Health Coverage Grows Under The Affordable Care Act

News Buzzard wrote:And now the Republicans will make a futile attempt to repeal it, once again!

News Hawk wrote:

If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor...

News Hawk wrote:ERS will still be closing.

News Buzzard wrote:And now the Republicans will make a futile attempt to repeal it, once again!
http://www.rand.org/news/press/2015/05/06.html

Despite its name, the primary goal of the Affordable Care Act was to expand health care coverage to millions of Americans who had been uninsured. And while it's done that - 15 million non-elderly adults have gained coverage - making that insurance "affordable" remains a significant challenge.

Government subsidies for enrollees with incomes below 400 percent of the federal poverty level were designed to help with that, but rising premiums and high deductibles mean that getting health care coverage and treatment remains a financial burden for many Americans. A new study from the Urban Institute shows just how high the toll can be.

The study found that the median single enrollee earning between $35,310 and $47,080, or a family of four earning between $72,750 and $97,000, will spend almost 15 percent of their income next year on Obamacare insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs in 2016, even with federal government subsidies. The percentages increase for those with worsening health and those over age 45. And 10 percent of people in the income range the Urban Institute researchers looked at, between 200 percent and 500 percent of the federal poverty level, will spend more than 21 percent of their income on health care costs.

Although there's no objective standard for how much people should spend on health care, "a lot of people make the judgment that it's unaffordable and that makes a real impact," says Matthew Buetggens, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute and co-author of the study. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that cost is the main reason the uninsured give for why they lack coverage.

Of course, steeper health care costs aren't just limited to those covered by Obamacare - people with employer-based plans are also going to see larger premiums and out-of-pocket costs next year.
Yahoo News

blink·ered1.

[ˈbliNGkərd]
ADJECTIVE

1.(of a horse) wearing blinders.

A liberal who jumps at the chance to vacation in a slave state-and thinks it's somehow adventurous or even brave to take your children to a place romanticized by left-wing utopians since it went Communist in 1959-is not only morally blinkered. He's banal. He's the sort of liberal for whom there is no difference between self-interest and the public interest-a trait Emanuel picked up from the Clintons. He rationalizes leaving the White House for an investment bank, using political connections to amass "$18 million in just two-and-a-half years," making six-figure fees from a board seat at Freddie Mac, and savaging anyone who dares question the priorities and self-righteousness and sanctimony of multimillionaires who "just want to make the world a better place." He joins the chorus in favor of criminal justice reform despite slow walking and obstructing an investigation into a police shooting for personal gain.
—Washington Free Beacon