Wheels coming off…ObamaCare policies will cost more, cover far fewer than promised

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Betsy McCaughey @ The NY Post:

The central parts of ObamaCare don’t roll out until 2014, but the wheels are already falling off this clunker. The latest news from four federal agencies is that 1) insurance will be a lot less affordable than Americans were led to expect, 2) fewer people than promised will get insurance and 3) millions of people who have coverage through a job now will lose it, thanks to the president’s “reforms.” Oh, and children are the biggest victims.

The Affordable Care Act is looking less and less affordable.

Start with the IRS’s new estimate for what the cheapest family plan will cost by 2016: $20,000 a year to cover two adults and three kids. And that will only cover 60 percent of medical bills, so add hefty out-of-pocket costs, too.

The next surprise is for parents who thought their kids would be covered by an employer. Sloppy wording in the law left that unclear until last week, when the IRS ruled that kids won’t be covered.

Starting in 2014, the law will require employers with 50 or more full-time employees to offer coverage or pay a penalty. “Affordable” coverage, that is — meaning the employee can’t be told to contribute more than 9.5 percent of his salary. For example, a worker earning $40,000 a year cannot be required to pay more than $3.800.

But the law doesn’t specifically mandate family coverage — and now the administration says that won’t be required.

You can see why: If the lowest-cost family plan (again, two adults and three kids) is to run a whopping $20,000, and if the employee’s contribution is limited to $3,800, the employer’s tab would be $16,200 — adding about $7.40 an hour to the cost of that employee. Wisely, the IRS announced on Jan. 30 that employers won’t have to pay for dependents.

But the Congressional Budget Office’s much-cited prediction that ObamaCare would leave only 30 million people uninsured by 2016 was based on the assumption that kids would be covered by employers. At the very least, employers insuring their workers for the first time to avoid the penalty are unlikely to do that.

So how will the kids be covered? They won’t. The IRS shocked the law’s advocates by announcing that the insurance exchanges won’t provide subsidies for a child whose parent is covered at work.

Nor will these parents be penalized for not insuring their children — the IRS will kindly consider the kids exempt from the mandate.

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So, basically, it is only a ”mandate” for Obama’s enemies.
All his friends get exemptions.
Just belong to one of his constituencies, like unions, gov’t employees, poor working families, illegals and so on, and you get excused.

The IRS said in 2016 health care will cost $20,000 a year for a family of 4 and that is for bronze, the lowest. Of course no one knows what bronze covers but obviously less than gold or platinum. I know my daughter’s family cannot afford this. I doubt many families can afford it. Of course it may not cost anything because her employer might find it to be cheaper to pay the fine than to offer health insurance. So pray tell since EVERYONE is supposed to be covered where would her family get health care? What a scam. And the entitlement bunch who pay for nothing do not give a damn.

Who could have imagined?

Nan G.: At the rate this is unfolding, we will all be poor working families by 2016. So then we will be exempt?
I wonder how John Roberts medical insurance will be affected? Oh, wait he is exempt.