Not a problem. When all those people will be forced to pay a fine of almost $1,000 for a family of 4 each year without insurance, we will probably see them flocking to the exchanges and sign up for Obamacare.
My guess is that these people simply didnât understand what they were told or what they read. Someone talked too fast, or used big words, or the person went to the website but lacked fundamental reading skills. It doesnât indicate lack of intelligence, but insurance is complicated. I talked to a waitress at a diner last year who urgently needed insurance. She said she had called the healthcare.gov helpline and was told that insurance would cost her thousands of dollars a year. This was totally implausible, because she was dirt poor. I think she was actually told that she was in the coverage gap, like many in our state which did not expand Medicaid (it has now). It was very frustrating. I gave her information about a sign-up program at a hospital in our area (Catholic, but these good people are not fretting about contraceptive coverage, just trying to help the low-income). I donât know if she followed up. If she did, at least she would have known what was going on and possibly gotten into a charity care program.
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I know Iâm automatically eligible for healthcare. No questions, no bureaucracy, no roll call.
Itâs time every American was too.
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I live in a red state and there are signs from some companies(?) all over my small town to âhelpâ people. The only place that I trust and send those who need insurance are the federally qualified community health centers for low-income earners. I steered a few people to the clinics and they had no problem getting healthcare insurance.
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And that they would dispense factual informationâin a timely manner, at that. And dispensing factual information â in a timely manner, at that.
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ââBuuuut Obama isnât progrehhhhehhhehhhhssive enoughhhhh for my stan-han-hannndards!! Why are you always blaming (growing shrill) meeeeeeEEEEEEEEEE!!ââ
Sorryâspent too much time in San Francisco when Chris Daly was on the Board of Supes, so I canât stomach the sort of pseduoprogressive youâre describing, who thinks politics is all yelling and throwing but absolutely will not vote because they think anyone who WANTS the office is automatically too corrupt to have it.
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My nephew, a recent college grad who has just turned 25, had the most frustrating experience trying to get insurance on the exchange. He was registered, but due to an unidentified error, he couldnât get insurance. No one was able to help him and he got the run-around.
He finally had to go to a bricks and mortar provider, who finally got him covered. The provider told him they have more horror stories like his than they have success stories.
This couldâve been so much easier. Really.
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That jumped out at me too. The article stated that these people were told they were ineligible for âhealth insuranceâ when, if you read on, it seems that they were actually told they were ineligible for subsidies. Two different things.
Just shows how much misunderstanding there is about the ACA in general. Even the journalists covering it donât really understand it. If this were an AP article, I would expect it, but it is by a TPM reporter. Sharpen it up, guys!
What about Republican sabotage? If 33% refuse coverage for ideological reasons, I would not be surprised if 33% had been sabotaged by right wing zealots who lied to them about their eligibility. The typical tea party zealot would consider it a patriotic service to lie about it and to make the law fail. These are people who routinely fantasize about far more violent forms of sabotage. Itâs not the least bit difficult to imagine they would undertake a relatively âsoftâ form of disobedience like lying to customers to keep them uninsured.
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There is so much mis-information and confusion out there (in California, where I live) it is amazing. I war at my dentistâs office and the receptionist was talking about insurance and blurted out that âstupid Obamacareâ. So I asked her what she meant and she said that she was covered under Obamacare and even qualified for subsidies because she is a single parent of two children but that she got a notice that her premiums were going up and she wasnât qualified for as much subsidies and even proffered that she was getting less coverage for more money. I was very perplexed to hear this and then I have had other people tell me the same thing. The receptionist at the gym who before the ACA was paying exorbitant insurance because she has asthma and was paying over $1500 ever 6 months for insurance with a high deductible but onl $40 a month co-pays. The first year she signed up with covered california and was delighted at the premium only to find out it covered less and still had a high deductible.
It sounds like something is very wrong in the State of Denmark.
Also, I heard a man from H&R Block saying that many folks were going to get a big surprise in their taxes because the folks who had qualified for subsidies because their income rose say from $30,000 to $50,000 would see a 30% penalty. I thought to myself, how many peopleâs income jump in any year by $20,000.
It is baffling and I have heard many folks complain about the cost. I suspect some of these folks were expecting cheap insurance. I just recently went off my employerâs insurance and went on medicare because they had switched to a high deductible plan where the employer would contribute $2000 to each employee towards the $5000 out of pocket deductible, but that $2000 employer advance would not apply to folks over 65 who were eligible for medicare.
I think those of us that are reasonably well educated or well off donât realize just how daunting the complexities of a new system like ACA can be for those without our resources, especially the most valuable resource of time. Having spent a large chunk of my career dealing with tens of thousands of asymptomatic people from all walks of life who volunteer to enter a study of screening or prevention, I know that it takes a lot of hand-holding to make sure people grasp new information and are capable of following through with that information. Even for some well educated people, it can be a challenge, so I am not the least bit surprised about these numbers. Since the affordability part of the ACA depends upon full enrollment, we need to spend the money it takes to bring these folks who have dropped through the cracks into the system. It will save us all money in the long run and the best part is it will save lives.
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Itâs not like there are political operatives whoâve been spreading misinformation about the ACA as part of a calculated and well-funded campaign to discredit the legislation and the President.
Is âexpertâ an anagram for âdumb as a fucking stumpâ?
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The article is hard to follow. We are told some were ineligible because they
made âtoo much money to qualify for subsidiesâ. There is no income limit
to qualify, subsidies drop as income rises.
Others, who do not qualify for Medicaid, are nonetheless eligible,
and if receiving health insurance through an employer, if the insurance
meets ACA requirements are not âuninsuredâ.
Issues abound referent to lack of information, ideologic or personal
fears, and plain old confusion. These issues will likely self-resolve
albeit slowly.
I find this a plausible explanation for some of these.
This happened to me last year. I live in a blue state with its own exchange. There was a question on the sign up e-form that asked if I currently had insurance. I did, a high-deductible individual plan, which I intended to cancel as soon as I got my ACA insurance. Iâm self employed. I answered yes, and it told me I was ineligible for a tax credit. I couldnât figure out why. I called the help line and finally got through to a real person who walked me through the form and then told me, âAnswer that question with a No.â I did and was then eligible for a medium tax credit. Apparently the question was worded incorrectly. It should have said âDo you currently have employer-provided insurance?â
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Cue drama queen Ted Cruz whining about âthe disasterâŚthat is Obamacareâ.
People can answer a single question incorrectly on these applications and get wildly different answers than theyâre supposed to.
Buuuut the inconvenient facts say that progressives came out but that independents broke heavily for Republicans in 2010.
Sorry if the facts donât fit your narrative.
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INELIGIBLE? Or not eligible for subsidies? Why is this thrown out here without anyone taking the time to get it straight? I am sick of this!!!
My understanding is that everyone (not covered by an employer) can get insurance under the ACA, but not everyone qualifies for subsidies. This is infuriating.
But the maddening finding is the 37 percent of eligible uninsured who said they were nonetheless told they didnât qualify for coverage. The survey didnât follow up with a question about how they were told they were ineligible.
Okay, call me curious. Why wouldnât the survey want to know this information to accurately assess all the possible outcomes of said survey?
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