ACA and Dissappointing numbers

I wonder how many would have signed up by now if the law hadn't caused so many people to get their current plan cancelled. What is the number that have been cancelled do to the law? 6 Million?

I just find it funny that next year when tax season rolls around, all those people who didn't sign up for health insurance are going to get  a bill for the "tax penalty".  And most probably didn't budget or plan for such a thing.  I wonder what happens when a poor person making below the poverty line doesn't sign up and then can't afford the penalty.  That should be interesting.  It's ashame this will happen after the November elections.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here?

One of the positives of this law is if you get sick or diagnosed with some costly medical condition you can get coverage then. 

Keep in mind, nobody is being billed for the penalty and it does not raise the amount of taxes you owe.  All the IRS can do is withhold the penalty from your tax refund.  They can keep rolling your penalties over in to future years, but it's just a worthless number until you're scheduled to get a refund. They can't garnish your wages, criminally prosecute you, yada yada.  So if you really want to stay uninsured, just adjust your withholdings to make sure you owe a little bit at the end of the year and you'll never have to pay the penalty.

Thanks for the explanation, you had me pretty confused?!   

Does that include what your company may pay as part of your current premium?

That is not an irrelevant question. The total cost is completely relevant. If his employer is paying $500/month for his insurance, and on the exchange the total cost is $300, then it would be cheaper. To objectively analyze the cost you must consider this. However, I know you are incapable of objectivity so carry on.

It ceases to be a debate when one side continuously ignores important questions that don't fit their version of the facts.

OK, i'll try and give an objective response on this.

There are a couple of things with the ACA, you have the people who are signing up for insurance plans via the exchange.  The Federal government gets a cut of the premiums from everyone who signs up on the exchange, so it will have an impact on projected revenues if they fall short of their numbers.

You then have the expansion of medicaid which isn't people signing up for insurance, but people signing up for full government paid healthcare.  This is an increase in expense for the government.

What I have seen transpire is a mass influx of pre-existing condition folks who could not get insurance before sign up on the exchange and very few young invincible's.  This issue primarily effects the health insurance companies because they have to have a certain percentage of young and healthy people to offset the not so healthy.  They assumed that with the mandate and a penalty that a larger percentage of people would sign up.  So far, they've assumed wrong which means they will either go bankrupt, or raise their rates to compensate for all the new payouts.

The second issue is the number of people signing up for medicaid.  I haven't seen any recent numbers, but on the earlier ones they reported that almost 90% of the people signing up on the exchanges were signing up for medicaid and not exchange plans.  I think I posted a few articles a while back about the medicaid spike being far greater than expected.

So, essentially what I think will happen is the insurance companies are going to get rocked and have to raise their rates a lot.  The revenues will be a fraction of what the government predicted.  Medicaid costs will go through the roof.
ACA will implode fiscally within two years.

I know, I'm just a fiscal conservative whose against all government spending, but seriously how can anyone think this thing is going to work out?  The Feds will try to prop it up by printing more money, but the states don't have that luxury.

The way that it will work is if a large number of people sign up. I agree that there are many problems with it and that it probably won't work as is.

I just have a problem with people continuing to complain about how expensive it is, but then when you ask them how much they are paying plus what their employer is paying now vs the total cost of the ACA insurance, you get crickets.  I know for me, as a 24 year old, it costs 1/3 as much to insure me on the exchange, vs my contribution+ my employers contribution. Now, clearly this won't be the case for everyone, but I think it is absolutely crap to run around screaming about how expensive it is for the individuals compared to the current system, without at least honestly exploring the real numbers on the level of individuals, not what you "think" is going to happen to the entire system and country.

dp

Could you possibly provide a source for the bolded part.  I had not heard this before.  So when the insurance companies collect premiums, they will be sending a portion to the government???