Is the price tag to middle Americans too high?
A disturbing cost analysis emerged from the Manhattan Institute addressing the impact of the Affordable Care Act in terms of cost to Middle Class or average Americans. Consider these two factors:
1. Obamacare promised to insure all Americans with health coverage at a lower overall cost.
2. When the government does something for everyone, that means everyone will pay for it proportional to their means.
Therefore, if you are in the middle, you will pay a little more to cover those who were without. If you are in the upper echelon of income, you may pay a lot more. That is what is normally expected, and it is why wealthy Americans complain about national services.
But, what if the cost of affordable care for all Americans cost the average American a whole lot more than they are paying today. Ouch, that won’t compute.
If this story by Fox News is true, then President Obama and Democrats might just want to let Republicans put this legislation away for revisiting after Election 2014.
“The Manhattan Institute analyzed rates around the country and found that for people of medium income, costs will soar -- up by as much as 99 percent for men, and up about 55 percent for women.
"Even if the average American gets some subsidy, a partial subsidy," says Roy, who authored the study,"that partial subsidy won't be enough to overcome the dramatic increase in the cost of insurance, the underlying cost of insurance ObamaCare imposes on the market."But insurance premiums are only one part of the puzzle. Most plans also have very high deductibles.
"Do you have a large deductible?" asks Holtz-Eakin. "How much do you have to pay before the insurance starts picking up the cost?"Analysts expect deductibles to be in the $5,000 to $6,000 range for the lowest level of coverage, the bronze plan.
Dan Mendelson, CEO and founder at Avalere Health in Washington,says,"So, if you're in a bronze plan, the premiums are going to be relatively low, you know, as HHS said, in some cases people won't pay premiums at all.
“But there are going to be very high out of pocket costs and deductibles in some cases are going to be over $5,500."
That means a person with a plan at that level might only pay $100 dollars a month in premiums, as the administration has said.
But depending on medical events, the deductible could add almost $500 dollars a month more, without even counting the co-pays.”
