obama lap dogs and those who once sang the praises of Obamacare and the exchanges. Will anyone here run out and buy one of these polices?
A growing amount of attention is falling upon a new wrinkle in ObamaCare: a lot of those Affordable Care Act policies look even less affordable when you consider the size of the deductibles. Politico (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/exchanges-high-costs-obamacare-97363.html) reports on an Avalere Health study of six states that shows “consumers could face steep cost-sharing requirements – like co-payments, co-insurance, and deductibles – layered on top of their monthly premiums.”
The health law sets exchange enrollees’ maximum annual out-of-pocket costs at $6,350. But many people won’t get near that limit, and deductibles for typical exchange plans can run twice as high as the average employer-sponsored plan.
It’s a reminder that despite news trumpeted Wednesday by the White House, suggesting exchange premiums will be lower than expected, consumers will have additional numbers to crunch.
Those buying coverage on the exchanges will have a choice of three levels — bronze, silver and gold — each offering increasingly generous benefits at correspondingly higher premiums. Enrollees who earn less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level will have access to tax credits to help offset their premium cost. There are also some cost-sharing subsidies available on a sliding scale for people earning less than 250 percent of the poverty level.
But the report estimates that a silver plan would have a deductible ranging from $1,500 to $5,000, which is higher than the average deductible ($1,135) for an employer-sponsored plan.
There’s nothing wrong with people choosing to purchase a low-premium plan with high deductibles. Such an individual would presumably be banking on continued good health, with insurance to cover unexpected catastrophe.
But that’s not what is happening here. This is a cynical effort to hide the costs of ObamaCare – which is already driving premiums up – by shifting the consumer cost into deductibles and co-payments. Those lower-deductible private plans also tend to have considerably lower premiums, especially in the pre-ObamaCare era, when people were not required to purchase benefits they didn’t want or need… to say nothing of the benefits they had strenuous moral objections to (http://www.lifenews.com/2013/09/26/obamacare-state-exchanges-will-fund-tens-of-thousands-of-abortions-with-your-money/).
What about those fabled “pre-existing condition” folks? The entire disastrous ObamaCare takeover of the insurance industry was sold largely as an effort to help them get insurance. But what good is a pricey policy with huge deductibles to someone whose pre-existing conditions guarantee those out-of-pocket costs will indeed be departing from their pockets? How long before we hear that those poor people need even more government subsidies to defray those crippling co-payments? It won’t be hard to line a few dozen of them up for a photo op. http://www.humanevents.com/2013/09/26/obamacare-out-of-pocket/
A growing amount of attention is falling upon a new wrinkle in ObamaCare: a lot of those Affordable Care Act policies look even less affordable when you consider the size of the deductibles. Politico (http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/exchanges-high-costs-obamacare-97363.html) reports on an Avalere Health study of six states that shows “consumers could face steep cost-sharing requirements – like co-payments, co-insurance, and deductibles – layered on top of their monthly premiums.”
The health law sets exchange enrollees’ maximum annual out-of-pocket costs at $6,350. But many people won’t get near that limit, and deductibles for typical exchange plans can run twice as high as the average employer-sponsored plan.
It’s a reminder that despite news trumpeted Wednesday by the White House, suggesting exchange premiums will be lower than expected, consumers will have additional numbers to crunch.
Those buying coverage on the exchanges will have a choice of three levels — bronze, silver and gold — each offering increasingly generous benefits at correspondingly higher premiums. Enrollees who earn less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level will have access to tax credits to help offset their premium cost. There are also some cost-sharing subsidies available on a sliding scale for people earning less than 250 percent of the poverty level.
But the report estimates that a silver plan would have a deductible ranging from $1,500 to $5,000, which is higher than the average deductible ($1,135) for an employer-sponsored plan.
There’s nothing wrong with people choosing to purchase a low-premium plan with high deductibles. Such an individual would presumably be banking on continued good health, with insurance to cover unexpected catastrophe.
But that’s not what is happening here. This is a cynical effort to hide the costs of ObamaCare – which is already driving premiums up – by shifting the consumer cost into deductibles and co-payments. Those lower-deductible private plans also tend to have considerably lower premiums, especially in the pre-ObamaCare era, when people were not required to purchase benefits they didn’t want or need… to say nothing of the benefits they had strenuous moral objections to (http://www.lifenews.com/2013/09/26/obamacare-state-exchanges-will-fund-tens-of-thousands-of-abortions-with-your-money/).
What about those fabled “pre-existing condition” folks? The entire disastrous ObamaCare takeover of the insurance industry was sold largely as an effort to help them get insurance. But what good is a pricey policy with huge deductibles to someone whose pre-existing conditions guarantee those out-of-pocket costs will indeed be departing from their pockets? How long before we hear that those poor people need even more government subsidies to defray those crippling co-payments? It won’t be hard to line a few dozen of them up for a photo op. http://www.humanevents.com/2013/09/26/obamacare-out-of-pocket/