8/21/2013

More fallout with people facing higher costs and losing insurance because of Obamacare

1) 106,000 New Jersey Residents will face large increases in health insurance because of Obamacare.  Despite Obama's promise, they won't be able to keep their current policies even if they are very happy happy with it.  Obama might claim that these additional provisions are essential, but not every one agrees.  If these were essential, people could have bought them if they wanted.  From NJ.com:
. . . About 106,000 people in the Garden State are insured under what are known as "basic and essential," or B&E, health care plans, according to state data. Since 2003, all health insurers that operate in New Jersey’s individual health market have been required to sell these plans which, as their name implies, offer only a thin layer of coverage for things such as doctor’s office visits and procedures that don’t involve a hospital stay. 
But while B&E plans were meant to help young families get coverage and stanch the drop of enrollment in the individual health market, their relatively low price — as little as a couple hundred dollars a month for some people — made them the most popular option for those who don’t get insurance through an employer or a government program such as Medicare or Medicaid. About 71 percent of those covered by the individual health market have a B&E plan. 
Soon no longer. 
In addition to requiring most everyone to carry health insurance, the Affordable Care Act — better known as Obamacare — starting next year will force health care plans to cover certain essential services while capping the out-of-pocket fees people pay in addition to their premiums. . . .
Who got these policies?
Many people who buy B&E coverage tend to be self-employed or work for a small, family-owned business, said Mike Munoz, senior vice president of sales and marketing at AmeriHealth. . . . 
About 25,000 of those enrolled were under the age of 24, suggesting that some parents use the plans to cover their children. Another 19,000 enrollees were women between the age of 50 and 64. And just about 10,700 were men and women between the ages of 25 and 30 subscribed to a B&E plan. . . .
This breaks both Obama's promise to lower premiums by $2,500 for a family of four and "If you're one of the more than 250 million Americans who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance."

2) Meanwhile, even a large company such as UPS is being effected.

According to Kaiser, UPS (NYSE: UPS) told white-collar workers two months ago that 15,000 working spouses eligible for coverage by their own employers would be excluded from the UPS plan in 2014. 
UPS expects the move, which applies to non-union U.S. workers only, to save about $60 million a year, company spokesman Andy McGowan said. 
The health law requires large employers to cover employees and dependent children, but not spouses or domestic partners, Kaiser adds. . . . 
3) Delta Air Lines says that its health care costs will increase by "nearly $100 million" next year.
A recently-leaked letter from Delta Air Lines to the Obama administration states that the “cost of providing health care to our employees will increase by nearly $100,000,000 next year,” much of it due to Obamacare. . . .

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