Marriage Penalties in ObamaCare
Health insurance premium credits in the new law are linked not directly to income, but to the poverty line, resulting in a particularly steep marriage penalty for low-income Americans. With $10,890 as the poverty line for one person and an additional $3,820 for a spouse, marriage means less government help with health insurance.
Two singles would each be able to earn $43,000 and still receive help to purchase health insurance, but if they got married and combined their earnings to $86,000, they would be far above the limit. As a married couple, the most they could earn and still get government help with health insurance premiums would be $58,000, a difference of almost $30,000, or 32 percent. This is a substantial disincentive to getting married, or to working while married.
Testimony of Diana Furchtgott-Roth.
I thought sound public policy was supposed to encourage marriage rather than penalize it.
Good study.
There’s no doubt that Congress will try to solve this problem by raising taxes on the rich.
A surtax on millionaires has become the solution to all our problems.
We now are finding that family members of a worker recieving employer single coverage insurance are unable to get subsidized health insurance through the new health care exchanges.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/190753-if-you-like-your-plan-you-can-keep-it-yet-you-might-not-want-to
states “Because any offer of employer insurance coverage— whether or not it’s considered affordable — blocks access to generous subsidies in the insurance exchange, millions of families will be stuck in a no-man’s-land without affordable coverage through their employer or the exchange”
Another great feature of ACA, get divorced so your family has health insurance, go figure.