ObamaCare Slams the Young

College students may support the Obama Administration and Obamacare but they find it a poison pill, metaphorically.

A 2013 American Academy of Actuaries study found young adults will not only have higher health care premiums under Obamacare but markedly greater out-of-pocket medical expenses as well, despite provisions of the statute designed to keep their costs low.

Even though under Obamacare, young adults can remain on their parent’s insurance until they turn 26, single coverage premiums will shoot up and and increase by an astounding 42% from non-ObamaCare prices. For those in the 30-39 age bracket, the premiums will increase by an average of 31%. By way of contrast, those between 60-64 years of age will see an average of 1% increase in premium prices.

Adding to that, the authors pointed out that 21-29 year olds will see “higher premiums than would be the case absent the ACA, even after accounting for the presence of the premium assistance.” The same will hold true for adults under age 44. For example, a 25-year-old adult with an income of $33,510 will purchase ACA premiums at 9.5% of his or her income (that will cost $3,138 per year). Without ObamaCare, it would have taken only 7.2% of his or her income at a cost of $2,400 per year.

Also, 1.4 million of the nation’s 21-29-year-olds will not be eligible for government subsidies to pay for health care because “their household income exceeds” the allotted (or preferred) income of someone who should receive health care. Furthermore, nearly 2.6 million others are expected to “pay more out of pocket for coverage than they otherwise would, even after accounting for premium assistance.” What does this mean? It means that 36 percent of the currently uninsured, or 4 million out of the 11.2 million people in the 21-29-year-old age group will pay more out of pocket than they did under in the pre-ObamaCare health care environment.

And, if young people decided to not enroll or to leave the government risk pools, then “the effect would be…higher prices for those seeking coverage.” Also, they found that young males were more likely to be affected by ObamaCare than young females.

So much for “affordable” health care insurance.

 

Spencer Irvine is a staff writer at Accuracy in Academia.
If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail contact@academia.org.