As 2016 and 2017 approach, more Americans are going to find
that the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable
It’s
going to turn out to be one the greatest political spoofs of all time in
America: The Affordable
Care Act that really is anything but
affordable. Indeed, its legacy of cost-escalation at all levels will far
outpace Obama’s two-term tenure, much to our angst.
In
fact, for those of you still waiting for the money bomb to drop, it’s coming –
and soon, primarily for two reasons. One, you will recall that Obamacare requires all Americans to have health
insurance; and two, the basic minimum coverage is, on average, more than what
millions of Americans had to begin with, meaning it will be more expensive.
Speaking
of more expensive coverage, health insurance rate increases are going to come
in like gangbusters beginning a year from now, though they have already begun
to increase, as reported by The Wall Street Journal:
Americans visiting Healthcare.gov to purchase 2015
health-insurance plans are finding a nice surprise: Average premiums for the
cheap “bronze” plans have increased only by 3.4% and premiums for the
middle-of-the-road “silver” plans are rising by 5.8%, according to the American
Action Forum. Where are the double-digit premium increases that so many
predicted? Check back around this time in 2016. That’s when you’ll see the real
spikes.
According
to Stephen T. Parente, a professor of health finance and an associate
dean at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota,
writing in WSJ, Obamacare includes a pair of temporary programs that make
compliant healthcare plans appear temporarily as far cheaper alternatives than
they really are – risk corridors and reinsurance. Both of these expire on Jan.
1, 2017, he notes, but by November of 2016, consumers will understand how the
sunsetting of those temporary programs (timed for when Obama leaves office,
naturally) will affect their next premiums.
“Risk
corridors and reinsurance are simple concepts: They subsidize insurance
companies with taxpayer money,” he writes. “With the former, the taxpayer is
covering the difference when patients spend more on health care than insurance
companies predicted. With the latter, taxpayers are paying for the most
expensive patients—those that make more than $45,000 in claims annually. In a
telling move, the White House quietly expanded the risk-corridor program
earlier this year, implying that health-insurance companies are losing billions
of dollars on ACA plans.”
Of
course they are; when you pay out more, you lose more.
But
for now, that’s why premium costs on Healthcare.gov are currently less
expensive than many had predicted. The generosity of American taxpayers gives
insurance companies the ability to (for now) hide the true cost of plans.
Barring
any changes to law – and with Obama in the White House, you shouldn’t expect
any major changes – the charade will likely end as both programs lapse in about
two years. Meanwhile, exemptions issued by the president and the Department of
Health and Human Services, which include those that allowed millions of
consumers to hang onto non-compliant plans that were slated for cancellation,
will also go the way of the dodo bird come New Year’s Day, 2017.
Parente
further notes:
I recently released a study, co-written by Michael
Ramlet, through the University of Minnesota’s Medical Industry Leadership
Institute, estimating how premiums will react once this happens, using HHS enrollment
data.
We estimate that premiums—especially for the
cheapest plans—will increase at a much faster rate after 2016.
The
expert believes that Bronze plans will cost 45 percent more for families,
rising from $9,000 a year to $13,000. Individuals, meanwhile, will see a nearly
100 percent increase, from about $2,000 annually to about $4,000, Parente
estimates.
Other
plan types – silver, gold and platinum – will rise in smaller amounts, but the
increases will still nonetheless be substantial. Parente says that the premiums
for less expensive plans will rise more because the deductibles for such plans
will also likely decrease in order to meet Obamacare regulations beginning in
2016.
“After
2017, premiums will rise at the level they do now, a few percentage points
every year,” he writes.”Yet our data still indicate that—for at least the next
decade—premiums will increase faster than they did in the years before the
Affordable Care Act’s implementation. Federal subsidies for ACA plans won’t be
able to keep up.”
Remember
when the president repeatedly promised that under the Act, the government would
“work with employers” to “reduce premiums by up to $2,500 a year”?
The
rise in costs will leave consumers scrambling to find alternatives – and
answers. Many will leave the individual insurance market altogether. Others
will continue to opt to pay the IRS their annual “lack of coverage” fine (until
that no longer becomes an option).
“The
consumers who abandon the market will be acting rationally: They’ll migrate to
cheaper options, even if that means abandoning health insurance altogether,”
Parente says. “To wit: Our study estimates that the number of uninsured will
steadily grow from 2017 onward. The number of uninsured could reach 40 million
within the next decade—about 10% higher than it is today.”
Are YOUR health care premiums about to go up
because of Obamacare? How about your deductibles – are they higher or lower?
What do YOU want Congress to do in regards to the Affordable Care Act – repeal
it, keep it, change it? TELL US below!
http://absoluterights.com/long-after-obama-leaves-office-your-health-insurance-premiums-will-keep-going-up/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=1-09-2015
No comments:
Post a Comment