Posted on 10/16/2015 3:41:56 PM PDT by smartyaz
With the mainstream media, at least the majority that is left of center, flooded with story after story touting Obamacare's success, the news coming this morning from Denver that Colorado's largest nonprofit health insurer and participant in that state's insurance exchange Colorado HealthOP is abruptly shutting down, forcing 80,000 Coloradans to find a new insurer for 2016, was a slap in the face for the Obama administration's crowning achievement.
According to AP, the health insurer announced Friday that the state Division of Insurance has de-certified it as an eligible insurance company. That's because the cooperative relied on federal support, and federal authorities announced last month they wouldn't be able to pay most of what they owed in a program designed to help health insurance co-ops get established.
Wait, wasn't the whole point behind Obamacare to subsidize health insurance for everyone, and especially the poor? Or was the whole point of the "Affordable" Care Act merely to herd as many Americans into the clutches of the few for-profits, after the non-profit cooperatives finally read the fine print and realized they have no chance of being profitable under the new regime?
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
That’s my understanding. 8% or more = no penalty.
Nevada’s exchange failed, and these two also
So the Republicans won’t kill Obamacare so I guess its got to implode without the GOP getting credit for doing the right thing
Like solyndra this is a scam so his friends and donors can get a payback for thier support, they stay alive long enough to try to convince us they are legit and then they go under and run with the cash. We are being hosed
That’s perfect!
I'm not all up to date on the ins and outs of the penalty. Could you explain that?
One of the “outs” in the penalty is if coverage is deemed too expensive. They defined anything over 8% of income as too expensive.
I understand.
But that means that you would both be penalty-free and insurance-free.
The problem with that is that if you aren’t in some insurance pricing club, many of your medical charges are much higher than the real cost paid by the insurance company. That forces you to either bargain over every charge, or forego prudent medical service, or plead poverty.
One of the many ironies of O-care is that it was touted as a solution to the problem of bankruptcy due to sudden large medical expenditures. So, insurance was granted to those too poor to pay for it, at the cost of draining the middle class with exorbitant monthly premiums.
If you are required to have insurance and don't comply you will be assessed a 2.5% penalty on your income up to the national average of a bronze plan for 2016. To avoid being assessed the penalty, one has to have insurance or qualify for a hardship. The 8% rule is just one of several hardships. The 8% rule isn't very useful for younger people, but older people that fall just outside of the subsidy range (400-500 FPL) might be able to take advantage of it. If they qualify for the hardship, then they can go without or buy less expensive catastrophic insurance.
So, let me ask this: Are these the only people who can buy catastrophic insurance?
After all, one reason to buy very high deductible insurance is that it covers truly catastrophic expenses. But there is another reason. If you have such a policy, you are in a "pricing club," by which I mean you pay the insurance company's rates for expenses under the deductible. Once you're insured by them, they don't want you to hit the deductible so they have to pay out.
I've also heard that Obamacare makes it very difficult to buy a simple high-deductible policy. Is this the exception?
Catastrophic plans didn't go away, they just don't count as full time insurance unless one is under 30 or you can qualify for a hardship. It wouldn't make any sense to buy a catastrophic plan and get dinged with a tax penalty. That would likely total the cost of a bronze plan. Catastrophic plans are still a viable option for short term insurance needs like taking time off between jobs if it is less than 3 months. Sorry I can't help on the small print details. This stuff varies state by state.
The planned “transformation” continues. There are many traitors a d criminals in our “leadership”.
Great chart
No doubt this will be enormously disconcerting to the pharmasurance syndicate’s glucophage-dependent cash-cows.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.