Some simple Affordable Care Act math
By Chip Worrell
Columnist
Published: Friday, February 21, 2014 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 4:04 p.m.
It’s really simple why young, healthy folks aren’t rushing to sign up for health insurance. They don’t have the money!
We don’t need a multimillion-dollar survey to discover this. We just need some common sense and third-grade math skills to discover that they don’t have the money!
When a person is both young and healthy, he often only has an entry-level job, school loan debts, payments for a first new car, no equity in a house (he is probably renting), plus all the associated costs of starting out.
Then the Democrats came around with smiles on their faces, saying, “We are going to give you a huge benefit! We are going to require you to fork out a large sum each month (even after subsidies) that you will be required to pay under penalty of law. Your deductible probably will be very high — more than you will likely spend on doctors in a year, which makes this health insurance about as useful to you as wings on a crocodile. But we will also give you free birth control!”
Do the math. None of my kids see a doctor more than twice a year. No one in my extended family under the age of 40 sees a doctor more than three times a year. Money borrowed from China will have to pay the subsidies for the remaining portion of the yearly premium for everyone in this economic bracket.
On the other hand, the Republican outrage, after a study revealed that some people may work less in order to keep their subsidies, is just as outrageously overdone.
If Jack decides he only wants to work 20 hours, his boss lady is just going to (a) hire some otherwise unemployed person to work the difference, or (b) fire Jack’s sorry butt and hire that unemployed person full time. Jack will then have to go find a 20-hour-a-week job, or file for unemployment and draw on it until the Democrats get unelected.
Chip Worrell can be reached at
cworr@juno.com. Just one person's opinion.