Medicaid Cuts

By Quinn Phillips Starting next month, one of the centerpieces of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare") will become active: online health insurance exchanges where individuals, families, and small businesses can compare — and enroll in — insurance plans that go into effect on January 1 of next year. These exchanges, operating in every state, will offer side-by-side comparisons of plans by participating private insurance companies as well as tell individuals and families how much of a federal subsidy, based on their income level, they are eligible for. Although no one knows exactly how well the system will work until it goes into effect, early indicators suggest that there will be robust competition between insurance companies in most states, resulting in lower premiums for individuals and families who purchase their own insurance rather than getting it through an employer. But some uninsured people, notably nondisabled low-income adults without dependent children, will undoubtedly face a rude surprise when they go online to check out their insurance options. This is because as the health-care law was originally conceived, exchanges were meant to be for people above the federal poverty line (currently $11,490 for a single adult), since the premiums, deductibles, and copays of the plans on offer — even after federal subsidies based on income level — would be too much for a poor person to afford. The Affordable Care Act therefore mandated that state...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs