World News Korner

New report finds that less than 10,000 will lose current health coverage under Obamacare.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

Obamacare’s detractors have argued that millions of Americans will lose their health coverage due to the changes introduced by Obamacare. But according to a new analysis, this ignores counterbalancing policies in the law. The report finds that less than 10,000 people will lose coverage coverage without an immediate and affordable replacement.

The paper, put together on behalf of ranking member Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and other the Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, takes as its starting point a recent Associated Press report that 4.7 million Americans will see their current coverage cancelled. Critics of Obamacare have used this and other reports to play conceptual games, allowing the technical “cancellation” of a plan to imply a consumer will lose all coverage entirely and be left out in the cold. But for the vast major that 4.7 million, the cancellation of a plan simply means a shift into a new and often better form of coverage. The report lays out three ways this happens.

First, there’s the extended grandfather period. Even before Obamacare was enacted, health plans on the individual market — which usually operate on year-long contracts — changed on consumers all the time. Benefits could be altered or premiums jacked up. In order to give consumers more reliability, Obamacare placed much tighter controls on how and why insurers may charge different customers different premiums, and mandated a core package of benefits all plans must provide. Unfortunately, this also meant many pre-Obamacare plans that didm;t meet those new qualifications would have to be cancelled. In order to smooth that transition, the law allowed insurers to “grandfather” in certain pre-Obamacare plans by allowing them to be renewed for one more year at any point in 2013.

(You can read more about this at the link.)

Second, there’s Obamacare’s subsidies and Medicaid. In order to help Americans better afford coverage on the individual, Obamacare provides tax credits to anyone on the exchanges making between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). That’s between $23,000 and $94,000 for a family of four. Over half of all married couples made $75,678 or less in 2012. Obamacare also provided the states the resources to expand Medicaid to anyone making up to 138 percent of the FPL.

Citing analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Democrats’ report estimates that 60 percent of the 2.35 million who can’t take advantage of the extension will either qualify for subsidies or for the Medicaid expansion. That’s another 1.4 million out of the original 4.7 million cited by the AP. That number would be even larger if it weren’t for the states that refused the Medicaid expansion.

Third, there’s access to catastrophic coverage. Another failsafe built into Obamacare was the possibility of a “hardship exemption” for any American who faced serious hurdles in complying the law’s mandate that everyone purchase health coverage. In December, the administration decided that exemption applied to anyone who’d seen their previous coverage cancelled due to Obamacare’s policy changes. That means they won’t be subject to the mandate’s penalty, and that they’ll be allowed to purchase cheaper “catastrophic coverage” along with the Obamacare-compliant plans on the exchanges.

The new report found that of the 2.35 million who can’t renew their pre-Obamacare plans through 2014, 99 percent will have the option to buy low-cost catastrophic coverage.

Put those three overlapping policies together, and “the actual number of individuals who receive a cancellation notice, do not sign up for new insurance in 2014, and lack the option to do so at affordable prices will likely be less than 10,000.” As the Democrats’ analysis notes, that’s less than 0.2 percent of the original 4.7 million cited by the AP.

Okay let me go ahead and play devil's advocate for a moment, and point out that this is a report that was requested by the Democratic minority in the House. Of COURSE they want to see the numbers come out a specific way.

However when it comes to math the Democrats are FAR more trustworthy than the Republicans, and when it comes to honesty (Fast and Furious, IRS targeting the Tea Party, Benghazi), well I think that speaks for itself.

Now let's see if the MSM picks this report up, and how the Republicans respond when they do.



My prediction is that it will be much like they reacted to the New York Times piece on Benghazi

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