President Obama and his allies have consistently argued that his health care law
was prudent, because without it, uninsured individuals would continue
to show up at hospitals and receive care without paying, thus driving up
costs on everybody else.
But now, the Wall Street Journal has reported, hospitals are concerned that the law could exacerbate this problem, known as uncompensated care.
The reason stems from the high deductibles in health care plans offered on Obamacare's new government-run exchanges. A deductible is the amount that individuals must pay for care before the benefits of a health insurance policy kick in.
As both the Journal and the New York Times reported
on Monday, consumers may be surprised to find out how high the
deductibles are on many of the plans offered on the new exchanges.
For instance, the Journal article noted that the average individual
deductible for the exchanges' lower-cost bronze plans is $5,081 per
year, or 42 percent more than the average deductible on the individual
market in 2013, before Obamacare went into effect.
Now, in fairness to Obamacare, it isn't really proper to single out
the cheapest plans on the exchanges (which will have the highest
deductibles) and then compare that to all the plans on the pre-Obamacare
market. An apples to apples comparison would have to look at the
average for all plans on the exchanges, which would include more
expensive plans with much lower deductibles and thus bring the Obamacare
average down.
Also, it's worth noting that prior to Obamacare, individuals could
purchase plans with deductibles of $10,000 or even $20,000, but now
total out of pocket costs are capped at $6,350. In fact, one of the
criticisms of Obamacare among conservatives has been that it is raising
premiums, in part, by depriving individuals of the freedom to buy
catastrophic insurance with very high deductibles.
That having been said, it's also true that many of the millions of
Americans who are having their plans cancelled may end up in plans with
higher deductibles because they want to limit their increase in
premiums. Younger Americans, now forced to purchase insurance, may also
opt for the cheapest plans available without paying attention to
deductibles.
This is why, the Journal reported, "Hospitals, meantime, are bracing for a rise in unpaid bills from bronze-plan policyholders."
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- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
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