Why Obamacare Is Keeping The Government On Shutdown
The post Why Obamacare Is Keeping The Government On Shutdown appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. The battle over health care subsidies has common-sense solutions. getty People with Obamacare insurance aren’t getting any more health care today than they did a decade ago, before the program was started. But the costs of the program keep soaring. Democrats want more taxpayer dollars to pay for those costs. Republicans are resisting. Both parties should do voters a favor and consider sensible reforms instead of throwing good money after bad. The problem with Obamacare is not difficult to understand. It was designed to force people to buy a product that few people would buy on their own if they had to pay the full price. Originally there was an individual mandate to buy the insurance, backed by fines for those who refused. Congress dropped the fines, but the government at various times has taken steps to try to prevent alternatives to Obamacare from being sold on the market or offered by employers. Initially, Obamacare subsidies were available only for people with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty level. But as costs kept rising, people not getting a subsidy (especially those who were healthy) began to abandon the market. Between 2016 and 2019 the unsubsidized part of the market was almost cut in half—exhibiting the characteristics of a “death spiral,” in which soaring costs drive the healthy away, while the remaining pool becomes sicker and more costly. Ever higher premiums are needed to keep the program solvent. Yet as premiums rise, the healthiest of those remaining in the pool begin to leave—contributing to a never-ending cycle. When Democrats had the power to do so, they passed a second round of subsidies designed to keep the system afloat. Although these are often called “Covid era” subsidies, they really had little to do with Covid. They were enacted to prevent…
The post Why Obamacare Is Keeping The Government On Shutdown appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
The battle over health care subsidies has common-sense solutions. getty People with Obamacare insurance aren’t getting any more health care today than they did a decade ago, before the program was started. But the costs of the program keep soaring. Democrats want more taxpayer dollars to pay for those costs. Republicans are resisting. Both parties should do voters a favor and consider sensible reforms instead of throwing good money after bad. The problem with Obamacare is not difficult to understand. It was designed to force people to buy a product that few people would buy on their own if they had to pay the full price. Originally there was an individual mandate to buy the insurance, backed by fines for those who refused. Congress dropped the fines, but the government at various times has taken steps to try to prevent alternatives to Obamacare from being sold on the market or offered by employers. Initially, Obamacare subsidies were available only for people with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty level. But as costs kept rising, people not getting a subsidy (especially those who were healthy) began to abandon the market. Between 2016 and 2019 the unsubsidized part of the market was almost cut in half—exhibiting the characteristics of a “death spiral,” in which soaring costs drive the healthy away, while the remaining pool becomes sicker and more costly. Ever higher premiums are needed to keep the program solvent. Yet as premiums rise, the healthiest of those remaining in the pool begin to leave—contributing to a never-ending cycle. When Democrats had the power to do so, they passed a second round of subsidies designed to keep the system afloat. Although these are often called “Covid era” subsidies, they really had little to do with Covid. They were enacted to prevent…
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