Posted on 12/19/2009 3:53:10 AM PST by Kaslin
A detailed analysis of the Obama health care program now before the Senate indicates that it will force big premium increases for all families, especially for those under 30 years of age.
The study, by the consulting firm of Oliver Wyman, concludes that premiums for individuals will rise by $1,576 and $3,341 for families by under the bill. Young people will be hit the hardest. The study predicted that premiums for new health insurance policies purchased by the youngest third of the population would rise by 35 percent under the bill.
These increases will stem from the bill's provisions that bar insurance companies from raising rates on sick people and from excluding people based on pre-existing conditions. Both of these mandates will mean higher costs for the younger and healthier population. This bill is, in effect, a tax on the young.
Nor will subsidies do much to mitigate the impact. To get a subsidy under the bill, you have to earn less than about $80,000 a year (combined household income) and have spent between 2 percent and 10 percent of your income on premiums.
So a couple making a combined income of $40,000 would have to pay about 5 percent of their income, $2,000, before they could get subsidies. Those making $60,000 would have to pay about 8 percent of their income -- $4,800 – before they could get a subsidy. And those making $80,000 would have to chip in 10 percent of their income -- $8,000 -- before they would get a subsidy.
These are hefty bills for young families to bear.
So most won't do it. The fine for failing to have health insurance is only $750. So most young people will just pay the fine and be done with it. When they get sick, they'll get covered and the insurance company can't charge them a higher premium than it would have charged when they were healthy. And it can't turn them away.
So this bill is not a measure for full national health insurance coverage. At best, it's a bill that will insure you when you are sick and make the rest of us pay the bill. And, in the meantime, you'll have to chip in $750 a year for the privilege.
Employers, too, will find it much cheaper to pay the $750 per employee than to buy insurance.
Ironically, there is a good chance that this bill will actually increase the number of uninsured. Its ban on letting insurers raise rates on sick people will force premiums so high that many people will drop their insurance. After all, when they get sick, they can and will easily get their insurance back.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
The irony is that the $750 annual fine is in the ballpark of the annual cost of a high-deductible health plan ($3,000 annual deductible/0 pct. coinsurance) through Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Virginia for myself.
But you are right, though.
Obamacare only exemplifies the lies of the wealth redistributionists that a free lunch actually does exist.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
I guess the same will apply to employer health coverage. It’ll add a mighty big chunk to overhead costs.
Subsidizing the insurance cost insures gubmint dependency. Vote for me and I'll give you a bigger subsidy.
Forced coverage means insurance companies have no incentive to keep costs down. Gubmint will have to "rescue" us with single payer.
Thanks for posting this.
My son is 23 years old. I fly back east and stay with him for at least two weeks around Labor Day every year. As any FReeper with an adult child can imagine, it’s the highlight of my year!
My son has a year of college left, and he is an assistant manager of a Pizza Hut. Since I stay with him when I visit, I have a good idea of how he lives. And he doesn’t have their stinking $ 750 a year fine!
He has a cellphone and no landline, like so many young people.
He has internet service through his cellphone arrangement.
He has NO cable tv. He has one of those boxes that allow him to get local TV stations only...sometimes, when the signal shows up.
He has NO health insurance. It’s available through his job, but it’s lousy and he can’t afford it.
My son timed him move into his own place to coincide with my annual visit (LOL) knowing that when I got there, I’d furnish it with household goods. (As any good FReeper parents would do; since we like being helpful!)
He is the most frugal and careful person I know, but he doesn’t have a penny to spare. He’s sure not living like any 23 year old that I know!
There are NO WORDS for me to tell Obama and this lousy Congress how spittin’ mad I am that they are intending to TAX this poor kid over this miserable health insurance bill.
Oh, and one more thing.
A few months ago, he wondered if I could perhaps loan him the thousand dollars to take real estate classes, in order to get in on some of the action. If it were anyone else, I’d have declined. But he is such a studious kid and such a hard worker, I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. He passed his test at 91% and now he’s beating the bushes.
It fries my bacon that this economic idiot in the White House has created a situation that my young son now has to work TWO jobs, with any hope of staying afloat.
And finishing his degree won’t help; most of his contemporaries are either waiting tables, unemployed, making collection calls, or back home with mom and dad.
And I'm sure HSAs will be disallowed under Obamacare too, right?
btt
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