"Signing up younger, healthier Americans to government-subsidized coverage is key to the success of President Obama’s health care law. But this could prove challenging, given that the law also raises the costs of insurance most significantly for those same young and healthy individuals.... The mandate to buy health insurance was intended to ensure the insurance pool is not filled with older, sicker recipients. Having the young in the insurance pool, with their low health care costs, means the insurance offered in the exchanges will be more attractive and affordable to older and unhealthy Americans. In effect, Obama’s law will be paid for by the young and healthy. This could prove challenging for the law’s supporters because the young are likely to see higher premium costs. ... “They can purchase a policy with all the bells and whistles whenever they need it, and according to the ACA no insurance company can deny them, so it makes perfect sense for them to forgo purchasing costly health insurance until they need it, especially if they are healthy and low-income,” Ingram said.... “Among currently insured respondents, if out-of-pocket premium costs increase even 10 percent, 17 percent of respondents would discontinue coverage and pay the penalty indefinitely, or until an illness prompted them to sign up for coverage. If premiums increase by 30 percent, only 55 percent would continue purchasing coverage, and 45 percent would go without,” wrote Emily Egan, staff assistant at AAF, in the media release for the study. ... Roger Stark, a health care policy analyst at Washington Policy Center and a retired physician, says young people will definitely avoid the system for as long as they can, as they are already prone to believe they’re too healthy to need costly health insurance. “This is inevitable. One way to look at it is that if you don’t buy the government mandated insurance, the penalty is less than the cost of a policy… for now. If you are a smart thirtysomething, young and healthy, then you will figure this out and opt out and pay the penalty. It’s Economics 101,” Stark said."
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 18:00:46 +0000
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