Guest post: Under Obamacare, Will You Receive a Subsidy…We Now Have Real Numbers
by Maggie Mahar
Under Obamacare, Will You Receive a Subsidy to Help You Buy Your Own Insurance? We Now Have Real Numbers That Will Let You Calculate How Much You Will Receive
Note to Readers: A longer version of this post appeared yesterday on HealthInsurance.org.
Up until now, when Obamacare’s supporters and reform’s opponents squabbled over what insurance will cost in 2014, they had to rely on estimates and national averages. But now we have real numbers.
Eleven states have announced the rates that insurers will be charging in their Exchanges-marketplaces where individuals who don’t have employer-sponsored coverage can shop for their own insurance.
Subsidies Will Be Based On the Cost Of A Silver Plan Where You Live,
Middle-income as well as low-income people buying coverage in the Exchanges will be eligible for government subsidies that will come in the form of tax credits. Anyone earning between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) (now $11,490 to $45,960 for a single person, and up to $126, 360 for a family of six) will qualify.
Most people who are forced to buy their own insurance earn less than 400% of FPL. More affluent Americans usually work for companies that offer comprehensive coverage.
The graph below shows average Silver plan rates in the eleven states that have disclosed premiums. (Note that these are only state averages. Premiums vary widely within a state: In some cities and counties silver plan rates will be much lower, even before you apply the subsidy.
It’s worth noting that in these 11 states the least expensive Silver Plan costs 18% less than the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected last year.
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http://www.healthbeatblog.org/#sthash.0bJknasZ.dpuf
The first thing that occurs to me now that there has been a clarification of the subsidy amounts available to those who need same is that PAPACA isn’t complicated enough. That is, it’s not complicated enough to be completely unintelligible. It is complicated enough to be as incomprehensible as is health insurance plans in general. I had thought that a basic idea of the health care legislation when in the planning stages was to take some of the mysterfy out of the coverage and the costs. That is the costs of the coverage, not just the costs of health care.
Even the vogue inclination in the media of substituting the name ObamaCare for legislation that is largely the result of Congressional ineptitude seems misleading. Presidents doen’t pass legislation. They lobby the Congress and sign the results into law, but the results are largely the still born child of a destinctly dysfunctional Congress, screwing up even when they marshal the votes for enactment. Better the legislation be called the Rube Goldberg Health Plan for America, guaranteed to confuse and obscure the mechanics of a complex system.
Jack:
No doubt we could have had Medicare for all, Medicare for 50 and older, single payer, etc. The one theme in the rejection of all of this was the Senator from Aetna, John Lieberman. He personally scuttled these alternatives. After saying this, I know of no insurance plan which is abbreviated, simple or complete on one sheet of paper. They are all complex and with my recent go-around with endoscopy, gall bladder removal, and open heart surgery; I felt lucky just to escape by paying my deductible twice (once in 2012 and again in 2013) and a couple of grand for incidentals. So far no big surprises after 8 months.
The last president to attempt to write the health reform bill was Clinton with Hillarycare. It failed miserably in Congress because of his/her attempt to do so. It it had passed, it would have been 1/5 the cost two deacdes ago and would have morphed into something else by now. The PPACA will help greatly in controlling the rising costs of healthcare and healthcare insurance.
The Obama administration has contracted with a division of Equifax to perform income verifications, how exactly that will work is unknown, and how errors will be corrected is a mystery.
Hmmmmm.
They say that the subsidies will be in the form of tax credits. Will that be a credit youmgetmon your taxes at the end of the year, or will they reduce your tax withholding during the year?
Jerry:
It will be paid out to the insurance company each year to lower the premiums.
STR:
No more of an issue than what we have today with erroneous credit reports. Congress did not see a need to fix erroneous credit reports, did they?
Equifax to check income levels? The same Equifax that is respponsible for this lady’s headaches?
An $18 Million Lesson in Handling Credit Report Errors:
“Even after sending more than 13 letters to Equifax over the course of two years, Julie Miller could not get the big credit bureau to remove a host of errors that it inserted into her credit report.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/your-money/credit-scores/credit-bureaus-willing-to-tolerate-errors-experts-say.html?src=me
So glad that they’ve chosen a real expert at finance verification.
I have along professional history of battling credit bureaus – they are bleeping bleeps.
STR:
Ditto, One year to clean up their mistake with letters, phone calls, and one honest person there.
well, maybe now i can get my stupidity treated.
the headline said i would get a subsidy.
but i didn’t see anything about that in the body of the report.