A new report indicates that the out-of-touch Obama administration now deems $1,200 a month for a low-tiered health plan with $13,000 in out-of-pocket costs affordable under ObamaCare.
Over the weekend, The Associated Press highlighted a Chicago couple who have been forced to rob their retirement savings and go deeper in debt, just to afford their health coverage. It comes as no surprise the couple looks forward to the day they become eligible for Medicare, allowing them to leave the “crazy mess” that ObamaCare has created.
While unaffordable, rising costs remain a concern and choice on the ObamaCare exchange continues to dwindle. With news of Aetna’s exit due to sustained losses, Americans will lack options come next year when it comes to selecting insurance. A recent analysis by the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform found the lack of consumer choice on the exchanges getting worse:
According to an analysis done for The Upshot by the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform, 17 percent of Americans eligible for an Affordable Care Act plan may have only one insurer to choose next year. The analysis shows that there are five entire states currently set to have one insurer, although our map also includes two more states because the plans for more carriers are not final. By comparison, only 2 percent of eligible customers last year had only one choice.
In Pinal County, AZ, the 9,667 residents who enrolled in an ObamaCare plan last year no longer have a choice for coverage in thecoming year. In what the Minneapolis Star Tribune called “unusual,” Minnesota officials are pleading to health insurers to expand their coverage options outside of the Twin Cities for consumers. In Missouri, an analysis by the St. Louis Dispatch found that the ObamaCare exchange had just one insurance provider for 83 percent of the state’s 114 counties.
As consumers are slammed by higher premiums and are subjected to less choice or no choice at all, the law continues to drag down business as well. Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that ObamaCare’s rising costs were forcing them to slash jobs. Even the “little-noticed” taxes levied by the law are forcing small businesses to close shop. Tanning salons are being wiped out by the law’s $2.4 billion tanning tax, which has forced, “the closing of nearly 10,000 of the more than 18,000 tanning salons” in the country, and eliminated 81,000 jobs.
Americans are reminded daily that ObamaCare remains a failure six years after being signed into law. The Obama administration should face reality and cede that their liberal health care experiment has been a colossal failure and rather than hope the law rights itself over time, they need to change direction by scrapping this law.