The government class and the Democratic Administration is busily making sure that their commitment to Obamacare using as much of our money as possible is secure for next year. HHS already proposed an increase in out of pocket maximums, the amount of money you pay before your health insurance covers 100 percent of the costs of "ESSENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS," not all expenses, just the ones listed https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/essential-health-benefits/. The $7,150 (for an individual) $14,300 for a family often excludes your premium expense, the amount of money you pay each month to keep your health insurance in force.
Here I focus on the $7,150 because younger people, often purchasing just their own health insurance must be aware of the Democratic Party's commitment to using them, the young and healthies to perpetuate Obamacare--and that means getting them to purchase MORE expensive health insurance than the Bronze plan (60 percent coverage) or catastrophic plans available to under 30 year olds in order to put them in the mix of older less healthy people so that insurance companies will theoretically (though not once in reality) be able to "keep costs down."
Make no mistake, with numbers like $7,150 out of pocket, Obamacare is not helping anyone face the burden of illness with the added burden or barrier to treatment from out of pocket expenses. What Obamacare is doing is feeding the need of the Democratic Party to put off acknowledging the disaster that Obamacare is (except for those who receive nearly free health insurance and nearly free health care under expanded Medicaid, rather than Obamacare exchange plans).
But the government isn't taking chances. It's trying to force younger healthies not only to purchase health insurance but to purchase more expensive health insurance. That's why when enrolling on exchanges, originally Obamacare provided for cost-sharing assistance in the case of poorer Americans in addition to premium assistance but ONLY for SILVER OR BETTER plans.
This didn't work as the Congressional Budget Office lamented that Bronze enrollment and catastrophic enrollment were the choices of the young healthies and as insurance companies have in the face of losing expiring government payouts under reinsurance and risk corridor provisions are set to expire and as insurance companies leaving exchanges complained that they didn't get enough dollars from those young healthies, less likely to ever cost them money thereby increasing their profits.
Not only are young people not sitting on piles of money ready to pay in this stagnant wage-low employment environment $7,150 in out of pocket expenses on top of other expenses for health insurance, but they've smartly purchased insurance plans that aren't Obamacare qualified, where they're mandated to pay for services for everyone because of Obamacare's preventive medicine checkup inclusions which are short-term plans.
Well, HHS will have none of it, they are going to force those young and healthies to pay. So, this year we saw increases in silver plans go up LESS than increases in the cheaper bronze plans, making bronze plans less worth it. Next year we'll see the end of short-term insurance plans (beyond three months) as HHS stamps out that option for young and healthies.
So brazen is the exploitation of young people that HHS actually states that the changes prohibiting these short-term plans are specifically targeted at young people who they dare to say have "ABUSED" the system in purchasing these short term plans.
HHS, has taken action to curb "abuses of short-term plans," that have kept "some of the healthiest consumers out of the Affordable Care Act's single risk pool," https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2016-Fact-sheets-items/2016-06-08.html, by limiting the availability of short-term health insurance plans to three months out of a year rather than having some of the year-long plans or renewable short-term plans available (see John Merline's commentary of 6/9/2016 in INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY, http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/obama-wants-to-block-all-the-exits-from-obamacare/.)
Young people need to pay attention and their parents need to set them straight: Obamacare is NOT a good deal for them (among others). They should not be afraid of getting rid of the law while they are the young and healthy, that's when their leverage is most significant and since Millenials now outnumber even the Baby Boomers, it's time for them to coalesce around wisdom rather than sentiment or soothing candidates words that sound oh so pleasant as they cannibalize the next generation.
Obamacare was built off the back of consumers, especially the young with raising how much could be charged to the young compared to what could be charged to older people, a ration that used to be 1:5, and is now 1:3), by allowing older people to be charged more in premiums when almost every other group that statistically costs more is prohibited from being charged more (only tobacco smokers, older people and therefore younger people can be charged more, not the fat, not the alcoholics, not those with pre-existing conditions, not the legal or illegal drug addicts), by manipulating the costs of health insurance plans to discourage young people from choosing Bronze plans in order to force them to choose silver plans so that insurers get those young and healthies, and by now limiting the use of short-term health insurance plans because those cheaper plans are screwing up the risk pool that keeps insurers happy--people likeliest to pay and never have a claim--the young and healthy.
