Administration Caught in New Obamacare Dilemma
by Amy Payne, Heritage Foundation, October 25, 2013
Remember sequestration? Those automatic budget cuts that went into effect when Congress failed to do real budgeting a couple of years ago? It’s hitting Obamacare now.
Both laws have been around for awhile, but the Obama Administration hasn’t done anything to prepare for their collision.
The cuts are hitting a set of subsidies that were supposed to help pay deductibles and co-pays for lower-income Americans with Obamacare coverage. An Obama official pledged there would be a plan before the Obamacare exchanges opened on October 1, but that didn’t happen.
So now what? Heritage expert Chris Jacobs writes in today’s Wall Street Journal:
There are two possible outcomes. The first is that individuals who have managed to enroll in subsidized health insurance will find they’ve been misled about their copays and deductibles. Families who currently think their plan will charge a $20 copayment for doctor visits may instead face a $25 charge when the sequester kicks in. Individuals who now believe they face maximum out-of-pocket costs of $2,000 may end up paying hundreds more.
The other option? Stick the insurance companies with the cuts and tell them to deal with it. (That would be about $286 million through next September.)
As Jacobs says, neither looks good for the Administration:
It can tell the American people that the “good deal” President Obama promised isn’t as good as they thought—that those who spent hours and days signing up on Healthcare.gov bought coverage that will cost more than advertised….Or the administration can try to force insurers to bear the full costs of the sequester reductions—and watch them promptly drop out of the exchanges.
Not a day passes when we are spared from another tale of Obamacare falling apart. It simply doesn’t work as promised. Share our video to spread the word about this latest problem.
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