Exchange Subsidies Gone Awry

[Yagents]

Gotta love this one! Another $50 billion of non CBO scoring.


"If you've got employer-based coverage that's affordable for the employee only," Guyer said, "the family is expected to take the employer coverage even if it"s totally unaffordable and no one in the family is eligible for the exchange subsidies."

Healthcare law could leave families with high insurance costs - The Hill's Healthwatch

 

[ABC]

This is a huge blow to law.

Individual market is expected to go up 95% on top of normal medical trend.
The group market on the other hand is around 5%-10%

This might just save the group health market under 100 lives.


YES!

 

[Ann H]

Well, sheeez, yes this will affect the individual and the group market! In AZ most employers pay 50% to 75% of the employee-only cost. Therefore, under this law's provision, the employee will lose any subsidy for going to the exchange (for himself and/or his dependents). The cost for those dependents will be high on the employer plan, because employer contribution to the premium for dependents is low. In AZ many employers pay 0% of the dependent premium, some pay a bit more, and very large employers pay 60-75%. AZ has very few large employers, but a lot of Mom & Pop shops with 20 or fewer employees.

A paragraph in the article that humored me was, "Some of the administration's closest allies on healthcare reform warn this situation could dramatically undercut support for the law, which already is unpopular with many voters and contributed to Democrats losing the House in the 2010 midterm elections."

 

[somarco]

Just more proof, as if it was needed, that DC has no clue what they are doing.

 

[jbage007]

Just more proof, as if it was needed, that DC has no clue what they are doing.

On the contrary, I think they knew precisely what they were doing. If they had excluded this provision (it was not an omission, but an intentional inclusion) then the CBO scoring would have been through the roof, making it that much more difficult to vote in favor of.

Get the vote. THEN figure out the details.

Right Nancy?

 

[AllenChicago]

With all the waivers being granted, challenges to the individual mandate and now this Exchange Subsidy debacle, it appears that Obama's crown-jewel is developing major cracks.

However, since he always wanted the equivalent of Medicare for everyone, failure of this reform legislation might have been programmed in from the start. Either that, or the Senators and Congressmen we elected to office are incredibly dumb.
-AC

 

[somarco]

Very few in Congress, much less the White House, have ever run a business or had jobs in the private sector.

Community organizer or college professor don't count.

When you don't have a basic understanding of how commerce works there is no way you can make decisions that affect private business and get the desired results.

Dodd-Frank is a good example. Limit how much banks can charge retailers for ATM processing fees.

Of course they did not comprehend that the fees charged were simply passed on to customers of the retail business.

Nor did they understand that if you limit how much banks can collect from ATM processing fees the banks will simply find another way to collect. That will come in fees for ATM usage that will be billed directly to consumers.

Similarly, telling those covered by HSA, HRA or FSA they cannot use the account for OTC meds was believed to be a good thing because it would eliminate "unnecessary" purchases of OTC meds.

Instead it increased overall costs due to the number of doctor appointments to get a script for the OTC med.

So Allen, they are in fact incredibly dumb.

 

[aheff]

Obamacare is worse than anyone of even have imagined. So many unintended consequences. One significant one which I sure hope will affect elections in 2012 is the effect on the #1 issue in America-jobs. While Obama wasted a year on this BS, he should have been focusing on the economy. Business leaders, from Wynn, Home Depot, Caterpiller are starting to speak out and forcefully say that Obama's policies, from Obamacrap to other regulations are killing the job market.

 

[somarco]

But Obumma was focused on the economy. That was what the stimulus fixed, creating all those jobs (@ $250k per job created) and let's not forget the car sales from Cash 4 Clunkers.

Sure the taxpayers lost $1 billion on the Chrysler bail out but it was worth it.

Yeah, they pumped over $150 billion in to Fannie and Freddie to keep them afloat, but so what?

Don't tell me Obumma isn't focused like a laser on helping us out.

 

[Yagents]

Nor did they understand that if you limit how much banks can collect from ATM processing fees the banks will simply find another way to collect. That will come in fees for ATM usage that will be billed directly to consumers.

I just received notice from Chase that my ATM credit card cash advance fee will be going up to $10 min or 5% of the transaction. If you push down on a baloon...........