Families USA: One Third of Low-Income Obamacare Beneficiaries Cannot Afford Care
One of Obamacare’s biggest cheerleaders, Families USA, has published new research showing that one third of low-income Obamacare beneficiaries have not obtained medical care due to cost in 2014:
Lower- to middle-income adults who were insured for the full year were significantly more likely than those with higher incomes to forgo needed care because they could not afford it: Nearly one-third (32.3 percent) of lower- to middle-income adults didn’t get needed medical care (excluding dental care) because they could not afford it. (p. 14)
But don’t you worry, Families USA has not thrown in the towel on Obamacare yet:
Since its passage in 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made tremendous progress in improving access to health insurance and health care for millions of Americans. Approximately 14.1 million previously uninsured Americans gained health insurance between the beginning of open enrollment in October 2013 and March 4, 2015.
Well, not actually: Most of the Obamacare “insured” have actually fallen into welfare dependency (Medicaid), and the increase in privately insured is questionable.
Families USA recommends that even more taxpayer-funded healthcare dollars be channeled through health insurers. Investors in health insurers must love these policy prescriptions from progressive advocacy groups.
they could not afford it:
“Could not afford” means very different things to different people.
I agree that the Families USA article was quite convoluted, but there is a real concern here.
My cousin has a high deductible health policy, and so I recently got quotes for two procedures that may benefit him.
One was an allergy skin test with follow up on special pills to treat various allergies. The other was a sleep study to see if apnea is a concern.
The total cost of these two procedures would be about $2,000. My cousin might do them, but he will probably postpone them for lack of funds. He has no HSA at all.
At this point, John, some of your readers say that he should have been saving up for this kind of thing all along. Which is true, but I am positive that many of the middle income buyers in the ACA have the same issue.
Families USA would mandate much lower deductibles, and that would require higher federal subsidies to keep the insurance at all affordable.
I can accept a philosophical statement that government cannot help everyone get all the care that might be of benefit. It is kind of easier to say this than to enforce it, however.
I agree that people have not taken adequate responsibility for saving for many decades now. The problem is that if citizens are fiscally irresponsible they will vote for politicians with the same proclivities, the evidence of which is overwhelming.
So, saying we can bail out people who have not saved to fund their own health costs by federal bailouts is not a game of “pass the parcel” that will end well.