Monday, January 26, 2015

Budget Office Slashes Estimated Cost of Health Coverage - NYTimes.com


If you hate paying taxes that benefit somebody else this is bad news not good news.  (If you earn over 400% of the federal poverty line you are not a beneficiary of an Obamacare insurance subsidy.)  But I think it is good news.  Three million have gained health coverage through Medicaid. though half the states (almost all with GOP governors) refuse federal aid to expand Medicaid (for the undeserving sick and poor, I guess),  And 7 million have bought health insurance from the Obamacare exchanges.  Three-quarters of them qualified for subsidies.

Almost everyone benefits from the ACA in some way.  Birth control is free.  Cancer screening  colonoscopies have no co-pay.  Same for the flu and pneumonia vaccines.  Your kids can stay on your policy until age 26.  You can't be denied coverage due to ore-existing conditions.  That means you can leave your job or get laid off and still find affordable coverage.
The ACA has driven health care costs down.  Of course it's not free.  And there are taxes.  We'll pay some of them - because we still have high income.  But I would rather live in a society that takes care of people than one that says "tough luck".  You are on your own.  - gwc
Budget Office Slashes Estimated Cost of Health Coverage - NYTimes.com
by Robert Pear
The subsidies will cost the government less than originally expected, but are still substantial, the budget office said. “Subsidies in the [Affordable Care Act insurance] exchanges are projected to average about $5,000 per subsidized enrollee from 2016 through 2018 and to reach almost $8,000 in 2025,” Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf said.
All told, the budget office said, the coverage provisions of the health care law will have a gross cost of nearly $2 trillion over the next 10 years, partly offset by $643 billion in new revenues and penalty payments. The law will reduce the number of uninsured by 27 million people, it said, but 31 million people will still be uninsured in 2025, the end of the projection period. [Most of them immigrants ineligible for subsidies.]
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