Obamacare failing?

[disneysteve]

Hence my comment that those young adults not in school should be on their own health plan, mandated by law for them to carry.

Sure, if they actually choose to get coverage. The ACA "mandated" it but that didn't make people go out and do it. It was better having people under 26 on their parents' plans. At least that way they were insured and in the pool.

The question is how to enforce a mandate. How do you force people to buy insurance that is often very low on their priority list and also extremely expensive? When they have to choose between rent and insurance, guess what they're going to pick.

[txex86]

The question is how to enforce a mandate. How do you force people to buy insurance that is often very low on their priority list and also extremely expensive? When they have to choose between rent and insurance, guess what they're going to pick.

Policies prior to ACA were affordable for young adults as they were purely catastrophic coverage. A true mandate, where health care is not offered unless a patient is covered by insurance of some type, either private or government (medicaid/medicare), would essentially force people to buy insurance.

[Smallsteps]

The whole thing was poorly thought out and written. Take the mandate it is like saying stop or I will yell stop again.... no enforcement just a box to check on a form no proof required unless you signed up for subsidies. Anyone who self reported and paid fines there is no way fro them to check if you had just checked the box. Seriously if they planned to enforce it they would at least have to ask whom your coverage is through.
If buying a policy direct without asking for subsidies NO SSN is required by insurance companies I know I work in it. So how would the IRS ever verify and each company uses different systems it is hard enough for those in the industry to verify coverage let alone a government bureaucrat.
Then even with some help if you spend for example 250 a month in premiums (3000 a year)and have a deductible in the area of 5000 to 6000. that means spending close to 10 grand before plans kick in paying as little as 70% of the rest of the cost. MANY do not have this kind of cash lying around.
How does anyone call that AFFORDABLE with a straight face?
That is by definition only catastrophic coverage. I think we also should define what children are ??
26 is an adult in every other aspect. before the ACA parents could keep STUDENTS on their plan ( in my case til 24.5 yrs) so the real difference is no longer requiring these young adults from being in school. So the young healthy ones who were expected to buy to subsidize others have a huge loophole.

[Mjenn]

The whole thing was poorly thought out and written. Take the mandate it is like saying stop or I will yell stop again.... no enforcement just a box to check on a form no proof required unless you signed up for subsidies. Anyone who self reported and paid fines there is no way fro them to check if you had just checked the box. Seriously if they planned to enforce it they would at least have to ask whom your coverage is through.
If buying a policy direct without asking for subsidies NO SSN is required by insurance companies I know I work in it. So how would the IRS ever verify and each company uses different systems it is hard enough for those in the industry to verify coverage let alone a government bureaucrat.
Then even with some help if you spend for example 250 a month in premiums (3000 a year)and have a deductible in the area of 5000 to 6000. that means spending close to 10 grand before plans kick in paying as little as 70% of the rest of the cost. MANY do not have this kind of cash lying around.
How does anyone call that AFFORDABLE with a straight face?
That is by definition only catastrophic coverage. I think we also should define what children are ??
26 is an adult in every other aspect. before the ACA parents could keep STUDENTS on their plan ( in my case til 24.5 yrs) so the real difference is no longer requiring these young adults from being in school. So the young healthy ones who were expected to buy to subsidize others have a huge loophole.

Well, yes, unless you have an illness. My brother with diabetes had to choose between insurance and an apartment, as they cost about the same and he couldn't afford both just out of school. Many young people who take care of themselves and participate in society may have underlying health issues that aren't visible. But they have had to pay a fortune before ACA also with the risk of losing all hope of future coverage.

[~bs]

I'm no expert, but I think they way obamacare is set up is the reason for the problems it's having. Think of it as a pension plan, where people contribute when they're young to eventually collect (or in this case get medical treatment) when they get older. The problem is that everyone wasn't required to contribute into the plan when they're younger. Say someone is 50 years old with cancer now, ideally they'd have been paying into the system previously for the past 20-30 years already. But they may not have had medical insurance at all since there was no requirement to while they were healthy.

So you have a lot of sick, older people that need/want to jump into immediately because of extremely expensive preexisting conditions, and not enough new younger healthy people (who may not have money to pay for obama care) to offset all the sick people. It's simply an unworkable system unless the rates are raised drastically for some or all people.