Obamacare is just overly expensive catastrophic health insurance

[Hoodat]

Obamacare is just overly expensive catastrophic health insurance

Sally Pipes  |  December 30, 2024  |  8:17 am

Democrats are warning of a surge in the number of uninsured if costly enhanced subsidies for exchange coverage expire as planned at the end of next year.

But exchange coverage is borderline useless to many enrollees. It requires beneficiaries to fork over huge sums before it kicks in and confines them to narrow provider networks. Rather than subsidize “junk” insurance through the exchanges, lawmakers should deregulate the market so insurers can offer health plans that are affordable and efficient without federal subsidies.

The enhanced subsidies allow people with incomes up to 150% of the federal poverty level, $46,800 for a family of four, to sign up for free exchange coverage at taxpayer expense. Exchange enrollees pay a progressively larger share of income for premiums until they reach 400% of the poverty level, $124,800 for a family of four, when their contributions are capped at 8.5% of income.

Those premium subsidies hide the actual cost of coverage. Consider a hypothetical couple in their 20s living in Harrisonburg, Virginia, making $80,000 a year — just under 400% of the poverty level. The least expensive plan they’d be able to purchase through the exchange runs $417.43 a month, after an $82 tax credit.

But the plan comes with narrow networks, a $7,200 per person annual deductible, and 40% coinsurance for most health expenses after the deductible is met. The out-of-pocket maximum is $18,400 — enough to purchase a decent car fresh off the lot.

Add in the plan’s narrow provider network, and the picture gets worse.  .  .  .

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/3272068/obamacare-overly-expensive-catastrophic-health-insurance/

[Hoodat]

.  .  .  If our hypothetical couple can’t find an in-network provider, they’ll be on the hook for 100% of most fees — for everything from primary care to lab tests to baby deliveries. If they visit an out-of-network emergency department, they’ll be on the hook for half of the bill — even after they hit their deductible.

In short, marketplace insurance often works like catastrophic coverage — only useful if someone suffers a five-figure healthcare catastrophe. But that’s not how exchange coverage is advertised. Many enrollees don’t learn that their coverage won’t offer them much help until they’ve made their first claims.

Perhaps that dynamic explains why so many have rejected exchange coverage this year. Enrollment is down by roughly three-quarters of a million people compared with the same time a year ago.

Democrats’ plan to make the enhanced premium subsidies permanent would cost taxpayers $335 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. We shouldn’t be spending that kind of money to subsidize coverage that many people find useless.

[mountaineer]

I still see TV ads for Odumbocare - yay, only $10 per month! No mention of the deductibles or the fact that it probably won't cover anything.

[jafo2010]

Obamacare is an abomination.  PERIOD!!!

As one that was engaged in threading that elephant through the eye of the needle, hundreds of BILLIONS have been spent on just the systems work to integrate this AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL POS legislation into systems for healthcare, without one dime going to actual healthcare.

The federal government is out of control, and is squandering large amounts of money each year on this nightmare of a program.  And on top of everything, most people in the USA that had healthcare are now paying 3 TIMES, 4, TIMES the premiums they were paying, or they have decided to go without healthcare because they simply cannot afford the premiums.

I have one friend that indicated he was told his premium would go up to $4,500 per month for him and his family.  They now and have for years gone without healthcare.  That is the fine work of that stinking communist Obama.

And I know another person, one of the abusers of our society, that lives in a near million dollar home, drives a new BMW, and has Obamacare, and is paying $20 per month in premiums, and I have NOT heard her complain once about paying anything beyond the monthly  premium.  And she has had everything done you can think of, including having all her teeth pulled, and replaced with implants.  And many other costly medical procedures performed, and I am certain she is paying nothing for it.

I have spent many years in healthcare.  The politicians have ruined healthcare, and the health insurance companies have driven the cost up far beyond what it should be.  And the abuse each year by all involved, including providers is in the billions of squandered dollars.  Just no excuse for this.

We currently have 28 separate programs funded by the federal government, each with its own bureaucracy with six figure pukes sitting around thinking about how they can complicate healthcare further.  It has to end!

I could design a healthcare program for a fraction of the cost, with the government have far less involvement in healthcare, with a focus on reducing the cost, reducing the abuse, and yet providing quality healthcare to the recipients.  The problem comes with all the stakeholders involved who complicate the whole thing.  Too much idiocy involved in the whole process.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Obamacare is just overly expensive catastrophic health insurance which we cannot afford.