Consumers Are Becoming Terrified Of Obamacare

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

Congress has finally figured out Obamacare’s financial burden to them
personally and their staff. They want out and are trying to sneak in a waiver for
themselves.

Millions of Americans are going to pay more for their healthcare
insurance and get less coverage and a higher deductible cost.

Can ordinary American get the same waiver as government workers?

Actuary consultants
from Oliver Wyman in an article published in the journal of the American
Academy of Actuaries, found that "around six million of the 19
million people with individual health policies are going to have to pay
more—and this even after accounting for the government subsidies offered under
the law."

 "For example, single adults age 21-29 earning
300% to 400% of the federal poverty level will be hit with an increase of 46%
even after premium assistance from tax credits."

The number of people seeking individual healthcare insurance
will be even higher when it becomes clear that employers presently providing
healthcare insurance to employees will drop the coverage and elect to pay the
penalty.

The present estimate is that 65% of employers are either
definitely going to drop healthcare coverage or are seriously considering
dropping coverage.

The
healthcare insurance industry claims the reason for the increases in premiums
is the Obama administration’s regulatory policies for participating in health
insurance exchanges.

 Obamacare's community-rating regulations, which
require insurers to accept everyone but limit or ban them from varying premiums
based on age or health.

1.  The law
   also mandates "essential" benefits that are far more generous than
   those currently offered and thus raise the premiums.
2. The healthcare insurance industry will be
   required to pay a tax on every healthcare insurance policy sold through the
   health insurance exchange. The industry is anticipating the tax and passing it
   on the anticipated cost to the consumer.
3. Employers with over 50 employees are decreasing the
   number of employees to less than 50 employees so as not to pay a penalty for
   not providing insurance.
4. Employers are not required to
   provide insurance for employees working less that 30 hours a week and so
   employers are decreasing employee work hours.

 The Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported on a category of workers who will almost surely be
involuntarily under-employed as a result of health reform.

“The present
estimate is that 10 million part-timers now working 30-34 hours per week will
have their work week decreased to under 30 hours a week.”

According
to Congressional Budget Office projections in July and September 2012, three
million people will lose their insurance altogether in 2014 due to Obamacare.

Six
million will have to pay the individual-mandate tax penalty in 2016 because
they don't want or won't be able to afford coverage, even with the government subsidies.

It is anybody’s guess how many people will be uninsured. The more
uninsured people that are eliminated from the insurance pool the higher the
insurance premium for those insured.

Rather than providing universal affordable care the Obama
administration has created a system that will result in more uninsured consumers and faced with unaffordable costs.

Are all these people going to qualify for Medicaid? I do not believe so.
They will earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little money to afford
the upcoming premiums.

It is estimated that 30 to 40 million American families’ will
experience an adverse affect in healthcare coverage as a result of Obamacare.

Americans are becoming concerned as the reality of the negative effects
of Obamacare become clear.

Even the traditional mainstream media is starting to report those
concerns as Obamacare’s negative effects are being felt.

Theoretically Obamacare sounds good. Practically it will collapse
the healthcare system.

“Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who told a
gathering a few weeks ago at the Harvard School of Public Health that she has
been "surprised" by the political wrangling caused so far by Obamacare,
there are likely to be plenty of surprises ahead.”

What are the other surprises? What is going to happen to all the
uninsured and underinsured?

It looks like the outcomes are going to be the opposite of the goal of
Obamacare.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone

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