Economic Miseducation

I have taught basic principles of economics for thirty years to groups after groups of college students who were often cross-eyed, bored, running late, playing with their phones, angry that I gave them too many notes, “hard tests,” and too many assignments which interfered with their busy social lives.  

Many students were there just to get a grade and to complete their useless social studies degrees on the way to an advisor’s assurance of a six-figure salary job on day one, an offer that would never materialize on their limited horizons. They did not care that their parents went in debt to pay for this college miseducation they received or that hard-working taxpayers funded their federal grants for four years. Most of them had no clue how the economy ran nor did they care.

It is painfully obvious that today students and college graduates are just as woefully incompetent and uninformed. They are voting in droves for their Marxist/communist of their choice, falling for empty promises of free education in their communist utopia of free birth control pills and free legalized drugs.

None of them paid attention in Economics classes that in communism abortion is not a choice, birth control pills are not available or expensive, and drug use is punishable with hard time in jail.  Education is free technically but there is no room to educate everybody in the halls of higher learning, so only a select few are chosen, usually the elite’s children are picked first, regardless of grades. If there are places left, then those with the highest scores are admitted.

Someone who spends a lot of his time running computer models to predict economic downturns, upturns, bubbles, crashes, and collapse, attempted to educate the audience on Facebook. Most of his advice fell on deaf ears because people are tired of listening to anybody, they know it all already, and have already made up their minds to go full speed ahead off the cliff, they want to try things for themselves, why listen to reason and rational thought. Repeating failed history in hopes of a different result seems enticing to most people.

In his analysis, in an economic environment of “120 percent debt to GDP ratio, we have less than five years before economic implosion.” He defined “Point Zero” as the point where the national debt becomes 120 percent of GDP, an unsustainable scenario that would cause an unrecoverable spiraling downturn of the economy. A black swan event would make things much worse.

In order to make sure the economy becomes sustainable again in the face of a 19 trillion national debt, “entitlements” must be reformed, spending and waste must be cut, some regulatory burdens on corporations must be reduced or eliminated, and taxes must be raised.

And this does not even begin to address unfunded liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare. Entitlements comprise 70 percent of the budget and debt servicing is 10 percent. This leaves just 20 percent of the budget that can be cut. Is that sufficient to even begin reducing the huge national debt?

Cutting the corporate credit card will force Congress to balance the budget. They cannot spend more than they take in from Treasury auctions and taxpayers. How many Congressmen will risk their careers in order to do what is right? Congress does not seem willing to address any of the above because they do not want to compromise their political careers and thus destroy the power they yield in Washington.  

Even though both spending cuts and tax increases are necessary, Congressmen fight and politically posture on both sides of the isle while nobody’s pet project or state funding gets cut. Why are Congressmen unwilling to cut pet projects? When they do, they know their constituents will vote them out of office.

We keep giving money to the U.N., we fight unwinnable wars with strange rules of engagement, and we waste more money on our political friends and foes overseas at a time when we can ill-afford it.

To make matters worse, inflation is looming on the horizon because of the three quantitative easings (QEs), printing money without the backing of goods and services in order to purchase our own debt.

The corporate mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has not even taken full effect yet. We are not sure if Congress will repeal Obamacare without a replacement. The preexisting conditions’ feature of ACA is a good idea.  In spite of dishonest political rhetoric, nobody will die in the streets without medical care.

But there is rationing occurring already due to the burgeoning and very expensive bureaucracy. We cannot offer care to more people and illegal aliens without substantial costs to the nation which so far seem to be far greater than if we would have given free premiums to the millions of uninsured who, before ACA, could not secure nor afford medical insurance. Some of them were already recipients of Medicaid.

We are sitting on a social unrest powder keg as evidenced by Ferguson, Baltimore, the Black Lives Matter, the collegiate race-baiting violence, and ISIS coming to our shores via unprotected borders. The social cohesion is breaking down faster than you can say All Lives Matter.

Even though our national debt to GDP ratio is quite high (104.7%), our economic situation is slightly different than Greece’s because we can print our own dollars. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-debt-to-gdp

Our fiscal policy is in a mess. Taxation burdens the middle class and favors crony capitalism while spending is out of control.  Almost 50 percent of the country does not pay any taxes and crony corporations move their headquarters to other countries to avoid paying proper share of taxes. Because corporate tax in the U.S. is one of the highest in the world, Congress enabled corporations to move overseas via Congressional bills.

The burden of taxation falls on the middle class yet again. TPP is going to move most of the remaining manufacturing sector overseas, transforming U.S. into a service economy and destroying many blue collar and white collar jobs in the process.

Congress originates the spending bills and approves them. The President can express what he wants and signs or vetoes bills, but the ultimate spending power and control rests with Congress. Congressmen are few and far between who have strength of character or the will to do what is unpopular. Nobody wants to be perceived as hurting parents trying to feed their kids, put a roof over their heads, or as “throwing grandmas over a cliff.” So the out-of-control spending continues to balloon.

American citizens themselves do not want to give up their instant gratification and suffer without their Starbucks coffee and the pain or indignity of a less than 75-inch TV or other electronic gadgets that are creating the blue screen hunchback nation. Why bear responsibility for yourself when Uncle Sam can do it for you?

Presidential hopefuls make promises to the electorate that will not reduce debt substantially in the absence of a robust and sustained economic growth that would bring in additional revenues. Some talk about “entitlement” reform by increasing the retirement age. Proposals to create economic growth are not very encouraging. There is no magical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, nor another bubble that would bring in enough revenue to offset the very large budget and reduce the unpayable national debt.

Middle Class Fleecing with Obamacare

It is becoming increasingly difficult for Virginians to find doctors and secure appointments in a timely manner thanks to Obamacare. After a fierce battle, the bills meant to create state exchanges and to expand Medicaid have died in the House and in the Senate. However, Democrat Governor McAuliffe added Medicaid expansion to his budget amendment. The House removed that language from the budget.

As millions of Americans, who previously had insurance and doctors they were satisfied with and wanted to keep, are suddenly left without insurance, millions others keep losing their new coverage under the much touted Affordable Care Act.

Many Americans became part-time employees without insurance, forcing them to choose plans under the state exchanges. Employers, who could not afford the mandated procedures of the Affordable Care Act, dropped the insurance coverage plans they had previously offered their employees at affordable rates, and reduced employment hours.  

With the new exchange plans, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum, people cannot afford to see a doctor when their new plans have such huge deductibles. For most people, it is impossible to meet deductibles in a year and they must pay out of pocket. For them, medical care has now become a very expensive service.  

While Obamacare has helped a statistically insignificant percent of Americans, it has devastated the health care of millions who were previously affording their healthcare premiums, had good coverage, low deductibles and co-pays, and their doctors were available within their residential area or a short travel distance.

Suddenly, millions have found themselves paying double or triple premiums, with deductibles going up from $500 to $5,000 and decreased coverage, with the exception of maternity care for all and contraception. There is something seriously wrong when the monthly health care premium becomes larger than mortgage and utilities combined. How fair is it for the bulk of middle-class Americans to pay health care premiums for illegal aliens and welfare recipients while having to let go of their own health insurance because it has skyrocketed? This is not providing health care for 20 percent of previously uninsured Americans; it is socialist redistribution of wealth.

It is laudable to offer insurance to people previously uninsurable, but forcing other working Americans to pay for it and punishing them through IRS fines is wrong and it is a form of stealing. The law has been written by liberals for liberals, to benefit their Democrat voting constituents to the detriment of everyone else. The concept that everyone should be insured is sound but not through Obamacare.

Medical care is not a right, in spite of what liberals claim, it is a service just like any other service you purchase for a nominal fee. Doctors and nurse practitioners must spend years to train in medical school where tuition and books are very expensive.  Nobody wants to work for free and nobody should have the right to decide how much your remuneration should be.

Those who were previously uninsured due to preexisting conditions have a point. However, those who cried that they could not afford the premiums or chose to gamble on good health should look carefully at their priorities. What is the cost of their Internet, cable, Netflix, cell phone bill, cigarettes, beer, wine, movies, drugs, fancy clothes, and restaurant meals/ fast food?

Taking from those who work to pay for those who do not work is government-sanctioned stealing. Economically speaking, for every day that you have to work to pay for someone else, you are a financial slave to that person. The cheap, subsidized Obamacare policy that you receive through the exchanges is paid for by hard-working Americans, not by your Obama government.

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Alabama) said, “We took away the health care system that worked for 80 percent of the people of this country to fix a problem that we today know we fixed for only one percent of the American people. Only 3 million new Americans have gotten on this new health care plan that did not have insurance before, that’s one percent of the American people. So we threw out the health care plan that worked for 80 percent of Americans, to fix a problem for one percent of Americans. And look what it’s done! It’s wrecked lives!” He continued, “This law is fundamentally flawed! This law has victimized the people of America!”

Although there have been 60 attempts to repeal Obamacare, it is here to stay. The Daily Signal wrote about the Nebraska woman whose Obamacare insurance was canceled three times.  Her first cancellation was with Humana who decided to pull out of Nebraska and second and third from the Iowa nonprofit CoOpportunity Health which was liquidated and her platinum plan was no longer offered. She is now covered under a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.  

The federal government offered $2 billion in loans to nonprofit co-ops created under Obamacare (to meet state reserve requirements) and twenty-three co-ops were formed offering insurance in 26 states. According to the Daily Signal, “more than 520,000 people enrolled in insurance coverage through the co-ops through September.” Their research indicated that all co-ops but one had operating losses, with outlays exceeding reserves. “Claims were eating up all the surplus and reserve [money].” http://dailysignal.com/2015/02/17/one-nebraska-woman-lost-health-insurance-three-times-obamacare/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoiu6vOZKXonjHpfsX56uwlX6W0lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ES8djI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQrLBMa1ozrgOWxU%3D

There are more troubling thoughts in this quagmire.  The IRS has our medical records, will collect fines for non-compliance with Obamacare, and is going to demand refunds from those who received too much subsidy under the state exchanges.  But illegal aliens are still covered for free and those with religious objections don’t have to pay a penalty and are given medical care. What a relief!

Copyright: Ileana Johnson 2015

How Obamacare is Destroying our Health Care

Romanian hospital 2014
Photo courtesy: Digi24 on line

Virginia is one of the few states in the nation who has taken the bold step to automatically enroll all Virginians covered by the traditional Medicare/Medicaid plan into a Humana managed health care plan. By managing elderly care (read rationing), money will be saved by denying needed medical tests, surgery, care, and physical therapy to elderly Americans who have paid into Medicare/Medicaid for decades.  How else will millions of illegal aliens recently granted amnesty by executive action receive free ObamaCare?

There is an option to opt out of the Humana managed care in Virginia and return to the traditional Medicare/Medicaid plans but few patients understand the language in the letter or are able to read it for themselves. This is one of the veiled moves to strip Medicare of $719 billion dollars in order to help fund and support the (Un) Affordable Care Act.

If you like your rationing of care, you can keep your rationing of care. If you like the loss of your well-trained physician, you can keep your third world doctor who is yet to be licensed in this country.

If you enrolled in a plan that fit your budget and your medical needs last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed the rule to strip that option from your list of choices, they are going to enroll you this year by December 25 into a cheaper plan of their choice. Too bad you forgot to choose a plan annually. They will select what is best for you, without knowing your medical history, your financial situation, your current treatment under a specialist, and maybe take away access to your favorite doctor who did not play by the new government rules.

When the open enrollment ends, the government would have effectively stuck you with a plan you did not want. Rep. Mark Meadows from North Carolina wrote, “I sent a letter to CMS demanding they immediately strip this provision from the pending rule and abandon any future attempts to single-handedly choose Americans’ healthcare plans.” I am sure the bureaucrats will listen, just like they listened when a majority of Americans asked them to defund ObamaCare. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/19/rep-mark-meadows-obamacares-christmas-surprise/

Because there is a “war on doctors,” as Dick Morris so aptly described it, we will eventually have a sort of CastroCare in this country that Americans are not prepared to deal with but will be forced to accept it.

The double reimbursement for procedures that doctors in a hospital setting receive when compared to doctors in private practice, will eventually regulate doctors into a 8-4 hospital employment which I witnessed recently when my mother was in a hospital for 8 days and I never saw the doctor visit her once, she was treated by a nurse practitioner the entire time. There was not much hands-on care, just robotic, computer-driven medical care delivered by inadequately trained people. They were more concerned about her falling out of bed and a lawsuit from a potential fall than anything else. She was discharged without a proper diagnosis.

The forced electronic medical records-keeping will make it more difficult and expensive for private practice physicians who would be forced to spend a large part of their day on record-keeping and data entry instead of treating the patient.

In addition to reducing doctors’ income, physicians retiring early because they do not want to practice government-regulated medicine, Congress won’t expand residency programs to train more doctors.

Residency programs are funded by Medicaid/Medicare which gives higher reimbursement rates to teaching hospitals. Since the government refuses to pay for more residency programs, Americans should prepare themselves for substandard care delivered by nurse practitioners, nurses’ aides, and ER treatment replacing high quality medical care.

Hospitals are busy buying up private practices of retiring doctors in order to “capture their patients.” Most physicians are busy forming Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) which combine multiple care providers under a hospital umbrella which has better access to capital.

This will lead to a doctor passing the care of his/her patients after the end of the shift to someone less qualified whom the patient has never met.

I recall the EU-modeled socialized medical care in 2012 Romania where I saw no doctor or RN anywhere in the large hospital in which my uncle was a patient. His wife delivered all his care, meds, diabetic shots, bandage changes, bed linens, bathing, towels, food, and trash removal. She was the de facto medical person caring for her own husband who would otherwise die of medical neglect in one of the largest hospitals in the capital. Incidentally, the courtyard was littered with stray dogs and we had to pay 5 euros to the gate guard to gain access into the hospital with five dingy floors and no operational elevator.

Online magazine Digi24 reported on December 17, 2014 that patients’ rights are often trampled on by medical personnel who refuse medical services unless the patients offer them personal benefits in the form of bribes. The accompanying photograph published by Digi24 is visual confirmation of the unsanitary conditions in some socialized medicine hospitals. http://www.digi24.ro/Stiri/Digi24/Actualitate/Sanatate/Ministerul+Sanatatii+intreaba+pacientii+Cat+de+multumiti+sunteti

According to Zoel M. Zinberg, associate clinical professor of surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, “The new breed of physician-employees will split their allegiances between their employers and their patients.” The employer’s goals of making money and saving a buck every which way and the patient’s welfare will not coincide, and the physician will seldom be allowed to use his best judgment in treating a patient. He continued, “Salaried employees and independent professionals behave differently.” http://www.city-journal.org/2014/eon1218jz.html#.VJO-l_vj7J4.facebook

Dr. Zinberg cited a recent study in Health Affairs which found that …”practices owned by hospitals had 50 percent more preventable admissions than practices owned by physicians.” He concluded that “The days of the family physician who made house calls are long gone. The doctors who would squeeze you in for a visit on short notice and take your calls after regular business hours are disappearing.” http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/33/9/1680

The less discussed issue of economic side effects of the Affordable Care Act should not be overlooked. Casey Mulligan, professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, in his speech
delivered to Hillsdale College on October 24, 2014, explained the three taxes in ACA, two taxes on full-employment and one on income. All three combined have a net effect on employment (3 percent less) and on Gross Domestic Product (2 percent less).  He concluded, “If you like your weak economy, you can keep your weak economy.”

The Affordable Care Act Nobody Can Afford

I was just handed the Phreesia computer tablet by the receptionist under the guise of updating my medical and insurance information. I had seen this orange notebook in another doctor’s office and I became suspicious. Is this really meant to verify, as the website claims, my insurance eligibility automatically and help doctors collect on their insurance while easing the load of paperwork? Or is it forced electronic data compliance to Obamacare?

As soon as I started reading each screen, I realized that it was asking me to consent to third parties to obtain my medication prescription history from my pharmacy and to my entire medical history.

I had the right to request and restrict as to how my protected health information was used or disclosed. However, when I declined to sign, the computer stopped, and prompted me to talk to the receptionist. She informed me that diagnosis and/or treatment “may be conditioned upon my consent.”

The electronic screen and the paper copy the receptionist gave me said, “The [name withheld] is not required to agree to the restrictions that I may request and may refuse treatment based on my restriction as permitted by Section 164.506 of the Code of Federal Regulations.”

Suddenly, because I refused the IRS and HHS meddling in my personal health affairs, I had become persona-non-grata (unwanted person) to my doctor who had sworn a Hippocratic Oath to care for me and any patient who comes across his/her path.

In other words, I would not be treated if I did not sign yes. I had the right to say no, don’t’ give my medical information and history to anyone else but the doctor is not required to honor my request and may refuse treatment to me as permitted by Section 164.506 of the Code of Federal Regulations. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-title45-vol1/pdf/CFR-2011-title45-vol1-sec164-506.pdf

What if I said no, do not release my medical history to a third unapproved party and I paid cash? The doctor would not see me. Welcome to the destruction of our stellar healthcare and patient/doctor confidentiality, compliments of Obamacare.

How affordable is this Obamacare, the unfortunately named, the Affordable Care Act? The Democrats and the President said that costs would be so much lower; it would save the typical family $2,500 per year.

The cheapest category of Obamacare is the Bronze Plan which costs $20,000 per year for a family of two adults and three children and it pays only 60% of medical costs after the deductibles for the year have been met. And the deductibles are high per person and per family. The following tiers are Silver (70%), Gold (80%), and Platinum (90%).

During my 30 year teaching career, I seldom had to pay more than $3,600 a year premium for private insurance for my family. Even a retirement private plan did not cost more than $8,000 per year with 80% reimbursement as opposed to only 60% reimbursement under the Obamacare Bronze Plan. Is Obamacare really affordable? The answer is a resounding no.

According to the IRS, the penalty for not buying insurance is capped for now at either the annual Bronze premium, 2.5% of taxable income, or $2,085 per family in 2016.

President Obama said, “If you are one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your insurance.” Heritage’s Amy Payne estimated that “more than 11 million people will no longer have their employer-sponsored health coverage once Obamacare is fully implemented.” (Businesses Cutting Hours, Bracing for Costs of Obamcare, December 6, 2012)

Obamacare employer mandate is killing jobs. An employer with 50 employees must provide coverage or pay $2,000 penalty for each employee after the first 30 workers. It is easy to see how an employer would have to cut back employees to 30, replacing full-time employees with part-time ones, in order to avoid the penalty or the skyrocketing premiums for private coverage.  These private insurance premiums rose significantly because Obamacare mandates insurance for all children up to 26 years old and for those insured with pre-existing conditions whose treatment can be costly.

Breitbart News reported that Pennsylvania Community College of Allegheny County had already cut the hours of 400 adjunct professors, staff, and part-time teachers, saving $6 million in potential Obamacare fees. (Wynton Hall, Obamacare Layoffs, Hiring Freezes Begin, January 5, 2013)

Because of the Obamacare medical device 2.3 percent excise tax, Stryker medical supply cut 1,170 employees (5%). Boston Scientific, Welch Allyn, Medtronic, Kinetic Concepts, and Smith & Nephew are also contemplating cuts in their work force. Zimmer Holdings, makers of hip replacement implants, laid off 450 workers in expectation of a $60 million tax bill in 2013. (Bob Unruh, Democrats in Congress ‘want out’ of Obamacare)

Everybody’s private insurance has been disrupted and private premiums have escalated, in addition to adding the “Cadillac tax” to plans that are judged too generous. According to Jonathan Gruber of MIT and the actuarial firm Milliman, non-group premiums rose 19-30% in some states and 55-85% in others.

The federal government has built a data hub to be used only for Obamacare without saying how it will be run. The HHS has released 13,000 pages of regulations with only 30 days for public comment while attempting to re-engineer 17% of the economy. (WSJ, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Obamacare, December 13, 2012)

On the deadline of December 14, 2012 states had to declare health insurance exchanges. At that time, only six states (Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington) received conditional approval from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to operate their own exchanges. Twenty-six states stated that they will not set up exchanges.

If a state operates its own exchange, it must come up in 2015 with its own source of revenue to run the exchange, making a state a vendor to HHS. The state running an exchange must also expand Medicaid to “able-bodied, low-income, childless adults” in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court ruled the Medicaid expansion voluntary. The federal government was not planning on covering the full cost of such Medicaid expansion. “Half of the reduction in the number of uninsured promised under Obamacare was based on mandating that states expand Medicaid.” (Heritage’s Morning Bell, December 13, 2012)

Several states asked Sibelius, the HHS Secretary, if they could expand Medicaid less. The answer was that only full compliance with the law will garner 90% reimbursement from the federal government. Nine states have refused to expand Medicaid to cover new populations. The feds will set up their own exchanges in those states but final regulations and specifics for the federal exchanges are not made public yet. Oklahoma and Maine have sued over Medicaid expansion and over statutory language and Medicaid expansion, respectively.

Three deadline extensions of implementing health exchanges have passed. Most states will share responsibilities with the federal government or default to a federal-run exchange. Only a minority of states have agreed to run their own exchanges.

A 3.5 percent administrative fee on coverage sold through federally-run exchanges will be levied. An additional $63 fee per employee must be paid in federal fees to cover people with pre-existing conditions.

Government funds will be set aside to promote/advertise [on primetime] Obamacare. Critics of the unaffordable health care law call such advertising “political advocacy.”

Practicing medicine will become more and less a government-run monopoly instead of the current monopolistic competition where patients are free to choose what doctors they go to, based on preference, doctor qualifications, specialty, reputation, insurance types, and premiums they choose to pay.

Doctors will either merge with hospitals, insurance companies, and specialty management firms or become “concierge” doctors, serving a reduced number of patients for a set fee. Consolidation will have a negative effect on patient access, price, and competition. Mergers in the 1980s and 1990s had negative effects in terms of patients being restricted or blocked from access to specialists and procedures.

More than $719 billion will be taken from Medicare over the next ten years to pay for Obamacare. According to Rep. Wally Herger, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, the Independent Payment Advisory Board established by Obamacare is authorized to unilaterally impose price controls and de facto rationing of medical care.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/11/medicare-reform-crucial-for-economic-health/

Medicare is already in trouble. Taking $719 billion over ten years from Medicare to fund Obamcare will exacerbate financial problems. Medicare benefits are not a return on taxes paid into the system over time because Medicare is run as “pay as you go” - today’s wage earners pay taxes to fund benefits for today’s retirees. Since people live longer, “Medicare payroll taxes cover only 38 percent of current benefits.” (Rep. Wally Herger)

Obamacare depends on bringing young, healthy people into insurance markets to help offset the costs of insuring the old and the sick. If young people do not participate in the program and elect to pay the fine instead, Obamacare will not be able to make coverage affordable for the uninsured.

Most young Americans do not have insurance. Young people who do have insurance purchase less coverage. Under Obamcare, young Americans must get more coverage and pay more whether they want the added coverage or not. Private insurers have increased their premiums because the law prohibits them from rejecting the sick, and are no longer allowed to charge higher premiums to older customers. Premiums for a young, healthy male could go up as much as three times. Young adults could then opt out of private coverage, causing the market to implode. (Washington Post, Insurers Warn of Health Law ‘Rate Shock,’ N.C. Aizenman, February 16, 2013)

To make matters worse, government officials announced on February 15, 2013 that state-based “high-risk pools” under Obamacare will be closed to new applicants on February 16 through March 2, depending on the state, because funding is running low. The existing 100,000 enrollees will not be affected. If the funding is running low now, what will happen by the time Obamacare is fully in force?

There is a glitch in Obamacare that could leave more than 500,000 children uninsured. Congress defined “affordable” in the Affordable Care Act as coverage not exceeding 9.5 % of family income. If people have coverage that fall under this 9.5% affordable, they cannot get subsidies to go into new insurance markets. This restriction was put into place to prevent people from switching from employer coverage to exchanges in droves. “Affordable” was calculated based on self-only, individual worker, with an average market cost of $5,600. But the current market family coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, is $15,700 per year. IRS announced on January 30, 2013, that employers are not required to pay for dependents, leaving the employee to pay the family premium since he/she will be locked out of subsidies in the federal exchanges.

Betsey McCaughey wrote that Congressional Budget Office (CBO) prediction that Obamacare would leave only 30 million people uninsured in 2016 was predicated on the assumption that kids would be covered by employees. If a parent is covered at work, no subsidies will be provided for the child in the health exchange.

Millions of people will remain uninsured because their states are choosing [wisely] not to expand Medicaid. The states do not have the money to expand Medicaid.

By the time the uninsured will be counted, almost as many Americans (40 million plus) will be left without insurance as the number of uninsured before the Democrats passed their signature monstrosity, the Affordable Care Act. Having sat in a drawer for decades, the bill was dusted off, repackaged, and polished. Nobody took the time to publicly debate or read the bill that passed after some arm-twisting.  The Democrats, who had promised free health care for all, feverishly proceeded to spend trillions of dollars we did not have to re-engineer our health care system in the name of social justice.

The states that refuse to set up health exchanges are expected to sell the government-mandated plans and to give out taxpayer-funded subsidies to those who enroll. Betsey McCaughey identifies the glitch:

“The law says that in states that refuse, the federal government can set up an exchange. But the law empowers only state exchanges, not federal ones, to hand out subsidies. The Obama administration says it will disregard the law and offer subsidies in all 50 states anyway, but the case will likely go to the Supreme Court.” http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/wheels_coming_off_QPojjZX0Bd8BU80hDpcKZP

To safeguard from disaster, take care of your body, eat right, exercise if you can, and pray very hard that you will not get sick. There is a good chance that there will not be enough highly qualified doctors to deliver care when needed even if you do have insurance. Should you need specialists, expensive drugs or surgery, you are out of luck. Rationing will tell you, “no, you can’t have it.” The emergency rooms will be filled to capacity with confused, desperate, sick people, and new illegal alien arrivals.