Wendell Potter: Millions of Middle Class Americans Will Remain Uninsured Despite Obamacare

[antigop]

http://wendellpotter.com/2015/02/millions-of-middle-class-americans-will-remain-uninsured-despite-obamacare/

No-man’s land captures those too rich for subsidies but too poor for sanctions.

The good news from last week’s Congressional Budget Office report was that Obamacare will cost 20 percent less through 2019 than originally expected. That’s in part because medical inflation has slowed more than the CBO anticipated back in 2010 when the law went into effect.

But the report had bad news too. Fewer people are signing up for coverage than the government had hoped. In fact, the CBO estimates that 31 million of us will still be uninsured 10 years from now.

The Supreme Court bears some of the responsibility on that front. It ruled in 2012 that even though Congress intended for all the states to expand their Medicaid programs to include more low-income individuals and families, states could opt out of that requirement. And many with Republican governors and legislatures did. .

The other main reason for the sobering estimate of uninsured 10 years down the road: many people still can’t afford to buy health insurance, even with financial help from the government.

[merrily]

1. IIRC, someone said that a strong public option was the only way to control health insurance costs.

That was not entirely true, of course. There was also single payer. Single payer or strong public option were the ways to control insurance costs.

[zipplewrath]

2. Even fewer can afford to use it

People are buying the government supported health insurance and not being able to afford to use it.

We don't see statistics on this, at least not yet, but the underlying cost of the care is not cheap, especially on the "bronze" plans. I just had a test procedure that cost $2700 out of pocket, and that was on a "gold" plan. Most folks I know could not afford that, especially as part of the larger costs of the treatment it was testing about. I do wonder how many people STILL aren't getting health CARE because they can't afford it, even with mandated health INSURANCE.

[antigop]

3. See this article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016110611

[zipplewrath]

4. No relationship to the ACA

I get the point of the article, but there is no relationship to the ACA. This was a trend that already existed. I'm dubious that the ACA accelerated it. Mostly it just ignored it. The ACA forced a lot of people into the system who will fall into this category. But there is no hard data on how many people have been forced into health insurance that they cannot afford to use. By the way, the insurance companies love these people. They are fiscally equivalent to insuring the healthy. All premiums, no payments.

[area51]

5. Those of us in favor of single-payer knew this was going to happen. n/t