ObamaCare: Unaffordable to Working Poor
But you say, “How can that be? I thought the Affordable Care Act would mean health insurance coverage for those very people. The working class who don’t qualify for Medicaid but don’t have coverage through their work or who have preexisting conditions…”
From Bloomberg News: To Megan Hildebrandt, President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act means she can no longer be denied health insurance because of her lymphatic cancer.
There’s a big catch: Coverage for the 28-year-old artist and many other Americans without insurance will come at a potentially unaffordable cost.
Hildebrandt, who relies on hospital charity, will face more than $1,000 in annual premiums, by one estimate, and probably more in out-of-pocket expenses even with new federal subsidies. She and her husband have a combined income of $25,000.
“It’s great that I’m not going to have to pay some hugely impossible amount,” said Hildebrandt, who lives in Austin, Texas. “Though now I’m in the health-care system and still have to pay money that we can’t really afford.”
So there it is. The program that was meant specifically to help those caught without health coverage still may not be covered.
Those earning up to 400 percent of the poverty line — about $92,000 for a family of four — will receive tax subsidies to buy private insurance on a sliding scale.
Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s second- ranking Democrat who was instrumental in pushing through the law, said there’s “legitimate concern” that care will remain unaffordable for some.
Lawmakers sought to “protect the poorest” yet weren’t able to offer as much help to others as they would have liked because of budgetary constraints, said Durbin. “We did all that we could do,” he said.
We did all that we could do??? Unfortunately, in the haste to pass a 2000 page bill that nobody took the time to read through we now have a law that is changing the face of American health care…and yet there are still many who will not be covered.
ObamaCare Fallout.