Last week, President Obama tore into GOP governors and legislatures who have opposed his new health care law. President Obama made these remarks during his visit to Miami Dade College, but also hit on an issue that is more of the root of the problem, as well as something that was entirely predictable. Concerning opposition to the law in the states, Obama explained:
What that means is the insurance pool is smaller and gets a higher percentage of older and sicker people who are signing up because if you’re sick or you’re old, you’re more likely to say ‘well I’m going sign up no matter what because I know I’m going to need it.’ If you’re young and healthy like you guys, you say, ‘eh, I’m fine. Life’s good. So you’ve got more older and sicker people signing up. Fewer younger and healthy people signing up, and that drives rates up.”
Yet, while the opposition has mostly been concentrated with Republicans, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton admitted earlier this month that Obamacare is unaffordable. Guy wrote about the 2017 sticker shock that’s about to hit us next year, with Cortney noting that one of the most popular plans offered is projected to see their premiums rise by 25 percent. So, in June, the administration launched an effort to get more young people to sign up for health insurance.
Here’s the problem. We’ve known for a long time that young, healthy kids don’t think they need health insurance—and for good reason: they don’t nearly go to the doctor or hospital for ailments as frequently as the elderly. It also doesn’t incentivize those already under their parents’ health care plan to sign up since Obamacare expanded the age limit for dependent coverage. Young Americans can remain on their parents’ plan until they turn 26. Then again, these kids are already insured, so that’s a good thing, right?
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Maybe if there was a better job climate where these kids can move out of mom and dad’s house, get a job, and get off their families insurance, then the economic health of the country and possibly Obamacare’s future would be brighter (I would rather scrap the latter). Instead, no one has really felt this economic recovery, most young people are opting to remain in school, accruing insane amounts of debt to the point where they do get a job—they have a home mortgage chained around their ankles. Do you think these folks can afford Obamacare premiums?
In all, the law is such a failure that even those who need to buy health insurance to avoid paying a tax for being uninsured are opting to pay it because it’s more economical for them. The co-op network that was established in 23 states to encourage competition with insurers have all but collapsed; only six remain, though all of them could fold up shop by the end of the year.
Don’t blame young people that Obamacare is failing. It’s a big government program that failed to curb costs (shocker) and now that it has failed in accomplishing that goal, the Left is touting the number of those insured, which wasn’t really the point of the lance in the sales pitch to the public. This country never had an insured problem, 85 percent of Americans already has health insurance, mostly through their employers. Oh, and the numbers for those projected to be insured by this point was off by 24 million.
Maybe it’s the federal government, Barry. Maybe they just can’t get it done because they have a track record to prove that much.
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