1.6 million people drop Obamacare in 2016
Finding out what’s in it: Within three months of signing up for Obamacare more than 13%, or 1.6 million people, in 2016 have dropped coverage by not paying their premiums.
The AP story at the link is decidedly partisan in its tone, trying to make excuses for the disaster that is Obamacare. After proudly claiming that “the health law’s online insurance markets are now working smoothly,” it than is forced to note the following:
Enrollment has been lower than hoped for, and customers turned out to be sicker than expected. Some major insurance companies have cut back their participation, and 13 of 23 nonprofit insurance co-ops created under the law have folded. Premiums for 2017 are expected to be significantly higher.
Other than these minor details, Obamacare is wonderful! That’s why more than 1 in 10 quit paying their premiums within three months, probably because they simply can’t afford it. I wonder how many more decide to give up their health insurance as the year progresses. I suspect that by the time the open enrollment period arrives in November, the number who have dropped coverage will rise above 30% or higher.
Let me add one more thing: I also suspect that many of the people who drop Obamacare do so as soon as they’ve paid their taxes. This way, they pay the premium for as little time as possible, can demonstrate to the IRS that they have insurance and thus avoid the Obamacare mandate fine (or tax, depending the day you ask the Obama administration what it is), and then avoid paying the premium for the rest of the year. It’s called gaming the system, something that happens routinely when governments try to impose unwieldy and unaffordable rules to ordinary life.
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Finding out what’s in it: Within three months of signing up for Obamacare more than 13%, or 1.6 million people, in 2016 have dropped coverage by not paying their premiums.
The AP story at the link is decidedly partisan in its tone, trying to make excuses for the disaster that is Obamacare. After proudly claiming that “the health law’s online insurance markets are now working smoothly,” it than is forced to note the following:
Enrollment has been lower than hoped for, and customers turned out to be sicker than expected. Some major insurance companies have cut back their participation, and 13 of 23 nonprofit insurance co-ops created under the law have folded. Premiums for 2017 are expected to be significantly higher.
Other than these minor details, Obamacare is wonderful! That’s why more than 1 in 10 quit paying their premiums within three months, probably because they simply can’t afford it. I wonder how many more decide to give up their health insurance as the year progresses. I suspect that by the time the open enrollment period arrives in November, the number who have dropped coverage will rise above 30% or higher.
Let me add one more thing: I also suspect that many of the people who drop Obamacare do so as soon as they’ve paid their taxes. This way, they pay the premium for as little time as possible, can demonstrate to the IRS that they have insurance and thus avoid the Obamacare mandate fine (or tax, depending the day you ask the Obama administration what it is), and then avoid paying the premium for the rest of the year. It’s called gaming the system, something that happens routinely when governments try to impose unwieldy and unaffordable rules to ordinary life.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
A percentage of that 1.6 million people lost their coverage because they didn’t meet the citizenship requirements. None of the two articles I read broke down that number.
Something to consider is the average subsidy is $3312. Obamacare cost $110 billion in 2016, or almost $10,000 per person.
From the article: “Combined with a Medicaid expansion for low-income people, Obama’s law has reduced the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low of about 9 percent.”
But, at what cost?
Not only is the government putting even more people on the dole by paying for their insurance, but work hours have changed, religious rights have been suspended, anyone who is not covered by insurance is a scofflaw, and we are now mandated to buy health insurance under penalty of law.
Our government now has the audacity to do what no other tyranny in all of history has ever had: to direct how its people are to spend their own hard-earned money.
Edward:
(excellent commentary on a wide range of topics, btw.)
-That article is just plain lying about a “historic low of 9%,” as it relates to the “uninsured.” And even if it was true, as you say, “at what cost?”
=Billions of dollars, gone forever, that we still have to pay for, because it was all borrowed money.
“Medicaid expansion,” is nothing but a ticking Debt-Bomb waiting to explode, and is designed to explode starting in 2017. Mitch/Ryan & whomever is elected in November, will never repeal the ACA. They simply refuse to touch any entitlement-spending, are more worried about what the “47%” thinks of them, and will never overturn an entitlement such as the ACA.
We are going to be living & dealing with what has gone down the past 8 years, for decades to come, no matter who is elected.
“Enrollment has been lower than hoped for, . . ”
There’s that ‘hope & change’.
” . . .,and customers turned out to be sicker than expected.”
‘Expected’ by whom? Every bit of the disaster that is Obamacare was predicted right down the line by any number of people. To be surprised at how this monumental fiasco is shaking out is to admit that one is completely enfolded in The Narrative’s irrational bubble, and worthy of the attention one might give a credulous five-year-old.
“and we are now mandated to buy health insurance under penalty of law.
Our government now has the audacity to do what no other tyranny in all of history has ever had: to direct how its people are to spend their own hard-earned money.”
Do you make these same complaints about auto insurance?
Do you make these same complaints about home insurance that bankers make you buy by law?
Vladislaw,
No one in the US is mandated to buy auto insurance. I know at least two people who legally do not have to buy auto insurance, because it is not a mandate. How do they do it? They do not drive and have no need for such insurance.
No one in the US is mandated to buy homeowner’s insurance. I own my home free and clear, and I can cancel or change the terms on my insurance any time that I want. Which reminds me, I want to raise the deductible, so I should remember to do that on Tuesday. It is not the government mandating the insurance, it is part of the agreement with banks to buy the insurance. The bank is free to make any condition, and the mortgage seeker is free to look for a better deal. This is part of liberty, the freedom to negotiate and enter into contracts or to not enter into contracts, as one chooses, just like the auto insurance.
As for legally being in this country (illegal aliens — or misdemeanant aliens, if you don’t like the former term — are exempt from the mandate, but they still receive care, like everyone else), if you breath then you are required to enter into a contract for health insurance coverage. Since breathing is necessary to life, you have to be insured under Obama’s tyrannical regime. Plus, the government mandates the coverage, no negotiation or deviation from the government standard contracts is possible. No freedom, under Obamacare.
I noticed, however, that you didn’t find any other tyranny that directed how its people were to spend their own hard-earned money.