There is no doubt that millions of Americans who previously could not afford major medical insurance are now covered thanks to President Obama’s insurance reforms. But these families are paying very little for their insurance, which is subsidized by the taxes paid by higher-income Americans (mainly the middle class). And though low-income families now benefit from health insurance millions of middle class Americans continue to go without insurance even though the law mandates a 1% penalty for now buying insurance.
It is simply less expensive for young families to pay their own doctors’ bills than to buy insurance, which at full market rates can range anywhere from $300 a month for an individual to over $1000 a month for a family of four. But there are some alternatives which may be less expensive than either complying with Obamacare’s expensive requirements or simply paying your way and eating the 1% penalty.
For example, there are online insurance brokers that help you find affordable health insurance plans at a much lower price than what the Obamacare plans were costing. Is there a catch? Yes, these lower-cost plans do not meet the law’s requirements and therefore you will still pay the 1% penalty. But if you can acquire major medical insurance for your family for a while then at least you’re protected against unforeseen illness.
One major broker site that this writer reviewed offered dozens of low-cost plans for a married couple in their 50s. However, to keep the costs of insurance low these plans do not cover existing conditions. To include coverage for diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic illnesses subscribers must wait through long qualifying periods. That is how these alternative plans keep their prices down.
Younger families trapped in the middle income brackets will benefit from these alternative insurance plans. By combining their low-cost major medical coverage with affordable accident and hospital indemnification plans these families can save on insurance, provide adequate coverage for themselves, and still tolerate the 1% penalty.
Ideally we want the government to revise the Obamacare law so that it is fair to the millions of Americans who cannot afford to buy unsubsidized insurance. President Obama’s focus on helping the families at the very bottom of the income scale is admirable and his accomplishment will be recognized by historians, but he has wrongly punished middle income Americans by denying them access to affordable health insurance and penalizing them for not buying the too-expensive plans required by law.
Our goal going forward should NOT be to repeal Obamacare (because that would deprive millions of Americans of much-needed health insurance) but to FIX it by helping the millions of families that cannot afford to buy insurance because they don’t qualify for the subsidies or the subsidies that they do qualify for don’t pay enough to make Obamacare insurance affordable.