Posted on 07/03/2015 10:16:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
Six Americans in black robes have, yet again, saved the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from a major crisis, but the most important part of this story for young people is their atrocious ruling will cause significant problems for the nation’s youngest and healthiest citizens.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in the highly anticipated case King v. Burwell, pictures of young Americans celebrating at rallies in Washington, DC flooded the Internet and newspapers across the country. Nothing could be more ironic. Since the ACA was first implemented in 2013, prices for all health care insurance consumers have skyrocketed, but price increases have been particularly shocking for people between 18 and 35 years old.
According to a study by HealthPocket, Inc., the average pre-Obamacare premium cost in 2013 for women 23 years old increased by nearly 45 percent in 2014. Women age 30 saw price increases topping 35 percent.
While cost increases for women under age 31 were higher than the increases experienced by men (22.7 percent) and women age 63 (37.5 percent), their price increases were significantly lower than young men. Prices increased by 78.2 percent for men 23 years old and by 73.4 percent for men age 30.
If young Americans’ health care costs composed a significant portion of U.S. health care spending, these price increases might make some sense, but young people, especially young men, are the healthiest demographic in the nation. As John Graham pointed out in his article in Forbes, an analysis by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners says health care costs for 63-year-olds is five times greater than spending on 22-year-olds.
President Barack Obama’s frequent call for all people to “pay their fair share” apparently doesn’t apply to middle-aged and older Americans.
“The Supreme Court decided once again to uphold key parts of the Affordable Care Act—a law that is essentially run on the backs of hardworking, healthy young Americans,” said Ashley Dobson, the editor of Red Alert Politics, an online news and opinion website aimed at right-of-center young people. “Justice Scalia said it best when he dubbed the law ‘SCOTUScare’ in his scorching dissenting opinion. The Court has now decided that it has the ability to choose whether or not to keep Obamacare in place, but it’s all Americans, especially young people, who are left footing the bill.”
Some states are particular hard on their healthiest citizens. For instance, in Vermont—a state whose cost of living is cheaper than the U.S. average—men and women age 23 pay on average 67 percent more for their health insurance than the average American and 50 percent more than their neighbors of the same age in New Hampshire. Costs in Vermont are extremely high for younger people because it spreads costs out across all demographics. Vermonters age 63 pay the same average rate as their 23-year-old neighbors, children, and grandchildren, even though they use significantly more resources.
This hasn’t stopped young people from supporting the ACA or Obama, but this is largely because many Americans simply aren’t aware of the unfair policies imposed on them by control-obsessed bureaucrats in Washington, DC and in state capitals.
In a study published in the September 2013 issue of the Journal of Health Economics, only 13 percent of respondents between the ages of 25 and 64 understood basic insurance terms and concepts, such as “deductible, copay, co-insurance and out-of-pocket maximum,” as reported by Bruce Japsen in Forbes.
If conservatives are serious about battling Obamacare, one of the best ways to do it is to spend as much time as possible reaching out to young Americans to make them aware of the policies imposed by the Obama administration that unfairly target them. If young people realized just how destructive Obamacare has been on their own financial situation compared to others, there wouldn’t have been nearly as much celebrating when the Supreme Court determined the ACA should continue to deprive Americans of their rights and the cash in their wallets in King.
I believe the supremes tried to doom young Americans ... History will tell the tale of if the supremes succeeded. in my opinion ... the supremes fail
if we are so stupid that we celebrate the USSC obamacare decisions, we truly deserve the government we get.
I don’t think it doomed Obamacare either way. If the Supremes ruled for us, the congress was ready to sign on an codify the federal subsidies...yes, it would be been temporary, but nothing out of DC is temporary. That ruling sucks because is shows the absolute failure of this court, but it has little lasting effect on getting rid of it....the odds are probably the same either way. It’s going to take a monstrous effort to pull the roots out from this thing.
I don't think it will take much effort. But it will entail great pain.
The situation will be similar to what is happening in Greece. No great effort will be required to spiral into bankruptcy and poverty. The leap from economic wisdom has already taken place. The gravitational pull of economics will assure a painful but effortless landing.
Basically, the Baby-Boomers have pulled off another swindle of younger generations, similar to Social Security and Medicare. I'm sure the media will continue to obscure the fact that young people are being sold into economic slavery from which only bankruptcy can save them. Like Greece, we will see the banks shut down and the grocery store shelves empty. When it happens, the media will blame the banks and the grocers. It won't change anything.
Alternatives to Obamacare
http://tamarawilhite.hubpages.com/hub/Alternatives-to-Obamacare
What that seems to mean is that every person should be spending about 1/7th of their income on health.
Of course when we're young the amount we spend on health is limited primarily to eye exams, regular check ups, and teeth cleaning. When we are old we might spend half our savings on cancer, knee replacements, back surgeries, etc.
I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with young people spending more money on health care when they're young, especially if that is money going into a health savings account that they can draw from when they get older.
If people were responsible, or if they were held responsible, for their health then I would say go ahead and let young people save nothing up for their golden years and then die of cancer if they haven't saved up enough. But we don't let people just die of cancer. If we believe that people need Social Security and Medicare or would otherwise die in poverty after retirement, then we should similarly believe that some form of required contributions to health savings accounts should be considered.
I really think that in order to put a halt to inflation in the medical industry we need to deemphasize insurance as much as possible. Having people save dollars in their youth that are given directly to doctors when they are old makes more sense to me than undergirding the insurance industry with subsidies that will only serve to increase inflation and make the health industry an even larger percentage of our economy.
Um, the beheadable millenials would just say, “Duh. Who cares. All that matters is we have homo marriage and legalized pot. Security against foreign invaders? Healthcare? Eff that chit. Weez gotz homo marriage and legalized pot!”
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