So many problems have now been discovered with Obamacare, that the AP is even writing articles about some of them. If the Obama media is now criticizing the greatest "achievement" of our president, you know that it has problems. Here's the big new problem: smokers will pay more for insurance under Obamacare. Now I know that many of you will agree that smokers should pay more since they are more likely to get sick and to require medical attention; indeed, that seems fair to me too. But listen to how this works. Under Obamacare, insurers can charge an extra 50% premium to older smokers. These same older people (from 50-65) pay higher premiums than younger ones under the law as well. The smoking penalty cannot be offset with federal subsidies either, since those subsidies only are applicable to basic premiums. Put this all together and you get the following example of disaster (which I take right from the AP article).
Take a hypothetical 60-year-old smoker making $35,000 a year. Estimated premiums for coverage in the new private health insurance markets under Obama's law would total $10,172. That person would be eligible for a tax credit that brings the cost down to $3,325.
But the smoking penalty could add $5,086 to the cost. And since federal tax credits can't be used to offset the penalty, the smoker's total cost for health insurance would be $8,411, or 24 percent of income. That's considered unaffordable under the federal law.
So what does this all mean? The answer is simple: smokers will not get health insurance; it will be too expensive to afford. There are no folks making $35000 a year who are going to spen $8411 on a health insurance policy. Once again, the impact of the Obamacare law will be to increase the number of uninsured Americans. It's funny, I thought that Obamacare was sold as a way to increase the number of Americans WITH insurance, not to reduce that number.
One last note: for those of you who think that some of the insurance companies will not charge the full penalty for smoking, I suggest that you think again. Any company that charges less will become the carrier of choice for all those smokers. As a result, all those extra costs to cover smokers will hit that carrier. The extra premium is just not enough to make up for all those costs.
Take a hypothetical 60-year-old smoker making $35,000 a year. Estimated premiums for coverage in the new private health insurance markets under Obama's law would total $10,172. That person would be eligible for a tax credit that brings the cost down to $3,325.
But the smoking penalty could add $5,086 to the cost. And since federal tax credits can't be used to offset the penalty, the smoker's total cost for health insurance would be $8,411, or 24 percent of income. That's considered unaffordable under the federal law.
So what does this all mean? The answer is simple: smokers will not get health insurance; it will be too expensive to afford. There are no folks making $35000 a year who are going to spen $8411 on a health insurance policy. Once again, the impact of the Obamacare law will be to increase the number of uninsured Americans. It's funny, I thought that Obamacare was sold as a way to increase the number of Americans WITH insurance, not to reduce that number.
One last note: for those of you who think that some of the insurance companies will not charge the full penalty for smoking, I suggest that you think again. Any company that charges less will become the carrier of choice for all those smokers. As a result, all those extra costs to cover smokers will hit that carrier. The extra premium is just not enough to make up for all those costs.
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