Health Costs: The official title of ObamaCare is the "Affordable Care Act." But for millions of workers dumped into one of the government-run exchanges, it will be anything but that. A new report shows their costs will go way up.
The analysis was done by the National Journal, which is hardly some right-wing, anti-ObamaCare outfit. It looked at what would happen to insurance costs for workers forced to buy coverage in an ObamaCare exchange after their employers canceled their benefits.
This is not idle curiosity. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 7 million workers will lose their employer-based coverage thanks to ObamaCare, as companies decide to pay the penalty instead.
That estimate, by the way, is nearly double the CBO's previous forecast, and the CBO admits the number could be as high as 20 million.
To find out what these millions of workers will face, the Journal compared what the average worker pays toward employer-provided health insurance today with what they would pay in an ObamaCare exchange.
This year, the average worker pays between $862 and $1,065 a year for single coverage, with the employer picking up the rest of the tab. Families pay an average of up to $5,284 toward their work-based premiums.
If these workers are dumped into an ObamaCare exchange, most will end up paying far more, even with the taxpayer subsidies. The Journal found, for example, that workers earning more than $20,000 would pay more in the exchange than they do today, as would families making over $62,300.
In other words, 66% of all single workers and 57% of all families pushed into the exchanges will be worse off financially.
Meanwhile, there's evidence that those who already have policies on the individual market will be hit with higher premiums next year, thanks to ObamaCare. As IBD reported recently, the cheapest plan available in the ObamaCare exchanges will be more than twice as expensive as the cheapest plan offered to individuals today in eight states.
ObamaCare backers now point to an Obama administration-commissioned study by the Rand Corp. released this week that, not surprisingly, says the law won't boost premiums for individuals.
But a table buried in that report shows that Obama-Care actually will push premiums up 22% nationwide, when compared with the average cost of insurance available on the individual market today, "with several states experiencing an increase of 30% or more."
Yes, taxpayer subsidies will hide those huge cost hikes from many, but Rand admits that about a third won't be eligible for any subsidies. In any case, it hardly makes sense to vastly increase the cost of insurance and then try to cover it up with $1 trillion in taxpayer subsidies.
Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/082913-669281-obamacare-will-raise-costs-for-millions-of-workers.htm#ixzz2dT02oMPR
Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment